Author: Mary

Another couple of days of isolation ahead of us, although we feel pretty isolated already! R has been awaiting news of having a biopsy and speaking with the hospital on Monday they said he was on the waiting list. Think a cancellation must have come through because at 8am this morning they were trying to reach him to ask him to be at FPH by 1530 for a covid test. How blessed we were to find a car hire 10min walk from boat and that I had remembered my driving licence when we came aboard. Almost came unstuck when they asked for a utility bill with my address. Then remembered G is scanning our post, which is in a file on my phone, so they accepted a Premium Bond win letter – all of £25!

I calculated journey time of 1.5hrs and added half an hour for traffic delays and then a bit more so I wouldn’t get stressed, so decided to rent car from 1300hrs. Am I thankful for that extra time – the company computer was playing up and even though we were the only customers, it took 30minutes to log our details, repeatedly! I was beginning to calculate alternatives in my head for getting to FPH, none of which seemed very possible. What alarmed me was that these guys were not going to rent me a car unless they could log in to their computer system. No alternative was offered, such as a handwritten paper agreement. We really are at the mercy of technology in all sorts of ways. I hadn’t even considered this would be an issue.

Then I actually had to drive! It’s been so long I nearly forgot what side of the road I had to drive on. Add a manual rather than an automatic and you can see that R was in for a bumpy ride! The car was just about brand new – we were the first punters to use it and it went like a dream. Small and compact, it whizzed along, all the while R reminding me to keep to the speed limits! I had to keep reminding myself what gear I was in. I grew up with two brothers who loved tinkering with cars and listening to their engines and gear boxes almost like they spoke. I never got the language of the car and certainly couldn’t hear what gear I might be in dependant on the noise!

The covid test was straightforward and before we knew it we were en route home but not before we had filled the car with petrol remembering the ‘glove procedure’ detailed to us by the rental guys to avoid any cross contamination from pump handle to steering wheel. Then before leaving the car we had to sanitize everything we might have touched. All very thorough and reassuring, just a bit nerve-wracking. I remembered, after depositing the keys through the letterbox , that R had sat briefly in the back but I had not sanitized the back door handles. I had also, in the confusion of the morning computer glitch, left my ancient driving licence in the car hire office. So a call to the office was in order to guarantee safe keeping of my licence until Saturday when we hire the car again, and to admit that the door handles need sanitising!

Thank goodness I did all that cooking yesterday. Plenty of food to eat as we obviously can’t go shopping. After our unexpected exciting daytrip I was delighted all I had to do was warm through some chilli. Honestly, driving on the M25 after a narrowboat is mentally exhausting! All those other drivers. And I thought it was lockdown!

Ended the day watching a documentary of a young German couple who decide to drive through Africa. It looked far more adventurous than our narrowboat experience! The one thing that struck me was that their trip occurred during an ebola crisis. The West African country they were travelling through was experiencing a lockdown, very similar to us today. If I had seen that film a year ago I would never have imagined we would one day be in the same situation.

Other than taking pictures of the hire car to prove we haven’t scratched it my camera remained idle so sadly I have nothing to liven this post, except £1 worth of joy – aren’t daffodils amazing!

If you look really carefully you can just see the ice on the canal, evident as we heard it gently crack as we went to fill the boat with water at nearly midday. No wonder we are feeling the chill! No problem though. We get the heating on (even though it involves having to go outside to turn on the engine, a task nobley taken on by R who has to get dressed and then undressed!) and once the water is hot, can indulge in a lovely steaming bath. When you know you are then going to fill the tank with water you can have the bath as deep as possible assuming the heating has been on long enough to make copious hot water. Which mercifully it had this morning!

After filling with water we successfully, without incident or loss of temper, reversed the boat back to its mooring, with the help of R on the towpath pulling the midrope. At one point it was a close shave to us straddling the canal but a quick thrust forward realigned the boat and we continued our strategy of R doing all the pulling backwards. Such a good feeling knowing we have plenty of water and clean potty cassettes!

Market day in LB so we went and bought a loaf of bread and were very dr samosas but resisted temptation. Don’t think they will help our cholesterol levels! We then walked in a slightly new direction (I think we are rapidly exhausting all routes out of LB Town centre) and found ourselves in the flooded meadows abreast the towpath that I photographed a few days ago. Mercifully the water level had dropped considerably and we were able to walk along the pathways. Quite icy but we walked with care.

Arriving back at the boat I had a sudden urge to cook. I had made some wonderful chicken stock which I used 3 ways – celery soup; chicken and veg pie topped with mixed root veg (courtesy of Burns Night mash with added carrots); chilli venison and mixed bean mince – using the uber hot chilli olives! And then I made up a carrot cake recipe using some of the mashed up carrot. Not a bad result considering I had no way of weighing anything! Some online Trickster Bridge with friends in the evening followed by an episode of Schitts Creek finished the day well! SC has been recommended to us and we weren’t sure about it to begin with, but it’s growing on us as we get to know the characters. Each episode is short so a convenient burst of light entertainment at the end of the day.

