New year new start

My DD1 had one of her dogs put to sleep in June he had heart failure.

Christmas Eve she had her other dog put to sleep, she had a tumour. She was diagnosed a while ago but was well and happy in herself. Christmas Eve she took a turn for the worse and so they took her to the vets, she died in DD'S arm at 4am.

DD and her husband had a long chat, he feels they need a few dog free months especially since social services are looking to place another child with them in the new year.

Today DD1 emailed me a photo of a rescue dog they are meeting next weekend.

She is a 10 year old staffy bitch who's owner died recently.

All Mod Cons

Logotha asked about cooking and  keeping things cool on the boat.

We have all mod cons on the boat, but some of them are on the small side.

The oven has four gas rings but it isn't big enough to hold four large pans. My pans are small apart from my cast iron casserole dish.

The oven is small, yes and dirty after Christmas, it's on my to do list. It only had one shelf but we managed to buy a second one. I bought two small oven trays as mine were too big.

My freezer, I haven't had this long, the one that was on the boat when we bought it didn't work. This is 240v electric. Because it is so efficient it runs off our solar panels on sunny days.

The fridge, it's very full because of Christmas, I don't usually keep this much h in it.

The cool box, this will also run on solar, it holds beer and soft drinks.

My tiny washing machine it takes a 3 kilo load, I have to move the steps to use it.

No tumble dryer but this hangs over the log burner.

The there is also a pole to hang things over. In the summer I have an airer that sits in the prow.

The log burner, I keep the kettle on it so it cuts down on boiling time, I use it as a slow cooker by standing my casserole dish on it.

When it's sunny, even in the winter the solar panels will run the fridge freezer, cool box, charge the phones, tablets. I can also run my sewing machine on the solar.

I don't have a hair dryer or hair straighteners, they use heat and won't run on the solar.

Painting the engine bay

We've had a lot of rain and a smattering of snow which has now melted.
The water level is very high almost up to the level of the jetty.

CHS has spent a couple of hours every day painting the engine bay. He's done the rustproof and two coats of primer. Next it's the bilge paint, it's so cold a couple of hours is all he can do before he turns into an icicle.

We took presents round to DD2 yesterday and brought DGS home with us. I also gave my DGD's a bag of yarn oddments as they had been given French knitting dolls but no yarn.

Tomorrow DS is visiting with his GF and we have a fuel delivery due. We are down to our last bag of coal and it's very cold so we don't want to run out.

I cooked a big pan of leek and potato soup on the multi fuel stove and served it with crusty bread. I felt the need for a meat free meal. I cooked some pigs in blankets for CHS and DGS.

Windy tonight and it's not the sprouts.

Heavy rain and high winds here tonight. The boat is rocking from side to side quite a lot.

We have had a quiet day, just the two of us.

I cooked a tiny piece of beef, an equally small piece gammon a turkey breast and most important of all some pigs in blankets.

There is lots left for sandwiches and bubble and squeak.

Busy weekend

We went to a family wedding, we stayed overnight in the hotel where the reception was held. The room and ensuite were bigger than our entire boat.

All very posh, but the rooms were very hot and we were glad to get home.

 The food was delicious, this was the starter, a terrine.

The main course was chicken.

The Winter Wonderland room where the reception was held.

 There were six bridesmaids, two flower girls and two pageboys, twins four years old, one of them did the best impression of John Cleese silly walk I've ever seen as he walked ahead of the bride scattering petals. This is the sort of thing, for me that makes a wedding special.

The bride and groom.

We went to our room after the meal and before the dancing started at 8:30.

I had a raging ear/tooth/jaw ache and my beloved was pissed as a fart having started drinking at 2 o'clock!

More weird things to learn

Our new engine has been ordered and should be fitted around 22nd 23rd January. Mind you that could be canal time, in which case it could be February or even July.
We may also have a buyer for our old engine, we will know in the new year.
We have had many visits from very important technical bods, there has been much sucking of teeth and many conversations about pythons and hospitals, I've only just mastered sacrificial anodes and now there is another vocabulary to learn.

We had our black water pumped out before we moved back, hopefully that will last until we move back to the work area to have the new engine fitted.

Chortle chortle, snigger snigger.

Yesterday when  I arrived to collect my beloved from work I was an hour too early.

