In transit

Today has been major excitement tinged with sadness. I am excited about visiting an amazing new country, but so sad at leaving the UK at my favourite time of year.

Yesterday I took Jack the whippet for a long walk and savoured the autumn colours and smells. We walked down the little country lane opposite the marina:

I felt so guilty that I would be abandoning him for a month, we have become very attached and although he adores his owner, he does enjoy popping in to see P and I several times a day and he loves his walks!

I looked at the sunset over the boats for the last time in a while:

I cooked a lovely meal for P and me and for A on the next door boat. A is a bit of a dark horse and among his many talents is his ability to make fantastic fireworks, so he treated me, T and P to a surprise going away display in the car park:

This morning I spent some time wandering around just soaking up the place that I am going to miss so much:

I then spent a couple of hours trying to get within the required weight for hand luggage. I have to take quite a lot of paper work in my cabin bag so that I can still function on the work front if my main luggage goes astray. This leaves very little left for personal items. In the end I had to jettison most of my personal stuff, ending up with just my toothbrush, face cleansing wipes and my kindle. I felt a bit like I was on desert island discs having to choose just one or two items I couldn't do without! Considering that I leave tomorrow morning and don't arrive at my final destination until late Tuesday night I think it is going to be quite hard going!

The upside is that both my lovely sons have made sure that they will be in touch while I am away. Son number 2 has added me to his skype account and son number 1 has let me become a 'friend' of his on facebook - an honour indeed!! This is with the proviso that I am not to leave any embarrassing messages on his 'wall' or he will de-friend me instantly!

I have to say that I am amazed at the technology we have these days with skype, mobile phones, facebook and all the different ways of communicating that we have. I am showing my age now, but when I was at primary school, we had a small round piece of wood to which we attached a metal nib and in order to write we dipped this in ink which was in an inkwell on our desks!! If we were anywhere other than home and needed to contact anyone, we had to go to a red 'phone box and go through a complicated process of pushing buttons A and B to get through. Letters took several days to arrive! In my lifetime I have seen such amazing changes!! My boys take it all for granted but it never ceases to engender a sense of wonderment in me!

Lots of friends of mine have also added me on skype so that I can keep in touch. That makes me feel great! I remember 35 years ago when I travelled to go to Germany to study as a post grad.  I felt really frightened and alone. I had to get the ferry over from Harwich and travel by train through Holland to Detmold. This took the best part of two days and my German wasn't good in those days. It just wasn't possible to contact anyone in the UK apart from by letter which took over a week. It was a lonely and scary time - how much easier it all is now!

I am now at the airport hotel. I'm not sure when I will be able to blog again, but I am back in the UK on 5th December so watch this space!

Al :)

Autumn Colours

We woke up this morning to this magnificent view:

After a hearty 'full english' breakfast we set out  for a walk along the side of the lake. we found the red squirrels in the woods:

We watched them feeding for ages and got quite close until they spotted us and legged it!

The scenery around the lake was georgous:

and the autumn colours spectacular:

We only walked for about 10 miles and that was on the level, but my legs were still aching a bit when we got back to the hotel, so after a nice sandwich P stayed in the bar to survey the scenery and I went and had another bath in the jacuzzi!

Afterwards I dozed in the massive king size bed and just enjoyed the space and luxury. Our bed on the boat is 3/4 size and that really isn't big enough for two grown adults! Some people fill the entire cabin with the bed which means there is plenty of room for a comfortable kip, but it's not a good scenario when you are out on the water. When cruising you need quick access through the boat in case there is a problem at the front end. It is always possible to walk along the gunnels on the outside, but it is not a quick way of getting from one end to the other and of course it isn't always safe.

The answer is to build an extension to the bed in winter when no one goes out sailing. You then slot a purpose made mattress in and you have a decent sized bed. This is yet another thing which is on the back burner after our solar panels, double glazing etc.! So for this winter we will continue to be fighting for space, (I usually win by the way!!)

We had a lovely meal in the restaurant tonight and we were the only people in the hotel apart from one other couple. Partly we think this is because it is miles from anywhere. The nearest town is 10 miles away and it really is in the middle of nowhere. I suppose we are quite unusual in that we love the solitude.

