Bashed and battered, shaken and rattled.

Not a peaceful night last night, the wind blew mightily for most of the night.

We boinged against the jetty a few times and got generally bounced and rocked around throughout the night. CHS got up at one point to close the windows as they were rattling so.

We lost our chimney top, but we have lost a few over time, 3 or 4 at least, I'll order a new one tomorrow.

We fared better than some people on the marina, a lot if satellite dishes were hanging over the edges of the boats. We don't have a dish so we didn't have that problem.

There was also a tree down but it didn't do any damage fortunately.

There may be trouble ahead

There is at least one grumpy boater on the Marina. This boater has complained about everyone and everything on the marina.

Eventually, in desperation he was moved to the end of an otherwise empty jetty.

It seem to work and there were no more complaints.

But now there is a problem looming, there are 12 new boats arriving, there will be no more spaces free, hey ho, if he complains about me he'll get short shrift.

Peeling fingers and a blocked wee pole

I'm a bit tired at the moment, I'm doing two jobs.
I'm still doing my school job and I'm boat cleaning when I get home each day.
Because I'm tired the old grey cells aren't working to capacity, so when I noticed that the skin was peeling off that's of my fingers I was a little disconcerted. Eventually I realised it was the fingers that I scalded a while ago, the skin had been dry and rough and eventually peeled off.

When Captain Hot Stuff announced yesterday morning that his wee poles were blocked I immediately assumed a trip to the Dr's was on the cards and offered to make him an appointment. After a few minutes of confused and confusing conversation I ascertained that what he actually said was ' The weep holes are blocked'.
Weep holes are small holes in the window fittings, they get filled with moss and need cleaning out occasionally. Much less painful than blocked wee poles I'm sure.

Making money, spending money

I'm now have some 'one off' boat cleans booked for next week on top of my regular bookings, so there is a trickle of money coming in.
Next month will be my final pay packet and it will be only about £300 so I need to keep building my customer base.

We have ordered a new fridge/freezer £169. We finally found somewhere that had one in stock that we could look at and measure.
We've also bought a new gangplank that doubles as a rescue ladder and a brollymate.
It fits on the tiller and will hold a brolly or a small whirly washing line.

We lit the stove today as it's rained all day and was pretty chilly. The cost of having the stove lit was slightly  offset by using it to make lunch. I opened 2 tins of soup and stood them on top of the stove. I had pea and ham, CHS had mushroom. The soups  were piping hot in about 20 minutes, this also cut down on the washing up as there were no pans to wash.

I've got a rash

I was reading on the MSE  forum recently that to get a good night's sleep it's best to sleep naked.
Someone said she'd tried it but got very little sleep because her husband thought it was an invitation and was all over her like a rash.
I always sleep naked!

Cleaning the boat means I spend a lot of time on my knees, CHS always sees this as an invitation!

Yesterday we went to a colleagues 60th birthday party, I wore a dress for the first time in 6 weeks, as I was wearing heels I also wore sheer black hold ups, CHS love's hold ups.
We were a little late to the party, like I said I have a rash, but I like it!

Spot the difference

I thought I'd write a post about the difference between cleaning a house and cleaning a boat.

You may think that there would be no difference apart from size but in fact there are quite a few differences.

For one thing there is no hot water and unless I want to go through all the palaver of finding the stopcock there is no running water. I manage with buckets of cold water, changed frequently. I usually take my own bucket having recently come unstuck using the boat owners bucket only to find it had a hole in it!

I take my own cleaning caddy with me too, most people keep enough equipment on board but there is nothing worse than trying to clean anything with one grubby jiffy cloth  and the last dribble of cleaner in the bottle.
I use microfiber clothes, I have a couple of dozen and I sling them in the washing machine when I get home. I have bicarb, white vinegar and Astonish in my caddy too along with a paint brush and toothbrush to get into all the crevices. Best of all is my extending microfiber duster, great for removing cobwebs and mine fits up into the mushroom vents.

There is also unlikely to be any electric, so no running the vacuum over the carpets. It's hands and knees with a stiff brush to get the carpets clean. I take my own stiff brush and finish off with a damp microfiber cloth.

Look look! Where where!

We have decided to buy a new fridge but it is difficult to find one to fit in the available space.

CHS wants to go and LOOK at them before we decide which we want to buy.

Ok in theory but actually there are not many places where you can look.

There is Currys but last time we bought something from them the delivery was a nightmare, the cooker was a fortnight late and badly damaged.

There is John Lewis, but that means visiting the town centre, something we avoid at all costs.

CHS suggested Iceland, saying that we could then visit Wickes as it's next door.

Iceland don't sell freezers any more and Wickes moved about 2 years ago.