I had done some shopping and some other errands, it didn't seem worth driving home only to turn around and go back. So I popped in to see my old work colleagues, some of whom were more pleased to see me than others.

What really made my day was when I found out that there have been numerous complaints about my replacement.

I did make recommendations to my line manager when I announced my retirement, but of course these were ignored. After all what would I know an out the job, I'd only been doing it for 13 years!

The complaints are not the person concerned but the change and reduction of hours and also the lack of handover which has left my replacement struggling. She is getting no support from her line manager and no support from the company who supplied the crap equipment that is making her life so difficult.

We are a butty

The engine was removed yesterday, so we are now a butty until the new engine is fitted.
The engineer who removed it took a video of it running, he will post it on YouTube and advertise the engine for sale. The gearbox we have is designed to go in a deep-sea fishing boat as is the engine!

The marina is frozen over and this morning we had a beautiful sunrise.

You keep me hanging on.

Because space is limited, everything that we can hang, we do.

There are hooks everywhere, these hold our keys

Hooks for our mugs.

Magnetic knife holder

Three saucepans and two frying pans hang on the fire surround.

Coal glove and ridge monkey hang above the companion set just below the co2 alarm.

A pocket wall hanging organiser hangs beside my chair.

I bought this from Ikea, the buckets hold cutlery, the one on the end holds baking parchment, straws and cling film. Above the buckets is the solar panel monitor and the 'clock' that confuses so many people as it has no hands, that's because it's my weighing scales.

We even hang up the toilet rolls!

Thawed out now

We had a couple of days where the water in the marina was frozen, it was minus 5, I heard it freezing over it makes a distinctive sound.

The ducks were most confused, the swan managed to stagger over to the boat for his breakfast.

CHS fitted secondary glazing to the bedroom windows, it's made a huge difference to the temperature at that end of the boat.

It's thawed now and chucking it down with rain, I've spent most of the day indoors, I've changed the bedding, an exhausting job that means leaping to and fro across the bed to tuck the edges in.

I've also stripped the vacuum cleaner down and put it together again.

I'm not sure how I'll cope if life gets any more exciting!

You've got what!

I've been following a thread on the MSE forum about simplifying live. Mostly it's about people who want to life with less stuff.
Obviously we have less stuff than most because we got rid of everything that didn't fit on the boat.
One post made me chuckle though, someone posted that she only had six handbags and that once she had one more that would be enough. 
I don't think I've ever has six handbags at once.
I have a rucksack for when I'm shopping and a small black clutch bag for posh. That's it and I manage very well with just those two bags.

Oh I ache!!

Cleaning boats in the winter is not a nice job. With no power and no running water it's a slog, plus the uninhabited boats are really cold. One of the boats I clean only has port holes so it's really dark inside especially in the winter.
 It took me an hour today to clean two venetian blinds on a boat, by the time I'd finished my hands were clawed with the cold.
 By the time I'd done the rest of the boat I was frozen through, my lovely CHS had a hot cup of tea waiting for me when I got in.

Mind you I had the easy job, CHS was getting the boat ready for a big job next week. We are having the engine replaced!
We will be engineless for a whole month and it's going to cost eleventy billion squid.

We knew we were likely to need to have it replaced when we bought the boat, but it ticked all the other boxes so we bought it and have been saving ever since so we have the money to get the job done. We know people who have been searching for their perfect boat for years and years, we just wanted to move on and start living aboard.

There is nothing actually wrong with the engine that we know about but it isn't designed for narrow boat use, we cannot find anyone to service it and we have no service history for it. Our concern is that if it goes wrong we will be stuck, unable to move and unable to find anyone to repair it.

My tenant has just phoned, the bath isn't draining, what next? I've phoned the plumber, it will depend on what he finds whether or not I pay the bill.

Where the money comes from.

I've written a post about where the money goes, so here's one about where the incoming money comes from.

CHS is still working and earning a low wage, at least half of his money goes into savings as we need to be prepared for any boat problems, there is a big expense coming up soon that I will do another post about.

Our house is rented out, the rent covers the mortgage and a little extra. There has been no profit so far as there have been problems with the plumbing in the house. We have spent about £1000 more in repairs than we have received in rent so far. We have now been advised that the decking is wrecked and needs replacing in the new year, we need to negotiate who pays as it has been wrecked by the tenant leaving it covered in plastic for the last 5 months. She has been advised twice that the plastic covering would damage the decking but carried on regardless.

