Motorbikes on Boats

Well, it finally came to it yesterday morning when I found myself with my bike by my boat along with the urge to see whether I could get it on the front. So, known for my forward planning, I got the gang plank out and put the bike onto it. Then thought for a bit, and decided the motorbike on a rotten plank was going to be disastrous, and then I stuck the front end of the bike on the gunwhales, hailed Maffi and told him to hang on. More heaving of the back end and a realisation this simply wasn't going to work resulted in a plan.
I have a big sheet of 18mm ply and decided to use that as a ramp. The steps I was going to use as an intermediary between the gunwhale and the deck decided to faint and collapse so I was going to need a bit of 'umph'. Not having 'umph' I decided the best thing to do was to 'just get on with it'. So I did. Maffi was ready to continue discussing the plan (boys are like that), so I raced the bike up the ramp, tied the break on with my hair band and passed it to the 'ooh' 'ahh' 'erm' 'ooh' vocals from Maffi to his tender care, then picked up the back end, swivelled it around which was going to be the final twirl leading to a triumphant finale of bike on front deck, and promptly got stuck. So there I was mid 'heave' there was Maffi trying to hold the other end, and my leg at a precarious angle partly supporting the bike, partly striding, and partly supporting me. You can probably ascertain for yourselves that this is not enough leg! Thankfully the chap from along the way asked if we needed a hand. I suggested a plan would be more helpful, and hey presto within minutes the bike was safely positioned in my well deck.

A triumph. How the HELL was I going to get it off again?

Still on about a piano

Having spent a good amount of time playing a piano in Bridgenorth I realise just how much I miss tinkering with the ivories. So, back to thinking about the electrical system on the boat. It seems frightfully extravagant to install electrics just to run an electric piano, but I know it will be a good thing in the long run.

I find piano playing to be a wonderful way of relaxing and switching off, so it will be worth it.

What is a house like?

There are a few things I have noticed about living in a house for the week.

Firstly: the fabric is not under attack from the wildlife. Land birds are far more civilised and instead of tapping on the side of the boat, or the windows, they feed from a feeder.

Secondly: things stay on shelves

thridly: cold water takes ages to become cold

fourthly: Baths are delicious (as is a constant supply of hot water).

Fifthly: The walls are a long way away.

The Holiday: Photos

I was getting serious cabin fever, so having the opportunity to spend a week away from the office, I was really looking forward to spending some time in a *house*. The apartment we chose was set in a vineyard and was nothing short of delightful, the gardens were absolutely teaming with wildlife, and badgers and foxes came to the patio each evening.

Apart from a hiccup in the middle, the holiday was just what I needed, being away from my normal surroundings gave me the time to rest and recuperate, and Worcester has some lovely sights! I was totally smitten with Witley Court:



And the local parish church:





and the middle of this hedge at Hanbury Hall. I love navigating around places inside the hedges, they are such peaceful places to be:


I was rather alarmed to be reminded of my godparent duties...


the signs on the barrels reads:


I thought the angels on Lord Lyttelton (1817-76)tomb in Worcester Cathedral were glorious:



The highlight of the week was definitely the steam train. I just love steam.











I like bikes too....

Bones' Holiday - the diary

So, the first update is the diary of the holiday.

Saturday 21st.
So begins the start of the long awaited holiday, oh to be away from the hussle of daily existence, and in the arms of relaxation and sleep!! I am really looking forward to being in a different county. Armed with the most delicious cake in the world and a loaf of bread we headed off to Worcester.
The Apartment, which is part of a vineyard, has a bath. swoon.

Spent most of the afternoon and evening with Postcode Dave, Keeping Up and Cheshire Rose at the Anchor pub in Coven. It took ages trying to find it, not least because it dawned on me as we were driving towards the direction I thought we should be going (Wolverhampton) that I couldn’t remember the name of the village, or the pub! Thankfully it all came to be in a blinding flash of light. A lovely start to the holidays.

