One Thing After Another...

This weekend is the weekend of visitors! Yesterday I had my good friend Alan come visit me at the boat from Scotland with Gavin. It was great to see them both. We worked out it was two years since we last met up. How time flies?! Tomorrow, my parents arrive and I hope that the weather stays as nice as it has been - yesterday was actually really warm in the sun and we actually sat out and had lunch. I even had to take my coat off at one point. Anyway, you may remember a few posts back that I was hinting at a "change" coming our way, and I posted one picture in particular which was very relevant a few weeks back: We are moving and changing our mooring!! It was a bit up in the air at first and we weren't sure we were going to take it but we are and should be moving onto it tomorrow - guests in tow! So long as it's nice we will head there with my parents on board as it'll give them a bit of a trip out on the boat too! We love our mooring at the moment, but it is on th...

Again I've had a busy morning doing a few jobs in preparation for the warmer weather. Now Rob has finished doing the bathroom and there's no more workers in here for a while, I've finally managed to get the new deck tiles down too as there's no chance of them getting damaged now. I started yesterday but as the snow came in again yesterday afternoon, I packed up shop and it has now been completed this morning! It's actually quite warm out in the sun! Please, please, please let this be the start of spring finally! Here's the deck before: And here is how it's looking now:

So there hasn't been any recipes for a while, but there literally hasn't been the time! And for the last few weeks, there's been a lot of quick says food - like a piece of meat and rice and ready meals too, simply because of all the work and cleaning up that's needed taking up most of the time. Anyway, today I've made a lasagne which is due to go into the oven at any moment and I also made a cake. This is a recipe from my good friend Mario in New York, and it is apparently an authentic New York cake recipe which they love over there. It's also "the original" "Red Velvet" cake but slightly different to what you might expect... It's..... Red Wine Chocolate Cake It was the first time I made this cake today, but I love it already! It's really easy as it's all in one bowl - even easier if you have a food mixer/processor that you can use. It's funny as usually after dinner, with a bit of red wine still, I crave for just a small pie...

There's still some snow around but today was really sunny again and as I write this tonight, there's a lovely sunset. When the sun was out, it was actually warm, but it was the cold air which made it still quite bitter when the sun hid behind the clouds! Believe it or not though, we also had 32 amps from the solar panels at one point which has fully charged our batteries and meant that we've not had to have the engine on all day - only to do a bit of cruising. We decided with it being nice we should finally move the boat back to our normal mooring. We've been gone for nearly 3 weeks! Despite the fact that we only topped up with water last week, it made sense to give the tank another top up seeing as we were moving and out and about - we also saw this fella: Heron's scare me a bit as their eyes look a bit zombie like and this one kept getting closer and closer to the bank even as we went past - he must have spotted a fish!! Anyway, we topped up with water, emptied th...

There's nothing much to report really. I got on with some of the varnishing in the bathroom as most of the woodwork has been left untreated for me to varnish up. I'm quite particular about how wood is varnished and like it when it's baby smooth! That involves a lot of sanding, tacking off the dust/debris and then varnishing, followed by a light sanding between coats. It's tough going especially when there's as much wood to varnish as what there is in the bathroom at the moment, but I've got two coats on today! I usually give everything that we've had done from scratch around 4-5 coats as that gives the wood a really nice sheen and I know that it's definately protected then. It's been a nice still day today, although there has been cloud blow in with lots of snow which has then cleared again to reveal sunny skies. I was impressed today that the solars brought in a maximum of 17 amps at one point and we're starting to notice how much less we're...

We awoke early today to bright sunshine and wanted to get up early today as it's my birthday and we wanted a nice full day! Anyway, with the sun finally showing it just made everything feel brighter and it was the first day of "normal" weather we've had since last Weds/Thurs! After opening cards and presents with breakfast we decided to take Eddie out for a quick walk and that's when the reality of the weather hit! It's still absolutely freezing and the wind is still quite breezy and bitterly cold! Not long after we set off the snow started coming down again - it was quite bizarre as it was snowing yet still sunny?! Anyway, its basically been like that all day. Snowing - sunny - snowing - sunny - windy - snowing - sunny etc!! It's not settling though so we're nowhere near as bad as some parts of the UK. Finally after all the work has been done in the bathroom, we decided to have a sort out of the engine room as it's basically been a dumping ground...

