Living on the boat

We've been living on the boat since 22nd December 2012 and I can honestly say I'm loving it.

Barton Marina, Christmas 2012

Cosy Salon

It may be winter and freezing outside but we're all cosy and comfy aboard 'The Cat'... It's just so relaxing, totally 'away from it all' and just think, if we like it now, how much are we going to enjoy cruising and life aboard in the warmer months. It's just what we all needed after the stress of the last few months.

Galley Kitchen

Life in Barton Marina is very laid back with plenty going-on right on your doorstep.  Well thought-out and beautifully landscaped with scenic walks around the many lakes it has all the usual marina facilities plus more to make life easier for the boaters.  There is also 'The Waterfront Pub' which although quite new has a nice cosy atmosphere.  They have live entertainment every Friday and Saturday night and although we haven't actually been yet (we get too comfy in the Captains chairs) we can't hear anything from where we're moored at the far side of the marina.

Moored-up in the Marina

There's also a new Thai restaurant called 'Nipa' which looks very nice (we're due to dine there next Saturday night with friends) and various 'artisan' shops including an excellent butchers. The lovely 'unspoilt' village of Barton Under Needwood is a pleasant 10 minute stroll away and is well served with lots of services too.

Cruising the T&M

Although we like it in the marina we can't wait to get out on the cut.  Last weekend we managed to escape it's confines and had a little trip down the Trent and Mersey to Alrewas (about 2.5 miles).

 Mooring at Alrewas

Entering the Lock

We hadn't started 'The Cat' since arriving at the marina but I'm pleased to report that she started first time.  Such a relief after all the hassle we had with my dad's old boat... No messing about spraying the engine with 'Cold Start' and all that nonsense. ;-)  The photos I've posted here were taken with my new iPhone (a recent treat to myself), my friend Jean spotted them after I'd posted them to my Facebook profile and joined us for the journey back on the Sunday... I think she enjoyed her first ever Narrowboat trip looking at her face!

Jean at the bow

Talking about the phone, I'm really pleased with my new gadget, I've spent hours discovering all it can do and having it hooked-up to the internet with The One Plan from Three is absolutely brilliant, all you can eat data, tethering and no worrying about topping-up.  Perfect for when we really get cruising. It's great to be finally catching up with the 21st Century.

On the home front... We'll soon be the proud new owners of a nice little semi that backs on to the Wyrley and Essington Canal if all goes to plan.  It has a decent size garden for Ruben, a great outlook onto open fields at the rear and once we've settled in we'll be contacting CaRT to re-establish an end-of-garden mooring for The Cat... Watch this space!

Ps I may have cussed my dads boat earlier but 'Norwind' will always have a place in my heart (as it did in his) and I'm truly pleased to still be in touch (via Facebook) with the gentleman who is now the owner of
it. He wrote earlier this month to let me know that he and his wife spent boxing day aboard the boat and appears to still be really pleased with the old thing... The boat not the wife that is :-)

That's it for now... Hopefully next time I post we'll be 'in the house'!

Stressed but happy!

The title of this post sums up exactly how I'm feeling right now.  It's been just over 3 weeks since we arrived back in the UK after leaving France and our old life behind us forever.  

We've sold!!!

We're now in a transitional period and experiencing the joys of renting.  We've taken on a rental property for 6 months in what my mum would call a 'ticky-tacky' house, a 3 bed semi on a typical sixties housing estate in Pelsall.  Pelsall, once a village but now a suburb of Walsall (don't tell the locals though, they still 'affectionately' call it a village) is fine and I can truly say that I'm feeling the happiest I've felt in a long long time. I'm not sure why I chose Pelsall to live... I don't know it too well to be honest, it's somewhere I've always just 'passed through' without bothering to stop but it's turned out to be perfect for us right now.  I've been following a few folks on Twitter from this area and one lady @JayneHowarth has a great blog called Common People: news for Pelsall that's great for picking up local news.  Pelsall is so much more interesting than I realised.  Behind our house there's a lovely wooded walk which makes up part of the Timberland Trail in-between the rows of houses that leads to Pelsall Wood Common and the Wyrley and Essington Canal - Perfect for exercising Ruben. It's just 5 minutes drive from my parents in Rushall and pretty much central for all our old friends and family.

