fun times on the river

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fun times on the river

August 21, 2010 by notjustagranny

last weekend was my daughter’s 30th birthday and together with some friends we gathered in Richmond to celebrate. One of the things she wanted to do for her birthday, was to hire a boat and go rowing on the Thames.

our very not so big boat

The plan was to row from Richmond to The White Swan in Twickenham, moor the boat, have lunch and then row back to Richmond.

I thought the idea was great and encouraged the idea with enthusiasm. Ha! and then we got there!! Different story. Everyone else was really excited and I was…..trepiditious! I was quaking at the knees! 🙂 LOL! and totally ridiculous….I have no fear of water, love boating, am a strong swimmer and have done this numerous times in the past. The closer we got to launch the more I quaked at the knees. I insisted on life-jackets all round (which made us look totally ridiculous), and questioned the sensibility of this venture.

Last in….I rocked the boat to much hilarity from the others and not so much from me. Then we settled in and to my horror we left the pier……h.e.l.p!!! Actually it was brilliant, we laughed uproariously as we went round in circles at the rowers attempts to leave the jetty.

Cemanthe having hysterics

Eventually we got underway and amidst much laughter and a stream of instructions from the back-seat non-rowers we made our way to the far bank (per the instructions of the boat man), and away we went.

I can highly recommend this as a great way to spend an hour or so. Sitting prettily in the stern, we (me and Demjules), gave a continuous stream of instructions….too far, turn left; no….. more to the right, mind theres a boat approaching…whoops mind the paddleboat, and so we made our way along the river to Twickenham.

arriving at The White Swan

Arriving safely we moored the boat, stepped gingerly through the slippery mud (I did not want to add a spill in the mud to my repertoire) and settled in at our table on the patio.

good food.....fine friends

Lunch was great, the company even better, the weather played fair and the food was yummy. Then it was time for birthday wishes and voila …..30 cupcakes appeared!