• 

• 

• 

The day we woke up to snow! Whilst everyone else seemed to be delighting in the beauty of the white blanket and posting endless picturesque picture’s, we snuggled further under the duvet wondering when it would be warm enough to get up and make a cup of tea. How wonderful that Zoom calls can be sans video. I never imagined that one day I would be attending a religious service ‘live’ from the comfort of my bed! Nor that when I tried to get dressed, my fingers would be so cold I would not be able to open the plastic bag containing my underwear! One of the best tips we were given, which I may have mentioned before, is keeping all clothing in vacuum plasticbags to stop the damp penetrating through. Luckily R, up and about before me, had warmed his hands on the teapot and came to my rescue!

The snow had stopped falling by the time we had enough layers on to venture outside and LB looked rather magical shrouded in white. We trod carefully, not wanting to slip on any icy patches, and had not ventured far before a Chinese lady pushing a pram, indicated that she had found a mobile phone on the ground. Speaking very little English, she was keen to give the phone to us to sort the problem of how to find its owner. The phone was locked but the screenshot was of a school timetable with a girl’s name so I thought if all else failed I could ring round the local schools tomorrow. R thought there might be somewhere to leave phone at fire/police station so he wandered off to speak to them whilst I waited with phone to see if the owner came looking for it. To keep warm I did my Joe Wicks routine which must have looked a bit strange but no one commented! Eventually R returned having had no luck speaking to anyone so we continued on our walk hoping the phone might ring. We found a large park we had never walked through before and there was an amazing snowman with a snow dog! Returning eventually back to the boat I noticed a missed call on the phone by an ’emergency’ contact. Although the phone was locked it allowed me to ring this number and thus reunite the phone with its very grateful young owner whose emergency contact was her father. Relief all round.

So a quiet afternoon and evening reading the papers, watching an episode of Finding Alice, which I am not too sure about, and raising a glass of sherry to mum! Once again, like last week, we attended our church Songs of Praise and it was heart warming listening to people’s stories of faith and the songs they had chosen and why. Meanwhile outside it’s still trying to snow although the weather app shows a big round sun shining all day tomorrow. We can but hope!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Well, having let off steam about exercise in yesterday’s blog, I put on the dance music first thing and did my Joe Wicks routune. Was just stretching when the phone interrupted me and I had a fun conversation with K, who having just read my blog, was ringing in empathy! I think the only reason I keep going with the blog at the moment is because it keeps me feeling connected with the world and my friends.  There is certainly not much to say on the boating front. We haven’t moved, even to get water. R has walked the potty to the Elsan so all’s good there! The problem with no moving at all is that the boat seems to get damper and colder, with wet patches on the floor from leaks coming in via window condensation. We had the engine on for an hour to get some hot water so at least I have clean hair – makes me feel better! And we were able to do last night’s washing up in hot water. The cold water, obviously,  is really cold at the moment with the outside temperature plummeting preparing us for snow. 

Decided to get our veg and bread from the market stalls. The queues were so long we ended up instead at the Greek stall buying olives (so hot they blow your head off) and samosas and onion bhajis from the Indian stall. And finally I cracked on the return journey to our boat. The nearest shop is Majestic wine! Having tried to stick to my policy of no white wine on board (lead me not into temptation) we noticed a bin end sale! So now we have 2 bottles of Sunday sherry and 4 bottles of wine (actually 2 are rosè so technically have only blown my resolve by two bottles!). And thrown in 3 reduced price cans of short dated G&T.

Laden with bottles we were grateful the boat was so close and celebrated our return by trying the G&T. Sadly it was a bit flat so resolved the issue by adding a bit more gin, frozen lemon slices and some fresh sparkling water – not a bad drink! We heated the Indian treats, made some riata to accompany them and what an unexpectedly delicious lunch. They were some of the best bhaji and samosas I have ever eaten.  Cheered me no end, ready for the Zoom jammy dodger cookery class at 2pm. Set up by a church group we know from Thorpeness, they asked the chef at one of the local pubs to put on a cookery demonstration.  Participants were encouraged to make their own biscuits at home at the same time. It was surprisingly entertaining even though I wasn’t making the biscuits. But I might give them a go! Making a jammy dodger isn’t rocket science but it was the idea that people could get together in such a way and find something communal to do that both cheered and depressed me. Obviously the cheering bit was seeing everyone have a bit of fun and banter. The depressing part was the reality of not seeing each other face to face. The almost absurd way we are all having to live, without seeing or hugging our family. The social distancing of all our friends.  I will have to dust myself down, give myself a good talking to and just get on with the situation we are in. But every so often my resilience cracks a little. As long as we don’t all crack at the same time, we can take it in turns to hold each other up and all will be well, eventually.  Patience, perhaps that is what God is trying to teach me. It’s never been my strong point. Sometimes we just have to wait for things to pass and see the positives in the present. And to be thankful. So looking back on the day I had three lovely telephone conversations, a fun Zoom, great food and R who not only kept the home fire burning, but sensed I was a bit down and did his best to lift my spirits with kindness. Its love that makes the world go round!