New Blankets.

Pram, buggy or car seat crochet blanket, No 3 project completed.

Cold knees, then a lap blanket to keep you toastie this Winter. No 4 project completed.

Bumfuzzled.

I am completely bumfuzzled. It is my new word, don’t you just love it, ok it would be just as easy to say confused, but I like bumfuzzled much better. So here I am bumfuzzled at how much coffee costs when you go into cafes. There seems to be such a huge difference depending on where you drink coffee. For instance on average people spend £1.92 when they drink in either Starbucks or Costa Coffee. I have only ever drunk in Costa Coffee once and if I remember rightly the coffee was £2.25 for a cup of coffee and a biscuit on the side. I did wonder if I asked to have the coffee without the biscuit whether it would make the coffee cheaper?

I am just a decaf, instant cup of coffee girl. I am not into these Expresso’s or Latte’s, so I prefer to find the cheapest place to have a coffee, which is usually an indoor market cafe, where you can get a mug, yes a good old fashion mug of coffee from between 80 pence and £1, which to me is much more realistic.

The other day we went into a cafe, which already had it Christmas decorations up and they were charging £2.20 for a coffee. It was extra for a decaf coffee, we walked out of the cafe and said “No thank you”. Just a short walk along the street and another cafe was serving coffee for £1.40 a cup. The coffee was the same, so why such a huge difference in price?

I suppose it could be said that some of these places are actually ripping us off, because they know they can.

Time with friends.

Hello blog readers out there, who have been missing my posts. I am still alive and kicking, but have been busy with lots of new things going on in my life.

On Saturday, Irene and Ian arrived and came to us for coffee and cake, I had made a Victoria sponge filled with a Lemon Curd and butter icing. With it still feeling warm we sat out and laughed and giggled, whilst we caught up on some of ours and their news. Saturday evening Keith and I went out for a meal with our dear friends Irene and Ian who live on board NB Freespirit. Both Irene and Ian are such wonderful friends and we had a very enjoyable evening in a Thai celebrating Ian’s birthday. Yesterday (Sunday), we had coffee and cake on board Freespirit, before Irene and Ian had to leave for pastures new, but it was wonderful to see them and to catch-up on all their news.

Today (Monday) like in most areas of the country it has been pouring with rain and when I say pouring I mean lashing it down at times. So whilst Keith went off to sort out his mobile phone sim card, I decided I would take the Summer curtains down in the back cabin and all the lace, because they get covered in dust and soot with the back cabin stove going, not that it is lit at the moment, we only have the saloon stove lit at the moment. Back to Keith’s mobile phone, unfortunately it has ended up in the canal, but thankfully he has a spare handset, so he just needed a sim card. Curtains taken down, I got on with making a Winter pair of curtains, the Winter ones do not have any lace on them, so they do not trap the dust and soot so much. By the time Keith got back to the boat, I had finished the new curtains and got on with making us some lunch. With the rain still falling, I went to the laundrette to wash the curtains and lace, which came up all nice and clean, but the tumble drier did not completely dry them on the money I had put into the machine, so I have hung them up in the boat to finish drying. The back cabin looks like a Chinese laundry.

I have been busy with my crochet, and I will post photographs of my new projects. My only worry now is I am going to run out of wool again grrrrrrrr.

Little regard.

As I lay in bed listening to the church bells chiming 7am and hearing a cyclist speeding past, it got me thinking about how some people have no social etiquette.

I find swearing is so unattractive and makes anyone just seem barbaric and uncultured. Throwing a cuss word in between every other words doesn’t make you any more attractive, and most definitely doesn’t make you look more intelligent, I think it does someone no favours, but it is something I hear a lot when people are walking along side the boat and they probably think we cannot hear what they are saying and yet we hear every word. Most people who know me I hate the use of the F and C word. The worst your will ever get out of me is Bloody Hell.

Stepping on to someone’s boat uninvited, in my opinion is a no no. The other day we were talking to a guy, who preceded to try and step on to our back counter, in order that he could take a photograph of our back cabin and engine. We asked him nicely to step off and the reasons for why, I then thought to myself, would this gentleman like us to go to his house and just open the door and walk in? To me it is no different, as our boat is our home. I never step on to someone’s boat without asking first , it is just a common courtesy in my opinion.

Living on the canal means the towpath and surrounding countryside our garden and therefore, I want it to look nice. But every time we moor up, we have to litter pick and scoop the poop. Now for those people who drop their litter and do not scoop the poop, do they have gardens which are littered with litter and poop, because to me again it is no different.

Etiquette applies to using the canals as well, but that is another posting for the future.