Let's step back in time

It was the end of November when I last posted something of us doing rather than reflections or thoughts on life etc.  So what did December bring to my life.

Checking back on my photos I was walking the Caldon at the beginning of December, a lovely snowy scene. I recall walking up to one of the four boats moored on the visitor mooring before the winding hole that is there for non tunnel traffic to hear the tell tale sound of a lazy starter battery and the cursing of a canal boater. He'd retreated into his boat muttering before I could offer help.  Not a bad place to overwinter f you have access to a vehicle, if not there is a lot if walking for supplies and water 

Some photos of the snow from my drone of out little hamlet 

I tried my hand at Lemon drizzle cake - very nice it was to 

By the 8th December I'd decided I'd be upgrading my big touring bike. The BMW R1200RT has been in its current spec since 2014 with a few engine and gearbox tweaks. I like the bike it suits me so it was an easy upgrade to the 1250 shift cam engined bike.... this one coming with a sound system installed ! A lot less miles on it, new tyres mot and service as well as two year BMW warranty and breakdown cover....I drove over to Shipley to do the deal and it was delivered all ready a week later. An extravagance but you can't take it with you as they say. 

Biking thirst quenched, early on the 15th December I was meeting my long standing friend Graeme for a lovely 8 mile walk around Curbar edge. The weather was cold but fine and it was a most enjoyable mornings walking.

Some family stuff ( house viewings for sister in law) then on the 20th we were at out oldest sons home visiting and catching up with Teddy and Benny our grandsons. 

Another walk this time 9 miles around the Roaches and Lud's Church with my youngest son who now resides in Buxton.

Then it was Christmas prep collecting the turkey and taking my mum out for food in Uttoxeter - she likes a drive out to different places.

We paid a visit to Christine's resting place to have a chat and update her with all the news ...

Christmas day was at ours with Sharon Andy and Aiden for dinner and tea (Brother in law, sister in law and nephew) sadly I didn't take any photos

Boxing day was over at Toms for some nice food and present swapping as well as a walk along the Erewash canal.... his cottage backs onto the canal. Nice walk somewhat spoilt by a lad - late teenager on a cycle with his big brother or dad cycled by no problem then all of a sudden a massive splash and he went in and right under - some shock to him, he was ok but well shaken up and very cold. We offered help but they said they lived close by thankfully.

The 27th saw us catching up with more family as we were treated to freshly made pizza in Joy and Jeffs outdoor space  - plus I think this is where I collected the bonus of the super cold from Barry whos son Luke was not at the 'do' as he had a cold ! 

The 28th and Rachel was back as work  - working from home while I nipped over to Percy to check all was well. Cold boat but batteries charged so all was good. 

Then is was over to New Quay in Wales for our New Year. We invited Sharon for a break from other things. Part of the reason for the trip was for Rachel and Sharon to meet up with their teacher from their time at a Steiner house school - Eric. Lovely time catching up 

New Year's day and we were on New Quay beach starting 2022 in style. It's a lovely place and somewhere we will revisit.

Chips on the beach - a real treat 

We also went into the sea because we could ! 

The cottage wasn't the best so we came back a day early calling in at Aberystwyth, not a patch on New Quay  

I was beginning my cold so it was ill advised (going against my nurses advice) to go out on the bike. I'd not been out since my Blood bikes check ride mid December. It was cold but dry and I did enjoy it 

I pushed my luck by going back to Shebdon to help my neighbour move her moorings. I was snotty but 'just a cold' 

It's a lovely mooring and I was quite jealous  - ironically it was our mooring when we moved to Shebdon, tainted by the break in that saw us move on to another great mooring that we still miss.

So that's me all caught up  - heading to two weeks of illness !

Value your health

We all take it for granted, getting up and getting on with our days, but when you get poorly it gives a different perspective to what life could be like !

I picked up a cold that went on to be a chest infection the day after New Years Day (waiting on my PCR test as I had two of the three 'indicators') Based on the rattle and what is being coughed up my nurse diagnosed a chest infection  - got into the docs within half an hour who listened to my chest and said rattle on right lung - antibiotics. I can't remember the last time I had antibiotics - maybe going back 40 years. I've had a few doses of flu and we all know what proper flu is like.

