First Day of Winter.

Cute photograph of the day.

Hi Friends.

Welcome to the 1st of December and the first day of 

the Meteorological winter. With temperatures getting down to -5.8 C, it has been a tad nippy, but as all boaters know we are snug as bugs in rugs. 

With it being the 1st of December, it was time to get the decorations out of the hold and to get them up.

Who remembers paper chains?

I remember as a child making them out of crepe paper and glue. These days they are patterned and have a glue strip already at the end of the strip. Some I have seen have self adhesive strips, so no having to lick them. The ones we bought for £1 at the Original Factory Shop, have a glue strip on them and you have to lick them like a stamp, but easy to do and quick drying. I really enjoyed putting them together, it bought back happy memories of making them at primary school.

 Keith helped me put up the fairy lights and the paper chain decorations. I then got on with dressing our tree, which maybe small, but is beautifully formed. In such a confined space we cannot have a big tree. Marmite would most certainly climb it if it was any bigger.

Our fairy lights are flashing ones, but I tend to have them either static or slow flashing, because they make my eyes go queer if they flash to fast. So this will be our saloon for the month and we hope Santa appreciates everything we have done to welcome him on Christmas Eve. 

Although it was not as cold this morning, clearly Marmite did not agree, because having lit the back cabin stove Marmite was determined to get as close as she could to the heat.

I know cats do not like the cold, but she really takes it to the extreme. Looking at this photograph, I really must get on and clean the back cabin over the weekend.

Decorations up, lunch eaten it was dentist time. Yes the appointment I hate going to every year. I am not a lover of the dentist and this all stems back to my childhood, when at primary school we have a dentists lorry come into the car park and we would visit the dentist in his van. We all called it the death wagon, because we always saw children go into the van, but never saw them come back out. What we failed to realize was, there was another door out of the back of the van. Anyway I had to have a tooth out. I was given gas an the tooth was pulled out. I felt so ill afterwards and the dentist was horrible. He had big bushy eyebrows and menacing eyes. Well that was how I saw him as a child. The whole experience scared me and meant that I have always been scared of going to the dentist. Over the years, the fear has eased mainly due to the fact the dentists I have had, have been so lovely and this applies to the lady dentist I have now. 

Having arrived at our dentist, I was called in first. She was incredibly gentle and reassuring, which puts me at my ease. Joy of joys all's I needed was a quick clean. If I do not have any problems, I will see her again next year. After the dentist, we walked into town to get Keith's prescriptions and to do a bit of shopping. The town is really gearing up for Christmas now, with the shop windows full of Christmas trees and goodies. I must admit I am really looking forward to Christmas this year, because last year I was very poorly for the whole of Christmas and the New Year, which ended with me losing seven kilograms and being up on two very strong antibiotics. I am really looking forward to eating and being merry.

Home to the warmth of the boat, with both the stoves generating lots of lovely heat. Marmite was snoozing in the back cabin and Paddy was in his bed. 

Dinner was Cheese on Toast (I know exciting). I will be feet up and glued to the TV for 'I'm a Celebrity' again. I wonder who will go tonight?

I was a bit surprised Carol Vorderman went last night. I was never that keen on her, but have seen her in a whole new light, whilst she has been in the jungle. She was definitely the mother in the camp. I reckon Scarlett or Larry could win it now. I love the pair of them. 

I do have a quandary, because 'Who Do You Think You Are' is on at 9 pm, and 'I'm A Celebrity' starts at 8.30 pm and goes on till 10 pm, so I am going to have to watch one of them on iplayer I think. 

Time to go. Stay safe and warm out there my friends.

Jack Frost On The March.

Hi Friends.

Wow,Jack Frost has certainly been busy, this past couple of mornings. I do so love this time of year. Yesterday morning it was -4.2 C and this morning it was down to -5.8 C and we have ice on the surface of the water. Joy of all joys in my opinion.

Of course I realise that if you have to got work etc, it is probably not to your liking,so please do not shout at me :-)

Our pond is frozen over. I must remember to put a ball in the water to stop it freezing over completely. We do not have any fish in it yet, so no worries.

Our mooring has not actually thawed out from yesterday, so we have frost on top of frost, which makes it even more beautiful.

We are having water issues in the Arm. C&RT are working on the bottom lock at Hatton,but Cape Locks were still open, so boats were coming up through Cape Locks, winding outside of the Arm and then mooring up, so they were taking our water and nothing has been coming down the Hatton flight. After complaints to C&RT, they closed Cape Locks as well, which has annoyed boats caught above Cape Locks. Yesterday evening we began to lose water again and as you can see in the photograph above, boats are beginning to list again. We are pushed out anyway, there is an obstruction in the water under our boat, which means if we were tight up against the pontoon, we would be listing right over by now.

