Monday 13 August 2018

So here's the thing....

My blogging performance has become a dribble of blogs! You would have thought the last 11 months would have seen a significant increase being all retired as I am.

However - and here is the thing (1) .... when working I felt more able to reward myself with time aboard Percy. It was the antithesis of work, a place of peace and calm and a controlled place. It was a place I went to and a place in some ways I did not feel guilty about as I was balancing my life.

Now I am a house husband and despite a very understanding wife I feel guilty if I consider time aboard when Rachel is still working away. Truth is I think I am working physically harder now than when I was at work. Not mentally harder and the background stress and pressure is not there but my body is telling me I am grafting, and I don't mind a bit of graft so I know when I am upping the grafting game !

So here is the thing (2).... I lived and worked in a city for 50 odd years. I made a grove in the M42/M40.A34/M3/M27 on many thousands of miles of two life living for over three years. My life was busy, noisy and fast.

Now I live in a beautiful cottage in a valley in the middle of the countryside. I walk out of my back door onto footpaths over fields and into valleys. The views are fantastic and the sounds of peace quite and nature are all around. (as I type this I have just heard the steam train making its way down the valley) . There is little contrast now in my bricks and mortar existence against Percy.

So here's the thing (3) .... the trump card Percy has over our cottage is change of location and I don't just mean Fradley. Those of us who own boats know that there is a singular joy in going to bed in a different idyl to that we woke up in.... with all the associated sights and sounds of the canals in between. The history, the people the structures all come to us on a ribbon of reflection and quiet (in the main) sounds of 3mph travel.

So there we are. The thing is owning a boat now has to be more than just ownership and a lovely mooring. It has to be travel and use. If not then it'll have to go to someone who will use it.








No comments: