Ten Things About Life

1. Circumstance.  It's not always the wrong thing to do, when you make a crazy decision that goes all wrong at the wrong time.  I know that my ownership of Bob cannot be saved & am awaiting repossession quite soon, in fact I sort of wish it would be all over because the legal wrangle shit is doing my head in.


2. Mental health issues.  It's an illness, depression & all the other ones... Cannot be entirely helped.  On meds, but circumstance may prevail.


3. Accidents.  I learned recently that gentle sneezing can be extremely dangerous.  Tore muscles in my back and bum quite badly, paralyzing me for 24hours before the nice Dr at A&E gave me enough painkillers of many different kinds to be able to move again.  It's been a long hard grueling recovery.  Am up & about just a little bit now, doing the hallway shuffle.


4.  Bad luck. Bad luck can produce good luck.  My dream to become an author of some sort is now very near and close due to all of the above bad luck. My book has been produced from a life time of bad-luck.  Poetry for the board!


5. Mental Elves. I might be mentally insane & suffer clinical depression and have other mental issues, but that does not mean that life wont kick me up the arse with a super dose of good luck and happiness, none the less.  The sun still shines.


6.  Love.  Bad luck & poverty does not stop your true friends from loving you.  They ALL came out of the closet to show me love recently, and one who I had thought died got in touch too, I'm over the moon about that.  I'm really happy today despite the bad luck reign.


7. Life sucks.  It really does,  but so what.  If you let go of your material possessions and mental health then you may be able to find truly a life richer than you could ever have imagined possible.


8. Furriness. Dogs (or cats) are the business!! Without my trusty furry hound I'd have been much sadder & lonelier on the weeeks/months I do not go out or see light of day at all. Hurruh for the furries!


9. The Cut.  Canal life is super & I'm sad I only managed it on Bob for a short while.  I'm sad to be back on dry land already.


10. Return. I'll be back, somehow, someday, maybe on just a raft with a tent on top of it and some paddles, but I'll be back.

Homeless could be re-homed in boats or caravans

My good friends at London Street Foodbank have just started an online paper ~ find it here:

http://paper.li/LDNFoodBank/1314963665#!tag-homeless  

and the 1st article is this one here:

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/homeless-could-live-in-boats-and-caravans/6517540.article 

This grabbed my attention having been street homeless in my late teens & again in my late twenties & also for a wee while in my mid-thirties - to have felt such pride that I finally swapped a cardboard box for a nice floating steel can box - this article really filled me with a bit of hope... I hope Basildon council have a read of this!!

There are people who live on the rock n roll on the canals quite well (or as well as anyone can on the scratch) and except for the hideous mooring fees in London - it IS very much a feasible option. I look forward to seeing this rolled forward..

BTW If you are on the scratch & are short of beer money please refer to my previous post! Cheers!

Brewing Cider On Board

Two 5 gallon buckets to brew 3 gallons in each..(so as not to fizz over the top & fit lots of fruit stuff in) it fits nicely on the kitchen tops and doesn't smell too bad, it's bearable!  I started these on Saturday after a friend donated some of her windfall to me. We've already started 12 gallons at another mates gaff & she's doing a load herself.  She's very strictly adhering to an on W.I. recipe, but I'm afraid I cannot be so restrained & orderly. So like a kid in a sweet shop I had the water/yeast/pulp going straight away.  Then I found a packet of crystallized ginger that I chopped up & threw into one batch only. The slight fizz excited me & I threw in a few table spoons of brown sugar into both batches.. So I let it be, I did. Covered it all with a tablecloth tied tightly over each bucket to allow it to breath but also keep bugs & spiders out. The next day I only stirred it all & re-covered. But yesterday I got impatient & added 3lbs of sugar to each batch. Today I gave it another stir & vowed to leave it til Saturday. Lets see if I manage that! I bought a hydrometer today (£2.84) and some turbo yeast, that I might experiment with later in the year After I bottle this lot up. If anyone can spare two plastic bottles, you'll get one back, filled up! Cheers!!


BTW I will be using balloons pulled over half tightened lids with needle pricks in them as airlocks.. If you're wondering...!!!

Simon is officially a boater!! BUT!! Oh Dear!!

Another lovely day today.  Simon came over at noon followed shortly after by our guests of the day Kaff, Psych & Gryff. Pinki was ecstatic to meet them all.  I was required to give them a 10 penny tour of the boat & we set off shortly after.  We turned right this time, into the Islington tunnel & through a few locks towards Hackney turning around just before Actons' Lock, where incidentally the canal just happens to be er, 60' wide so I had an inch or so on either side.. Phew! ha ha

We drove back & the whole way there was no rain! Hurrah! Pinki barked a lot - as he does - because we have to tie him up out back with me as I take control of the boat whilst the boys do the locks - so he doesn't jump over everyone/in the canal... 