I get my state pension of £595 but no private pension, I lost that when I got divorced. This goes into the joint account along with some of CHS's wage, this pays for coal, diesel for the boat, petrol for the car, food, TV license etc. I also received my winter fuel payment, £200. This will pay for Christmas this year.

I still clean boats but this is less often in the winter months. This month I've only done two boat cleans, so £50, plus I was paid £50 for some market research.

This is my money to do with as I wish, most of it goes on the DGC , books for my kindle or yarn to crochet with, though I try to save at least half of it in case we have a problem and need some extra for an emergency.

Always room for a little one!

I visited DD1 today, noises are being made by social services, her oldest foster child is almost 20. Strictly speaking he is no longer fostered, she doesn't receive payment for him but he is part of the family. Social services would like him to move out so DD could take on more children.
DD is happy for him to stay and has said he should plan to move out by the time he is 30!
Because of the shortage of foster carers they have asked her to consider taking on a baby, normally everyone wants babies so she's always had 3 years and upwards. She has agreed that if one needs a placement she will accept. Her long term plans include building an extension to include a self contained bedsit so she can take mother and baby placements, with an extra bedroom above so she could take in more children. She lays awake at night worrying about the children that need somewhere to go.
Also her dog is terminally ill, cancer, the dog is not in pain, still enjoys a daily walk and is still eating. DD had one dog PTS a few months ago as he had heart failure,  DD had already said she will get another rescue dog or two, they will almost certainly be staffies as they are so good with children.

Falling foul on eBay

You may remember that I was unable to sell an unwanted watch recently. I was a bit disappointed as it's worth about £50 and it would have helped towards Christmas.
Well now it seems I have fallen foul yet again when trying to sell something on eBay.
My latest listing has been removed as it contains pictures of nudity!!
Actually it doesn't, it's a leather choker and it not being worn by anyone it's placed on a white sheet. I give up!

Fortunately Christmas will still happen, I received my winter fuel payment last month and today I did some market research and received £50.

No it's not Santa

There is limited room on the boat for things including clothes, so we both share my dressing gown.

More boat photo's

So whilst I was out for three hours yesterday wrangling three year old twins, a 12 year old and a geriatric dog, this is what my lovely hubby did.

There was a wine rack on the boat that we didn't use as we don't drink wine, so he turned it into a spice rack for me.

He also made this fitted drawer top, the drawer closes with it in place. It gives me an extra work surface, something that I needed especially when trying to serve up meals.

 Another pic of the spice rack with the jars in place.

Where the money goes

I have a spreadsheet listing all our outgoings so I know how much our lifestyle costs, it also helps remind us of when things need doing.

Pump out (emptying the poo tank)  £20 about every 5-6 weeks. Tank treatment, £20 per bottle and a bottle lasts 6 to 8 months.

Gas bottles £23, we have two and each one lasts about 3 months, they are used only for cooking and when possible I cook on the Morso stove. The kettle sits on the stove as this cuts down on the boiling time.

Electricity, 14p per unit, but we use solar where possible. We can run everything apart from the washing machine on the solar.

Coal varies in price, on the marina it's £13 a bag, if we buy from the fuel boat it's a lot cheaper.

Diesel, we spend about £37 every three months, this is for boat propulsion and the central heating.

Mifi, £40 a month and we seem to manage on that, we did go over our usage limit to start with but now we keep an eye on it more closely.

Mooring fees are £3000 a year, then there are licensing fees too but they vary depending on what you want. We may get a full year Thames license this year, last year we paid piecemeal as and when we went on the Thames.

All our other outgoing costs are the same as when we lived on dry land, apart from petrol as I'm currently doing a lot more miles.

How much!!

I treated CHS to a pork chop for his tea last night, it's his favourite meal. He has worked so many different shifts this week to cover for a colleague going to a funeral and another one going for an interview. Then to add insult to injury an email was sent to say all overtime must be approved in advance as the bill was too high. The staff member who has to approve the overtime is the person who is supposed to cover any absence in their team but refuses to do so!

