Icing Sugar and a fancy bra.

Well hello readers.


With the promise of snow last night. I was quick to peek out of a port hole this morning, in a hope that we had a mountain of snow. I was bitterly disappointed to find we had a Icing Sugar sprinkling of snow on the canal overnight, the temperature got down to at least -5c so all the thawed water was frozen once more. All's I knew was it was cold. Marmite definitely thought it was cold, because she slept on the bed overnight and when we woke up, she crawled beneath the covers for extra warmth. The cabin was not really cold, because the stove was still going. I got up and raked out the ash and opened up the fire to get it roaring, in no time at all the heat generated from the stove was moving around the cabin and everyone felt snug once again. With it being 8am, I thought a hot cuppa in bed would not go a miss and it meant Marmite got an extra few minutes under the duvet. She was of course none to impressed when the bed had to be rolled away for the day.
I wrapped up against the cold wind to go outside, as I am still coughing like a fog horn. Paddy is always up and ready for his morning walk. This morning it was along a crispy towpath, which makes for much easier and cleaner walking for the both of us.
Keith is fighting his cold off, but he did lay up breakfast whilst I was out. Breakfast was nothing fancy, just Rice Crispies with milk and sugar. We cannot have a cooked brekkie every morning, my waistline would never allow it.
After making up both fire's and doing a few chore's, we wrapped up against the cold and headed down into the town. Keith had to take his laptop back to the shop as it had developed a problem, which of course did not show when we switched the thing on in the shop, so they have kept it in a hope of sorting the issue out. If they fail to find the problem it will have to go back to Dell.
I wanted to go and get my bra size checked. Ok guy's if your blushing from reading the word bra, it is time to turn to the next blog for a bit ;0). In Market Harborough they have a new bra shop called the Little Bra, Big Bra shop, they have been open for a few months, so I thought I would give them ago. I never realised that bra's could cost so much. I am so used to going to the like's of Peacocks or M&S for my bra's, so was shocked to see prices such as £60+, but I guess you get what you pay for. I was correct in thinking my size had changed, which must be down to all the bags of coal I hump around the place. So with a brand new expensive bra in a very pretty bag, I walked out of the shop feeling rather ill at having spent over £30 on a bra in the sale arghhhhh. All future bra's will be from M&S etc I expect, unless it is a special occasion.
Whilst on the subject of bra's. Congratulation's to Kylie Minogue who has been Cancer free for Five Year's. Kylie was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2005 and underwent treatment to beat the disease (Click).

After all that expense we went to the indoor market for a mug of Coffee which only set Keith back £1.60 no VAT on food thank the lord.
For sometime now we have been wanting to buy the DVD Avatar, but the price was always to much or they had sold out, but today we did finally find a copy in Blockbuster, allbeit the directors edition, which has all the bells and whistles on it, which of course neither of us are really bothered about it. I just want to watch the film, I am not interested in the bits they left out, or how the film was made. To me that is just a good way of making people pay more. Anyway we now have the DVD and are looking forward to watching it, when there is nothing else on the TV.
By the time we had done everything we needed to in the town it was lunchtime, so we headed back to the boat, where I did us Cheese on Muffin's. No sooner that had been devoured along with a Coffee, there came a knock on the door for some coal. Two customer's arrived at once for fuel, so Keith and I unloaded the purchased coal and I wheeled it to their vehicles. I then supplied another boater moored in front of us, they are both suffering like so many with the flu and therefore are feeling poorly. So much for a happy festive time for many.
With all coal deliveries done, I am now having to think about taking on more coal, because the hold is getting a little empty again and if this cold weather starts up again in ernest we will need to be full. Whilst I deliberate on what to order, I am going to get myself another Coffee and see what is on the TV. Dinner is in the back cabin stove, so all is well in my world today. I hope your day has been as good.
Chat soon xx

Christmas shopping.

Hi Friends from around the world.

Brrrrrrrrr it was bitterly cold out this morning. The temperature got down to at least -7.4c last night, and yes we are still frozen in. But do I care................................ NO.

