Solar panels

The solar panels arrived at 9pm and CHS thinks they are too big. Anyone got a wall I can bang my head against?
We paid £84 for delivery to get them in time for the engineer to fit them!

What Three Words

Last night just before 11 o'clock my phone rang. Dd2 was at her sister's when she realised she didn't have her door key.

I have a spare so could she come and collect it. Of course I said yes, but finding the boat can be difficult especially when it's dark and wet.

Fortunately I recently downloaded an app to my phone called What Three Words.
I found us on their map, worked out the nearest place she and her sister could park safely and text her the three words.

I then got dressed and waited for her to phone and say she was on her way. I then galloped along the towpath to the meeting point.

Once she arrived I gave her my car key a torch and her spare key so she could drive herself home and her sister could also go straight home

Not feeling well

I'm not feeling well this evening, nothing specific, just a bit queasy and shaky. I will try for a quiet day tomorrow.

Yesterday I helped at stroke club, quiche, salad and chips for 22 people. I did the teas and coffees too, one for everyone when they arrive and another one after lunch.

We visited a local dog rescue place today, they were very nice, helpful but didn't have anything suitable for us at the moment.

CHS received a phone call from work this morning, HR they want him to go in for an interview about possibly returning to work, they also want to arrange an occupational health visit for him.
This caused him a huge amount of stress and it has made the day very difficult, he has been argumentative and stroppy ever since, and guess who gets the backlash, yep, me.

Being neighbourly

We are out of the marina and back on the cut. We had planned to travel to Ufton Nervet yesterday but unfortunately the Aldermaston lift bridge was out of order.
We went through the lock, operated the lock five more times to let other boats through then we winded our boat and went back through the lock and headed back the way we had come.

We found a gap between two other boats and moored up as by now CHS was wiped out. Post stroke fatigue is a bugger.

I walked down to a nearby boat and introduced myself to the owner, Jenny, she posts regularly on FB nd her posts are always interesting. She made me a cup of tea and we had a natter.

This morning I had arranged to take another boater shopping as she has no car. Before setting off I checked if any of my neighbours needed anything. Jenny asked if I could get her butter and milk, Rick needed nothing and Peter needed tobacco and weed, neither of which is available at Aldi.

Home improvements

We are gradually doing things to improve our life on the boat.

We have purchased a sofa bed from Ikea so there is now somewhere to sit in comfort, I was getting tired of perching on a bar stool.

We've also purchased a small freezer, it tucks under the breakfast bar and hopefully will mean we can shop less often.

The boat was quite dark inside and we were considering painting the ceiling white, but first we removed the privacy film that was on all the window and now the boat is much brighter inside. We left the privacy film on the windows in the bedroom and opposite the bathroom.

I bought two plastic coated wire shelves and a plate stacker which has made one of the kitchen cupboards a much more useable space.

There are so many cupboards in the bathroom that the cupboard under the basin is still empty. All our toiletries, medicines and a pack of 18 toilet rolls fit in the cupboard under the granite surface on the opposite side of the room.
Behind the bathroom door there is a floor to ceiling cupboard, the top shelf holds the large kilner jars I use to make Sloe Gin an Blackberry Vodka in.
The bottom two shelves hold tinned food, long life milk and dry goods, flour, sugar, tea etc.

It's a blank

My mind that is, things have happened but everything is overshadowed by trying to manage the PSPC.

There is no help available, CHS has refused to go to the gym for ages, I may put my foot down and insist but he still may refuse.

He still goes to Stroke Club but I've volunteered to help in the kitchen when he's there, it may encourage him to continue, he may give that up too.

Sometimes he is really unpleasant, sometimes he looks so scared and lost, it's heartbreaking.

That explains a lot.

We have had a few difficulties since CHS had his stroke, not unexpected I know. He has has physical therapy and psychological therapy. He attends a therapy gym and a stroke club, I volunteer at the stroke club alternate weeks, I help in the kitchen, this way I'm not in the same room as CHS but I can talk to people who are experiencing stroke care.
Yesterday I read the article below, it explains a lot.