CHS is justifiably pissed off, hence the treat of the pork chop, mind you I nearly changed my mind when the butcher told me it was £3.36, for one chop!

And I'm trying to reduce the food bill at the moment.

We're having porridge for breakfast made with 50/50 milk and water, CHS is having soup or leftovers or jacket potato for his lunch, I'm having tinned tomatoes or egg on toast.

Tuesday we had liver and bacon, I used half the liver, a rasher of bacon, half an onion and 3 mushrooms, I started it off at lunch time on the hob then added some water and an Oxo cube and brought it to the boil. Then I moved it onto the Morso stove and left it to simmer  for the rest of the day, it was thick and delicious by the time we ate at around 6o'clock.

I've just checked the till receipt to see how much the liver cost but it's not showing, it must not have registered when it was scanned. I went to a manned till, not a self serve so it wasn't done on purpose, hey ho, free food, even better.

It's not just about the money.

I know 2 couples who are both, like CHS and I on lowish salaries.

Ok not extremely low but living in the expensive Thames Valley, low enough to make things a bit tight finanacially.

One couple have numerous store and credit cards, all maxed out to the limit.
The wife refuses to eat food from anywhere but M&S despite working for another food store and receiving a discount on her purchases.

The other couple, have a Tesco credit card that is paid off in full every month, they shop at Aldi & Lidl.

One couple have borrowed £750 from his parents to help them pay for Christmas, this isn't going to go far as the wife has seen a piece of jewellery she must have for Christmas that costs £500. The husband needs a new pc that costs considerably more.

The other couple have bought and paid for next years holiday as their gift to each other.

Neither couple have children or grandchildren to buy for.

Both couples play the lottery regularly, one couple believe that winning the lottery will solve all their problems.

I beg to differ, no amount of money will solve their problems as they will always spend to the max on  everything.

I'm stumped

I'm stumped, hubby has a watch he no longer wears, it was a gift from an ex girlfriend many years ago. It's not his sort of watch, it's very garish and flashy, very blingy.
So he decided to sell it, it would add a few pennies to the coffers or so we thought, but no.

We cannot list it on eBay or Facebook because it seems it is a fake, well we knew that and wanted to list it as such but neither site will accept it.

I tried the local pawn shop and cash converters all with no joy, I could take it to a local charity shop but then they might get into trouble, maybe it would be safer just to bin it!

Christmas

When my children were younger I used to make a big thing of Christmas, I always put all the trimmings up on the first weekend in December.
We were always the first with our decorations up.
Now everyone seems to be putting their Christmas decoration up already and it's still November.

Busy week

I have a busy week next week.
Captain Hot Stuff is working 3 different shifts throughout the week.
Monday I'm cleaning a boat, Tuesday I'm babysitting.
Wednesday, babysitting again but different grandchildren.
Thursday I'm cleaning a boat and Friday I'm cleaning another boat.

This is all to be fitted in around sewing, cleaning, cooking and ferrying CHS to and from work.

This is the day

This is it, the day has finally arrived.
I've been planning for this day since last year.
I've scrimped and saved, browsed all the adverts and offers on line.
I'm sure I can save an absolute fortune, after all it is BLACK FRIDAY.
So I've written my list and I'll hit the shops as soon as I've dropped CHS at work.


Well here it is the list of items I purchased today.

1 dozen eggs
A loaf of bread.

I've saved a lot of money by not getting carried away by all the hype and not buying anything unnecessary.

Next week's meals

I haven't cooked any evening meals this week, Captain Hot Stuff has been at work until 9 or 10 and doesn't want to eat when he gets home.

Next week he's finishing earlier so I will be cooking.

The meal plan is, roast chicken on Sunday, smoked haddock with poached egg, beef casserole, liver and bacon, cottage pie, fish and chips. This is probably not the order they will be eaten in apart from Sunday, we will decide each day what we want to eat.

Layering up

It's not cold living on the boat but I'm not one for wandering around in skimpy clothes and then having the heating roaring out.

I layer up when the weather turns cold.

Captain Hot Stuff asked me yesterday what I was wearing, the answer was two pairs of leggings, a vest, a tee shirt and an over top.

He said that the temperature would be dropping to three degrees at the weekend, I replied that I'd add an extra layer and wear four tops then.

We then had a chuckle when we realised that we had both used the names of 70's pop groups in our conversation.