As Henry Thoreau says:

I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficient society in nature, in the very pattering drops and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied advantages of human neighbourhood insignificant and I have never thought of them since

From 'Walden, or a life in the woods'

And on that note - good night

Al



A break before the hard work

Today we made our way to our most favourite place in the world - Haweswater. A remote lake (actually reservoir) in the Lake District. This is where we do most of our walking (apart from in Wales and Scotland). We have climbed every route possible and know it like the back of our hands.

We booked a mid week mini break at the Haweswater hotel a few months ago using www.laterooms.com and got a cracking deal. It is just perfect that it has coincided with the few days before I go to India. In all of our many years of marriage we haven't been apart for more than a couple of weeks so four weeks is going to be difficult. We are relishing our time together over these next two days.

The hotel is magnificant and P said tonight that he felt quite decadent. He is a welsh valley boy, whose dad worked in the steel works and he was raised with financial hardship as the norm. I, too had a horrible childhood, but I don't feel any such reservations about our life now. We have made decisions (and brave ones) which have changed our lives. We haven't won the lottery or come across money by chance, we have worked hard for every penny and I am going to enjoy that!!

The first thing I did was check out the bathroom.... not only was there a bath but it was a jacuzzi bath!

And it had a telly - look at those bubbles!!!

I do so love my baths - after 30 minutes in this one all the coal dust and dirt from chopping wood etc. had gone from my hands. I have to take radical measures when on the boat to deal with the results of the physical lifestyle. Every Sunday before work on a Monday morning I usually have to plunge my hands into neat bleach to clean them. That might sound radical, but in my job I just cannot afford to have dirty hands at work, no matter how 'clean' the dirt. I have tried swarfega and all sorts of other more gentle hand cleaners but they don't get my hands snowy white. It was such a joy to come out of that bath squeaky clean!!

Tomorrow we hope to have a walk, but daren't go up high into the mountains in case I slip and injure myself. A lot of money has been spent on my air fare to India and a lot of planning has gone into sending me there - I can't let them down. A couple of years ago I was booked to work in the south for three weeks. A couple of weeks before that I was attacked, kicked and trampled by a herd of cows while out walking in a remote area of Scotland. I had to be airlifted to hospital with broken ribs and a collapsed lung and ended up not being able to fulfil that work commitment. I can't afford to make the same mistake again!

The view of the lake from the bedroom window is georgous:

Buying the boat has freed us up to do this sort of thing and long may it continue!!

Al :0

Downsides, but hey ........

Today I have hit the first real problem with being a boater. Long story but ...... next Sunday I will be flying out to India! We bought a boat to take the pressure off me having to meet the mortgage payments. Because I am self employed there is always the worry about where the next penny is coming from. However ... since we have lived on the boat, despite my having given up some branches of employment I didn't feel the need to do any more, my work has increased in other areas and all of a sudden I have more work than I need!! I do feel that part of this is to do with my more relaxed attitude to everything - people notice these things! However when  I was asked to go and work in India for a month I was excited and apprehensive in just about equal measure.

Having done some research, making payments by visa in India can be problematic and I was advised to get a mastercard as a back up. Now, no matter how hard up we were in the past, we always paid our way and had a very good credit status. So imagine my frustration when I was refused a credit card this time. I am still not entirely clear why I was refused - the companies I have consulted have not been forthcoming, but I suspect it was because I do not have a 'proper' address. I am so cross!! We sold our house and bought a boat - we have savings for God's sake!! I don't actually need credit I just want an alternative to visa in case I need it!

Part of our problem is that we are totally 'up front' about our situation. A lot of people enjoy living on a boat because they can dodge all sorts of things - television licence. council tax. etc. They simply give an address of a relative as their permanent residence, but we wanted to be totally up front about how we live - we are proud of it! Our marina is a 'leisure' park on which people are only allowed to be for approximately 10 months of the year. In reality there are numerous 'liveaboards' like us and the sooner this is legitimised the better. We are currently applying for 'residential' status which will increase our mooring fees considerably, but we don't care! Maybe we might just be 'credit worthy' then.

Apart from that it has been a lovely day! I am trying to prepare for India - got my next raft of jabs tomorrow, have ordered my deet anti-mosquito spray and am washing all my light summer gear. In the meantime I filled the water tank and put in some purification tablets and I have to say the water coming out of the tap is pretty good, although I still won't make tea with it!!

