Very tempted by a duvet day on the boat but recounting the fire alarm story to R he said the smoke detector needed a new battery and it should be bought today so that put paid to not getting dressed and staying aboard all day! I did infact have to go and get a new battery fitted for the watch I now have that belonged to mum. It stopped working during lockdown as did the watch battery fitters but I noticed a mobile van and man in Banbury that would do the job so I guessed he would also sell me a 9v battery for the alarm. How right I was! Before leaving the boat I had noticed the rubbish bag was almost overflowing so armed with the CRT services key I stopped en route to deposit the rubbish and got into conversation with a man on a hireboat who asked if I thought it was ok for him to leave his boat whilst the water tank was filling. Remarking I didn’t think it would take long to fill, he assured me it would be at least an hour – the tank had actually run dry mid shower!! I paid another visit to the zero waste shop and had great fun refilling and repurposing all my empty containers with freshly ground coffee, freshly ground Nutella etc and even bubble bath into an empty Neals yard blue glass bottle, so looks very posh even if the bubble bath inside isn’t quite so! Managed to get more bubblebath outside the bottle than in, so it was quite a sticky process, but the shop assistant was very helpful and remembered me from my last visit as she also lives on a narrowboat so we had a good chat.
I actually ended up having a very productive day in that looking at my emails it transpired our speaker for tomorrow night’s Zoom Filling Station meeting is ill and so has had to pull out, very apologetically and very last minute! Having had a clear day, in which I was hoping to do some writing on the subject of ‘grace’, I ended up writing a talk for tomorrow’s FS meeting! Done in relative haste, I hope it will still manage to speak to those attending about this narrowboat adventure and the part I feel God is playing in it. In particular, the God given moments, or ‘instances’ where I feel he has been at work and the occasions when I have felt guided, led and strengthened by the Holy Spirit when faced with things beyond my remit or control. I think we all have those wherever we are living or whatever we are doing! Being on the boat without R, I find comfort from my belief that actually God is with me so I am not as alone as I think or fear!
It always surprises me how fast the time goes when writing and actually how time consuming it is. It was 7pm before I came up for air! It’s easy to lose sight of time when outside is so light. I found some veg and cooked a stir fry, adding some precooked instant noodles, so supper was done in a flash and eaten just as fast because not only was I hungry, I hate eating cold food. I even made some egg custard as a treat and then settled to watch ‘Line of Duty’. I was rather disappointed that there was only one episode to catch up on. I was certain I had missed two. I even Googled to make sure it wasn’t just that I couldn’t find episode 5 on iplayer! It did mean I also had time to watch the first episode of the Great British Sewing Bee, which I love! Meanwhile the boat was getting chillier and chillier as I sat in my ‘snug’ wrapped in a blanket, knowing I was going to have to extricate myself and get into my proper bed. I resorted to the hotwater bottle, the same one that had leaked all over H a few nights earlier. I was so cold I took the risk and just hope I don’t wake up in a wet patch!
NarrowboatTLC 