Would you ever????

Good afternoon.

It is a beautiful sunny afternoon and this weather is with us for at least the rest of this week hooray....

Now question for you. Would you ever stay somewhere and leave without paying?

That is what happens here. People come in hook up to the electric and then the next morning they unhook and just leave without paying for their stay. I really don't know how people can live with themselves for not paying. I guess I must be to honest.
It seems some people feel they have the right to arrive late in the day, when the basin office is shut, and then they leave the next morning before the office opens. So it looks like no one has been in. But they do not reckon on those who live here, seeing the coming's and going's. This basin is used by a hire company and therefore they do not actually have to allow private boats in for moorings, but it is the choice of the lady who runs it to allow private boats in and charge them to stay. That money then goes to British Waterway's. It is going to be a shame if because of these non payers, the basin is closed off to private boaters. People really need to think about their action, because they could affect others in the long run.

The Cute Factor.

Morning People.

Yesterday evening, I received a visit from our Swan family. The Pen and Cob came a calling with their Cygnets. Sadly they have lost one, as there had been Nine little darlings. I did however notice that one of them was a little detached from the group when they were up and down the cut. Like with all wildlife it is survival of the fittest, so maybe the one that is missing was just not strong enough. It was so nice of mum and dad to bring them into the basin to see us, we did wonder if they would bring them down.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

Hi Folks.

Us dear old Brits associate Bank Holiday weekends with one thing............ Yep you guessed it rain. And Saturday we were not disappointed. It absolutely chucked it down. So what did we do for the day you ask?
We went to the Crick Boat Show and walked around in the rain looking at all thinkings boaty. The one really lovely thing about Crick was the fact that we got to catch up with a lot of friends, we had not seen in a while. The Crick Boat Show has certainly taken a downward turn in the past three years. There are less stalls and marques, and this year there were even less exhibition boats. It was however nice to see some of the historic boats back in the marina, where they belong.

Yesterday (Sunday) I had the most wonderful day at Launde Abbey. It is situated in the heart of the East Midlands. You need to look behind the scaffolding to see a truly beautiful religious retreat. Now I am not religious, but friends asked if we would like to go to the flower festival and fair there and I am not one to turn down a day out.



The rain from Saturday had gone and it was replaced by sunshine and strong winds, which caused havoc with the tents for the craft fair. There is a very picturesque chapel attached to the beautiful house. I could see why people would want to retreat to this place.
We spent time looking around the gardens and the fair before having a buffet lunch.
A good day was had by all.
I reckon I could happily retreat to Launde Abbey, in a time of reflection if need be.

I trust that this Bank Holiday Monday is going to be kind to you and yours?



I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning. Infact the dawn chorus had just begun. I could hear one bird singing to its hearts content and then one by one more birds joined in. There is nothing nicer than hearing the first birds of the day. So there I was laying awake, trying not to think about the pain in my frozen shoulder and the other half woke up as well. I am pleased that I was able to go back to sleep until 7am. I am not good when I do not get enough sleep.


Waking up at 7am we lay in bed chatting, until the cat came a calling. I knew exactly what her problem was. She had no food. So I got up and dressed. Whilst I took the hound for a quickie wee, the other half did us both poached eggs on toast, which is always a nice way to start a day. We always have the local radio station on and try and have a go at their competitions. You don't win anything for the 3 of a kind comp, but if your in the top three you can have a record played. Now I never win anything, so was excited when I got an e-mail saying I was 3rd. wooooooo hooooo. I got to choose a song on the radio. So I went for No Regrets by The Walker Brothers. I bet your think, who the bloody hell are they?
The Walker Brothers were an American 1960s and 1970s pop group, comprising Scott Engel, John Maus, and Gary Leeds. Now do you remember them???
They had hits such as "No Regrets", "Make it easy on yourself" and "Were all alone". Come on you know them now surely?


Having had that nice surprise, it got me in the mood for getting some work done, so I attacked all the cupboards and draws. No not literally. I mean I have Spring cleaned them, got rid of all the rubbish and old tat. I am a bit of a horder unfortunately. But when it comes to to a point that I cannot keep them tidy anymore I will sort them out. So I now have nice clean cupboards and draws.
Today has been an odd sort of a day for me, because I have had my daughter in my thoughts. She would have been 25 years old today, had she survived. Sadly she died 8 hours after her birth. I really don't know where that 25 years has gone. But I do wonder if she was a live today what would she be like, what would she be doing with her life?
So it has been a mixed day for me really and yet I am not a maudling person. I have learnt to get on with my life, but she is never far from my thoughts.

Three In A Bed.

