Relaxing Bank Holiday Weekend.

Hello friends.

Saturday.

The first day of the Bank Holiday and was clear some boaters still thought they were on the motorway. As a friend said on his facebook "Surely the object is to sloooooooow riiiiighhht dooooooooown in every way? Body, mind, spirit and velocity". I found myself agreeing with him 100%. And yet if you ask these people nicely to please slow down, they will tell you they have. Yet on a couple of occasions yesterday, I heard them slow down further once they have gone past us, so I think they need to learn more about the speed of their boat.

The one joy of not moving on a Bank Holiday weekend, is you get to lie in, so I took full advantage of this idea and did not get out of bed till 9am. The lie in was much needed because the task of the day was to remove some of the bagged coal from the hold to allow the bow to come up.

Why you ask?

The reason for doing this was to get the front locker drain off holes out of the water, so that I could change the wooden bungs we have in at the moment, whilst we are loaded with coal. One or both of them were leaking, meaning we have about an inch of water in the front locker. So Keith and I removed about a tonne of coal from the hold to get the drain holes out of the water. I spent most of the morning prostate over the bow trying to stop water getting into the front locker, but replacing one of the bungs did not work, because having reloaded all the coal, it was clear that it was the other bung which was leaking. The decision was taken to abandon the task and wait till we are in dry dock to do it properly, because Keith was having a problem with making wooden wedges, without the right tools. Job abandoned which my ribs were grateful for, because they were now quite sore from laying on the edge of the bow. It was now lunchtime so I did us Hot Dogs and we settled down to watch the F1 qualifying session, which was pretty exciting, with Mark Webber taking pole and Lewis Hamiliton in 2nd. Having lifted coal out and then back into the hold, neither of us was up to doing much for the rest of the afternoon, which was just as well, because the afternoon was besieged with heavy showers.

As Autumn draw ever closer, the TV on Saturday evening's gets more entertaining and we have the X-Factor back. Yayyyy something to chuckle at for a few weeks. I know that many do not watch the X-Factor, but it is good for its laughter factor. We enjoy watching people make complete fools of them selves and then you get those who actually have real talent. Lets take Mary Byrne, what a find. Mary 50 works on the till at Tesco and she has an amazing voice. I think that since Susan Boyle came into our lives, the more mature lady has realised that they can achieve their goal, it is not to late. I think it is fantastic that women like Susan and now Mary are living their dream. On the down side you get people like Michael Lewis, who turned up dressed like Michael Jackson and basically tried to sing and dance like the great man. He failed miserably and yet blamed the audience for being negative, they were actually booing him, because he was so bad. Sorry Michael you are Delusional. I would hate to think how he will get on at work after that performance. So with Saturday done and dusted it was off to bed for a much needed sleep.

Sunday.

It was a rather overcast start to the morning. But Paddy needed his walk, so we stepped off of the boat and headed up the towpath. I took a bowl with me in a hope that I maybe able to collect some Blackberries for a crumble. The pickings were a little lacking as we walked past NB Lady Elenor, where her owners were sitting out on the bow enjoying a morning cuppa. "There are very few Blackberries as the farmer has cut the hedge" I was told by the woman on board, which I had to agree with her. Nevertheless, I did cover the bottom of my bowl by the time we got back to the boat. Keith had laid up breakfast, which was only cereal this morning and a cup of tea. Having fed Mog and Dog, I took my bowl out on to the towpath to see if I could find more Blackberries. I was in luck in the opposite direction. I climbed up alongside a bridge and there was a bush laden heavy with Blackberries.

I ended up almost filling my bowl, which was plenty for the Apple and Blackberry Crumble I wanted to make for Keith. I am not a lover of cooked Blackberries, so I would be having my own Apple Crumble.

With two Crumbles made, I also did us a Cauliflower Cheese for dinner tonight and whilst that was cooking, I cleaned the bathroom from top to bottom. Our bathroom is more like a wet room. It is only 2ft by 4ft, with a walk in shower, toilet and tiny basin. I like to wash it down with bleach to keep it clean and fresh. We only have an extraction fan to get rid of condensation, so it can get a bit of mildew in the cupboard and behind the toilet. But I keep on top of any problems that may cause. During the Winter when the stove is going and the radiator is on, there is not a problem. All jobs done it was time to sit down for lunch and watch the F1 GP from Spa and what a thrill the race was with Lewis Hamilton winning in the end. Nothing much was done for the rest of the day, which suited me fine.

Monday.

A much better day weather wise, so I cleaned the outside of the boat, which included the brass work and then prayed it would not rain. There were plenty of dark clouds overhead throughout the day, but thankfully the rain stayed away. After the brass cleaning it was going to be a lazy afternoon in front of the TV watching the film Tora, Tora, Tora, a real classic.

We enjoyed a fantastic weekend and I feel refreshed for the week ahead.