I do not think the temperature will get up much today, so with both fires going, we will stay in and continue to be cosy. Keith had to go to the Post Office to send off a parcel, but I am staying in.

I have an update on the freezer and fridge/freezer. Yesterday a nice gentleman called John from Leamington-Spa came to our aid. He arrived just after lunch to look at our ailing appliances. He thinks our freezer needs re-gasing. This is a new thing to us both, but if that is the case it will be easy enough to do, so he took the freezer away with him. As for the fridge/freezer, he thinks the thermostat has died, probably due to a bit breaking off on the back, but good news he has one in his workshop. So he is going to re-gas the freezer, leave it for 48 hours to see if it is leaking and let us know. If all is well, he will be back with the freezer and he will repair the fridge freezer, so fingers are crossed that things may not be as bad as we first thought, but then of course that could all change and we could still be eating bread and dripping on Christmas day. This cold weather is a bonus right now, because our chilled food is in the hold and very happy with the cold weather. In fact it is colder out there than it was in the fridge :-)

I love listening to BBC Coventry and Warwickshire everyday. Vic Minett's topic of conversation was all about getting into debt at Christmas. I have never ever got into debt at Christmas time. If we could not afford something, we just did not have it. To buy presents for my children, I would put money away for the Christmas shopping, which would usually begin in October, when I would go shopping with my very good friend Yvonne. We have a credit card, but it only ever gets used in emergencies and would never be used to splash out at Christmas. Listening to the callers, who take out loans at Christmas so they can give their children the best Christmas ever, is really quite sad, because they are left with that debt to pay off for the rest of the year and in some cases, they cannot pay it off. Christmas is not about how much money you spend, it is about spending time with your loved ones. Keith and I do not buy big presents, we may buy small stocking filler presents for each other, but that is it. If we want things, we buy them at the time. I found it rather sad listening to the stories on the radio.

Would you get into debt for Christmas???

One happy Cat.

Hi Friends.

As you will know from a previous posting, Keith made Marmite her very own Rag Rug.

This was Marmite today, making the most of her new rug.

 
She is in seventh heaven and spent most of the day snoozing. I think she likes it mainly because it is close to the fire and as you probably know cats like the heat.

One of those days.

Cute photograph for Sunday.

Hi Friends.

Yesterday did not finish well. In a previous posting I said about by our Chinese nibbles for Christmas and putting them in our freezer, well last night I was curious as to why the freezer light had not gone out, so opened the freezer door to check everything was freezing, only to find it had all in fact thawed out arghhhhh. The freezer was not actually freezing. The fan and the compressor were working but no frost to be seen. So the Christmas nibbles have ended up in the bin, which is annoying to say the least, but worse things happen.

This morning, we set about trying to find the cause for the freezer issue, so Keith pulled out our fridge/freezer to take the alarm wire off of it to fit it to the freezer as we hoped it would give us a clue as to its problem. Whilst taking the wire off, the fridge/freezer stopped working and then something broke off and so now we do not have a fridge/freezer either arghhhh, hence the title of this posting being one of those days. Thankfully the food in the freezer part of the fridge/freezer has found a home in freezers of our neighbour's, which we are thankful for. The food in the fridge is in the hold, which is just as cold as the fridge, so that will be fine for a few days hopefully. With it being Sunday, we could not get anyone out to do a repair to both appliances, so we will have to wait for Monday. This Christmas time is going to be expensive, I feel it in my water. Things always seem to happen in three's, so I am hopeful that is it now. Generator is playing up, no freezer and no fridge/freezer equals expensive.

Lunch today was things we could not fit in our neighbour's freezers, so a bit of a mixture, but was still scrummy.
Being a Sunday I did little else, apart from the usual boating stuff, of keeping the home fires burning, washing up, tidying up and then watching F1's final race of the season from Bahrain. Despite Lewis Hamilton's best efforts, Nico Rosberg won the championship, but you can bet your bottom dollar or pound coin, that Lewis will make sure he gets the title back next year. Great race, right to the end. After the race, we turned over to watch 'Calamity Jane' with Doris Day and then 'Deep Impact' with a young Elijah Wood. One of the world is going to end film's, but worth a watch again, as it had been sometime since we had watched it.

7.30 pm, we shut the boat up and headed off to The Punch Bowl for quiz night and to drown my sorrows in a pint of Coke Cola, as I am still taking medication, which does not agree with a pint of beer. Joining Keith and I for the quiz were Maria and Nigel. There were Five teams this week, so we were Four teams down this week. The picture round was a nightmare, it was album covers and the artist, we did not do very well with that. In all we had five round, which included Geography, Music, General Knowledge, TV and Film. Great evening and once again we came third, which is at least consistent.
Back home, we had a cuppa before heading off to bed.