Sunday 22nd.
A glorious bath. Baths are brilliant. Watched some DVDs and stared out the window across the valley to the vineyard and began to relax.
Land birds make quite a change from water foul. Firstly they don't peck the side of your boat incessantly, second they eat from a confined space. They make a lot of noise too. I wonder whether the pheasant will accidentally trip over and die so I can have another go and eating one....

Badgers and Foxes feed from the patio below the window.

Tuesday 24th. A day with the Ruins
Witley Court Ruins are knee bendingly glorious - A manor house turned Jacobean and then through ornate twiddles and pillars to regency and splendor was burnt and subsequently abandoned. Now taken over by English Heritage, it is a glorious ruin. Not far away is the beautiful Witley Parish Church which has the finest ecclesiastical interiors in the country. A FINE display of baroque; James Gibbs was the architect, the ceiling by Antonio Bellucci and paper mache vaulted ceilings designed by Gibbs. I could have played the piano but the organ was being tuned. Rather amused that I could play the piano in this baroque beauty but not in St Helens Abingdon.

Wednesday 25th A day without Ruins
Harvington Hall is a Tudor manor house with numerous priests’ holes. The ticket lady almost danced when I strolled in - she rubbed her hands in glee exclaiming "a customer" and pointed to the price board with a sweeping hand of excitement and asked what I would like to chose. I entered as an OAP and promptly joined a school party in order to view the priests’ holes. Truly beautiful; the moated hall is divine. I DO like Tudor.

Hanbury Hall
A family home and again splendid, entering the hall with the grand staircase makes ones knees wobble. I think the boat lacks a grand staircase.

It was here I perfected the cattle grid stroll. Wait for a group and stride confidently in front of them and lead them to the cattle grid rather than the gates on either side for pedestrians. Then, without faltering stroll across the grid, and if you have an umbrella twirl it (I didn't). Once across take several more paces and then turn around and watch the glorious faltering and teetering as the group behind you all progress in silence and silly walks across the obstacle. I used to be scared of these grids as a child, what fun they are now!

Had a bath

Thursday 25th
Worcester. On entering the cathedral I had an interesting conversation with a chap who was telling me about deafness, he said the disease was "genita..." but corrected himself to Genetic just in time. I refrained from my usual peals of giggles. That made my day! Strolling back through Worcester to find the car the locals put on a splendid show and I watched a real arrest – a long chap who had been shop lifting.


Spent the afternoon in Birmingham and arrived just in time to watch the market dismantle. I just love the scene of tempermentality surrounding the apparent daily permanence of the stalls.

Baths are glorious.


Friday 26th
The Severn Valley Railway; absolutely glorious!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bewdley to Bridgenorth was a fabulous trip, and once in Bridgenorth we had a roast dinner for £3.50!! Marched Maffi onto the hair dressers and asked them to do a short back and sides. I am not sure he is so impressed with it, but he looks far better now. Bridgenorth church had a beautiful piano in it which I played for coming on to 40minutes. Wonderful to be able to tinkle the ivories once again; I really do miss having a piano.

Spent the evening with the Moles on the Staffs and Worcester canal – what a beauty that is! During the afternoon I found a dead duck with its skull intact, so put it in the car. Victoria and Ben Mole were very sweet and admired it, I think Victoria thought I was joking when I said I had a duck, or at least thought it was a live. The Moles are gorgeous, and we had a lovely evening!

Saturday 27th
Home time.

Bones Away V

I just love this picture I took of Bones being mostly blue on the River Wey a couple of years ago.

Bones IV

Bones Away III

Bones Away II

Bones Away

Sheep in the graveyard

There seems to be some controversy about sheep in the graveyard. Colin was cleared several years ago of desecrating the churchyard. When the real culprits, the deer, were discovered after some surveillance. I noticed the deer weren't prosecuted.