Good afternoon.
Because we have been stuck here for so long, we get to watch a lot of TV. Over this past couple of weeks we have been watching 'Three In A Bed'. In case you have no idea what I am talking about. 'Three In A Bed' is all about Bed and Breakfast owners, who throw open their doors and take turns to stay with one another. They then pay what they consider fair for their stay. We have stayed in a few B&B's, all of which were very nice. We do not agree with paying huge amounts for somewhere to sleep and a meal and you look at some of the places already shown on this Channel 4 program and they are asking silly money for a simple concept.

This week it was the turn of Mike and Susie Skinner of West Sussex, they took on Steve and Nikki Dick of Arbor Low in the the Peak District, and Ray and Julie Bright of the Ashleigh Hotel in Bournemouth. It amazes me how nasty people can get about other peoples B&B's. Mike and Susie Skinner, had the most beautiful home, but Susie in my opinion was a nightmare, especially after a couple of drinks. She would insist on putting flower petals everywhere, including down the toilet arghhh. They did a nice breakfast, but even that had feathers sticking out of the Tomato ewwww. I did not like their over the top behaviour and they were very patronising about the others. Nikki and Steve had a pretty ordinary looking house, which they liked their guests to treat as a home from home. You even got your own lounge to use as you wished. It was what a I thought a lower end B&B, much more our taste. The downside was you did not get a Full English Breakfast and had to make your own toast. When we go away for B&B, we do expect breakfast to be served. Ray and Julie's seaside B&B, was actually a 10 bedroom hotel, but it was really nicely done out and they did a fabulous serve yourself Full English Breakfast from a buffet, which was excellant. Of course Mike and Susie the snobs I call them, picked loads of holes in both the other B&B's and it was really nothing constructive. They really wanted to win, even though Susie said she did not. That woman needs to get a reality check. In the end Nikki and Steve whose house is in the beautiful Peak District won the plague. I was just glad that the toffs from West Sussex did not get it. Susie was atotally over the top and I actually think she did not do her business any favours at all.

What did you think??

Chips Glorious Chips.

According to the The Mail Online. There are 16 different types of chips. It seems that the Supermarkets stock 16 different sorts of chips in their freezer departments.
Surely a chip is a chip?
Why do people feel the need to buy chips, when you can make your own???
I know your gonna say convinence, to me it is laziness.
The Supermarkets are just keeping up with what we the people ask for it seems. There are homestyle chips (oven ones that go crispy), crinkle homefries, chunky oven, crinkle oven, straight cut oven, thin and crispy oven, homefries (chunkier, with a fluffy texture), crispy French fries, chunky homefries, rustic oven (with skin on one side), beer battered, curly fries, golden fries (with a turmeric and paprika coating), steak cut oven (long and straight), frying chips (small and thin) and low-fat oven.
On the boat I very rarely do chips. Many a boat fire has been started because of a chips pan. Not only that we do not eat chips that often and when we do, it is usually when we are eating out. If I were to cook chips, i would peel potatoes and make my own.

Eyes lids of lead.

So as I posted before, it was not a good night for either of us. Keith is going through withdrawl symptoms big time. He has aching limbs, the shakes and the sweats, which is not nice. But hey he at least he now knows what it is like for me with the Menopause ;0).

At 12 midday, a Tesco van arrived with my food order. It is an absolute godsend, having our supplies delivered to the boat. The young man even carries the shopping to the boat. Unfortunately he did it with a limp today, as he had pulled a muscle whilst out running last night. He thought it a good idea to take up running to get fit. It could not be futher from the truth. Running is not that good for you really. Swimming is much more affective and puts less strain on the body. Anyway he managed to get down the steps to the boat and I unloaded the boxes, whilst Keith stacked the shopping on the worktop. I then had the usual job of stowing the shopping away, in what is now a very tidy food cupboard. Tidy because I got down on my hands and knees this morning and sorted it out. Even the freezer is tidy as well. So a lack of sleep did not totally mess up my day.

I think today we have both been getting through the day on auto pilot. My stuff certainly strutted off at around 10am this morning. It however returned about an hour ago, when Terri and Dave from The Narrowboat Trust made a surprize visit to Keith and I. It was wonderful to see them both and to get chatting about everything we have all been through, because they have been through an awful lot over this past year health wise. So between Keith and Terri, they had a lot of medical history to natter about, and in amongst that we of course chatted about boats.