Lazy slob

I've just spent over 12 hours in bed, I went to bed before 8 last night and got up just after 8 this morning.

I babysat on Thursday night for DD2, she got home by 10:30 and it took me 15 minutes to drive home. Unfortunately the Muppet who locked the marina gates made such a mess of it with the chains almost plaited together that there wasn't room to to get the key in padlock!
It took me 45 minutes to unlock the damn thing.

So it was gone midnight by the time I got to bed and I'd been up since 4:30.

Saturday night I met up with my two sons and their partners, we went for an Indian meal and had a great time.

This time the gate wasn't even closed never mind locked so I did it myself once I was on the marina.

Ch ch changes

My beloveds shifts are a complete mystery to me, I know the theory behind them. There are four members of staff, three of them work a three shift system of Earlies, Days & Lates, with the person on the day shift working on Saturday and not working on the Monday that week. The 4th member has different duties and is supposed to provide holiday and illness cover for the other three.

All this is complicated by the times for the late shift changing throughout the week, the finish time varies from 8pm to 10pm depending on outside booking and inschool events, the start time obviously varies to accommodate the finishing times.

Further problems arise as there are certain weekly duties that need all three of the team to attend. For example the weekly fire alarm test, this requires 2 people to be in each of three places so requires 6 people!

There are always moans from those higher up the food chain about the amount of overtime paid to the premises team and announcement made that 'steps will be taken to reduce the overtime bill'.

The latest idea is they should work until midnight and therefore start later, as you can imagine that idea in extremely unpopular.

Oh the joys of a peaceful retirement

I was awake at 4:30 so I wrote some emails regarding the engine on our boat. It's a Volkswagen so we have trouble tracking down parts for it.
I got out of bed at 5, made porridge and a cuppa for both of us,  made a lunch up for hubby and then took him to work for 6:30.

I put fuel in the car and bought some breakfast stuff for dgd who is staying tomorrow night.

I got back to the boat by 7:30, emptied the ash pan, set the washing machine going, topped up the fire and then filled the coal bucket.

I then went and cleaned a boat on a nearby jetty, including the windows inside and out.

I came home had a cuppa and set off to pay the fees for a club I've joined, that took a couple of hours including driving time.

The I answered more emails and then did another boat clean, I finished the 2nd boat clean by 2:15, by then it was time to collect my beloved from work.

Got back to the boat at 3:30 only to find 3 bonfires burning with smoke and ash blowing everywhere, the freshly washed windows are now filthy and I'll have to clean them again tomorrow.

There is a meat pie made by my lovely son in law cooking, mash and peas will be served with it, as soon as we've eaten and cleared away I shall set off to DD2's to babysit!!

Cooking

Since the multi fuel stove is lit 24/7 it would be a waste to just to use it for heating.
I have a cast iron casserole and have recently bought a ridge monkey.
I'm basing the bulk of our meals around using these.
At the weekend I did a pot roast, a piece of brisket. 
Yesterday I did chicken in a piripiri sauce with rice, both cooked on the stove.
Today it was spaghetti bolognese, I cooked the pasta on the hob, the bolognese sauce on the stove and the garlic bread in the ridge monkey.

I'm bunged up

I'm suffering from stitchers block, I typed sewers block to start with but then realised that might be misconstrued.
I'm trying to make bungs to block the port holes but I'm struggling a bit, I will persevere after I've written this post.

We went to a quiz night on Friday at school, I like quiz nights but got fed up with the ones in the pub when everybody was googling the answers.

We came 8th, that wasn't too bad, we would have done better with fewer team members as one got very drunk and another was adamant that A Tale of Two Cities was written by Shakespeare.

Families, who'd have em!

It's the anniversary of my mother-in-law's death.

Without her restraining influence FIL has hit the bottle, big time and he isn't a pleasant drunk, he is lecherous, obnoxious, paranoid and argumentative, an all round arsehole.


BIL2 phoned last night, he was also drunk as usual.

BIL3 phoned, sober as always he and hubby had a nice chat, winged about the drunks, reminisced about good times with their mum.

Roll on December!

Side hustles

Still worrying about money and wondering what else I can do to make some extra pennies.

My crochet skills are improving so I'm wondering about trying to sell some of the blankets I make.