Sadly Colin died a couple of months after his name was cleared. Was it the shock, OR was he poisoned?

But it looks to all start again in East Sussex.

Somerton Deep Lock

Willow Tree

My sister loves Willow trees. She told me of a time my father was looking after her, and she was only tiny. In the village there was a beautiful Willow tree. Father said something to my sister which she thought was 'shall we go to the willow tree' so she put on her boots, raincoat, and all sorts of other things, and he took her hand and led her to the 'lavatory'. The look of bemusement on their faces must have been a picture. Or perhaps my father thought that all little girls went to the lavatory dressed for a typhoon.

1 Sleep and a Grebe

I am away for the week from tomorrow with no computer - hurrah! I have decided to upload some of my favourite photographs from various holidays for each day. Whether I have managed to work out bloggers advance posting will become clear over the course of the week!

Todays photograph was taken in Abingdon a couple of weeks ago. I spent a good few minutes watching a Grebe trying to swallow a fish that was perhaps a little on the large size AND try to avoid its young who clearly thought they should have it!



Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Little Bourton

AND it has a pump...
Oh, if only dreams came true!

If Only

If only I had 85K I would buy this not to make enormous amounts of money, and not to lay on all the supplies, but to be. To live, to write, to create and to experience.

If only.

There was a time that I very nearly bought a house in the middle of nowhere that was boarded up. It had a breadoven as the oven, the bathroom was a bath in the garden and there were outhouses and a little stream. The house was riddled with damp, and water came from the sky rather than the taps (of which there were none). Circumstances didn't allow me to persue it. The other house I fell in love with, was a beautiful cottage near a stream on a country road in Nottinghamshire. The main problem with the house was that one of the walls wasn't really attached to the other three.

Oh well, we can but dare to dream.

Someone like me will never be in the position to buy a place like Little Bourton. If only I could! Here is the pdf file that Granny linked to. Ironically I went through this lock this Easter and was so captivated by the place I moored up and sat opposite it dreaming.

Marriage

While we are on the topic of the daily mail, I also read this rather amusing (and very well written) tale of a couple who got married, then got to know each other. What I particularly like about this is that when the reality hit, marriage was hard and Steve had a choice "The whole thing felt insane. I had two choices: to run away like I had done from every other bad situation in my life, or stay and fight for my marriage". He chose to stay and fight for his marriage. 2 years ago they had a wedding, and now they have a
marriage.

He also says: "We've had to do it the other way round: getting to know each other, and going through the teething process of an early relationship after we had already made that commitment"

People walk away too quickly and too easily in our disposable society, I wonder what commitment means these days. Perhaps I am the only one that thinks that divorce is destructive. I realise, for some, it is the best situation and I also realise, for some, that life after divorce, with a new partner, can be happiness in itself. I am also old enough, and perhaps wise enough, to know that other peoples relationships are not mine to judge or understand.

What we mustn't forget is that divorce steals dreams, and we can't always get our dreams back.

all hail the slug

I took a trip into Abingdon this morning, before work, and enjoyed a lovely breakfast in one of the coffee shops there; cake and coffee. During my time I browsed through that popular rag the daily mail. The daily mail is the subject of much snobbery around the dinner table, so when I am out I always make sure I read it in order to quote it in the correct company; I just love the looks of disdain.

Anyway, today there was a double spread about the slug. I have done a quick search and found the following related article, but I dont think it is the actual one - you will need to read the paper for that!

You will also remember that I had a delicious dinner with two leading slug experts.. WeepingCross and the delicious Sarah who have increased my awareness of these creatures (see here for some comments!). Indeed, I am tempted to join their "the slug is NOT a snail without a shell on" campaign.

Grahoom to the Rescue

Ooooh! Subject to measuring I think I am going to be allowed to build my boat in Grahooms shed! Hurrah!

Bones is skippity and only 3 sleeps until the holiday!

