europe is in the grip of a fierce heat wave with many countries across the continent
experiencing record temperatures a new uk record temperature that has been set this afternoon at
heathrow airport 40.2 degrees while the country was going through a major heatwave
here on narrowboat alba we had something else to deal with
welcome to the covent episode i've got covered we had plans to go to a traditional boat festival in
henley it's been day three or four i think so i pretty much have no symptoms apart from feeling
um low energy um which is not too bad i guess um so what we've decided to do is to go to a festival
anyway but just on the boat and i won't be going on land or obviously going to any public places
um also i won't be helping in the lock or anything like that so i'm just gonna
film and watch from the boat from the distance of alba and stay inside
how is it drying by itself it's right it's pretty hot it's really cool inside
so myers hasn't got covered probably because um a few weeks ago he went away abroad and he had
a booster job so he he's fine but we are being careful we've been keeping in separate rooms or
being outside one inside inside one outside but also i've been wearing masks inside just in case
don't know if it's gonna help anything because we live in such a small space
but hopefully we'll protect him a little bit wearing a mask inside for me is a bonus because
what i've been doing i've been using essential oils and dropping peppermints pement or eucalyptus
essential oil in here so i've just been inhaling it and it really helped helps with
tickly throat and stuff so it just really helps with the symptoms um so that's pretty good
so yeah so that's why we're going to be wearing masks in this episode even though we're not
really going off board and not seeing anyone it's day four for me it's been a pretty easy journey
so far i did have fever on day one as expected but then quite quickly i
started feeling better and better so today i basically have a little bit of a sore throat
and no energy i'm hoping that because it's my second time around i should recover much quicker
this is our first time in henley during this festival
and we don't know what to expect a couple of weeks ago we've been here for the henley royal regatta
so we're excited to see how this event changes the river and what we can see from the boat
so
this festival benefits from being put on just after the handy regatta while the
infrastructure is still in place one part of the river the closest to the
meadows is only open to traditional boats so we're using the second lane for cruising
the thames traditional boat festival also known as the triad
was first held at fully meadows in henley in 1978 as a rally for those who wanted to show off their
enthusiasm for the older traditionally built craft and they also have awards as part of the event
in 2015 the name was changed from the rally back to tham's traditional boat
festival to show the public that it is an inclusive event and not just for those who
owns boats as rally suggests there are now even some foreign boats joining each year
so
we moored up for one night in the new spot
with the view of parading boats and far away from the crowds
i already mentioned this is my second time having covered but this is the first time having covered
in heatwave uh last time i had it in winter and now it's very hot very hot outside it's easier
second time around but i feel like it's a little bit easier to have it in in the summer because the
warmth and the body feels relaxed and the heat i feel like i wonder if it does something for the
aches and pains perhaps it's more relaxing and soothing i don't know it's a lot more pleasant
i don't prefer wearing a mask and heat it's harder to breathe without musk and with the mask it's
even harder i think overall summer is easier so i can't look at the screen i have very little
energy i don't i can't read i've been mostly relaxing listening to audiobooks which are sent
for me and also i have been doing a little bit of sewing because i can do it for 20 minutes of time
i could sit down and do it and it doesn't take much energy and it's fun so i've been working on
another project uh for a friend this time um she my friend anna came over and she saw my bunting
and she liked it so i decided i'm gonna make her a bunting um as present because she is
about to move into her new house in a few months time so that should be uh a deadline for me but
i definitely gonna finish a lot a lot sooner and then put it away so we'll be covered free by then
one of the vintage boats we saw is alaska which was built in 1883.
it is one beautifully restored steamboat originally alaska was used on the weekly return
service from oxford to kingston and in the second world war alaska serve in thames river patrol
how do we keep cool on the boat well obviously you open all the windows but you can also remove the
top of the windows as well we close the curtains we've got thermal cones with those curtains on the
side where the sun is and then we open the back doors the hatch and we've also got a white roof
so that helps that's it isn't it what else do we do you don't mind the heat so when we bought alba
she came with curtains but we didn't like them and i had an idea to make my own
that was three years ago and what i did was i just bought a cotton fabric and also a lining that was
thermal so thermal and blackout at the same time so the idea was to keep the cold out which they
do they kind of act as second glazing uh which is amazing but inadvertently i didn't expect it to be
warm as well in the summer so the curtains also protect us from the sunshine and from the heat
so they're pretty pretty amazing just finished the banting it's 7 30 and it took me quite a
while but i enjoyed every minute of it um have a look i put it up for demonstration purposes only
yeah i'm very happy with it just wish i had an eye on to
make it look all flat and perfect but boat life
so
to get off the mooring miles needed to reverse and then join the lane for non-festival traffic
the festival was fun very much full of british eccentricity with converted cards
ex-military amphibious craft and full of happy people enjoying
beautiful summer days the bunting was out and it all looked very lovely we would have loved to go
on show and check out the festival grounds looked like they have a lot of interesting food stores
and some activities we would have loved checking that out maybe next time
as we're leaving hanley we caught a flyover by world war ii lancaster bomber plane
i had no symptoms by day five did the test next day
and got it clear so definitely the immunity did its thing
the first time i had covered it lasted about nine days miles luckily didn't get it this time round
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