One Happy Cat.

Hi Friends.

Today's aww photograph is of our Marmite, who is one happy cat, she is incredibly happy today.

The reason for her happiness, is the rag rug she is lying on was made by Keith especially for her. When ever Keith makes a rag rug, she always likes to test it out, so Keith decided to make her, her very own rug and she is a very happy cat. The only problem now is the rug is on my box, which is where the Christmas tree will be going, so not sure how I am going to move her off, I may just have to find another place for the tree, when it goes up next week.

We have been blessed today with sunshine. This is such a nice change from the past few days, where it has been really miserable. Today's tasks were to get rid of our recycling at Sainsbury's and then walk into town to have a wander around the town. I am looking for some Christmas scented candles, so we looked at Yankee Candles, but they are rather expensive. I am a bit loathed to set light to something when you pay £14.99 for it and that is a reduced price. So I will keep looking or maybe not even bother. The market is in full swing towards Christmas, with plenty of gift ideas, not that I was buying because we do not really bother with presents. We decided that we would have a Wetherspoons breakfast, which would sustain us through lunch and into dinner time, before walking back home. 

The TV went on to watch the F1 qualifying from Bahrain. Lewis Hamilton took pole ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg. Lewis is 12 points behind Nico in the championship, going into this last race of the season and really has an uphill battle to win the championship, but I am sure he will do everything he can to try and wrestle it from Nico. After the qualifying, it was on to Rugby Union, Scotland against Georgia great match 43-16 to Scotland. Georgia put up a great fight, but Scotland were to good for them. As I type Wales are playing South Africa. They are into the second half and Wales are leading 20-6. It is a game which needs to catch fire, because it is boring in places. Thanks to the kicking of Halfpenny and a try by Owens Wales are in the lead. 

I have just lit the back cabin stove, so it is warm for bedtime. There is nothing worse than a cold cabin at bedtime. I always find it hard to sleep if the bed is cold. 

I'm A Celeb again tonight. Last night Danny Baker was the first to leave the jungle. He seemed more than happy to go. I wonder who will be leaving tonight?

Christmas is coming.

Hi Friends.

Last night we decided to wrap up again the cold and walk into Warwick to the Victorian Evening and Christmas Lights switch on. Oh my goodness, it was so crowded.

In most places you could hardly breath, let alone see what was going on. Touch FM provided the music and presentation of the evening.

The Christmas lights were lovely though. It was so wonderful to have them all the same colour.

Our Christmas Tree, will not be as large as Warwick's, but just as beautiful.

There were plenty of food, craft and charity stalls, for people looking for a unique gift, but many of them you could not get close to because of the crowds pushing and shoving.

The steam carousal as always was fabulous. As you can imagine the fair ground rides were popular with the children. What I can never understand, is why people feel the need to drag their dogs around something like this. We had a job to move, so the poor dogs were just getting trampled. Leave your dogs at home, where they can relax I say.

St Mary's Church had the Christmas Tree display, but we did not bother going to see it, because the queue was extensive. Having looked around as much as we could see by craning our neck and standing on tip toe, we decided to call it an evening and walk home to the peace and quiet of the boat, where we settled down with a cup of tea to watch 'I'm A Celeb'. Such fun seeing Martin get dethroned. He was clearly not happy and I think a bad loser. You could see that in the drinking task, his heaving was all put on and it certainly did not fool me. Still really loving Scarlett and Larry. Ola was amazing at the drinking task as was Adam, who keeps beating Joel at tasks. Really enjoying this series. 

This morning (Friday) hooray a glimmer of hope that we would see the sunshine for a change. Today was Aldi shopping day, so whilst I stayed home and got the boat clean and tidy, Keith went off with his trolley and rucksack to catch the bus to Aldi. I got loads of jobs done, I put the hoover around, washed the floors and surfaces. Made up the fire and sorted out some more kindling. I re-potted our Spider plant into two pots. The plant had become root bound, so I bet it was breathing better, having been split into two pots. I have it hung in the galley by the galley sink, but Marmite likes to chew the ends, because to her it is grass. It is not doing her any harm, but the plant is looking a bit moth eaten, or should that be cat eaten. Anyway I now have three plants in two pots. No idea where the second pot is going, I have hung it in the engine room for now. 

I was hoping that Keith would be able to get our Christmas Chinese nibbles in Aldi, which are cheaper than Tesco, so I told him if they have them, give me three rings and I will put the small freezer on and have it ready for when you get home. Yayyyy three rings came and I turned the freezer on. Aldi does a 6o piece box of nibbles for £3.99, where as at Tesco you pay £2.00 for a box of 18, so it was a no brainer to get them from Aldi. Not only did he get the Chinese selection, he got the Indian one as well, so we will pick like kings this Christmas.