Supporting the Lockies

Oxfordshire county council has approved a motion calling the EA to review its decision to sell of lock keepers cottages. Rather sweetly in a different article "Ms McKeever" says that "we have been running the river in the same way for 40 to 50 years and we need to modernise our working practices"

I wonder what exactly modernising working practice IS? In the Abingdon Herald MS MCKeever also said "We discussed with some of them the new technology we are currently investigaging, which include web cameras for weirs and other new communication systems."

I just LOVE the idea of web cameras for Weirs... is a web camera really going to pootle over to the weir and do a million turns on the manual mechanism to control water levels?!


Rather sweetly she does go on to say that "We are not selling Godstow OR Sandford Lock so that they can maintain operational control of the sites should we need them in the future". So, they aren't going to need any of the others then? What I particularly like is how they are just going to sell the houses off without actually testing any of this 'modernisation' so there will be absolutely no going back OR they will have to go crawling back to the new owners of the cottages and buy them back at an extortionate price.

Hurrah!

The quicker the decision to sell the cottages is overturned the better.

Still no Shed, still no boat

One of the great disadvantages of living on a boat is the lack of garage(S) and shed (S). I am a great lover of the shed, and although many people would say my boat rather resembles the inside of a shed, it just is not the same.

(Naturally I have impaled all such people upon my special anti scruffy boat de la shed impalers in the bathroom)

In order to build my rowing boat to explore the backwaters of the Thames I need to find a garage or a shed in order for the Epoxy stuffs to set. I have so far failed in my quest. I think I will have to find a bridge to moor under for a while in order to complete the boat... I wonder what BW will have to say about that!

First Steps

So, I have finally emailed a place about seeing the countryside from the saddle during the trip to the country. Himself (who got the short straw of coming on holiday with me) tells me we have to go horse riding, and as I plan to bore him to tears with reading and steam stuff I think I should be willing.

on Last time I went horse riding was on Victoria's horse. It was HUGE and made me sneeze. Indeed, I sneezed so much I couldn't see, and the horse decided to give me a tour of the village with Victoria peddling furiously behind me trying to keep up issuing all sorts of orders that made no difference to me or the equine involved. Thankfully the ordeal ended outside the SPAR shop, and I had a fizzy sherbet to recover.

The other time was when my darling sister decided I should go horse jumping. I suppose I was the ideal candidate on which to try out some 'teaching'. She whacked the derriere (of the horse Kh!), I gripped tight, sat up straight did everything I was meant to do and the horse, which was rather resilient to my clinging on for dear life, jumped beautifully. In my head my sister was standing at the beginning of the course dead proud at how her little sibling had triumphed. I think she was probably giggling.

The other time I remember well was lunging, or whatever it is called. She (the sister) stood in the middle, I sat on the horse without a saddle or reins, and the horse was encouraged by some rope or something to go around in circles. I then had to wiggle around and try and swing around the belly of the horse, or something. All I remember is how life was a bit too exciting when there are four hoofs nearer your head than feet.

NB IRIS no 3 is for Sale

See Here and here

4 sleeps.......

......... until my holiday.

Me excited? YEP!

Colander for Sarah

Another use for the ever increasingly loved colander




If you want to know where it all started (this love for the colander) read here and here and here and here

If you would like to join the colander appreciation society, and support the current campaign to ensure a legislation is passed to ensure correct draining of this versitile kitchen utensile. Do tell me, I'd love a giggle!

Sunday

Lady Elgar took charge of the locals on Sunday morning. A couple of coots decided to fill up while they were able, one swam back to the nest, and the other provided me with tremendous entertainment when it got bored of swimming and decided to run instead. It was lovely seeing its green feet legging it across the top of the water!



Lady Elgar disappeared through Abingdon Bridge. It was really good spending the evening with them last night:

Saturday

Having spent most of Friday asleep recovering from the bionics, I was still a bit snoozy on Saturday but dragged myself out to do some 'jobs' I finally bolted the starter motor on, and decided to take the boat out onto the river into Abingdon for the weekend. I thought the change of scene would be divine. It was.