Yes, yes, yes!! The bathroom is finally complete! It looks FAB and we are made up with it. Rob has been amaze balls and done a really good job. Not only that, but whatever we've requested and whatever we've thrown at him, he's never had a problem with and just got on with it. What more could you ask for? So, this is only a short post with a few final piccies ( bad quality yet again, sorry!), mostly to show the new flooring Rob ran through the bathroom and kitchen today. Now, we're off and going to cook dinner and enjoy a celebratory drink!! The last "biggest" job that needs doing on this boat. Phew!! So starting back from the kitchen, here's a bit of "before" and "after" Before: After: Bathroom before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Oh and a picture of Pawel's ship which he loves more than the bathroom itself and it was only £6! And, here is how chuffed I am tonight:

Another stormy night last night although not as bad as the previous few nights. Not only that but the temperature had dropped significantly early evening yesterday and the snow had turned to ice meaning outside was like a death trap! We had no Rob again yesterday due to the weather conditions but he'd promised he'd come today, which he did - arriving at 8AM sharpish. He didn't stay very long though, only until around 1030-11 as he didn't want to get stranded from home as it was still snowing around his way. It's not his fault I know, but its really frustrating that the bathroom isn't finished now. And it means that another clean up will be required AGAIN when he comes back to finally finish up. I feel like I'm constantly cleaning! Anyway, he got the other bathroom door on, a shelf unit, the mirrored wall cabinet, towel rails and the shower screen! Hurrah! It's mostly trims now that need to go up and the last window frame and then it's onto the floori...

Well it's Saturday and Rob couldn't make it again today due to the snow down his way. The winds are just as bad today here with the boat being chucked about all over the place and I'm starting to feel a bit fed up now! The bathroom is half finished, I can't get online properly as the dongle and my phone are down - so I can't do the things I need to get done nor even blog properly!  Tv reception is also a bit poor. The isolation is kind of nice though! But annoying at the same time as it means life is boring. No daily mail website. Boo! My 3 dongle is working down in town,  but only just, so I'm writing this on Pawel's phone and hoping it posts OK! Overall though there's not a lot to blog about anyway as everything is just on hold with the winds and snow and we're just sitting tight waiting for it all to end whereby spring might make an appearance! Maybe I will get on with a bit of varnishing of some of the wood work in the bathroom such as the do...

What a night! Yesterday, the winds kept getting worse and worse throughout the day and by late evening they were buffering the boat severely, resulting in throwing the boat against the towpath bank and lots of rocking! It continued throughout the night and not much sleep was had by Pawel, Eddie or me! I think I've said it before, but this time we both genuinely believe we've never had winds this bad on board before. At 3AM we had to go outside to re-tie the boat as the ropes had come slightly lose which was allowing the boat to crunch against the bank more than it should and even the fenders weren't managing to take the impact! We kept thinking all the new tiles in the bathroom were going to be off the walls - but we've checked over them all this morning and they're fine!! Even Eddie looked shattered this morning like he'd not slept all night and kept looking worried all morning! Rob was due to come but obviously cancelled as the snow was quite bad where he is a...

What a weird day. We awoke quite early to say that neither of us had slept very well last night. I actually also woke up in a really good mood as it looked really bright and sunny out, but that was soon to change with the idiots around today... Not long after getting up I noticed a fisherman who was setting up shop for the day. He literally sat right next to the back deck despite the rest of the towpath moorings being empty behind us. All of his poles etc resting on the back deck. I've noticed fisherman doing this near other boats before?! Why??? He was firstly told to get his poles off the effin deck, to which he obliged and then followed by kindly telling me a story that I couldnt have given a fuck about, of how there's sometimes another boat that lets him put all his stuff on and let's him sit behind the boat for a bit of shelter "like". Ugh! We shifted him along as we had to go to top up with water as well and then return to the same place for Rob coming back ...

Rob arrived again this morning just after 8 and after a quick run through things and a chat we headed off out, firstly taking Eddie out for a quick run on the sports field. We dropped Eddie back off at the boat to keep Rob company (!) and then headed out to town so we were out the way. It's actually really boring being out of the boat all day with nowhere to go and nothing to do and then with the thought of coming back in the evening and starting a mammoth clean up - it's never a great day! Pawel headed off to work at 2:30PM and I headed back to the boat and got back on board at around 3. Rob was nearly finished up, needing to just make templates of the floor to cut our new flooring, which will be going in on Friday. I started a bit of cleaning up when I got back, but have been at it until only around half an hour ago - exhausted now!! Cleaning dust off the blinds, the top of the cupboards, vases, tops, floors, inside cupboards....it gets everywhere!!!! I cannot wait until this...

There's not a lot to report today really. I've been busy trying to find a shower screen that will be delivered tomorrow which Rob can then fit whilst he's here. We found out yesterday that the other one is too big and so it's now just sitting in the bath. Fortunately, I've managed to hunt a company down who make one which is only 1300mm in height and they have pushed for us to have it delivered tomorrow. We've also had to move the boat today, ready for Rob returning tomorrow as he has problems with parking the van in our usual spot. We're back near the visitor car park for a day or two, although I have to say, I don't really like it down this end! Here's a picture for today: It's not meaningless and I will explain a bit more about it in the next week or two but it is exciting for us. For now, we've had to keep it under our hat - you know what it's like. Hopefully, the majority of the bathroom will be finished tomorrow bar the new flooring...

Here are some slightly better pictures of where we're up to. Everything still looks a bit crap as there's lots that needs finishing off: Waterfall tap: Vanity: Bath panel: