Busy old Saturday.

Hi Folks.

I had an early start to my Saturday, this was not by choice, but when your awake, your awake, so there is nothing for it but to get up and make the first cuppa of the day. This was of course enjoyed in bed, with Marmite complaining about something or other whilst standing on Keith's chest. Now I did not plan on having a busy Saturday, in fact I had no plans at all for the day. The first order of the day was to walk Paddy, so we were stepping off of the boat at 6.45am. Now the joys of walking this early, is we do not have to run the gauntlet past moored boats with other dogs just leaping off to pounce on Paddy. This happens so often, where some boaters just open their dogs and shove the dogs out without any supervision, which I absolutely hate. Paddy has been attacked a couple of times and yet he never bits back, because he is a softy, so walking at 6.45am there was not a dog in sight woooo hooo. We had a lovely stroll along the towpath and I spied NB Piston Broke owned by Lynne and Paul.

In front of them was NB Ellen owned by John and Angela, who moor in Crick Marina during the winter, so they see and hear us on the move. We let Angela and Lynne briefly yesterday when they were out for a trek with their dogs. Was nice to put names to faces.

After a lovely stroll we were back on the boat enjoying breakfast, this was when the jobs list began to take shape.

At 9am the generator went on to charge the batteries for the day, so I put a load of washing in, which included my dungarees, which I like to wear when we are working the boat. Whilst this was ongoing, put some Kindling, Firelighters, Brasso and Toilet Blue on the roof, in case anyone should like to purchase some, especially as it was a little chilly at the start of the day. Yesterday Keith made me a knew board to advertise our wears. I painted it in Blackboard paint and wrote on it yesterday, so the first job of the day was to coat it in Varnish, this did not take very long, so I then decided to clean all of the boat brass outside, whilst I was doing this a boat came along side slowly. A gentleman said

"Would you have a back cabin on your boat".

I said "Yes we do have a traditional back cabin".

He then asked "Would you mind showing our friend around it. he is over from New Zealand and would love to see one.

I explained "This is not a historic boat, she is only 4 years old so the back cabin is not an old one.

His reply was " We do not mind that, we just want to show him a back cabin".

So they pulled in moored up and came onboard.

Roy who is on the stern is the gentleman from New Zealand and is in the UK for three days. Liz and Ken have been showing him around on their stretch of the canal as they moor in Venetian Marina. I talked to him about the back cabin and all the uses for the cupboards and draws etc. He was really interested in how the original boaters lived in the cabins. It was also lovely to hear all about New Zealand, one of the countries on my wish list to see before I kick the bucket.  After they went on their way to the Hack Green to the Secret Bunker, carried on with cleaning the brass. I then thought as the weather was a little chilly I would sweep the chimney, this proved problematic, because the brush kept getting stuck, I tried and tried to push the brush down the chimney but it was having none of it, so I took the brush inside and tried the other way, but nope it got so far and then stopped. Whilst out on the roof a boat came past and the woman said.

"Oh that's the first time I have ever seen that done like that".

I replied "You should clean your chimney at least three times a year". The woman laughed. I thought she would not be laughing if her chimney catches fire or worse blocks and she dies due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Back to the chimney cleaning, Keith suggested he could pull the brush up the chimney, so I tied some string to the end of the brush, and passed it up through the fire. He pulled away and low and behold the chimney was clean. With hands and arms covered in soot and grazed knuckles, the job was finally done and it was then time to clean up the mess. So another job done and dusted, it was time to hang out the washing from first thing in the morning, by the time all these things were done, it was lunchtime and I fancied a Bacon and Egg roll, which was yummy, to top it off we had a small Lemon Drizzle cake each which I made yesterday.

So that was my Saturday morning. I am now enjoying a coffee, before I contemplate the afternoons jobs.

Happy Saturday xx