On Saturday evening Saltysplash from the forum rocked up on Lady Elgar. My goodness me - Nora and Geoff really DO know how to do flowers. Even I found myself amazed at the sheer glory of their rooftop as they came into view.

We had a gloriously relaxing and fun evening. Thanks guys, and I hope you will stop by again!

On Thursday I thought it was unwise to drive my motorbike to work, so I asked Maffi to give me a lift to work. He very sweetly suggested I should change my pyjama top was not as stylish as my work trousers, and after a bit of shuffling around I managed to present myself as a respectable academic. A little sit down, and some encouragement from himself I made it out the doors without falling over, only just - I had to sit on the steps to recover. I locked up stood up, swayed and suggested we went to work. Whereupon I was ordered back indoors to rest. (I was very releived as I thought I might be sick if the world didn't stop moving).

Another visit to the dentist, and I have stopped taking my antibiotics, am taking regular pain killers and swilling salt water around the infected area. I am hoping this will improve things quickly, and that everything will be ready for the tooth people to remove said offending article within a month.

Wisdom teeth are NOT funny.

Boaters Do Good Turn in Abingdon

A couple of their boat rescued two canoeists who got into trouble when paddling down the Thames during the floods: more here

BBQ night

So, it is BBQ night tonight... I shall be the one looking pained and pale snoozing on the sofa! I have been looking forward to Lady Elgars visit for quite sometime, and now it is finally here I am poorly! Not to worry, I will be able to gaze out of the window at everyone having fun! Perhaps I will be well enough to sit in my deck chair.

doesn't the world spin!

Bones + antibiotics = very very very wobbly.

Bones is no longer on antibiotics and has to go to the hospital to have the nasty wicked impacted wisdom tooth (at the bottom) removed.....

I like the idea of a paper weight with them embedded!!! (see previous comments by bobcat! Perhaps I could sell the fourth in the set?)

Hurrah Henry!

Holiday booked!!!!!!! Hurrah. Worcestershire, here we come.... now I have to wait.

[Bones taps foot and drums fingers in eager excitement!]

Boo Hiss

Bones has poorly wisdom teeth. Boo Hiss.

Warrior IS popular!

NB Caxton and Fade To Scarlet have both posted about Warrior recently, indeed, I am sure I have been reading of the exploits of Warrior on several blogs of late! I am really looking forward to their 'grand tour' when they come this way.

St Helen's Church Abingdon Again

I had another email from the churchwarden, a much nicer email this time suggesting somewhere else I could try for access to a piano. This rather tickles me pink. St Helen's has three pianos; one in the church hall, and two in the main church (one a baby grand, and one a plug in). They were probably bought with money from the congregation. I can play none of them, yet they think I might be able to play the one piano that is somewhere else, in an area that is more likely to disturb people, and not actually owned by the church.

This time the piano is in a rather more public place and would be played when other people were trying to work, or relax in an area of retreat, which I am not sure I am comfortable with for obvious reasons. The person I spoke to was exceptionally pleasant and a delight to talk to; what a completely different experience to that of the local church (you know, that place that is welcoming and an example of Christ)! Not only did they want to know when I might want to play the piano, but also the sort of music I might play. They were aware I would be practicing, and were still accommodating which is simply staggering in comparison. They even suggested I went in to discuss my needs/their needs to see whether we can come to an arrangement.

Losing stuff in small spaces.

I am amazed at how easy it is to lose something on a boat. SOMEWHERE I have my passport and birth certificate. Where either of these two documents is, is beyond me, completely and utterly beyond me.

Holiday Plans

Right, time to get my head down and seriously think about where I am going to go. I have various ideas/different choices, so today is a big day of working out WHERE to go! How tremendously exciting!

10 days to go!

BONES HAS A HOLIDAY

HURRAH!

