Death on board.

Despite being near The Wharf Inn and all the noise a pub can bring, I was in bed Friday night just after 9 pm due to being very tired and I slept like a log. When I woke up the cabin was a tad chilly, Keith was also awake, so I made us a cuppa and then I got the back cabin stove all fired up to bring some warmth back into our lives.

8.45 am up and dressed, Paddy and I took a walk through the Welford Pocket Park, which made a nice change from walking a long a muddy towpath. Walk over it was back to the boat for breakfast and then I got the saloon fire going as the saloon was also chilly. Marmite who had slept on the bed most of the night, curled up in the warm on the side bed in the back cabin she always knows where the warms places are. Last night Keith had set the mouse traps in the hold to try and catch our visitor, this time chopping up the chocolate buttons and wedging them into the holes of the trap, because the previous buttons had disappeared without springing the traps, the cheeky visitor had managed to pinch the chocolate and I dare say enjoyed every moment of getting one over on us. I went into the hold to get Paddy his biscuits to find we had had a death over night, yes the traps had worked, well one of them had, it had caught our visitor in the act of eating all of the chocolate, so a great last meal was had. It was sad to see the demise of the field mouse, but having a mouse on the boat is not ideal. We will set the traps again tonight, just in case there are any other visitors on board. Keith showed Marmite the dead mouse, thinking she may take an interest, but she stuck her nose in the air and looked away, she did not have the slightest clue what it was or what she was supposed to do with it. That cat is definitely sacked.

Mouse disposed of, it was on to starting the generator to charge the batteries and to do a clothes wash, which ended up with the flippin washing machine throwing a wobbly and stopping mid-cycle grrrrrr. I am beginning to get uptight about using the stupid thing now and so I ended up washing the rest of the clothes by hand, they are thankfully drying in the back cabin, but not sure what to do about the machine. It is not as though we have any spare cash at the moment, should it need repairing. I will see how it goes when I do the next wash.

Washing done and hung up to dry, Keith and I turned out attention to covering the front cratch board with sheeting, this is to protect the wood, which is beginning to rot. We will get another cratch board make, but again that costs money and so will have to wait for a bit. Sheeting cut and cratch board covered, we stood back and admired our handy work, which although I say it myself looked pretty darn good.

Cratch board done, it was lunch time and a chance to sit down and put my feet up for a while. After lunch the Christmas decorations came down and were put away. It is amazing just how much dust decorations attract, so I did a thorough clean of the saloon and a general tidy up. As much as I love the decorations being up, It is nice to have the room back to normal, Marmite watched as I took the tree down, I suspect she was disappointed that there was no tree decorations to play with for the time being, but I also expect she will find something else to play with knowing her.