It's Nearly Christmas!

-
Well, we've had a couple of days off and it couldn't have been better in terms of getting things ready and sorted for Christmas. We finally headed back to our mooring space the other day. It was good to be back, but we do love being out and about as well - even if it is just down the canal!

Yesterday morning we got up really early and it was such a gorgeous sunrise. I took the picture below out of the bedroom ("cabin") window. You can see everything where we are - no obstructions view wise and the sunrise or sunset always looks really gorgeous. It makes you feel really lucky you live on a boat.



I always love really early mornings when everything and everywhere is still quiet and you can just hear the start of the birds beginning to sing...

We headed off into town quite early as we wanted to go food shopping, DIY store and also to place an order in the butchers for meat for Christmas. For Christmas Eve when I have company, it's going to be roast beef and thanks Carol for the suggestion....However, its not going to be a traditional roast as such. It's going to be a slow roasted rare beef with a Basil Parmesan mayonaisse and breaded Parmesan green beans. So I will cook it on the day as I find the day after, its just not the same and I want it rare, rare, rare too!

We trialled the meal the other day and it was gorgeous!! So fingers crossed that it'll all come out fine on the day!

So, yes, we headed into the village on our local bus and even that has been decked out for Christmas. I think its the first ever bus that I have seen that's had its very own Christmas decorations!






We headed back around lunch time and the engine room was cleaned and sorted as it was in a real mess plus there was quite a bit of water in the bilge that had somehow overflowed from the bowl that the bilge pump is in. Luckily, we have a wet-vac so that made a quick job of it!

Next on the list was to decorate the Christmas tree! We are quite late this year putting it up so to get us in the Christmas mood, I made my first batch of mince pies, we got a bit of Michael Buble on (Christmas album) and got to work...



It took us a while to decorate the tree as we're both perfectionists(!!!) but we enjoyed it and it's done for another year now.















Dinner tonight and bed early as the gas guy is arriving tomorrow at 7:30AM to rejig all the gas line, install new hob and make it all"safe"!

Comments

  1. KevinTOO12 December 2013 at 20:16

    WOW that's one sparkly tree :)

    Thank goodness the gas man is coming at last too!

    Have a great Christmas guys.

    Kevin xx & Harry xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. One Thing After Another12 December 2013 at 20:46

    Hi Kevin. Many thanks! It is a sparkly tree. Sory for not being in touch, only just seen your other comments. Thanks very much for your email too,I promise I will reply, just had lots of things going on and not much time to do anything otherwise! Hope you guys are both well and what a shame we werent in touch the other day when you were going past, could have organised a meet for a coffee or something. Hope you have a great Xmas too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous17 December 2013 at 10:54

    Amazing clock in the background - is it one of those 30's Smiths electric ones???

    And the tree looks ace!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One Thing After Another18 December 2013 at 22:58

      Hi "anonymous". Thanks! Yes it is a smiths but from the 50s but it's not electric - completely mechanical and works even on the narrowboat - pendulum occasionally stops but mostly only when moving. Full chime too ;)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22 December 2013 at 18:13

      Sorry - it's Andrew here - don't know how I came over as anonymous!!!

      Happy Christmas and a brilliant New Year!

      Delete

Post a Comment

TO POST A COMMENT, SIMPLY TYPE YOUR MESSAGE IN THE COMMENTS BOX BELOW (IT MIGHT BE ABOVE THIS MESSAGE DEPENDING ON HOW YOUR BROWSER DISPLAYS THINGS!)

THEN, SELECT "ANONYMOUS" FROM THE DROP DOWN MENU BELOW THAT AS THAT IS THE EASIEST WAY TO SAY HI TO ME!

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE YOUR NAME ;)

Popular posts from this blog

Where Can I Begin?

-
Image
It's been nearly 9 months since I last blogged and I can't actually believe it's been that long - feels like it was just a few weeks ago really. At this stage then, I'm not sure if there'll be any readers out there, but I suppose if I want to carry on chronicling life on the boat, I need to make a start somewhere! I think the reason for the lack of blogging is, in part, because I was boring myself (never mind anyone else that reads it!) and it was starting to feel a bit too personal. I seemed to be detailing my life over the internet for anyone to read and I suppose in some ways, I was starting to get a little uncomfortable with that. However, that's what blogging is, I know! It's a diary of sorts, which is obviously only one 'facet-of-a-diamond' in terms of "our life", but still somewhat a diary and not what I initially thought would be just a way of referencing what we had done or had fitted (etc) in the boat. I have missed blogging somet...
Read more

Make use of time, let not advantage slip - William Shakespeare

-
Image
Even on Boxing Day we manage to find time to do some "boaty" jobs! We basically finished off the wiring-in of the new small inverter that we've fitted on a 12v cigarette socket directly to the batteries for the TV and aerial. We still had the thick cable hanging down the wall to the sockets which looked a bit of an eyesore and I couldn't bear it any more! It all looks neat and tidy now and we've really noticed an improvement with the battery capacity. With everything we usually have on, using the main inverter was taking around 10-13% out of the batteries an hour, which was way too much! With this new inverter we are only using around 3 or 4% an hour which means a lot less engine running time ! It's fantastic. I think this also shows that it WAS the main inverter that was using the battery capacity and the batteries aren't knackered after all! So if there's any people out there who are planning on getting a new inverter or are fitting a boat out etc, D...
Read more

A Little Bit Better...

-
Image
Yes, we're feeling a little bit more positive about it all today and we've even been cracking a joke or two about it all as well. Today, we didn't get up until late - nearly 11, despite planning an early start to run the engine beforehand to charge up the batteries so we could let it cool enough to work on and fix the exhaust. It left us a bit short of time, but we definitely needed the lie in- with everything going on, it's just drained us - plus I didn't sleep that well last night either due to the local party scene outside!! We had a bit of breakfast/lunch and then Pawel set off on attempting to apply the gum to the exhaust. Here's how it was looking: It's a bit awkward to get to as well as it's the top of the silencer, so it has broken away right on the opposite side to where you can get to - nearly against the side wall of the hull. Poor Pav! He had a little hand held mirror and a torch to help and applied it as best he could. It d...
Read more