Did you make one?

Hiya friends.


And so here we are the first Sunday of 2011 and yep we had another heavy frost overnight, so the canal has frozen over again.
Why is it that when your laying in bed you can think of allsorts of thing's to blog about and yet no sooner you sit in front of the laptop, everything goes clean out of your head?
I sat in bed at 7am this morning and thought of lots of thing's I could blog about today and yet now I am sat here, I cannot really think of any of them arghhhhhh.


Ok just though of one of the thing's I was thinking about.
Do you bother with making New Year Resolution's?
I know that when I was younger, not that I am old now, but when I was say in my teen's early Twenties, I would make silly resolution's, like lose weight (hahaha fat chance), give up Chocolate (hahaha fat chance again). You know the sort of thing's I mean and yet these day's I really cannot see the point.
What is the point in making a resolution, when you know full well you will never never keep it. You are just storing up disappointment for a few day's or week's down the line, when you cannot be bothered, to pull your body out of bed to go jogging, or when that Chocolate Bar is begging you to eat it from behind the cupboard door and you just know you cannot resist it. I see very little point in disappointing myself these day's, so I am honest enough to say I do not bother with New Year's Resolution's.


So come on be honest, have you ever stuck to a New Year's Resolution?


If it was law and I had to make one, then it would be to stay as happy as I have been for the past 10 year's. Now that I know I can stick to he he he.
I think people have to accept that we are not infalible and we can fall of the pavement every now and again, so we should not beat ourselves up if we do not stick to what we had planned. Yesterday was a fine example of people starting their New Year's Resolution's. I think every man, woman and their dogs walked or jogged past our boat yesterday and I bet many of them had made a resolution that they would get fitter in 2011.


Have you ever seen a happy, smiling jogger?


Come on have you?


I most certainly have not. They always look so miserable. To me it looks like a form of torture. I suppose many joggers must have a great sense of humor somewhere, because they must end up being the butt of many jokes. I am happy to admit I am not a jogger or runner, which ever you prefer. I remember when I was at Secondary School, I would always be put in the 100 metres for sports day and yep you guessed it I always came last. I cannot jog or run for my life. I did try a few years ago after I had a knee operation, but it was not for me. I am full of admiration for those who do actually enjoy the pain they put their bodies through when running. But I am damned if I would make it a way of keeping fit. I would rather go swimming, which is much better for the body.


If you have got a New Year's Resolution, what is it?


So with no resolution to be a slave to, we did not get up until 8.30am. My exercise was walking Paddy along the towpath 200 yards where we stopped to chat to a friend, who like so many of us has been poorly over Christmas. She was out for a morning walk to clear the cobwebs. We let her go on her way, and after Paddy had sniffed every bush and done his business, we headed back to the boat, where I made us Tomatoes on toast for Breakfast. Fire's got stoked, the back cabin was in for a clean, because of the dust which has settled on everything. The dust is mainly due to the housecoal we burn, but also due to the way I bank up the fire at night in order to keep it in all night. I have found the way I bank the stove up is a real success if you do not mind the dust. Due to the way the back cabin stove is made, it does not shut down like normal stove's like the Morso's etc. So I usually half fill the fire with housecoal, on top of that I put a layer of twigs (these I collected in the Summer), then on top of that a good layer of ash. I then shut the fire down as tight as it will go, and that keeps it in all night. So in the morning all I have to do is riddle the ash out, open the bottom door and whooosh away it goes. It works for me, but as I have said it does mean you get a fair amount of dust in the cabin, but It does not take long to sort out. 
With the fire's done, Copper Kettle filled and Coffee made, it was time to ponder on what the day would bring for me. This was of course boat jobs. I tackled the dust problem in the back cabin first. I was really lovely to fling the back doors open and let the daylight and fresh air in. This also gave Paddy and Marmite the opportunity to venture out on to the back counter. The rag rugs got given a good old shake, they look no cleaner but, I managed to get the dust out. Then with a damp cloth the ribbon plates and stove got a wipe down. Woooo hooo what an improvement. In the mood to clean now, so the floors got swept and the engine even got a wipe over whilst Keith ran it for half an hour. We do not run our engine to charge the batteries when on a mooring, we have an inbuilt generator for that. We see no point in running a vintage engine just to charge the batteries. But due to the cold weather, the engine does  not like standing without being run, so once a week Keith has been running her for half an hour and it has paid off.
Lunchtime was galloping towards me before I knew it and I knew in the bottom of the fridge there were some rather manky looking Mushroom's, which were crying out to be put in a soup. So I chopped them up with some onion and put them in a pan on the back stove. The smell was mmmmmmmm. I added water, seasoning and some milk with some thickener and hey presto we had some Mushroom Soup for lunch, which we enjoyed with a crusty roll, after's were Mince Pie's and a Coffee. I am a big believer in using everything up if possible. I hate waste of any sort and will alway's try and incorporate scraps into stews and soups if I can. The fact that the Mushroom's were manky did not show once in the soup, and they did taste very nice, even though I say so myself.
With all my Sunday job's done, I feel it is time to put my feet up and watch a film. So I will catch you another time, if you feel like popping in again x.