And back through the Islington tunnel.  So there I was turning around into the marina when snap. And then I lost power. *Sigh* so Psych threw the rope to our kindly neighbour who pulled us in & thats when Simon slipped & went in. He went in & he went under. & eventually his head bobbed back up & spluttering gryff was fast on his feet & held onto him whilst he tried to get his bearings & tried to work out where to put a foot to pull himself up without pulling Gryff in! So we moored up & are facing in for now...

So there you have it. Simon has been initiated into that holy clique of boaters before me! He is now officially a REAL boater & not a plastic part time boater like me, oh no. He's the real thing now, baby!

Simon got his bath & I poured him a drink.. He certainly deserved it!  Luckily he didn't lose his keys - or his ray-bans (which were on his head!)  Sorry there are no photos of Simon in the water.. I was too busy looking on uselessly in horror... 

Maybe next time - although sods law dictates that it'll be me in the water next time so hopefully you'll be treated to a pic of me panicking and splashing next time!!!! *G* 

Next few days... How to turn the boat around here using ropes only - because power will be tight!

So last bit of summer & all trips are OFF.. because I still haven't got the insurance back on trip number one & well it wont look good getting insurance on another claim alrewady will it but what can I do? Ho Hum...

The Islington Tunnel

Things I wanted to know about the Islington Tunnel: 

It was more or less finished in 1818 and was opened in 1820. It's 3/4's of a mile long. It's made of millions of bricks!

Just stole this info from the London Canal Museum facebook page, who are pretty well much arm in arm with my landlords ha ha I love to live dangerously!

The Islington tunnel is about 2mins away from me & takes 45 mins from mooring to the other side to turn around & remoor again.

Very cool for a short trip.

Anyway it's cooled down a bit. I put the stove on.. It's gurgling. I wonder if that means it's thirsty?

Two Fun Family Days Out...

Mandy & Chelsea

Finally I got to take my dad & his lovely girlfriend Kath out on Sunday. We arranged to meet at Bob at 11am. 10am & I get a call from Simon who was leaving Pinki at our babysitters for a few days, saying he'd locked himself out of his flat, so being only the only spare keys keeper, had to rush over to him on the 63 & let him in to grab his keys & meds etc & then we rushed back. We all got back to the boat to meet at about 1pm.  Ten minutes later we had unmoored & were off. Left or right I asked. Erm, erm, erm came the answer, so left it was then. We had a nice drive (or sail) through Camden & it's four locks & through Regents park, through the Maida tunnel & turned around at the end where it branches off into either the Paddington basin or Paddington arm of the GU & back again. A busy old day for canal traffic. Louis & Kath really seemed to enjoy the journey & afterwards, even after only 4 hours & 40 minutes we were all quite exhausted & fell into the pizza/pasta restaurant afterwards for a knockout dinner. I had fiorentina pizza followed by lemoncello icecream... YYYUUUMMMM!!!!!

Then today I picked up my lovely big sis Tara & her husband Tom who bought along their friend Mandy from Ramsgate, with her granddaughter Chelsea. As planned we'd pick them up from near my sisters work in Camden, turn around and back to the mooring.  I managed, only just, to turn my boat round before Kentish Town Road lock, I'm sure I only had about a foot leeway either end but I did make it! Just! Phew! Then through St Pancreas lock, onwards past the marina, deciding to take them through the Islington tunnel - turning around at the end, where there was boats parked either side of the winding hole there, so again, only just making it (Phew!) & back through the tunnel.  Chelsea who is about 7 got a chance to drive (well, hand on the tiller as she wasn't tall enough to see above the roof of the boat!) and a very enjoyable but clumsy reverse back into my crazy little parking space again.. She told me that her weekend in London with Tara was the best one ever! She loved being on the boat, and driving it! Later whilst we waited for the boys to return from the chipper (took 'em two and a half hours! GRRR!) she showed me all her amazing London postcards - telling me how ENTERTAINING they all were! Cool! Well, none of them are boaters & 'avent got a clue how terrible my boat driving skills are, so they all (both days) congratulated me on my fabulous driving hee hee - the things you can get away with when people don't really know eh? Heh!

Tomorrow I must sort out my boat licence as it's about a month overdue.. Got lost in the post.. Had to cancel original cheque, have to re-fill out the massive forms.. Lucky for me the lady I speak with at British Waterways is very kind/patient/understanding... *S*

What does the SS in SSNB stand for?

Does anybody know? Obviosly even I can work out the n.b. bit, but not the SS bit. It's well bugging me that I don't know! I noticed lots of narrowboats have snb infront of their name, or more with just nb. Not many like mine with ssnb. Is it a spelling error. Or am I just special?!


I did learn something new yesterday though. The outside plug needs to be very firmly pushed in in order for it to work!!!