a funny thing happened on the way home from the party

I knew it was bound to happen eventually. We both can't live near the canal without "an accident" and it's been a solid ten months not including the countless walks we took before we moved in water-side. But the inevitable happened, this past Saturday at approximately 4.30am when, to my chagrin, we decided it was light enough to walk home down the canal from a party in Angel (where might I add I had the stinkiest chat and couldn't overcome the performance anxiety and thought to just discuss internet providers instead...apologies all round to those I bored) back to ours further east. Usually, the perverse fear of being mugged or stabbed comes over me, however it was really light outside and deemed it 'ok'. So it was a lovely walk and all, and really great to cool off from one of the hottest parties I've ever been to, when did it become so muggy in London? I made another unfortunate life choice of wearing Chris' cashmere/wool blend jumper which even though it is quite thin, I managed to broil myself in.

So down the canal we walked, and approaching our flat, there are two entrances. One at the front of the building which is street-facing, the other is out back, which you have to cross the lock for, which is side-street facing. So a decision was made to take the back entrance because we can just cross the lock, and be out back. But I notice that we can't get across the second part, which is just a water-way for when the lock is closed. However there is a blank of wood that lines perfectly from one side of this water-way to the other and assuming that it's solid Chris decides to go first. Now I am heavily accident-prone, to the point where I've broken my arm twice, the same way. I am not entirely happy about this decision but as he takes his first step on to this blank, it sinks, and Chris sinks in with it. And there he was, up to his chest in canal. Apparently, it was just a misleading piece of wood that looked like a walkway but was really just a piece of floating wooden rubbish. I of course rescued him immediately and found myself being rather maternal once we did get into our flat- through the front entrance. I ran him a shower, put the clothes in the wash and started drying off all electronics that were in the bag, of course the expensive camera had to be one of them.

So in the days after this incident, Chris tells me this other time when his family used to have a boat and would take it through locks, that he had fallen in once then as well. And also, what happened to being sensible, and first testing out the mystery plank before plunking all body weight on to it? One thing learned however, the canal really smells- and I feel sorry for our bathmat.