Timberland Walk

Pelsall Wood Common

Wyrley and Essington Canal

Going back to the French house sale... It wasn't entirely stress free I'm afraid.  We had agreed somewhat naively with the agent to allow our buyer to store some of his belongings at La Treille before signing the Acte de Vente.  We were a little wary of this as it's a big no no in the UK but the agent assured us "this was the norm in France" so we reluctantly agreed.  We were alarmed a couple of weeks later when the buyer, his brother and buddie arrived in huge vans crammed with their belongings.  We'd already made space in the barn for him but no way was this lot going to fit. He almost filled the downstairs of the barn (about 30 cubic metres)! Because he lived in Nantes (over 5 hours drive away) we had also agreed they could stay overnight in one of the gites.  Me being the hostest with the mostest had prepared a hearty supper and made them very welcome. This happened another couple of times over the next 3 months whilst we were all waiting for the sale to 'go-through'.  Everything seemed to be going ok (besides that is me being taken into hospital with anaemia and ending-up having a full hysterectomy op - another story that I'll have to post about later) when 2 weeks before the completion date we received an email from the agent informing us that the buyer had a delay in getting the full funds and the date for signing was going to have to be postponed for 10-14 days... Arghh!!! The amazing thing was, was that the agent and the buyer thought it was perfectly ok for us to leave as planned and hand the keys over to them before we had received any payment and they would arrange for a proxy to sign the Acte de vente on our behalf.  We were having 'non of that' and made it clear that we were not leaving the property without full funds being paid in full and further more we would not allow the buyer and his family any further access to La Treille until this happened.  After a few days of frantic calls the buyer  miraculously managed to scrape together the 80.000 thousand euros they were short from their family... Wish my family had that sort of dosh at the drop of a hat!!!  Anyway, thankfully after that  it all went through without any further hitches. I've exchanged a few emails with Pascal (the new owner) of  La Treille Gites and everything seems to have gone smoothly with the gite guests who had already booked with us but arriving after we departed. 

Back in Pelsall; I wouldn't say I'm totally relaxed though as we're spending a lot of our time house hunting.  What's making it doubly difficult is the fact that we've decided to buy ourselves a narrow boat. We used to have a plastic 'cruiser' on the canals just before leaving for France 8 years ago and we had some really good times.  The other reason is that we think it would be a kind of investment.  Unfortunately things have moved on in the last 8 years and the UK inland waterways have become ever more popular. This has in turn made mooring in a marina very expensive due to demand.  So, we had the bright idea of buying a house on the canal with moorings; hence saving ourselves in the region of £2000 per year hopefully.  We've been looking for 3 weeks for a property matching this description.  There are plenty in the 1/2 million + price bracket but for our measly budget of around £200k is proving pretty hard work.  After viewing a few places we're realising how little you get for your money if it's a canal location you're after.  I'm spending hours trawling the net, 'drawing search area's around the canals' on rightmove.co.uk and putting requests out to all and sundry on Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else I can think of in our quest for this particular property.  It's not going to be easy but we are not beaten just yet and will persevere with our search for a couple more months before rethinking our plans.

Jeff and Dad

Jeff at the tiller

Mom on the Bow

Mom and Dad

We are taking a few days off from the house search now and again.  On Sunday we spent the day on my parents 'historic' narrow boat called 'Norwind'. An iron composite 'butty style' boat with a wooden top originally built at Saltley boat yard in Birmingham in 1905/6. It has been renovated and chopped down several times but still going strong. My father spends hours messing about with it. We had a leisurely cruise up the Staffs and Worcs for about 6 hours stopping for lunch midway. Jeff and I both had a go at steering the boat. It's surprising how much you have to concentrate and not very relaxing at all.  I think I'll stick to 'doing the locks' and sitting on the bow reading my kindle.  Ruben loved it by the way, hopping on and off and running along the tow path... think he's going to love the narrow boat life too!