://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6901171/I-know-agony-James-Cracknells-wife-lived-losing-husband-hes-alive.html

We took a wrong turn

When we moved from the boat drop off point we moved into the marina just a short distance away.

The directions to our mooring spot were somewhat confusing, the map we were given showed no mention of a very posh and exclusive marina abutting the marina designed for the likes of us.

We moored up knowing we were in the wrong place but intending to ask for clearer instructions.

No sooner had we tied up than a lady who looked like a Thai bride, leapt out of a neighbouring boat and teetered along the jetty in her stilettos, crying  'Admiral, admiral, there are common people mooring in our exclusive area.'

The admiral appeared from his boat like a Jack in a box alerted by the cries of the Thai bride.

I explained that I thought we had taken a wrong turn and after looking me up and down he agreed, rather too vehemently for my liking!

It seems he had a very important meeting to go to, but once I had assured him we were going nowhere unless he could explain where we needed to go he agreed to show me on the map where we should be. 

He also explained that he used to own all the local area, but now concentrated on the exclusive area where only tidy boaters are allowed.

Eventually we moored in the correct place and the admiral and the Thai bride could relax, safe in the knowledge that they were safe from the hoi polloi once again.

What a knob

I'm struggling to use the cooker on the new boat.

The grill and cooker knobs have been replaced with hob knobs, not the biscuits sort.

The knobs are designed to work the gas rings on the hob.

There is no way of telling what setting to use as the knob turns the wrong way and the temperature guide is the wrong side of the knob.

I cannot tell how hot the oven and grill are apart from trial and error, more error than trial.

It took me 40 minutes to cook a part baked baguette the first day I used it.

We've been on our travels.

Last week on Wednesday we drove to Gloucester to collect our new boat. It was to be craned out of the water at Sharpness on the following Wednesday morning.

The boat was moored in Gloucester Dock, we moved aboard with enough clothes for ten days, enough cutlery and crockery for the two of us, two folding chairs, two bar stools and a nectar mattress.
The bar stools were a bone of contention between us as there were already two bar stools on the boat but CHS was adamant we needed them.
This meant that every time CHS said 'why didn't you bring the ......' I replied ' because the car was full of bar stools'.
I drive a Nissan Note and it was as full as it could hold.

On Thursday we found a nearby Aldi and went shopping for food, we also found Dunelm as although the bed is the same size as our previous one, the nectar mattress is too deep for the sheets I had with us so we bought some deeper ones. In fact the mattress is so deep we had to buy a stool for me to climb in to bed!

There was no way CHS was well enough to manage the journey from Gloucester to Sharpness so on Saturday DS2 and a friend drove to Sharpness,  I met them at 7am showed them where we had arranged for them to park, we left DS2's car in Sharpness and drove back to Gloucester.
DS sailed the boat from Gloucester to Sharpness, there are no locks and all the bridges are manned so he made it in five hours. Sharpness marina managed to squeeze us in so we moored there to await the crane. 
DS2 then drove me back to Gloucester to collect my car, he and his friend drove home to Reading and I returned to Sharpness and parked my car in place of his. We stayed in the marina, it was only £12 a night and we could plug into shore power so we could have the heating on, much easier than a bankside mooring as the weather was pretty ropey.

Everyone on the marina was very friendly and helpful, another boater took lots of video of the boat being lifted out, I'll post some next week when I have my laptop back. We stayed in the marina as there was quite a lot to do to get the boat ready for road travel, we had to remove the pram and cratch covers and remove the solar panels, the cupboards and drawers had to be taped closed and all loose items secured.  We were up at 6 on Wednesday morning waiting for the lorry and crane to arrive, the boat was loaded by 10 and the lorry set off to transport the boat via road to Caversham, we followed in the car.

By the time the boat was back in the water we were many ££££s lighter and totally knackered, we trundled along to Tingdene marina and stayed overnight, we were planning on moving along the Thames today but it has rained on and off so we stayed out. We can't stay for too much less longer, we are paying £29.50 a night here as it is very posh.