I have one week off at the end of the month - hurrah!

What am I going to do, Where am I going to go?

Decisions decisions, NOT my forte... so I guess I will be the one on the Thames fixing something!

Jericho Boat Yard

Date set for Jericho boatyard inquiry read the full story here
Here is a bit to wet your appetites:

I quote "Earlier this year, Spring appealed against the decision and a planning inquiry has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 12.
The plans have proved unpopular with many residents, who say the flats will destroy the character of Jericho. Their campaign has been backed by Oxford author Philip Pullman and Lewis actor Kevin Whately." end quote

Thank you St Helen's Church Abingdon

WARNING: BONES IS RANTING.

I do not have a piano. Thankfully the churches around the counties I visit DO have pianos, and if possible, I always ask whether I can play them. The answer is always yes. I asked St Helens in abingdon, and unfortunately they have said no. What I particularly dislike about the "no" is that I have had a series of emails from them: Firstly

"I am sorry you have not had a reply about having access to our piano - our Administrator is on holiday this week and was busy doing everything she needed to do beforehand last week. Your request was passed to me by MrsBarker and I referred it to our Director of Music for his view/permission.He emailed that he doesn't have a problem with your playing the piano and Ilet Mrs Barker know this but added we needed to think how to manage this.Eg: you come in when the church is being stewarded."


Secondly, and from the same person:

"I have now spoken to the Rector concerning your request to play the grand piano in church, and he has asked me to inform you that he does not wish to set a precedent for the playing of the piano, least of all from members of the congregation who may wish to avail themselves of such an opportunity.

With regrets etc."

I particularly like the 'with regrets etc' Especially as I can fill in the etc for myself.

I am livid, and I am cross. What on earth is it that makes the church so bad at communicating within itself and what is it that makes MY request something that sets a precident... yet I bet if I suggested a housegroup they would have jumped at the opportunity, or if I had offered to become a steward, or a bellringer, or whatever, they would have jumped at the chance.

I was in St Helens this morning and thoroughly enjoyed the service, so don't be put off! I thoroughly enjoyed the sermon this morning and the influence of Jesus on the community. Thank goodness his behaviour didn't set a precident for the community, otherwise he might have died... oh he did.

BTW

by the way... I did manage to distract Maffi from his wildlife excitment and suggested he sorted out my bathroom cupboard and put some shelves in it... he did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hurrah!

The Irony

AS you may or may not know, Maffi is moored in Abingdon and has been struggling with the rising water. I visited him yesterday and noticed his water tank is getting low, and suggested he spent the day on Bones. Now, I realise Bones is not a luxury cruise liner, but in the current circumstances it might just as well be. To visit Maffi one has to don wellingtons, and wobble across two planks supported on the bank, bucket and boat respectively and when you get there you can't flush the loo unless you extract the bucket from the 'landing stage' fill it with water from the Thames and then pour it down the loo (and replace the bucket afterwards), not only that but water (what little there is left) is strictly rationed. In contrast, I have a water tap within reach AND a flushing lavatory near my current mooring.

So, Maffi came and I spent the day trying to fix my leaking lift pump while he relaxed. Maffi was mincing his way around the moorings and I eventually found him settled on the end of a landing stage dangling his wellies in the Thames watching the reeds. I asked him what he was doing, and he said there was a pike swooshing up and down them. He went on to point out the cute ducklings with their mother. Noticing my look of confusion and concern for his sanity (he had been doing this for quite sometime) he told me he had never seen a pike eat a duckling, and thought this might be his chance. I retired to the engine room again.

Once the pump was fixed, along with a few other things, I ran the engine to check it all and thus had hot water. Time for a shower, a nice long soap ridden shower to get all the grime and grease off that had spent the day embedding itself in my hair and on my arms. Lush.

As I soaped up excessively I noticed the water was beginning to drip rather than run, and low and behold stopped.

