I was once told by a nursing tutor that when you sit down to write an essay you will find every other chore that needs doing before you start – no different to writing a talk for church or a piece for Canalsonline magazine or a Thanksgiving service – the three tasks I have set myself this week, alone on the boat! How am I getting on, you might be thinking? Well, I suppose one out of three ain’t bad and there’s still tomorrow!
I wonder why it’s so hard to get ones mind in gear, to focus and then to write. Even this blog takes a fair bit of concentration and memory! The memory’s not as clear as it once was. A fleeting thought really is fleeting and it’s like, if it’s something important, I really have to find a handle to hold on to it, or it’s gone. Very annoying and it’s just going to get worse. I think that’s why I try to remember to do the daily Wordle and now the Waffle. There are plenty of others that are beyond me, like the worldle (note the extra ‘L’) but that’s more my lack of geograpical knowledge!
So with all good intentions the past couple of days have been designated for ‘writing’. I have tidied the roof of the boat (no easy task sorting the piles of wood to neaten them and standing on the roof to haul around the 15kg sacks of coal. Luckily my balance is ok); planted up some new troughs of flowers, carefully placing them out of the way of the centre rope or R will be telling me off; varnished the painted trough S and G gave us as a present; fiddled around in my new ‘room’ attaching washing lines and utilizing the now waterproof, windproof space under the semi-circular stern seat. The list goes on and that’s before I’ve engaged every passing person in conversation! Tuesday was rather wet though, so not much passing traffic on the towpath until later in the day and then we had a glorious red sky. I’m not sure the picture does it justice but that’s the view from my hatch window.
I’ve had some interesting talks. A very lengthy one on the phone with Alex who we leased Windrose from. He thinks he may know a few people who would be happy to run Naomhòg as a prayer boat on the occasions we need to be off the boat. Whilst standing on the roof a boat moored up in front of me and the lady had a BCF (boaters Christian fellowship) hoodie on. Transpired she writes poetry and environmental articles for their quarterly magazine and following on from our conversation, it looks like I am now going to write a chatty cookery column as the recent columnist has just retired! I’ve always wanted to write a recipe book. It was when, back in the day, I would regularly cook supper for 12 – 16 friends, seemingly effortlessly…. I used to joke it would be called Take two gins’ because once you have had two gins you really don’t worry what the food will taste like!! There’s a different art to boat cooking, mainly because you often have reduced access to ingredients, you are trying to minimise the gas use and you don’t want too many pots and pans to wash up! I suppose if I had solar panels and an electric oven I wouldn’t be so pedantic on my energy use. The pros and cons of solar is one of my main topics of conversation – it’s even overtaken the toilet talk!
My diet this week, as I haven’t had to consider anyone else has consisted of finishing up the jar of green thai sauce K and I opened on Saturday, cooling it down with the remains of the light coconut milk and then adding a different selection of veg each night and choosing a different carb! I was quite relieved to get invited out to dinner at the local pub by Ad to ring the changes (I have to tell you I was quite alarmed by the carb I had on Tuesday – it was some kind of no fat noodle that seemed a bit of a wonder food until I googled it mid eating and read that ‘unless well chewed it could cause oesophageal blockage and give you the runs’. It should have come with a health warning, especially for those of us who don’t chew properly!!).
Ad has been really helpful and part of my prevarication. He stopped by for a chat and not only ended up showing me how to read my batteries with a multimeter but went and got his multimeter when it transpired ours wasn’t giving a true reading. We have an analogue (I think that’s what it’s called!) rather than a digital dial on Naomhòg to monitor the battery power, which is not really accurate enough. Little did I realise when I bought the boat how consumed I would become in diesel engines and battery power. They are essential to this way of life. Somehow the necessities of home life I take for granted until they go wrong and then I expect R to sort! Ad unscrewed the panel with the dial to see if it’s possible to easily replace with a digital readout. I was relieved to hear his background was in engineering as the panel once removed revealed a complication of numerous red and black wires!
To cut a long story short, you’ll be relieved to hear, he mentioned the quiz night at the pub in Fenny C cost £2 and included a bowl of chilli and chips! I was in. Never mind the quiz – my Scottish nature never likes to miss a bargain and actually the chilli tasted great and the chips weren’t soggy! The quiz was well run by the landlady who didn’t believe in hanging about and the pub was packed so it’s obviously a popular village pastime. Ad’s friend Ml joined us and we had a great evening. An older man propping up the bar with tattoos up his arms and earrings in both ears insisted on helping us although really he just wanted someone to talk to. It sounded like he had a very lonely life, living in a caravan, working locally, away from family and friends. Ad and Ml walked me back to the boat, Ad in a high vis vest and head torch, as we were walking along a main road with no pavement before reaching the canal. It’s always advisable to light up the towpath! I think Ad is ultra cautious in part due to one aspect of his working life. He used to be in the Forces and part of his job entailed telling colleagues if their family members had died. One man had been waiting for his wife to pick him up and she was killed in a road accident en route. Terribly sad and there were many more tragic stories. Ad has an air of compassion about him that makes me feel he would have been very good at his job.
So the good news is that even with my prevarications, I finished my Sunday talk just as I was collected for my evening out! Further good news was my blood pressure reading on return from the pub – lowest in a long time! Meanwhile R, at home, is still getting to grips with the new, rather complicated Waitrose voucher system. This week the offer was £4 off their No1 ready meal range, a beef bourguignon for two, which R duly bought, took home and put in the fridge. By the time he returned from the church pub night son P had devoured it all. What is it about the appetites of the young – he’s 6ft 3 and lean as a bean!
NarrowboatTLC 