Bright Day

We might be in the depths of winter but today the sun was so blinding we had to dress the part.

Life’s so bright…. Got to wear shades! 
Just when we were thinking we might pick up a tan the canal took us beneath the M5 Motorway.

There are two sections where the motorway is directly overhead and following the canal.  I guess this was a cheaper option than “acquiring” the adjacent commercial properties.
We passed a lone fisher.  Nothing said and he scarcely glanced at us as we quietly passed by.

Steward Aqueduct takes the Old Main Line over the New Main Line with the huge concrete cylindrical piers of more modern M5 Bridge readily apparent.

Neither of us remember the old toll building beside Smethwick Top Lock having a burned roof the last time we were this way.  More vandalism?

There was a CRT work team above the flight removing moss from the towpath brick paving.

The pavers around the locks were slippery after the overnight frost and Jan was sensibly taking her time to work Waiouru through the three locks down to the New Main Line.

The dome of the Guru Nanak Gurdwara Sikh Temple at Smethwick can he seen on the skyline.
We passed a boat leaving Birmingham as we approached Monument Road Bridge.  It’s the first time we have passed a moving boat in the last week.

There were plenty of vacant moorings around Old Turn Junction so we continued down to the CRT services near Cambrian Wharf to top up the water and dispose of the rubbish.  A familiar boat was moored in Cambrian Wharf and I walked over to say a quick hello to James and Debbie on The Pen Boat (nb Lois-Jane).

Once the business was done we winded and found a good mooring opposite the NIA.
Readers you will have read about Jan’s fall several days ago.  She now has the necessary attributes to audition for the Black & White Minstrel Show.  So please be careful at this time of year. 
Yesterday evening I was invited to a Christmas party.  I had a few sherbets, followed by a few more, and topped up with some double sherbets.....
I still had the sense to know I was over the limit.
That's when I decided to do what I have never done before: I took a taxi back to the boat.
Sure enough there was a police road block and random mobile testing station on the way home, and since I was in a taxi, they waved it past.  I arrived back at the boat safely without incident.  This was both a great relief and a surprise because I had never driven a taxi before.  I don't even know where I got it from, or how to now get it off the towpath.