Though where to sell them is also a problem, Etsy is huge, so many people already selling on there.
I may try Facebay, there is nothing to lose is there.

I do a few surveys but I'm the wrong age/gender for most of them so I've earned about 20p in the last 6 months.

I still follow MFin3 and I'm glad to see her posting regularly again, maybe there will be some suggestions there.

Also a lot of the things I used to do to save money such as stocking up on reduced food and batch cooking for the month ahead are no longer viable in such a small space.

I have my sewing machine out and today I made a door curtain and some draught excluder snakes to help keep the boat warm.

Captain Hot Stuff's shifts are all over the place at the moment, he's covering for a colleague who isn't well.
I'm losing track and have to ask him as we are going to bed 'What time are you starting tomorrow' I know he is on the late shift, but the times are different each day.

I don't wanna talk about it

Captain Hot Stuff doesn't snore whereas I snore like a watchdog, nor does he thrash around awake or asleep.

What he does do however is talk, in fact he has a tendency to ask questions and if I get the answer wrong he wakes up with a start.

When he was roofing he would ask how many tile bundles were needed, I soon learned that the best answer was either 7 or 9. These being the most likely amount needed for the size project he worked on after his accident

Before his accident he did industrial roofing, but I didn't know him then.

When he was doing building work the questions were more varied but I could usually provide an appropriate answer.

A few days ago he announced at 3am that I should be getting a tax rebate and wanted to know if I was going to apply for it. I agreed that I would and he slept on peacefully.

The other thing he does in his sleep is attempt to play Hide the Sausage. I know he is asleep because his approach is different when he's awake.

The only problem with this is that if he does find somewhere to hide it he immediately wakes up, apologises, turns over and goes back to sleep!

Just finished, just started.

I have just finished this book and this blanket

I have just started this book and this blanket.

My tiny fridge freezer

 It's amazing just how much I can fit in it.

Helping out

Wednesday and Thursday we helped out DD2, she was offered two extra days work but needed childcare to manage it. We had 3yo dgd both days and collected the other 2 from school.

This morning it was DD1's turn, she needed a lift to the vets as her hubby had their car.

We decided to go away for the weekend as CHS has until Monday off, there is of course no need to pack when we go away, we simply sail away.

We came across the local fuel boat on our travels so we stocked up on coal and diesel, it much cheaper than buying from the local marinas.

It's now 6:30, we've just eaten a casserole that I cooked on top of our squirrel stove and the boat is toasty warm.

I shall crochet for a few hours and then go to bed and read, I'm reading Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

I'm hoping by next week to start adding more photos to my blog, I'm currently using my kindle fire and it won't let me load pics.

I should be back on my laptop next week and then I will be able to add pics.

Stunned and amazed

I was stunned and amazed by the send off I received upon my retirement.

I was asked if I'd like to go out for a meal and almost 20 people turned up.

I was given so many gifts, one of which was large plant this has been re-gifted to DD and now stands in her garden.

I was also given gifts from the kitchen staff and the cleaners, people I didn't do copying for.

Missing in action

I've been missing in action for most of the week as my mifi stopped working.

Of course it took eleventy billion phone calls to sort it out.

Then when Three did agree to send a new unit they would only notify me of the delivery time via email.

Can you see the problem here, I couldn't get email as my mifi wasn't working.

They send out the '1 hour delivery slot info' any time up until 11am.

I know there are places that provide free WiFi including my bank, Nationwide but there is a limit to how long I could spend lurking around and I really didn't want to spend hours in a coffee shop or pub as I had boats to clean and grand children to entertain.

Back to basics

Last week CHS came shopping with me, he spent £91 in the supermarket and I still had to do two top up shops for milk and veg.

Yesterday I shopped alone, I spent £24, hopefully I will not need any top up shops as I have lots of veg and milk in.

Next weeks meal plan.

In no particular order.
Roast turkey, turkey, ham and mushroom pie, Turkey and noodles, spaghetti bolognese, fish pie, pork chops, chicken and ribs.

I'm freeeeeeee!

Well that's it, it's all done and dusted. I'm officially retired.

I came home laden with gifts, chocolates and gift vouchers.

The head made a nice farewell speech, my line manager declined to speak.

Tonight I'm going out for a celebratory meal.