It's all over.

Hello readers.

Well that's it another Christmas over with, I guess we are now on the countdown to the next one, with the New Year almost here we will then have the highlight of 2012 to come with the Olympics being held in this fine country of ours.

So how was your Christmas?

The days running up to the New Year always seem very boring to me.

Our Christmas was a quiet affair on the boat. Having done the usual morning stuff, I got out of my everyday clothes and put a skirt on and a pair of heels, which I never normally wear on the boat. I have worn skirts before, but very rarely wear heels on the boat because boats and high heeled shoes are not a great combination. Keith even dressed up as well for Christmas Day, of course only Paddy and Marmite were going to see the changes, but hey I know it made me feel more festive. All the festive cooking was to be done in the back cabin stove, so I cooked Pheasant for dinner with all the trimmings, which although I do say it myself was very nice, for pudding we had a mince meat pin wheel with ice cream, the mince meat was supplied by our good friend Elaine. I am gonna have to put in an order for some for the Christmas to come. After a very enjoyable dinner and glass of wine, we settled down for the festive films, but the wind got up and was blowing the TV aerial around so our signal was constantly interrupted, which meant we could not watch the films properly, so we delved into our new DVD's and watch the last two Harry Potter films, which I have to say were well worth the watching. During the evening we did not bother with a meal, we just picked at nibbles. I went out and checked whether the TV aerial had moved in the wind, and found out that it was a couple of inches off line, and hey presto it gave us our TV signal back enough to watch "Downton Abbey", which I wanted to watch no matter what and I was not disappointed. Yippee Mary is not marrying that dreadful Carlisle and is now going to marry Matthew at long last. Poor Bates what will be come of him as he fights to clear his name, I cannot help but hope he and Anna have a wonderful life together in the end. I know it is only a program, but it is a flippin good one and much more interesting to watch than the very depressing soaps. Why oh why do the soaps all have depressing subjects for Christmas?? I stopped watching them some Eleven years ago, because they had got out of hand with their doom and gloom. So Christmas Day was a quiet but lovely one for us.

Boxing Day began with a cup of tea in bed (no surprise there). Then it was a walk with Paddy along the towpath before enjoying a breakfast cooked by my better half. Fires were stoked and kettles were filled before decisions were taken as to what to do for the day. The decision was very little, which meant more films, so we began with "Goodnight Mr Tom", followed by "Garfield 2". It was a shame they were spoilt by all the adverts for sales and  holidays, come New Years Day they would be advertising Easter. Lunch was  nibbles, because we were both still recovering from Keith's cooked breakfast.

I do not know if it is just me, but did you notice that Boxing Day everyone seemed to go out walking and cycling, and not to mention boating? It was like Piccadilly Circus on the canal and on the towpath. So staying in was the right thing to do.

Tuesday 27th December. Having let the back cabin stove out over night, the back cabin still felt warm, so warm that we slept with the hatch open slightly. Its December and so very mild, to think this time last year we were frozen in at Market Harborough. What a difference a year makes. After breakfast and walking the dog, it was time to get on with some boat jobs, which included taking the back cabin floor up to check the gearbox oil, tighten all nuts and bolts and to empty out a small amount of water in the blige. So far there is very little under the floor due to condensation, which is very good, this is probably due to the mild conditions. With the floor back down, the rag rugs were shaken and put back, I then took the full toilet cassette down to elsan to empty it and to get rid of a bag of rubbish, but on my way I got chatting to Betty and Graham off of NB Tranquility, I was there so long Keith came looking for me. It had been sometime since we had seen them both, so it was lovely to catch up on all their news.

Lunch was eaten at The Boat House, over a pint of Marstons. The place was heaving by the time we left with the waitress rushed off her feet. She had told her boss that they would be busy, but her boss reckoned not, so he did not put on any extra staff, which turned out to be a bad idea, because they were over run by customers. I offered to get the waitress a pair of roller skates, because she is going to be exhausted by the end of the day. We enjoyed a lovely meal and on the way back called in to see Keith and Ann on NB Oakfield. Unfortunately we caught them in the middle of their lunch, but were still welcomed on board, where we enjoyed a coffee and a natter. Keith was talking batteries and invertors with Keith (confusing I know) and we chatted about our plans for 2012, not that any of our plans are definite. There came a knock on the boat and it was Lynne and Paul off of NB Piston Broke, who we have met in passing, but never to chat to, so it was nice to meet another boater and blogger. No sooner we got chatting to them, there was another knock on the boat, this time it was Betty and Graham off of NB Tranquility, so as Keith and I were the uninvited guests we gave up our seats and said our goodbyes to what was now a crowded boat. It was lovely to see everyone though.

I did a recent posting about adding a new freezer to our boat, which is fantastic by the way, the downside is the we now need another battery, because the ones we have are not lasting all night, this is not a huge problem, because we can get one and Keith can fit it. We are also having an issue with our inverter which is more of a problem, because it is saying the batteries are charged when they are not, whilst using the generator, so it looks like we may have to call someone out to look at that again. I can see the bank balance screaming in January, but these things must be seen to.

We now creep ever closer to 2012 and hope that it is a good year for everyone. I will see you in the New Year xxxxxxxxx.