One Thing After Another...

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I'm scared of under the bed. I think I'm scared because I read so many horror stories on Canal World or on other people's blogs about it being a prime place to get 'damp' or for condensation to form under there, and worse of all, the possibility mould could grow there... Doesn't sound like the ideal "Boudoir" does it?! I'm a bit fussy like that. Can't stand dirty bedrooms, kitchens or bathrooms.(doesn't leave much left does it!?) I basically have OCD. Anyway, I'm scared that horrible things could happen under my bed!! Sometimes I have sleepless nights thinking about what's under the bed, because I also store tons of shit all my worldly possessions under there which could contribute to condensation/damp/mould/filth/lice or whatever. Hmmmm. So despite being scared of the bed, I do routinely check it and make sure everything is OK. Today was one of those days. However, when I lift the mattress of...

Only a quick post today as I've just not had time and to be honest there's not an awful lot to write about lately! Anyway, I love a good sandwich but was fed up of the normal fillings....cheese, ham, egg mayo.....ugh!! All the same and really boring, so today I gave this a go. Despite me being apprehensive about it containing grated apple (and Pawel even more so!) it was great and I have to say its probably my most favourite sandwich filling now! (and Pawel's!) CHEESE AND APPLE 'SLAW SANDWICHES Ingredients:- * 2 apples * Mature cheddar cheese * a couple of spring onions, snipped * 1tbsp of mayonnaise * Squeeze of lemon Method: 1. Grate your apples into a bowl and grate in an equal amount of cheese. 2. Squeeze the lemon juice and stir and then add the mayonnaise ( more or less depending on your tastes!) It's now ready to go into your sandwich. Simple! We had it today on a crusty ciabatta roll with a good ole' packet of Quavers! Sorry there's no pictures like ...

We've had an action-packed day. We awoke around 9AM and despite the weather forecast showing that there should be heavy winds, it was all quite calm. We had a spot of breakfast before deciding to head back to our usual mooring spot. We actually missed it and couldn't wait to go back, if nothing more than to watch the birds at our bird feeder that we installed when we first moved onto the farm-end mooring. Pawel was so excited about his return, that later on in the day when we went shopping, he bought 2 loaves of "FRESH", yes, FRESH bread to throw away on the ducks. It wasn't cheap bread either from Waitrose which is ridiculous just to throw out the hatch for duckies! *Not Impressed.com* Anyway, around 1030AM, we set off from the mooring we were at and said a final goodbye. It was a later start than what I wanted (as usual!) and the wind had picked up quite a bit by then as well and we had to turn the boat twice before we'd be safely moored up! We stopped for w...

We woke up really late this morning...for some reason I just couldn't be bothered. I looked out the window and everywhere was back to being green! The view today from the hatch: All the snow everywhere has completely gone. The canal has also almost completely defrosted, helped along today by some arsehole who decided to come tear-arsing down the canal to break the ice, only to get stuck just in front of my boat.... He then reversed back, sending more sheets of ice against my blacking and then tried forward to no avail. It ended up with him and his family at the front of the boat, kicking and punching the ice to break it along with his missus who had an 8ft pole, also attempting to break the ice. Twats! It was more infuriating by the fact that once they'd broken through all the ice, they carried on for a bit, turned around and then came past again, to head back to their usual mooring spot in their 'lovely' marina. Definately weekend boaters who (stupidly) thought: "...

The snow arrived last night as I mentioned in yesterday's post, but the humongous flakes soon turned into rain. It was a horrible night, the worst winds I remember since being in Castlefield Basin in September 2011 where it felt like we'd never survive as we were right on the corner with the wind whipping round us! However, the wind phased out after about 11.30Pm last night so I ended up getting plenty of beauty sleep ;) Today, the towpath is slushy and really muddy which is horrible. I was trying to take a photo of it when we had a new friend come to greet us: He's from a boat a little bit further down and came for a visit last week too. Lovely dog! Anyway, you cant really tell in picture above and its got a lot worse as the temperature warmed up throughout the day, but its just soggy, wet, muddy puddles on the towpath now. Because we're still away from our normal mooring spot (which has a gravelled path!) the next day or two is going to be a NIGHTMARE with having a do...

