Mainsite url

Just a 'quickie' to let people know that although currently my main site is down via the www.khayamanzi.com domain, it can still be accessed via www.khayamanzi.co.uk, (although I am letting this domain go so it my drop from here also at some time,) or failing all else via www.khayamanzi.moonfruit.com

I am still fighting battles with The Domain Registry of America, (the good old Yanks!) to allow the domain to be re-hosted back in the UK through a company called www.easily.co.uk who have been brilliant at traying to help. Apparently we have all done everything necessary for the switch and we now just have to wait up to 2 weeks for the switch to take place before I can then re-point the domain to my website. I'll keep people posted!

INTERNET!

I guess that by the time you read this my khayamanzi.com domain is back up and running again! I have had HUGE problems attempting to transfer my domain back from the Domain Registry of America, (don't touch them!) and back to Easily.co.uk. As a result, I was paying both companies and neither of them managed to keep my domain running. I can only apologies for the period of absence. I have also just recovered from a SERIOUS virus attack on the computer which caused me to have to completely re-install Windows. I am still trying to re-install all the software back on - if I didn't know better, I would think that DROA had attacked me for getting stroppy with them ;)

I have just returned from a weekend away. Met up with Steve and Julia on NB Even Balance for a bar-b-q on Saturday. Pushed on to Market Bosworth before returning home today. Also managed to re-paint all the deck gear ready for the summer!. I have posted 2 pictures, one of the flowers as they look at the moment and the second of the freshly painted deck-gear! Only 4 more weeksbefore my trip north.

This weekend.

It's always nice, through this blog and site, to have people leaving messages that I have met or passed on the cut. Welcome to Duncan from the beautiful boat Foxglove moored at Walsham on the River Wey. Duncan is truely a passing acquaintance! I always used to pass him on my many walks up and down the River Wey and dream that I too, one day, would be moored up on my own boat. It is also interesting to note that one boat moored not to far from him in dark red and dark green colours was the inspiration behind my own colour scheme, (in fact a photograph of this boat was given to my builders to copy!) and only last Easter I noticed it moored up on the Shropshire Union as I cruised past.

This weekend I hopeto go out as the weather forecast is very good. A relaxing weekend is planned meeting up with friends and enjoying the thought that my reports are now finished until the final tidying up before sending home! In anticipation, I have rolled up the cratch and re-stocked the fridge with beers!

Wrecked - completely wrecked!

What is going on?
A few days of lovely hot weather and now we are paying for it!

Countryfile yesterday told us that we are in store for another clear, dry and sunny week. Fortunately someone saw the weather forecast last night and said that they talked of thundery showers today. This meant that I took the precaution of closing the front cratch and shutting the windows again on board. Well did it rain!!?? The 'showers', although short, were so heavy they have completely wrecked my plants as the above picture shows. It has even ripped up whole plants which are now lying across my roof top. I have lost at least a quarter of my plants I estimate which is going to totally ruin the summer display this year. The blooms are torn and shredded, the leaves ripped totally, the soil washe donto the roof and the roots exposed and damaged. It will be a few weeks before I fully know how many plants need replacing but many will I'm sure!

Weekend news

Scorching temperatures forced me to leave the marina on Friday evening and head up to Dadlington for the night. On Saturday I pushed on up to Battlefield and moored there before returning on Sunday afternoon. Finally finished my reports on Saturday and celebrated by spending the afternoon servicing the batteries. Ended up putting in nearly 5 litres of distilled water into them! Managed to even get into the bow thruster battery which until now has been sealed - discovered that the positive clamp had snapped and was only hanging on loosely so replaced that.

The flowers on the roof are doing very well and beginning to hang over the tubs already. The marina complex had their annual rally meet this weekend and so the grass field, (that we are never to park or drive on,) was taken over by trailers and rally cars. As a result my car is now buried under an inch thick of gravel dust: I only took it through the car wash last week! The rally cars have just left leaving a real feast for Simba on the field and now some of the boaters are holding their annual bar-b-que on the bank with marquees up, lager cans everywhere and yet more chicken bones to get stuck in Simba's throat! At the end of the pontoon, those who don't wish to be sociable on the bank are holding their own party and so this evenings walk with Simba was a careful pick between their chairs and plates of food.

It's all very well havign a 'lovely community' in the marina but at times like this I wish I was out somewhere very remote and quiet on the cut - after all, that's the primary reason I love boating: to get away from it all when I feel I need to!?

Smoke and swans!

Woke up this morning to a pungent smell in the boat! Originally I thought the dog had made a smell so took him for his walk but upon my return the smell was worse! After 20mins. on hands and knees with a torch I traced it back to under the front step where the water pump lives. Upon closer examination, I discovered a whisp of smoke wafting up fromt he back of the pump where the wires go in, even when the pump wasn't running but when switched on. A quick panic and a phone call to work to explain and I had isolated the system, found a neighbour willing to keep an eye on the boat during the day and another neighbour from 2 doors down on NB 'What-ever-next' who builds boats for C & K Narrowboats and was willing to fit a new pump during the day. I returned home this evening to find a brand new Johnson pump fitted and installed and even the front step replaced into it's slot! It's times like this that living in a boating community pays off and my hats off to the people at C & K Narrowboats for their prompt help.
http://www.cknarrowboats.co.uk

I also had a visit from the swans and their cygnets this evening which was lovely. Spent a while feeding them from the side hatch as the picture above shows.

My duck has now been sitting on her eggs for over 4 weeks and I have come to the conclusion they are infertile! She has now started taking the eggs one by one off into the marina water, smashing them open and eating the yoke out of them. She only has 3 left and is still sitting on them.

I have also added a not great picture of my summer flowers on the roof in their infant stage! I have gone this year for a mixed 'gradient' of sefinias with the brightest and boldest in the middle, gradually getting paler until the light lemons either end. I hope the display will uphold my reputation in the summer!

Fantastic half term!

Just returned today from my half term holiday away staying on a farm in North Yorkshire overlooking Ingleborough. An amazing time with plenty of walking, (managed over 30 miles!)
Simba is shattered and currently cirled up on the chair on the boat asleep! The weather was glorious with no rain whatsoever and glorious sunshine the whole week. Apparently it has been very cold and wet here up until Friday! Walked up Ingleborough, around Malham Cove and Tarn, over the Penine Way; visited caves and tiny villages. It was lovely to meet up with my friend James who runs the award winning St. Leonards Farm Park in Esholt, (the home of Emmerdale!) It was lovely to have a very different holiday from boating and to really get away from every day life for a short while: I almost feel ready for the norm. of work next week! Simba was very well behaved with the sheep and although on a lead whenevr near them, showed little interest. He thoroughly enjoyed bounding over walls and styles and even took to sleeping in the tent, (eventually!)