Uxbridge memories for me

13th and today – Moored Uxbridge, Grand Union Canal

I was here in 1976.  Stationed here at RAF Uxbridge with my ex hubby Bob.  It is the home of the Queen’s Colour Squadron.  You must have seen them, those clever RAF guys who march perfectly with a marching band, or with no music at all.  I remember them practising outside my lounge window. 

Wendie was only 2 years old, I remember…. My biggest memory is when she and her three year old friend Clare from the flat above were playing in our fenced garden.. Safe it was…. so I thought!

A knock at the door “Sue, Wendie is at the top of the slide in the play park!”  Eek!!  The slide in the play park was one of the highest slides I have ever seen, well they all were in those days, all slides in play parks were very, very high.  Not so these days though.. Anyway.. Panicking, I shouted to my friend from upstairs that Wendie and Clare had ‘escaped’ and were in the play park.

Now seeing your two year old on the top of a very high slide is quite a shock… had to think quick I did.. make decisions.  “Hello darling, are you OK all the way up there?”  Stupid question!  So should I go up the steps (if I could get up them, I was a bit overweight in those days!), or should I tempt her down the slide hoping that she wouldn’t bang her head on the way down, catching her before she catapulted off the end?

She waved at me… jeeeez don’t DO that, don’t let gooooooooo!… Too late, she was off, and down she came.  I got there just in time to catch her at the bottom.  Phew!  I sat on the end of the slide trying to get my heart rate down, and before I knew it she ran off towards the steps again quite happy to have another go at that!

She didn’t get another go at that! …. But Wendie, to his day, has never changed from her adventurous outlook to life.

I had a good spell here posted in Uxbridge, in fact it introduced me to the wonderful inland waterways.  It was here that I fell in love with that way of life.  I used to walk the towpaths here nearly 30 years ago now, and I remember the working boats going through the locks at Cowley and here at Uxbridge Lock.  I also remember the boats pulled by horses through this stretch.  It was the following year that we hired our first narrowboat for a holiday…. Wendie in a lobster pot playpen on the back deck of the cruiser in the pouring rain..the River Soar in full flood, waking to find the narrowboat hung on its ropes…ah but maybe that is for reminiscing later…

So…. in more recent times

The fit out has gone OKish… the washing machine is in after a lot of persuasion, just,  and the galley is finished except for the cupboard which is up but without doors yet.  Hey,  we are livable for now!

 Wendie, Dan and the grandchildren are arriving tomorrow, so it’s all stop and tools away ready for a very enjoyable two or three days spent together.  Well the water is on, sink tap and waste works, galley taps and waste work,  loo works and the cooker works… what else could anyone ask for?