I didn't get much sleep last night... All night I could hear the sheets of ice scraping and bumping into the side of the boat. It's a bit disturbing! We awoke this morning and the winds were incredibly strong, moving the boat around and bashing it into the side of the bank :( Not good! It's also been so, so cold today. Our weather station was showing temperatures of about 1.5 degrees all day but with the winds, it really did feel arctic! The winds are still strong now and are set to get worse later tonight. The snow has also started here again and it's supposed to be really heavy later tonight. Just looking out the window now, the snow flakes look the biggest they ever have... I'm sure they're the size of saucers :D There was nothing else I wanted to do today apart from stay on the boat. So I tried a recipe for a jammy biscuit... A Jammy Biscuit! I gave this a try today and have to say that I was pleased with the results... I did make them slightly too big I t...

...and it takes a lot of effort! No, seriously I've just been thinking about our plans to have the bathroom tiled at the end of Feb. I'm not sure if its going to happen at the moment though as with me being off work, money is a bit tighter than usual. Anyway, the plan is to still try and go for it as its a little while away yet, so who knows. We need it doing really as I'm not confident that the bathroom is completely watertight - we fitted it ourselves! At the moment we have PVC cladding on the walls which looks nice and is something that I had in one of my previous homes. However, it doesn't quite work that well on the boat as no wall is straight, no corner is a proper corner and....my siliconing skills aren't that great which has given a messy finish overall, which we're both not happy with. This is how it currently looks : It's hard to get a decent pic in a small space! Hmmm. So some may say it looks fine as it is but its definately something we're ...

Do all your other boaters get cabin fever!? Come on, be honest! Sometimes in here, I could quite easily light a match to the place and walk away... Well that's how I felt yesterday with all the problems with that damn worktop!! So, we went out into the local village for a coffee and to do a bit of shopping as P was off. Anyway, not far from the local Waitrose where we normally shop, we found a butchers - Tittersons! We'd never been there before but decided to have a look in the window (despite it being slightly off-route!) for a peek. Tittersons butchers was great! They had a selection of meats, chicken, beef, lamb etc but also a section with "prepared meats", all sorts of stuff, such as "Chicken with Lime and Ginger" and "Spanish Chicken" (garlic,chilli and herbs) and ready chopped meats for stirfrys! Not only that but they also have a deli counter - selling sausage rolls, pies, potatoe cakes etc! Anyway, I decided to buy a couple of sausage roll...

I've not had time to make a proper post today as I'm still acting like a perfectionist over the new worktop we had installed just before Christmas. We found out too late, that the other worktop is Birch and the new one we had installed was beech, so to match them together we decided to stain the new worktop so they both would match better. Stupidly, and I should know better, we coloured the new worktop with a coloured varnish which kind of goes on like paint, and looks incredibly artificial. About a week ago, Pawel scratched that coloured varnish off accidently with a baking tray(!) resulting in the whole lot needing to be sanded back using an attachment on the drill... What a mess that caused ! Imagine having a load of sawdust and blowing it around with a hairdryer - we had the worktop sanded back but were left with that mess!!! Anyway, through boredom with me not being able to do anything because of my knee, yesterday, I took a stool to start re-varnishing.... OMG!! After a f...

It wasn't until I let Edward out last night at around 930PM that I noticed it was snowing again. I guessed it had been snowing for the last two hours at least, as it was around an inch thick by that point! Pawel was home from work early, just after midnight, and I was still up - he said then that it was still snowing even at that time, so I think we really have had it all night. This morning we awoke to a winter wonderland. There's so much more snow about today than there was a few days back. It's been coming down none stop all day as well. My knee is still painful and I'm under doctors orders not to use it at all. However, I am so BORED that I had to do something today. I also have no appetite and am feeling sick all the time, but I think that's because of literally doing nothing - I think my metabolism is dead! So despite the fact I shouldn't be moving, I suggested we go for a walk this morning just to get myself revving again! I'm not the type of person w...