I am pretty sure I am gonna be going to bed early tonight, as my eyes are so tired today. The only thing that has kept me from napping, has been the looking out for the hire boats which are due back in today, ready for tomorrows turn around. All the private boats that were in for a couple of days, left this morning early, so we have space for a couple more private boats, should they wish to come into the basin, but it is now 5pm and no one has been and asked. I think they are either out on the towpath or they have got to their destinations. That destination is probably the Crick Boat Show, which takes place this Bank Holiday Weekend. We will not actually ever take our boat to the show, because when we asked last year about going, they wanted to charge us over £90 just to moor on the towpath, and this did not include the entrance fee for the site, which was £16 each for the weekend. Why would we want to pay that much money for a show, when we can go to smaller shows for just £10 for the boat and have a fabulous weekend.

I have just fed Paddy and Marmite and now it is time to put our dinner on, so I am off to raid the full fridge for tonights dinner. It is time for me to sign off.

Way to early for this.

Morning All.

I must be completely barking mad blogging at 3.14am, but hey I am up and have been since just before 2am. Infact I have had very little sleep so far tonight.

Why your ask????

The answer to that question is because of Keith. The poor man is going through withdrawls, having come off of Dihydrocodeine, which he has been on since February. Now we saw a GP last Monday (ours is away) who told Keith to reduce his tablets by one for a couple of days, then to stop taking them. But I thought wooo that is to quick so we reduced the two 30mg tablets 4 times a day, down to 1 30 mg tablet 4 times a day for a couple of days and that was fine, and then half a 30mg tablet 4 times a day. I then suggested stopping the remaining tablets one by one, so over the week he reduced them to nothing. But now the withdrawls have really kicked in. He is suffering with the sweats, pain in his arms, which means sleeping is not good. He is also suffering with a runny nose and sneezing, all symptoms of withdrawl. I don't think there is really any easy way of coming off of opiads. But it would have been nice if the doctors had explained what could happen. During the day he is absolutely fine, these problems are only occuring at night, which is of course when we both need to sleep. So for the third night running we are up drinking tea. I am on the computer because I cannot sleep and want to keep an eye on him. Here's hoping that I can go back to bed in a minute and get some sleep, otherwise I am going to be a zombie for much of Wednesday.
My worry is that he has come off of these tablets to quick and that this will go on for ages. One thing I do know is that if he is still not doing to good by Friday, I will get him to see a GP, as ours is away on holiday. Keith say's he is ok coping as he is, but it is upsetting to see him going through this. It is amazing at how quickly something prescribed by your Gp can become so addictive.

Kicking up a Rumpus.

Hi everyone.

Today has been a fabulous day. It all began with the usual walk along the towpath with Paddy. I have begun to take my camera with me again and oh boy was I glad I did, because there was a lot to photograph. The first thing I came across were these moorhens going at it hammer and nail. In fact there were two pairs scraping with each other, but I thought I would upload just one photo. It was like a boxing match with feet. The rumpus went on for five or more minutes, and ended with neither side winning.

No sooner had that rumpus died down, the swan family put in their first appearance on the water and to my surprize there were Nine little fluff balls. You can only see Eight in the photograph, but there was a Ninth, hiding behind the Pen, to shy to say hello it its public. It is so wonderful to see this family, after the disaster last year.
With Paddy walked and breakfast done. We decided that we would go down to the local radio station Hfm to say Happy Birthday to one of its presenters, who we have got to know really well. Before heading the station, we sent and bought a couple of boxes of cakes to help the celebration along and then caught a taxi to the radio station. Keith is still not 100%, so I did not want him over doing it. We were welcomed at the station with cups of coffee and a slice of Birthday cake from the Birthday boy. We also got the chance to sit in on Dave Smith's radio program. Now I do not want to make Dave big headed, but he is a fantastic DJ. As a local radio station Hfm is one of the best we know. They play such a diverse amount of music for all ages and always encourage the local community to get involved. We were as always made very welcome.
Having enjoyed a fanatastic morning with the gang, we took a leisurely stroll into the town and to Han the Chinese Restaurant where we enjoyed a sumptuous lunch. A two course meal for £8 each.
Having enjoyed our lunch, we got chatting to one of the young ladies who served us. She was fascinated by the fact that we live and work on a narrowboat, so we gave her a history lesson about the canals and invited her to come and see our boat. But whether she will is entirely up to her. By the time we had walked back to the boat, there were people having a picknick lunch on the Sanitary Station moorings. They were very pleased to see us, as they needed a pumpout card, to empty their pooh tank and with the office closed we were the nearest port of call for a pumpout card.
I am now sat watching 'Deal or no Deal'. I have always loved Noel Edmunds, ever since his days on 'Swap Shop' on Saturday mornings. It is going to be a chillout evening I reckon. So have a good day everyone. I am off now.