Coal deliveries and Spring cleaning.

Especially for Annette ;0)

It is Saturday afternoon, the sun is pouring through the porthole and all is well in my little world.

My day began at 8.15am having had one of those difficult night's again. Believe it or not I dreamt about Harrison Ford ;0). I found him unconcious in a hotel bathroom (no idea what hotel or why I was there). I looked after him whilst others went for help. He was very poorly with the Swine Flu. In the end he was taken to hospital and we did see each other again, as he wanted to thank me for my help. A really nice guy according to my dream hahaha. I know why I dreamt about him and Swine Flu. The Swine Flu is easy because it is all over the news, and as for Harrison Ford, I was watching the trailer to his new film Morning Glory. My brain goes into overdrive sometimes and I have some really odd dreams, which I tend to remember.

Ok so was up and about whilst listening to the wind blowing a hooley. The overnight rain had left the towpath really muddy under foot as Paddy stepped off of the boat to walk up the towpath. Poor lad was not impressed at being splattered with mud up his legs and under his belly. Paddy does not do washing, so he ends up sitting in his bed still wet and yep the same applied today. The stupid thing is he hates being wet and will sit in his bed with a depressed expression on his face, but never does anything about washing.





The canal is still frozen once you get past our boat, so we will be giving it another few day's yet before we move. So far the only clear water is in the basin and alongside our boat. We have a coal delivery arriving Wednesday, so finger's are crossed that we can move after that.

The boat chores began with of course stoking up both the stoves and getting rid of the ash. I like to bag up our cold ash, otherwise the hedgerow alongside the boat would be piled high in ash, which is really not a good look. So once my Tilly bin and bucket are full, I empty then into old coal bags and then dispose of it in the skip. Animals then got their breakfast and I began a clear out of clutter, which has been bugging me. But before I could get clutter busting, Keith and I had to deliver some coal to the basin on both trolley's, so we got that job done first.

First to get the Spring clean was my knicker draw. As I now need all new Bra's, it was time to get rid of the old one's. I was amazed out how much clutter was in my draw. Having emptied it out, half of the contents went into a bin liner, whichy was very satisfying. Keith had taken his trousers out of his cupboard, because there was damp on the back wall. I treated that with bleach and he then put everything back in a nice tidy pile. I was on a roll with the clear out because the next to get the treatment were our plastic storage boxes in the hold. We have boxes for Winter and Summer clothes, shoes, and cooking trays and containers from the galley. These all needed sorting out and after I had wiggled my way into a clear space. I filled up two old coal bags with rubbish. At this rate I will fill a skip bin on my own. Having cleared out the boxes of clutter, I then had to put everything back in a neat fashion, so that I could make room for other items I needed to store away. This keeps the clutter down to a minimum in the saloon. We only have a small amount of space, and if we are to move around we have to keep the clutter down. My philosophy is, for every new thing we buy, something old has to go. Such as I bought a new padded waistcoat, so my old one with the broken zip had to go. That is how tight our space is. Not only that I cannot be doing with clutter. I am not a cleaning freak, but I do like a bit of order. By the time I had done all of that it was lunchtime.

Cooking on the back stove was a Winter Veg Soup, which I had prepared earlier. Infact I started it last night when I soaked some dried Lentils, Pea's, Pearl Barley and Kidney Beans. To the soaked mixture I added Onion, Carrot, Potatoes and Garlic and allowed it to simmer gently on the back stove for 3 hour's. Just before lunch I blitzed it with a blender and served it up with buttered Bread. I have just enjoyed a Mince Pie, the last of the Christmas stash and a Coffee and now have to think of what my next job is or shall I just chillout for the rest of the day. There is a Star Wars movie on later, so I will be watching that no doubt.

I have just been looking at the BBC news online and apparently Peter Andre (Click) has been named hardest working singer for 2010. He apparently notched up more major concerts than any other singer. If this is the case then why is he still not really making a go of it, or am I just not seeing all his hard work. I am quite sure there are plenty of artists who have worked just as hard as Peter and have not got any recognition for it. Not only that no one asked him to work that hard, it was his choice. I cannot feel sorry for him because he earns thousands everytime he and others like him make an appearance.

Right time to go. Chat soon x