Friday, October 27, 2006

Nothing new to report today, so I thought I'd just mention how social things seem to be around here. This is who I chatted to today;

0630am - bumped into the young woman who lives on the boat in front of me walking her little dog, she was getting up early to drive to the midlands for the day.

0900 - whilst waiting for the marina shop to open (to get a few screws to fix a shelf up) I got chatting to an old couple on a neat little narrowboat tug. They were on their way down the Thames from the Kennet and Avon canal when the flood warning went up, so had taken refuge here. We had a chat about the river, boats and Leicester, where I studied engineering and from where they bought their boat back in '81.

1100 - on my way back from putting something in the car, stopped by to talk to a guy who is fitting out a 62 foot narrowboat. Had a quick tour and a lenghty disscussion about toilets, as he'd just installed the type I'm thinking of getting. Very informative.

1500 - On my way out to post something, talked to a couple of guys who were drinking tea and chopping wood for the stove. They told me about giant pike that live in the lake we're on.

Also discovered that my water tank is only 50 gallons, so I guess more frequent re-fills are on the cards. Tested out both the washer/dryer and the oven - both working fine.

Am I living the dream or what?

No boat work this weekend as I'm helping a friend build his garage and going out in London.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Well, moved the last of my things onto IRIS at the end of September and then disappeared off to New Zealand for three weeks holiday. It was my brothers 40th and was great to see him and all my friends out there. My house still seems to be in good shape and my cat appears to remember me - bonus.

Back to the UK on the 22nd and onto IRIS, so this week has mainly been a rapid adjustment to full time life on board. Been testing out various things such as the oil stove (nice and toasty), the shower (not bad, but glass will be better than a shower curtain in the small space) and the oven (seems to work, no plans to use it yet ;-). Also been tinkering with putting up various small shelves and fittings. Have made enquiries about getting a new toilet installed, as I think that's going to be be the biggest improvement I can make to start with.

The T-Mobile 3G card is working well with the external ariel, even with all the doors shut. Mobile phone reception is flakier, but I've found that with Orange where I used to live, so no worse off really.

No real new pictures of the boat (its now just full of more stuff than before...) so here are some locals I spotted out of the front door this morning ;-)