It's curtains for me!

A very blurry photo of the first set of finished curtains, they are sagging at the top as there aren't enough hoops on it to hang the hooks on.

We are changing all the metal rails for standard curtain rails at some point as the current metal ones are a mix of brass and chrome and they are also a mismatch of sizes, it looks as though someone got a job lot cheap and just put them up randomly.

I don't have a preference as long as everything matches, the existing curtains were annoying me as they were six sets on he boat and every set was different. Maybe it was a fashion thing but it didn't appeal to me.

Making money part 2

Thank you for all your kind comments and suggestions regarding making money and thank you Lisa who was unable to comment and so emailed me with some information.
I think it is unlikely that I will earn enough if I have just one string to my bow, so I will try for a few different things to have an assortment of income streams.


Bonnie, we do not have the correct safety items or insurance to charge for boat trips.

Tania, we don't have a spare cabin, maybe on the next boat.

Eeek, I'll look into that, thanks.

Margaret, no luck as yet but I will continue to plug away.

Lydia, Rebecca, I will look into house/pet sitting.
I am considering a separate blog that would carry adverts and am working on a couple of ebooks.

Elizabeth, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's found surveys a waste of time, emmadrew's website is useful, thank you.

Sewing and sewing lessons are also something I will advertise, Icey & Col.

Pam, you are very kind but my crochet isn't up to 'selling' standard.

A few other things I have come up with:-

I will apply to the holiday boat company next door to become one of their cleaning crew on changeover day. 

I will also see if any of the local colleges use life models, I have no problem with nudity and have been told I have a good body to paint as it is lumpy, overweight and scarred. Supposedly more interesting to paint that a perfect body.

 

Life modelling

On my hook

A baby blanket for a colleague.

Making money, saving money

I'm retiring in October, the rent from the tenant is supposed to make up for my loss of salary. At the moment I'm running at a loss, but I'm working on the theory that as long as all the big spends are out of the way by October we should break even.

Some of the things I used to do to save money when we lived in the house are no longer doable on the boat.

I cannot batch cook as there is no freezer to store extra meals in.

I cannot stock up on yellow sticker food for the same reason.

I shop every 2 or 3 days as there is very little storage space in the cupboards or fridge.

One of the bloggers I follow did a post entitled 'How I make extra money'

I did read it but the blogger is doing all the things I used to do.

She has a lodger, she dog sits, she does overtime at work. I have done all these and more but they are no longer available to me.

I have no room for a lodger, no room to dog sit and there has been an overtime freeze at work for the last eight years.

So what next, I've signed up for survey sites but I'm never in the group they are looking for.

As I'm CRB checked I could babysit, but I cannot see to drive at night so wouldn't be able to travel home.

Cashback sites are no good as we don't purchase enough stuff to make it viable.

I have sold stuff in eBay but only stuff I'm getting rid off. I don't buy stuff to sell on as I have no room to store anything I bought.

I have until October to think of something, I'll let you know if I find something successful.

Evening sky

Freezer problems

There is only a tiny 1cu ft freezer on the boat and we're having problems with it. It is part of a Shoreline combined fridge freezer, it looks a bit like this.

If we have the temperature set so the freezer keeps things frozen the fridge ices up and doesn't work.

If we alter the temperature so the fridge works everything in the freezer defrosts!

So today I threw away a bag of frozen peas a a handful of frozen chips, we will use the freezer as an extra fridge space.

Captain Hot Stuff isn't sure he can live without chips but he's going to have to try.

A replacement would cost about £500!

Sulky sat-nav

My sat-nav has a cob on, it won't talk to me. it's probably fed up with me ignoring its instructions and going my own way until I get near my destination.

On Friday after work I decided to drive to the hospital where my DD was to visit her.

I'd had a message to say she was out of surgery and ok.

She's always been the one who needs her mum even though she is 36 and I knew she was still feeling fragile from losing Barney.

According to google maps it was a 45 minute drive to the hospital, so I allowed an hour!

Now I am more than capable of getting lost in a car park never mind going round a very complicated motorway junction, so I really needed my sat-nav.

No joy, it would put up a map of where I needed to go but the voice refused to work. I'm not that keen on looking at the screen instead of the road ahead but I decided to give it a try.

I finally made it and it was worth it just to see the look on her face when I arrived.