I'm detailing this as I hate how its put me housebound and in proper man flu mode. I hate the aches and pains the temps bring, the rigours as the body goes into shake mode to get the temp up then the temp shoots up, headaches, hacking cough, productive so it makes you feel sick chest pains from coughing and headaches from being in the same air and coughing all the time. 

I know we all have these illnesses, but I'm recording it to remind myself how crappy it made me feel. Last time I had these temps was when I was living on the boat over Christmas December 2016 read about it here  I remember getting back to the boat on Christmas Day from Toms house and leaving Callum and Rachel to Christmas evening while I went to bed and shivered and sweated  - horrid. Made all the worse at the time as I was dealing with an issue at work ( basically the server room AC power had failed and the backup generators had not kicked in - only when services started going down did someone check the room and the door handle was too how to touch ! ) So I was in work on Boxing day to help the 'critical incident' lol...how I don't miss those now, I do sometimes wonder if they still have the systems we put in place to deal with issues like this .... 

Anyhow, nearly two days into the antibiotics and I had some soup today so I'm hoping tomorrow will be the turnover day and I'll start to feel like doing stuff again  - slowly, lesson learnt.

Eat well, exercise, rest, get enough sleep, spend time outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine. Worry less love and laugh more. Sermon and record over 

Inspiring and frightening ways to live

This small escape put into words comes from an article on the BBC about the Hermit of Treig  An inspiring or frightening insight into a life that is so alien to this marketing and consumer  led society we all inhabit to different depths. Google Ken who is the Hermit and discover his story and a life so innocent and simple it makes me reflect deeply on where I am what I have for what I want what I need and what I should do about it. 

Now to add some boating context to my scribbling and to also add some sanity to my thought processes and what impact that may have on what future years I have left … let’s talk reality

We can’t all be Ken’s but we can embrace his approach to living in a spectrum of life actions. Let’s bring it down to Vloggers and Bloggers….as to be honest if I was to do a Ken it would most probably be to Percy I’d escape … other options are available, see later. 

Now I’ll start in a negative way as there are many Vloggers who have extolled the virtues of simple living on the canals but their stories are in my humble opinion, a compromise and in some cases an affront to all those following and planning their own life changes. Jonno… nice fella didn’t  last long before he took the king's shilling and got in bed ( in a house I guess) with Victron. Very popular, and rightly so Cruising the cut (not anymore) David who stays put now in marinas seemingly, and you dear diary know how I feel about marinas. David is honest enough to tell us he is a marina dweller  and to be honest does not pretend to be the good canal life guru. The Foxes, I’ve stopped watching them as they now even call themselves 'canal celebrities' and merchandise and patroon themselves far too much making it a real business, no not for me. Country house gent, nice fella but marina based despite the ability to travel for the last year. can’t fault his attachment to travels  - by motorbike but again the boat is a home in a marina. Even Robbie Cummings - top fella had brought a car/ pickup so he can opt in and out of house life no doubt. I’m not for one minute disrespecting any named above but rather picking up on the lack of real passion for the waterways in a pure change of approach to living sense.

Now the inspiration, the Ken and Kenetta of the canal living off grid is Floating our Boat’s  Rich and Fran. They have and continue to embrace the alternative limited impact living off grid lifestyle. In my book if you are going to be low impact totally immersed in the canal corridors of England and Wales you have to continuously cruise. Moreover they make their humble living with weaving and painting plus foraging for bits of food and also boat decorations. Their comforts are music and books and the enjoyment of nature around them. I was surprised when they went for the lovely new boat  - and it is very well done and nicely specified. They have been honest and say they do not know when their boat adventure will end ( got to get the value of the depreciation of the VAT on that new build) but I’m very sure it’ll morph into a Ken like Scottish croft existence, I just hope they take us along when they do change.

