A Very Lucky Man.

Living on a boat, like with living on the land comes with its dangers, but we never take our safety for granted and this is especially thought about at this time of the year, when things become slippery and the water is extremely cold.
This piece in the Northampton Chronicle sent shivers down my spine, because it can happen to anyone on a boat and especially if it is your home.
http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/health/health-news/boat-owner-minutes-from-death-at-northampton-marina-1-5743522.

Safety is at the top of my tick list in the Winter. Sadly we have heard of to many people drowning having fallen from their boats. So Please, Please stay safe out there. 

A surreal day.

It has been a day of great sadness for so many across the world.

Last night I put a Lamb Shank on the saloon stove to cook overnight, this was to prove not such a great idea, because I spent the night waking up to the smell of the Lamb cooking. I have to say it did smell wonderful with the herbs wafting up the boat to the back cabin. Having had an indifferent nights sleep, we woke up at 7 am and I did the usual morning thing and put the kettle on for our first cuppa of the day, which was as always enjoyed in bed whilst watching the news on the BBC. The sadness came with the news that Nelson Mandela had died overnight at the age of 95 years old. Even though I had never met the man like many millions of people, I had watched his life unfold through the media. Mr Mandela’s struggle is his legacy to the world and will be ever lasting. I had tears in my eyes as the reports spoke about such an inspirational man, who will be sadly missed by all those who loved and knew him. The world has lost an incredible man.

8 am and it was time to fold away the bed and to get on with the day.

Paddy always gets walked first, after all a dog has to do what a dog has to do, so we walked along the towpath and back again. There was a lorry parked up on the road and as I turned to look at the gentleman standing by the side of the lorry, I realised his was having a pee up the front wheel. I though only dogs peed up tyres, but clearly not. It struck me funning that he was happy to carry on in front of passing cars and with me approaching, clearly this was not the first time he had done this in full view of those passing. Thankfully there were no children walking to school, their parents would have had some explaining to do .

After smiling to myself after seeing that gentleman it was back to the boat, where I re-lit the back cabin stove. I had let it out yesterday due to the very high winds. So the stove was re-lit and the saloon stove riddled and replenished with coal. Marmite and Paddy had their breakfasts and then we had ours. Yes we know where we are in the pecking order on our boat .

After doing the usual boat chores, and a Lamb Shank Casserole, which was put in the back cabin stove, we walked up into the town with a pair of my boots to see if I could get them repaired. They are leather boots and hardly been worn, but they are coming apart, so need sorting out, thankfully I was told they could be repaired and I will pick them up tomorrow (Saturday). I failed to ask how much it would cost, so I have to hope it is not an arm and a leg. With nothing else required in the town, we strolled back to the boat and to a very warm back cabin and the wonderful smell of the casserole wafting out of the cabin.

Lunch time came and went, so Keith put one of our Star Trek DVD’s on. He recently purchased all the films, so we will be ploughing our way through them. Whilst the film was playing, I got on with folding up yesterdays washing, which was now nice and dry. I do very little ironing on the boat, in fact I only iron clothes if we are going out some where nice. There is no room for an ironing board, so I use the work top in the galley.

4 pm the dumplings went into the stew and as I type are cooking nicely. Today seems to have flown by and now it is dark again and so the Christmas lights are on. Paddy and Marmite are waiting for their dinners and I am now waiting to watch The Paul O’Grady Show and later on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. I have loved this series.

A day out in Leamington Spa.

So often I am dressed like someone has dragged me through a hedge backwards, because when working the boat, it pays to look that way, but today I decided none of that as I had filled the water tank yesterday and got the coal in, so I was going to have a clean and tidy day and a bit of a smart dress day.

On seeing how nicely dressed I was Keith asked “Are we going somewhere today”.

My reply was “No, I just want to look a little smarter today”.

His reply was “Shall we go into Leamington then”.

So we did, we caught the bus into Leamington. £8.90 for a day ticket for us both.

The weather was lovely, with the sun shining and it was mild for the time of year. Our first port of call was T-Mobile or EE to upgrade our dongles for our internet access, our data limit has doubled to 2Gb a month and the download speeds are way faster, for only 1p a month more! So that is a major result, it only took an hour plus to sort it all out, but it was worth it.

With lunchtime approaching we went to the Oriental Star Buffet for lunch, we have eaten there before when we were in the town a few years back, so it was time we gave them a go again and it was well worth it. £7.90 and you can eat as much as you like.

After lunch we walked down to the museum and art gallery where we had a look around.

I do so love the town with its tall white buildings and stunning gardens. It looks so clean, smart and well loved. With the streets mapped out like a grid there is plenty of walking to be done to see all the shops. On previous visits we have not seen some of the town, so today we made up for that and of course visited the charity shops, which were very expensive.

Is it just me or have some of the charity shops begun to out price themselves. I noticed that they were asking £1.95 for a 100g ball of wool, that is day light robbery because I can go in a wool shop and buy the same wool for £140. I do feel some of these shops are over priced. I realise the money is for their charity, but people will not pay these prices if they keep going up.

The town is like every other in the country at the moment, it is decked out in Christmas decorations and I have to say they are beautiful. I think they must look truly amazing in the dark.

We did not spend much money, but we had a wonderful day, we came back with our new dongles, a calendar and some fairy lights, but more importantly it was a lovely day out for us both, so dressing up this morning was well worth it.

It’s that time of year.

Hasn’t 2013 flown by or is it just me?

We are now officially into Christmas mode with the tree and decorations coming out from their box and they are now adorning the boat. I do so love fairy lights.

Marmite has taken up her spot next to the tree and she has already shown interest in the baubles, so I can see her having some fun with them over the next few weeks.

I realise some may think we are early in putting up our decorations, but we always put them up on the 1st December.

I am so ahead of the game this year, I have already posted the cards etc to avoid the queues at the post office, well that was the idea, but when I got to the post office the queue was very long, but because I was in no hurry I did what us Brits are good at and I joined the queue and waited my turn, which was so Fifteen minutes later. My main worry about being in the queue was catching all the germs being coughed and sneezed whilst I waited. I found myself hold my breath every time someone coughed and then hoping I did not catch anything. What is wrong with people these days, they do not seem to know how to cover their mouths and noses when they cough and sneeze, and I did not see a hanky used by any of them. I always have a hanky or tissue to hand. Anyway I seem to have avoided their germs and I am so pleased I have done all I need to do. Now I can sit back and enjoy the run up to the big day.

What are you doing this Christmas and are you ahead of the game?

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.