A couple of years ago, my brothers and I were wandering around London and came across some canal boats on the Regent’s Canal near Camden Market. They were very intriguing to me. Kind of like an RV, but on the water. My father lived in an RV for most of his life, traveling all over the US and sending us postcards of his latest adventures. I’m not new to that type of cramped living, so I looked into renting a boat and finding some adventurous types to keep me company. While my siblings would be keen to go, I wanted to make a test run to see if we could do this without killing each other.
Cue my friends from elementary school all the way up through college. Six women. All sharing a narrowboat meant for two couples. HA! Talk about an adventure! Lesley, whom I’ve known since I was 12. Michelle, one of my first roommates from college. Rhonda, my last roommate from college. Aimee and Debbie who I worked with after college, in several restaurants, while I was looking for my REAL job. All keen to go adventuring.
The idea was for my girlfriends to fly into London, then we’d take the train to Chirk in Wales. However, the trains are all on strike and the service isn’t reliable, so we hired a driver to take us to Chirk. It turned out to be cheaper than the train! We arrived 4 hours later and checked into the Hand Hotel in downtown Chirk. Chirk, by the way, is frequented by Ryan Reynolds who is part owner of Wrexham AFC. There is currently a documentary streaming on FX called “Welcome to Wrexham”
We wandered around for a bit. Walked across the Chirk Aqueduct. Ate dinner in a pub. Then went back to the hotel to have a drink in the bar. Little did I know that my husband had arranged for some entertainment. The Flint Male Voice Choir (Côr Meibion Y Fflint) was in the back yard waiting for us to arrive! The girls were in on it. I had no idea, but when we walked outside I thought, “Oh! How cool! Some fun and different entertainment tonight!” Then, we they asked us to sit in the front row, and handed out a program, and free CD’s, I figured it was planned. It was a great show, that moved into the bar for an encore. They even added a few songs for the “Yankees”! What a great group of older men. Very fun to talk to. They kept saying, “Who are you? You must be an important person!” I just smiled and said, “Only to my husband.” Bless him.
If you want to know more about the Flint All Male Choir, here there is an interesting documentary you can find here.
Love this. So glad Debbie got to go.
She loved the trip.
Hi Allison.
Glad you enjoyed the evening and the rest of your vacation. We certainly enjoyed performing for your group and the afterglo in the bar. As most of our performances are formal events, it was a nice change for us to do something in a more relaxed, casual atmosphere. Hopefully you will follow our Facebook page and see what we are up to, who knows our paths may cross in the future.
Kind regards
Graham Osborne
Choir Treasurer