Now my community - bloggers. Not many left at all now some have earned their marina or off side farm mooring for many years of blogging well before Dan Brown put the deposit down on Tilly and set a trend of Youtube Vloggers  - must be upto 150 of them now and most will have had a Jackery to ‘test’! 

No 1 has to be NB Seyella who’ve been CC’ing as long as I've been blogging  - 14 years ? There are a few who reside on the bank side where there is no hook up no elsan or pump out maybe water and the luxury of car parking. I’ll not name them as I’m sure most are not on residential moorings but are residential therefore breaking local council rules  - that strangely in times of councils wanting every penny not collecting the ‘Poll tax’.

So two real heroes of mine Floating our boat and NB Seyella…. click on their names if you are not a boater person but want to know what I’m typing about !

So what does this mean for me. 2022 is a New Year and we get a bit reflective and plan focused…to be honest I don’t know…. we have many plans for 2022 health allowing and we are incredibly well placed due to a lot of hard work and planning as well as a dose of luck. We have options around Percy that I may detail in another post…. I guess ultimately our plan has mainly come to fruition and we are family focussed and could not just up sticks and live a distance away from family…. well I maybe could but Rachel could not. 

I would have liked to live in a remote part of Wales or Scotland and maybe one of the options around Percy could facilitate that. Then again travel to these places is not quite as good but very achievable where we are based. Choices choices decisions decisions, but if we do nothing we will still have a wealth of riches.

One final thought  - non of the options or considerations above have merit for me or anyone of you do not have good physical health. We are working hard to eat sensibly, reduce processed foods, eat organically, cook from scratch and remove the ‘narcotics’ food and drinks can and does provide. Not easy and definitely not cheap but maybe a poor financially and rich in health life is as good as you can aspire to.

Anyhow for now sometimes planning and thinking are good way to exorcise the wanderlust demons.

Need to add some photos to remind me about Percy, waiting patiently for some attention and the possibilities the 60 foot escape capsule offers ….

Need my canal mojo back

Since putting Percy in marina jail I’ve lost my enthusiasm for the canals and Percy. Ok this time of year can be difficult for boating with stoppages and short cold days but in the past we’ve been out and about enjoying the quiet winter canals.

Percy’s engine is disabled at the moment while I try and get it sorted either by myself or an engineer who knows stuff. More likely me in the new year as I’m struggling to get someone out to it who's a reasonable distance. For now I’m paying higher bills for mooring than I’d like and not using any of the facilities. I need to paint the gas locker so that’ll test the ‘no working on boats’ policy the marina seems to have. The rules are one of the things that gripe me a lot. 

I visited a few days ago to check the batteries and the bilge pump etc and all was ok. One thing is I know unless we can be moved I’ll not stay too long, being at the back is ok ( to do unseen work on the boat!) but I miss seeing boats moving on the cut. Always had a linear mooring. 

Updates in the New Year hopefully but for now a view from the rear doors ( it’s too shallow at the back of the marina to reverse Percy in) 

Going back 40 plus years and then some

I have always been a person who can find hobbies and interests. Back when I was in my late teens it was photography with a Practika camera set in a metal case with a MTL3 camera, telephoto lens and wide angle lens. If I recall correctly it came from Littlewoods catalogue and I paid over 20 weeks for it  ! 

I used colour film that was developed by BonusPrint and after sending it off in the post I had to wait for it to plop back into the letterbox to see the results of my photography. I actually won a RB Macmillan (where I did my print apprenticeship) photo competion - sport photo I think for a person Kyaking on the river Derwent at Darley Abbey mills. I can even remember getting drunk with my colleague and snooker (another hobby) mate Eddie Russell at the presenting ceremony. 

So forty years later my youngest son is very much into film photography and he passed an eBay buy Practika MTL3 to me with a roll of film….. black and white to see what I could do with it.

About 12 months after giving it to me we were at his new flat in Buxton and developed the film in a ‘bag’ - all very clever simple stuff that I enjoyed. Once the film was dry he scanned it in and sent the pictures to me. The best bit was remembering walks we’d been on over the last 12 months that I’d forgotten and seeing how good or bad the pictures were. 