Running out of water, mid soap, is absolutely hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OOPS!

Brown Bread

The sandwiches here are rank and I tend to avoid them. Today, however, I decided I would brave the departmental snack bar and pootled (incidentally, one can tootle, but not pootle, according to my spell checker) down for a sandwich. I eat brown bread, I do not eat white bread. The snack bar doesn't have brown bread, they have 'run out' which I think probably means they couldn't be bothered to stock it today.

I can't decide whether I am relieved at the lack of sandwich or not.

Slugs and Snails

On Sunday I was have pre dinner drinks in the garden with Weeping Cross, the lovely Sarah and Alex while the lovely C and J cooked us a delicious dinner. Sarah was regaling us with the gardens slug problem, and how it must be possible to eat them. I did mention my recipe for Slug Soup (which sounds so vial I would never even try it), but my offers of assistance were drowned out by WeepingCross' expertise on the difference between slugs and snails, and how snails may be edible, but slugs were not, under any circumstances, anything like snails, and more to the point were NOT snails without shells. Actually, we had quite a speech about it. This in itself was enchanting as I tucked into my drink, but what was alarming was the draw dropping conversation following that where WeepingCross and the lovely Sarah were comparing notes on the difference between slug and snail slime, and the habits of these invertebrates. Indeed, my mouth hasn't closed since!
I was reminded about this unique occasion where I was dining with what has to be the worlds two experts on slugs and snail habits, when Miss T posted about a snail on her window.
Do read WeepingCross' comments, his observations are quite remarkable especially as slugs move so slowly! I wonder how long it has taken him to gather all the data!

The Lovely 10p AGAIN

I had no money in my wallet, so when I was in Tesco this morning I bought my breakfast (cake) with my debit card and asked for cash back. I thought 20pounds would do me nicely - and as I needed some money for the shower and that is 10p, I asked for a total of £20.10p.

You should have seen the hoo har at the till.

What is it with the world... I left with £20 and no 10p.

Bones is Tired.

On Monday night I didn't sleep a wink - literally. For some reason I just couldn't settle, couldn't sleep and even stretched out in bed resting was getting the better of me. By Tuesday morning I really was quite doo lally, it is a most unpleasant experience. On Tuesday day I didn't sleep and struggled to get to sleep last night, and awoke this morning feeling seriously drunk! A most disconcerting feeling at any time of day. I hope I sleep enormously well this evening!

One of my techniques for drifting off, or settling, is to run a scenario through my head in the most minute details. I find I get sucked into the dream world and out of the awake world in a suitably satisfactory fashion. I have the strangest dreams full of wonderful details, and it is rather like being in the cinema. Something I have observed is that as I drop off to sleep my imagined world topic changes tack completely, but the attention to detail remains.

Having used my engine room re-designing to send me off into snooze land, I am looking forward to being awake enough to build it. I have a wonderful design, I just hope the amazingly good woodwork required to design it is a skill I have acquired over the last few days in my slumber.

Puddles

What I absolutely adore about rain like this is the enormous puddles that accumulate around the towpath.

Nothing like a lunch break to jump in ALL the puddles.

Hurrah for puddles.

As for the result of the wet trousers, shirt, socks and shoes... this is professionalism my darlings. All hail the new look.

It is raining!

Well, here I am on the River Thames at Abingdon staring out the window as the glorious rain plummets from the sky. The river level has not gone up in the last few hours, but it has certainly started flowing a lot faster.

The boats are going past rather rapidly - they must be handing out jet propolsion mechanisms at the lock.

Passwords

It is four days since I left the boat, and this afternoon I will be returning to it. If previous experience is anything to go by, the invertebrate world revels in my absence; the insects will have taken the opportunity to fly around day and night, and the arachnids will have had a party taking over all available space trying to trap them.

When I return I will probably need to supply the secret password in order to get in. I wonder what that is. I hope it is not the same one as last time - 3 mouthfulls of web.