Christine did one load of washing overnight and a second one this morning. Late morning she was just in time to buy from the office some tokens for the large dryer that is part of the marina facilities. The laundry is at the other end of the marina so, not wanting to carry the heavy load of washing all that way, we drove around.
In the process we tried out for the first time the security mechanism for vehicles at the far end - where we are is close to the entrance and we park in the unsecured area and use a pedestrian gate with a pin code on it. The vehicle entrance uses a mobile phone number which has to be called and then the gate opens automatically. (it's actually a bit more sophisticated but we are not giving away and more details here . . . !)
The tokens proved to be enough for 45 minutes so we returned to the boat leaving the laundry to dry. As Mike reached the boat pontoon he mishandled the car keys and they flew out of his hand, landing gently - plopped - in the water alongside t he adjacent boat! Arrghhh!
With little expectation we took out the magnet we have on board and some thin cord to hang it from - the water is over a metre deep here. Mike trawled back and forth but felt nothing so Christine, prompted by a neighbour, went to the marina office to borrow their higher powered magnet. Just as she was returning with the friendly marina person (they should really have closed by this time) there was a shout, more of amazement than relief, from Mike as he pulled up the magnet to move it to a different location only to see the keys hanging off the end! It turned out that we were even luckier than initially thought as only one key - our door key from home - was actually magnetic. The car keys on their own would have been lost forever. More coincidentally, when we returned home at the end of our last trip of the season we found that our front door lock had decided that it wanted a peaceful retirement and we had had to replace it immediately. The old key would also have not been magnetic. How lucky is that!
After all that excitement it was soon time to collect the laundry which was by now well dried and to have lunch.
We walked up the narrow Tower Hill, a side street in the older part of the town centre, to take a look at one of the last brine pumps. The information board inside (we could look through the bars of the open windows) suggests that it is still used occasionally to supply a local private hospital. It is easy to miss this feature which is hardly signposted.
In the shopping centre we saw yet another modern statue - this one remembers Edward Winslow who was born in the town and joined the Pilgrim Fathers on their first journey to America. The design shows him landing at what is now called Plymouth Rock.
We returned to the boat along the towpath and arrived back just as darkness was falling. We noticed a wreath of flowers with no information that had been left on the bench alongside the top lock of the staircase. Perhaps someone is having a sad Christmas this year - even sadder that we do not know who.
Very much later in the evening we changed and drove to St Peter's Church for the midnight communion service. Whilst this too is a church that dates back to ancient times, much of the 20C development of the town has grown up around it.
It is a pleasant church, not too large so that people rattle around in it and with around 100 people there it was almost full and everyone was in reflective, festive mood. The service was taken by the curate who had obviously prepared very well for this special occasion. Her talk was well-judged for a congregation that was obviously (as in so many places) as much people who come only now and then - perhaps just at Christmas - than those who attend regularly.
As we waited before the service, Christine noticed that we were sitting right under the tablet memorial to Edward Winslow on the wall above us.
Back at the boat we treated ourselves to a late night drink and a mince pie - some traditions just about hang on!
No comments:
Post a Comment