The cider is coming on really well:

We racked it off today and also treated the cider in the barrel, adding some yeast and sugar. Our neighbours saw us swilling out demijohns and very soon there was a crowd offering advice and comparing notes. This prompted me to bring out some of our damson and sloe Gin to see how it was doing and I have to say it was sensational!! That will all be supped well before Christmas! This prompted J, one of our student boaters (sensible kids living on a boat instead of exhorbitant university accommmodation) to go and get his sloe gin and we all had a taste. The chutney then came out and my blackberry chutney went down well (quite a kick with the chillis!) and someone else produced some apple and date chutney which just begged for cheese, so we all raided our fridges. All in all a great community spirit, and of course another afternoon which just disappeared without much getting done!

I then took Jack for a walk and in the knowledge that I will soon be in arid India, I soaked up the autumn colours - my favourite time of year. Albert Camus, (another one of my heroes) said:

'Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower'    So true!

Here is Jack enjoying his walk on the tow path!

We have booked a mini break at Haweswater, our favourite lake in the Lake District, for some walking on Wednesday and Thursday and I fly to India next Sunday, so I'm not sure how many blogs I will get in now until I go. I will be back mid December when some interesting boating stuff happens so please bear with me and I will be back soon.....

Al :)

Water, water everywhere!

It's been another learning curve today! We decided it was time we changed the water filter as they normally need changing every year and it has been almost exactly a year since we first moved onto the boat full time.

Our builder told us that there is no urgency if we are not drinking the water and I refuse to drink it because it has a strange 'tang' to it and being a discerning tea drinker I don't like it. We fill a 5 litre bottle from the tap on the jetty every day - spoilt I know, but we all have our little quirks and I do like my cup of tea to taste proper!

However, I still brush my teeth using the water from the tank, so it is still very important to me that it is hygenic!

Our filter is under the bed, so we pulled the mattress off, (quite a mean feat in itself given the limited space) and took some of the stuff we had stored out from under the bed. P blames me for what happened next! He just touched the filter and suddenly all hell broke loose. I heard the water pump kick into action plus the sound of water spurting under pressure. P pushed past me screaming 'open a tap up'! so I rushed into the bathroom and turned on the tap, by which time P had turned off the pump at the control centre.

It turns out the filter had fractured (probably as a result of me throwing something heavy into the storage space). So until we had managed to go and buy another filter we were without water. Basically without the filter in situ the pump thinks a tap is on so it starts pumping. Unfortunately this happened in the space under our bed leaving a damp pool which we had to clear up. We managed to get to the chandlery which had a pump the size we needed and P spent the afternoon fitting it and trying to stop it from leaking. Finally after a few false starts the water flowed freely without leaking and our water supply suddenly seemed to flow a lot more freely than it had for a long time. We think that the filter had needed changing for a long time and was actually clogging up the system. All we need to do now for a totally pure system is put a couple of disinfecting tablets in the tank which we will do next week.

Water is a bit of a problem at this time of year. All boats have a problem with condensation, especially in cupboards which are near to outside walls. We wake up every morning and have to wipe the windows down with a towel. We hope to get some double glazing done next year, which will solve the problem, but this is low down on our list of priorities, after solar panels and a state of the art generator. The worst problem is in the wardrobes in the bedroom and we get around it by putting silicon crystals in them which soak up the moisture. There also needs to be a lot of air circulation but unfortunately my clothes are jam packed into the wardrobes which P is always complaining about. I really do need to reduce the amount of clothing I own!!

I think it would be useful if I write down the sites of where we get our 'stuff' from for potential boaters, (for example the silicon crystals) and I will try and make this a feature of future blogs.

Have been really busy recently, but hope to post more blogs in the near future - please continue to 'watch this space'!

Al :)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Today I cycled the 6 miles into our nearest town and it was beautiful. The air was crisp and it was raining autumn leafs as I went through the wooded lanes. The autumn colours are really starting to come through and when I went over the little beck which flows under the canal, it was in spate and flowing noisily. It's as though it is making a last statement of the joy of being in the full flush of life before the big freeze of winter stops it in its tracks.

Our county council are really bike friendly and I can cycle for miles without seeing a car. The route into our local town (it's a city actually) is sensational. It starts down country lanes as it winds out of the village, goes through the university campus (where son number two is in his final year), meanders through leafy and wooded lanes and joins the canal on entry to the town centre.

On my return J the whippet had come to see us so I took him for a long walk in the afternoon sunshine.