I woke up this morning to the sound of the church bells pealing in the town at 7am. Apart from the bells not even the birds were chirping, but then who can blame them when it is this cold. Maybe their beaks were frozen shut. I really do feel for the wildlife when the weather is this cold. I do realise that to some this is not cold, but for the UK it is freezing. Although we are very cosy on the boat. Due to the fact that it is a Saturday, there was no hurry to get up, so before I made us a cuppa, I stoked up both stoves to bring the temperature inside the boat up a bit as it was a little chilly. We then sat in bed drinking tea and talking about what the day would hold for us and if there were any plans to do anything. By 8.30am we had a visitor, Paddy crept up to the back cabin and laid his head on my lap. I took this as a sign he needed to go and visit the little boy's room outside. I clambered out of bed and did not waste anytime getting dressed, because the engine room was cold. Marmite then joined the party on the bed, hoping to find a nice warm place to snuggle down and go to sleep. She loves all the warmest places like most cats, unfortunately she lucked out because the bed was rolled up and put away.Before breakfast Paddy got his walk along a very crispy towpath. The temperature gauge was still reading -4.5c when we stepped off the boat. There is something so refreshing about walking in a heavy frost. It is as though the air is all new and fresh and you are the first to inhale it. I love to take a few deep breath's to clear the tubes. I would be quite happy to walk miles in this sort of weather, but Paddy never likes to go to far, because he knows his breakfast is waiting for him back on the boat. So no sooner he has done what is needed, he does an about turn and legs it along the towpath back to the boat, where he sits and waits for me to open the engine room doors, where he jumps back into the boat.

After we had eaten breakfast, Keith and I wrapped up warm with hats, coats and gloves ready to head down into the town. As we walked down the hill, Santa's sleigh passed us on a trailer, being pulled by a white van. Maybe Santa thought it was to dangerous to bring the reindeer. When we got down into the town we saw that Santa had joined his sleigh and was waving to all the passing traffic. We headed for the indoor market where we bought five packs of meat for £10, an absolute bargain. We then went into Wilkinsons and bought some bird feed.

Having done all we needed to do and fought our way through the Christmas shoppers we made our way back to the boat. The bird feeders are now hanging on the swan neck and I hope that the birds will take advantage of some free food. When we had a garden we used to have a bird table and allsorts of feeders, but with living on a boat it is not as easy to put food out as we have no where to really hang it. But as we are not going anywhere at the moment the swan neck will do just fine.

Talking of Christmas shoppers. There seems to be a me-first seasonal confusion which manifests itself in shopping rage at Christmas time. People feel they have the right to push and shove their way through, using their elbows as battering rams. Whatever happened to the words excuse me please?
I feel for any shop worker because I have been there over the Christmas period. I used to work for M&S and still remember the queasy feeling that arrived on workday mornings in December, because I just knew what was coming. Even before the store opened, a horde of customers would be waiting outside the locked doors. Some would bang on the glass and point at their watches. Others would scan the aisles already mapping out their frantic dash. Whilst most of the encounters with Christmas shoppers were pleasant, every so often shopping rage would drown out the seasonal cheer. Remember to be polite, it costs nothing, but could be very rewarding when your looking for that something special. I can now laugh about this misplaced fury. But at the time, it felt like I was the one and only person shoppers could vent their rage at. It felt unnecessary and entirely at odds with the spirit of the season. Shop assistants are human too.

So with exactly one week of shopping left until Christmas, I wish you success. I hope you find everything on your list and you come out of it with your sense of humour in tact.

So with us back on the boat in the warmth, the snow has begun to fall, and I hope it is here to stay for a while. Stay safe and warm out there xx

Flu-jabs and Snow Showers.

Hi Friends.

We stepped another day closer to Christmas and a step further away from actually moving, because the weather has taken a turn for the worst as forecast.

This morning I slept in till 8.30am, which has to be some sort of a record for me. The day started as always with me taking Pad out for his walk. I went further up the towpath to see if there was any progress with the canal thawing, but just from looking at it, I could see it was still some three inches thick, which we could break, but what is the point in being stuck in the middle of nowhere, I am then no use to my customers.

Back onboard it was a Porridge morning. I love Porridge, because it warms the bodies core and is a good source of energy. Keith loves Syrup on his, I am a sugar lover.

Job of the day were to top up the water tank, ready for the forecast freeze. Whilst the tank was filling, I unloaded a bag of housecoal for the back stove and a bag of logs for the saloon stove. I am all about being prepared. The tank took half an hour to top up, this was mainly due to the fact that the flow is so slow. Tank topped up, I then got asked for 6 bags of coal to be delivered to Gill and Don on NB Idunno, so that was my next task. To make the job easier Keith put the new wheels we got yesterday on our old sack barrow, so we split the bags of coal between us and set off for the basin. Gill very kindly offered us Coffee and neither of us like to refuse an offer of Coffee, so whilst Keith took the trolley back to the boat, I settled into a nice warm cabin with Gill for Coffee and a chat. Keith and I spent an hour nattering with Gill, we then headed back to our boat for lunch.

