New ropes
Ah, the gentle thrill of new mooring ropes. The ones that came with IRIS when I bought her had seen better days and were pretty abrasive to use. I ordered some replacements from the Fendermaker, the same place that I got my (wait for it.....) fenders from. As before, prompt service and lower prices than most places.

Here they are waiting to go on....



...and in use....



There was never any question over the colour choice. :) Should be a little less chafing from now on.

I've also (finally) fitted the sink to the bathroom. It ended up going in against a different wall, but seems to fit well there. Just need to do a little bit of tiling around it and I'll be done.

Waiting.....
Doing a bit more work on the bathroom project tonight, and of course the battery ran low on the drill a crucial point. So while I'm waiting for it to re-charge, here are a few random pictures. I've been working away in Scotland and London for a while, as well as taking the odd boat trip, so progress on things such as actually having bathroom sink have been slow.

Anyway, been working from home the last few days and its been very pleasant. I'm possibly the only person on various conference calls who is feeding ducks whilst discussing the riveting detail of the IT world.

Here is a view of IRIS from the side on her mooring, normally there is another boat in the way, but they seem to have gone somewhere...



....and here is one of the locals at the side door. Apparently stale pitta bread is a big hit with the wildfowl.



Finally, here is that massive on-board computer system that enables these pages to be bought to you.



All in all, not the most scintillating of posts, even by my standards. That drill had better be charged up now....

Saturday

Three men went to Henley in a small boat (IRIS), had lunch and came back again. Two of them had burgers.

Crazy.

Edinburgh
Been up here for work during the last few weeks and there is not much narrowboating to be had in Scotland. Did another little trip on the Thames last weekend with Mary, and cabin boy Mat makes his first appearance of the season this weekend with our lunch trip to Henley (teenage girls optional I hope - see previous post) - hopefully we won't be mobbed by adoring fans, judging from the number of times you've checked out his profile compared to mine.

Been reading Sarah's Warrior blog and have to say I agree with her view of modern boats. There aren't many that I find inspsiring, I guess thats why I like mine with its old-skool appeal.

Went to the Little Venice canal festival on bank holiday monday and saw a range of interesting old working boats, as well as a range of interesting old people.

Just to include some photographs, here is one of my favorites from this year, IRIS in the ice in february.



...and completely at random, my brother and cat in front of my house in NZ in October last year.