As I was finishing off my chores, Keith rang me and asked if I could meet him at the bus station, because he needed help with getting the shopping home, so I donned my coat and rucksack and did a swift walk to the bus station, where I beat Keith and the bus. I filled my rucksack with the excess shopping and walked home, whilst Keith caught the G1 bus back to the gate at the Arm (the joys of having a bus pass). I have definitely got my 10,000 steps in today. When I got home, all the shopping was stowed away and I then made us some lunch.

The rest of my day was spent catching up with our friend Jacky in the office, watching F1 practice, doing dinner, lighting the back cabin stove to warm the cabin up a bit before bedtime.

Looking forward to tonight's 'I'm a Celeb'.

Stop lying.

Cute photograph for the day.

Hi Friends.

Yet another drab old day. I am beginning to think we will never see the sun again. Mind you it is warmer. I lit the back cabin stove yesterday afternoon, to take the chill off before going to bed and oh boy we were roasting, so it has not been lit today.

I did not wake up until 8 am this morning and had the mother of all heads, due to the medication, but thankfully it subsided after I had eaten breakfast. 

On Monday I cooked a medium chicken and we have been eating the leftovers. Today using up the final pieces of the Aldi chicken, I made us a Thai chicken curry for lunch and a chicken and vegetable soup for dinner. I am not one to waste anything, so the bones were boiled down for stock, which was used in the soup. 

Today in Warwick it is the Victorian Evening, where the Christmas lights get switched on and a market and fair takes place in the market square. It is usually a fabulous evening, where people dress up in Victorian dress, we did it one year. We wore out Victorian boat gear and won a years tickets for Warwick Race Course, which was great fun. They usually have one of the last remaining stem carousels in the market square, it is a beautiful thing.

The title of my post was 'Stop Lying', the reason for this was on the radio this morning, they were discussing about telling white lies to our children and how the biggest lie is about Father Christmas being real. I thought everyone knew he was real, why would he not be?

Apparently according to some professor, we are damaging our children by telling them such lies. I can always remember my Nan saying she could see me through the eyes in the back of her head. Was she lying?

I have even told my children, that Carrots make you see in the dark, so I guess I was lying. 

Why oh why do people feel the need to tell us how to think and do things? 

We have become so PC it is totally out of control. I am 54 and I still believe in Father Christmas, ok so he does not come to me as much as he used too, but he has so many other people who need him more than I do. 

Ok rant over.

Fish and Chip Wednesday.

Hi Friends.

Yet another doom and gloomy start. Where has the sunshine gone?
I wish the sunshine would come back, because our solar lights need charging. I would prefer it to be crisp and frosty, but I suppose beggars cannot be choosers.
I woke with a head throbbing, just as if I had a hangover. I have only ever had one hangover in my life and that as after my 18th Birthday. I am being completely honest about this, I do not do drunk after that birthday, when I was so ill and had to go to work. I vowed never to do it again, and I have stuck to it, mainly because I do not like the feeling and also because I like to remember what I have been doing. Anyway I woke up with such a head this morning and it was all due to the two Amitriptyline 10mg tablets I took last night. So I am guessing I will be like this for the next week, which is how long I have to take two at night, before reducing it back down to one a night. Brain fog was definitely evident this morning as I lumbered out of bed to make a cup of tea.

Having done all the usual morning things, I had to walk up to the surgery to pick up my prescription and then walk into town to collect more of the Amitriptyline 10mg tablets, which are supposed to last me over Christmas and the New Year. The walk did not improve my head much, so I spoke to Andrew the pharmacist to see if I could take Paracetamol as well as the Amitriptyline. Apparently it is fine to combine the two, so that was what I would be doing if this head does not improve.
Yesterday's drama in the Laundry Room was being fixed. The drama was the boiler sprung a leak, which meant their was water on the floor in the freezer room, which then seeped into the Laundry. I found it when I went to get the post. Our site manager turned the water off and today the plumber is in changing the boiler over. The Laundry has certainly had its problems this year.
The car park is being dug up to improve the drainage. When it rains the car park tends to have huge puddles in it and is like an ice rink when it freezes, so the site manager and volunteers are digging holes to help the drainage. Of course to do this job a digger is required, so it is boys and their toys at the moment.
Lunch today was a Fish and Chip lunch for the volunteers, which is a way of saying "Thank You" for all the hard work the volunteers put in. We all sat in the shop around the table and enjoyed a lovely lunch and each others company. I have been unable to do much volunteering since we came back from cruising, because of my ribs, sternum and hernia, but as soon as it is more comfortable, I will be back out gardening. There is nothing nicer than good old Fish and Chips, with lashings of Vinegar and a sprinkling of salt.