I enjoyed it and have another roll to play with but I also like my super zoom digital ! 

Confidence - where does it go when you get older

Reasons to be cheerful  - It occurred to me the other night while making food (unrelated) what the essence of mindfulness is. We hear a lot about it - defined as living in the moment I understand. 

So what happens if we do not ‘live in the moment’  - well I concluded we cheat our destiny by trying to predict it or influence it. In fact it goes deeper in that by preoccupying ourselves with in the main things we cannot change we are also cheating those around us  - especially those who may have less time than us. 

It's almost ironic that by not trying to change the future we can actually embellish it by being focussed on things we love the most and focus our time and energy towards them… focussed mindfulness if there is such a thing. 

Anyhow it's how I cope in these darker months whenever my mind decides to try and go a wandering I send it a reminder that unless it's good wandering it needs to be back in the moment as if I can’t change or significantly influence its focus of direction its wasting those cells that will get lost in the thought processes…. 

All of the above underpins my thinking that trying to control everything ultimatly influences confidence in as much as when things cant be controlled our planning confidence takes a hit... a beating then we feel less confident. And here is the rub that lack of confidence from not being able to control the future rolls into all things that need confidence... it's almost a spiraling circle of confidence sapping. 

So as I get older I try to live in the moment, understanding there are lots of things in my future I cannot change, some I can influence which I do ( mainly health and fitness ) but those other things slip in and get ejected as quickly. I use a mental mind map with my thoughts as the central bubble and those thoughts about things I cannot change I see forming then popping like the bubbles from a child's bubble wand.... 

So don't beat yourself up if you reflect negatively on your ability to do things.... move on, chuck it over your shoulder, park it  - life is really far too short and don't get tricked into waiting on things you can't change.

Good enough for the boat so why not the house - please read me

... editing as I'm typing this watching a BBC program on Iplayer called  "The Trick"

I lived abroad Percy at Fradley Junction  for a couple of years /winters in 2015 and 2016. It was a great experience and an ambition realised. It was simple living, I burned a bit of coal, gathered some rays of the sun and used some gas. The power at that time ( I had not reconfigured the electrics to allow me to run off a genny) was batteries and they supplied power for lights pumps and tv etc - simple storage and it worked. I would have liked to have had more solar but at the time solar was expensive and I had limited roof real estate to locate it on.

So why not add such storage and solar  to our moorlands cottage - well we have had two solar quotes the latter actually had a battery as well  - a house battery as opposed to boat batteries. Same problem with solar panel, locations limited real estate on out little cottage roof, and less than ideal roof orientation to the sun. I asked on the first quote about house batteries and they said they did not do them.... second quote I asked for a price for just house batteries and it was not supplied. 

On the 26th November tomorrow as I type this I am hoping to get a check quote for just house batteries as we now are on a Octopus go tariff that will allow us to draw up to 12KW if power overnight at 5p a KW ( the charger on Go Energy battery system  can only draw a maximum of 3kw/h) and use it during the day. Our yearly average daily use is 19.1KW/h. Obviously more in winter less in summer. In opting for a bank I need to consider the return on investment as well and the environmental advantages*

We have tried to focus our actions on improvements to the cottage to be intelligent to get best bang for our environmental buck. It scares the shit out of me how indifferent the world is to the reality of climate change. I am conflicted on how much I can do that allows me to have a 'happy' life while reducing my impact on the world's climate. I burn hydrocarbons at home and in travel, not good but I/we try to minimise this as well as look for alternatives that are sensible - hence the delay in replacing our cars with one electric car; that's based on not wanting to waste the resource used in making our existing car while it's still useable. I did scrap my old diesel burner and brought a petrol car off a chap who was buying an electric car..... that I like.

So hopefully the house batteries will arrive and help again....subject to some financial modelling. Maybe we should spend more time on Percy and get some bigger solar panels  - might not look right but would mean less impactful living for the time we are aboard.... 

What are you doing or going to do or have done ? 

* You should try and watch 'The Trick' - it's on Iplayer and an insight into how big players are/were/still are aiming to slow down the climate change lobby.