There was only one miserable git who blanked us.
That could have been my friend Leonie who hates everyone on the canal, or more accurately hates all the tourists that treat her home as if it’s a film location and will happily hop on board it to take pictures of themselves – and totally lose their shit when they see that she’s got a cat* on board too.
What Leonie objects to are all of the people that ask her questions about where she’s going – effectively she’s moving house each time (she doesn’t have a permanent mooring so has to move at least every fortnight) and treats enquires the way you would if random strangers asked you questions about your house, as she doesn’t really want same random strangers knowing where her not-all-that-secure-home is to be found.
One time when she was pregnant and I was being her lockmonkey on a lengthy move, a USAnian tourist at Camden Lock told Leonie to smile while she took her picture. Leonie predictably told her to fuck off.
The USAnian then told me all about it while I was doing sluice gate/lock opening & closing stuffs, as if I was going to suddenly agree with her about it all – “She just told me to fuck off!” she said. “Why are you still here then?” I asked.
That may seem like an odd response but goes to explain some of the behaviour you might experience on or about the canal anyway. Some canal people are just fucking rude anyway, think Caravan Club crossed with ageing hippies.
*The cat hates people even more than Leonie does. It keeps getting abducted by people that assume it’s lost (she had one cat stolen in this way).
