WINTER CONTINUES

I have just re-organised the interior of 'ROSY'.

Before the re-org, the interior - starting from the front - was:

1. The living room, sporting: shelving for my 200+ library, the music centre, the  CDs, DVDs and cassette tapes, a sturdy coal box, a Morso stove, a space that houses an (IKEA) easy-chair on one side and what looks like a comfortable sofa on the other, but which at night can turn into a double bed, followed by a sink (with cupboards below) and a fridge on one side and a gas stove (including an oven, food preparation table and cupboards below on the other.

2. What was originally a bedroom, with 2 bunk beds (one above the other) on one side and a wardrobe on the other.

3. The bathroom, which is armed with a bath-cum-shower, a small sink, lots of shelving for bathroomy things and a magic, gas-fired box that turns cold water into hot water. 

(There is a central heating system, powered by the Morso stove that heats up these three spaces. I was 'warned' that this was not possible, but it was. The secret was to ensure that the proper gauge piping was used, that it went slightly up-hill all the way from the stove to the bathroom, and that the Morso was working well).

4. The engine room (including the tool depository).

5. The traditional back cabin that provides a cross-bed (that has to be set up each night), a side bed (that is a seat during the day and a bed for children at night) cupboards and a coal fired Epping stove that incorporates an oven and a hot plate for cooking. (It also has the cunning flap that was supposed to prevent a perverted father from interfering with his children at night).

Up until 2 or 3 weeks ago, Fanny-the-Woof and I slept in the back cabin. However, the Epping was playing up (and, indeed, was falling apart), so we abandoned the back cabin, and set up shop in the living room. I wish I had done this years ago, at least in the winter. The new regime gets me in and out of bed very much more quickly, and causes me to spend about a third less money on coal.

As some of you will know, for the past few years I have been paying infrequent but reglar visits to doctors who have been helping me deal with my short term forgetfulness and type 2 diabetes. I have now been warned that the former is getting worse, and will eventually be termed Dementia. I am, naturally, not too happy about this, but it is my intention to stay on 'ROSY' and to continue to go cruising, though restricting myself mainly to the Oxford Canal.

That's all for now. Toodle pip!! Bill

 

IDLENESS

Over the last few months 'Rosy', Fanny the Woof and I have been leading a very quiet life in the Willow Wren branch (off the Oxford Canal). It takes 20 minutes to walk up to Tesco for provisions, and only 3 or 4 minutes to walk down to the juntion with the Oxford Canal and its towing path. I have had a very indolent few months, reading lots of books, visiting the nearby cinema at least once per month and walking with Fanny.

I am regularly asked 'Isn't it cold in the boat during the winter'. I have a variety of answers. No. 1. If it was cold inside I would be elsewhere.

No. 2. I have 2 coal fired units on 'Rosy'. The one up front keeps the living room warm (where I live during the day) and the one at the backwarms up the place where I sleep.

No 3. Yes, it is cold in the boat, but I find that a coal fire eradicates the problem.

No 4. I did not realise that I look stupid enough to spend entire the winter freezing to death.

There are some great advantages in being moored up on 'proper' winter moorings. Most importantly, I do not have to run the engine for 30 to 40 minutes each morning and evening to charge up the batteries. I also take the opportunity to cram all of the 'professional' visits into the winter break, leaving the rest of the year available for cruising. Hence my diary covers dentists, doctors and other such ne'er do wells! It is also useful to be able to tap-in to the boaty engineers, who can put to rights the occasional tweaks that 'Rosy' requires.

Right. That's all folks!!

Toodle pip!!