The frustration of the day was no internet access! Because we don't have a landline, we rely on a dongle and they can be temperamental. We rang our provider who said that because usage is low where we are, we are a low priority and the problem will take several days to fix. Because part of my work relies on internet access we signed up for 3 days of wifi provided by a specialist company who deal with boats, but it is expensive. This is because by definition they deal with occasional and leisure users who only want a few days worth of internet.

'Leisure' is the operative word here. Officially no one is supposed to 'liveaboard'. The understanding is that we all have a home to go to, but there is a huge amount of 'under the radar' living on boats. Personally we would like to have our status as 'liveaboards' recognised, but it is a thorny issue as it brings with it expenses like, council tax, tv licence etc. We would be happy to pay these ourselves but some other people are not so keen. There are processes in place now whereby 'residential' status can be applied for to a local council and our marina is currently doing so, but I think it will mean a lot of boats will leave as a result.

Just one word of caution to would be boaters - if you are moving to a boat for purely financial reasons, think again. To be comfortable you will need some regular income behind you, however small and it can be miserable if you don't have that. Boaters are friendly people and there is a great sense of community, but they are quick to spot economic refugees and they don't take kindly to dirty, unkempt boats turning up whose owners don't have the necessary respect and consideration for others. Everybody knows everybody on the canal and these people soon find themselves isolated. Maybe that seems harsh, but it's the way small communities work, so it's as well to be aware of it.

I am now on holiday for two weeks and P and I are well overdue for a long walk. I tore my knee in the summer, getting off L's boat and it is still giving me problems, so we have hardly done any fell walking recently, which is our favourite pastime! We love the Lake District and normally manage to fit in at least one walk a week. We like to do the high level stuff and challenge ourselves, which is difficult for me because I have a terrible fear of heights, but then they say you should do something that scares you every day. P says it's easy for him because he has to wake up next to me every morning - cheeky!! And on that note another little quote from a book I can highly recommend .......

'Feel the fear and do it anyway!!'
Susan Jeffers

Al :)

Visiting 'The Smoke'

I've been in London for a few days for work meetings and am just so glad to get back!

I used to live in London about 30 years ago and I loved it then. We used to go out most nights after work as I worked in the centre and I had my bike to get around. I had a great time then, but I have changed now. I'm impressed with how much it has changed, especially the cycle routes which are everywhere, but sitting on the tube this morning I felt quite miserable! Everybody is in a hurry and looks stern and unfriendly.

It was nice to stay with my sister and catch up, and the work stuff was useful and successful, but I couldn't wait to get home.

The minute I got back, I got the sawing frame out and sawed some wood, then I took J for a walk along the towpath and I started to feel the stress disappear.

The traffic on the canal is dying down now, but a hire boat pulled up at the water point as I was passing this afternoon and a chap jumped out and struck up a conversation. He was raving about how lovely our canal is and how wonderful the marina and facilities are. He was from London so I could understand why he was so impressed with our little corner of the world. His parting shot was 'you're so lucky to live here!' and I have to say that I do agree with him!

It is getting colder in the evenings now and we are using coal for the fire to supplement the wood, otherwise we won't have any wood left! I love the smell of the coal burning. We are still running the engine everyday until our new battery charger arrives in the next few days and the smell of the fire mingled with diesel is just lovely!

This time last year we had no idea how to heat the boat properly. We were either too hot or too cold. The wood burner is very efficient and if you pile a load of coal into it, it ends up getting so hot you have to throw open all the boat doors and windows just to cool down! Many a time last year there was snow outside and the canal was frozen, but we had all our windows open! One of the problems is that our burner is at the end of the boat. We would heat the living area really well, but the bedroom would be freezing. Then we discovered the Eco-fan - what a great piece of kit! It is a two or three bladed fan (two blade costs about £90 and three blade about £110), which has a chip in the base which is sensitive to heat. Placed on the burner it starts to spin as soon as the stove heats up and sends the heat all round the boat. If you are going to live on a boat in winter, this is a 'must have' item!

A bag of coal costs around £8 and in the coldest weather you would probably get through about two bags a week. We on the marina have endless debates amongst ourselves about the different varieties and everyone has their favourite brand! What is lovely is that you can pile it on before you go to bed and it will still be burning in the morning.

More on winter and fuel later.

Al :)