Lunch over with we set off down the town to get our Flu-jabs. Mistry's in the town is offering them for £15, no appointment needed. Gill told us that she had been for her's there and with so many coming down with the flu around us, we decided it was a good idea to obtain the flu-jab. I used to have one every year until a couple of years ago because I always ended up with Bronchitis. But my GP stopped me having it because for two years the Bronchitis stayed away. He did not see any point in me having the flu-jab, which was fair enough. But with my job I feel I need to keep well. I am no good to my customers if I am laid up in bed with the flu. To get the flu-jab it was so easy. We filled in a short form, walked into an office, rolled up our sleeves and had the needle stuck in. Nothing to it . I must admit I feel a lot happier knowing I am protected from the H5N1 flu and Swine flu. I already know someone who has a mild does of Swine flu. With a couple of other things done down in the town, we walked back to the boat in the snow. It was coming down pretty hard, much earlier than forecast.

Back at the boat we left the closed sign up and were about to settle in for the evening, when I got a phone call from one of my customers who is stuck at Kilby Bridge, he wanted to come and collect some coal by car, so I donned my donkey jacket, hat and gloves. Unloading coal in slippery conditions and dusk can be dangerous, but I managed to do it without breaking my neck. With the snow now falling down heavily I wheeled the sacks around the basin and waited for my customer to arrive. There was something magical about standing under a street lamp watching the snow fall. It drew my mind to 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' and the scene with the lamp in the wood. Customer arrived on time and very grateful to me for coming out in the snow. I told him "It is what I do".

Tomorrow we had hoped to be moving up through Foxton Locks to supply our customers at Crick and Welford, but that is not going to happen, because the canal is still frozen solid and is set to freeze even more. I absolutely hate letting people down, so have come up with some alternative suppliers. I just hope that I can offer them some help in this period of bad weather.

Dinner tonight is once again Oxtail stew, but this time we are having it with Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts. Stay safe and warm out there xx

Snow and more snow.

Good afternoon.
As you can see from the photo above Marmite knows exactly how to get comfortable in our back cabin. She will always find the warmest place like most cats. She did spend some of yesterday afternoon watching the snow fall. it kept her entertained for ages, as she tried to chase it down the perspex window.

The snow fell pretty much all afternoon and evening and we were left with 6 inches. I love the snow and everything about it, so was so pleased when it began to fall. I am a child when it comes to snow and would love to spend all my time outside playing in it.
This morning when I took Paddy out for his walk, it was not snowing, but the sky looked full of it and it was not long before the heavens opened once again. Hubby and I were up early after another restless night, as he had an appointment with the GP. We took a steady stroll down to the surgery and got in to see our GP on time, which was an added bonus. unfortunately he had no real good news for us on hubbys situation. We will have to wait like the rest of the queue, unless of course he gets called in on a cancellation, which we have to hope for. We did ask about changing hospitals, but like the GP said that would just mean starting the process all over again and that will take up more time. So hubby remains in pain and we remain stuck. It is beginning to look like we will not be cruising at all this year, which is a real shame. But at the end of the day hubby's health is far more important.

The snow has stopped for the moment and the sun is trying to pop out. I have been out and swept the snow awat from the hold, just in case people should need to come and collect coal. Last night a couple came to collect a bag of coal, on their way home from work and it took them over and hour to do less than a mile, conditions were so bad on the roads. There is a lot of slush on the roads and pavements at the moment, which could be really awful if it freezes tonight as they predict. I have just baked a chocolate cake in the back cabin stove and it smells yummy. I will post a pic of that tomorrow if I remember LOL.

Survey of the Day. 42% of Brits, say they would like to do what?
The answer was emigrate. That is such a sad reflection, on what people feel about this fabulous country. I can honestly say I would never emigrate, but I have never been abroad anyway, so I do not know if I am missing anything. I think personally every country has it's faults and problems, so really your leaving one problem for another. Every country has its ups and downs and just because we are economically going through a bad patch, does not mean we should abandone the boat just yet. (No pun intended). If I were to go abroad for a holiday I would love to go to Canada and New Zealand, but I really cannot see me ever leaving Britain for good. I love the life I have in this wonderful country and there is still so much of it that I have not seen yet.
Would you emigrate?