Weekend - day 1

The alarm clock went off this morning at 7.30 and it was not a welcome sound for a Saturday morning! By 9.00 I was on the touchline screaming at my school football team, getting wet feet from the heavy dew and freezing hands from a chilly wind. In the end it was all in vain as the team finished 3rd in our group missing out on the semi finals by one point. I finally arrived home at around 1.00pm to start my own chores. Managed to get a pumpout, pollish both sides of the boat ready for my holiday in a weeks time, clean and hoover the inside, top up with diesel, stock up on crickets for the lizards, stock up on coal, clean out the fire, do my ironing, fill up with water and sit down whilst my dinner is cooking at 6.00pm.

Here's a picture to show the season!

Well stocked up on coal with smoke pouring from the chimney. In fact, such is the amazing community here at Brinklow - I'm burning my first wood of the season. They have recently cleared a whole load of trees down All Oaks Wood and boaters have been scavenging like mad! Some of the boaters here have also collected a load and brought it back up to be chopped and logged. They took more than they needed and so have told others to help themselves: already logged and split - how kind!

I notice the government have finally seen sense with metric and imperial. You see Mr. Brown - it is possible to say 'no' to Europe; now try sayig no to them about the tax on diesel for pleasure craft in the UK!! I would love to know how much of my money has been wasted on totally futile regulations such as the metric/imperial ludicracy - at the end of the day, why the heck does it really matter what unit you use so long as you get the right amount of stuff!

I've published this picture above for 2 reasons: firstly just look how shiny it is after its pollish today! I swear by 'Spray and Shine'! I'm sure some boffins will tel me it's the worst thing to ever put on your paint but my paint is 5 years old and doesn't look too bad on the stuff! I have never washed the boat in its life and can shine and wax the entire boat in under 30 minutes! The second reason is this - spot the scratch! This is the side that managed to 'collect' the aweful scratch during the summer as reported in a previous post. You can still see it and it needs more work but the initial touching up has made a huge difference.