Let the festivities begin.

Saturday 2nd May 2008.

Wow what a hectic few days, what with helping to set up the Cavalcade site and then the moving into the pool it has been manic. I really do not think people realise just how much hard work goes into setting up a site for a Cavalcade or Festival takes. We spent the morning helping to build the railings on the pontoon, which goes up against the island in the pool, we then went out on to the island to do some tidying. When I say tidying I mean loping branches off of the willow. We left the loping to Bob, Keith helped to gather the cut of branches whilst I and the others stacked it on the island. We always had in mind not to disturb the nesting Canada Geese and the pair of Swans to much, who were both on eggs. After that it was time for lunch in the works compound and a nice cup of coffee. Dave who is in charge of the work group works wonders in getting everyone to where he wants them, but for us that changed yesterday (Friday) when we were called to move out boat from out of the Paddington Arm and into the Pool for the festival. We were being put in ST42, which gave us a great view of the island, so we would be in the front row for the Blues Brothers music on Sunday evening.
The moving around of the boats to get them into the pool takes some organising, and it did not help our cause when we got a pile of rubbish around the prop arghhhhhh. So we turned Hadar around and went back into the Paddington Arm, cleared the prop and tried again to moor her stern in against the bank, this time making it alongside NB Destiny No2 owned by Paul and Eileen Garner. Later in the day we were joined by the Pinnocks four boat on the otherside of us. Working Butty Fazeley being moored alongside us. Micheal has done a fantastic job restoring her and she looks a treat with his motor Clover. After finally getting moored up, I then washed the boat down and cleaned the brass, because we had been covered in sap from the trees. it had been a long day and we were bothy ready for our bed by 10.30am, knowing full well that Saturday was going to be a challenging day. We were up early. Paddy was walked, all the last minute cleaning of the brass was done, and Keith and I dressed for the part, he in his usual boatmans gear and me in my boatwoman's bonnet, blouse, skirt and shawl. The morning was extremely manic with losts of people wanting to take our photo and ask us questions about the boat and its history. We had the local papers asking for interviews and photos, as well as a young reporter from Reuters, who interviewed us.
Before lunch LadyBanana paid us a visit with her partner Robert. it was so wonderful to put a face to the name, having followed her blog for such a longtime. So LadyB if your reading this. Thank you for taking the time to come and see us, it was lovely to meet you both and show you around our home. Adam from NB Debdale came and said hellow as well with Simon from NB Tortoise.
We have had the most wonderful first day of the Cavalcade, meeting old friends and lots of new people. The funniest thing that happened today to us was at lunch time. I made us some sandwiches and bought them out a long with a Victoria Sandwich, which I made earlier in the morning and put them on the drop down table in the back cabin along with a cup of coffee. Keith and I sat down to lunch and then we discovered that people still wanted to take our photographs, so much so that they were down on their hands and knees taking our photographs whilst we ate lunch. I turned to Keith laughing and told him that I now knew how a monkey in a zoo felt LOL. it really was quite strange. The whole day has been a huge success, so much so that the beer tent ran out of beer and cider at one point, which has never happened before on a Saturday. It has been the busiest Saturday for years so we have been told. Lets hope the next two days are just as good.