The seasons are changing and winter is steadily approaching. It’s quite mild at the moment, but it is getting dark much earlier.

The other night, I was walking back to the BBB around 6-7pm. It was dark. Not twilight or half-light, but properly dark.

I had been into town and was coming back home, walking past shops, past houses, past a marina, a school, through a very small cemetery and then through parkland to the boat. It’s a 20-minute walk, not too far and quite an interesting walk.

I passed the usual range of dog walkers and mad squirrels before I got to the parkland near the boat. There are streetlights, but they are very widely spaced apart and on bends, leaving the part I was walking in complete darkness.

As I was walking I noticed a shadow in the darkness. I moved to one side to be sure I was out of the way of whatever it was. It wasn’t a person, a person with a dog or a cyclist. As the shape got nearer I realized it was a person walking two big dogs. A German Shepard and a Japanese Akita, I think.

The dogs were lovely (I like dogs, I was a dog walker before we moved to the boat and often say hello to random dogs) and I made a fuss of them and said hello to the owner. The owner said “It’s a bit late to be out on your own, isn’t it?”. It was not late, between 6 and 7pm! I didn’t respond, just said goodbye and continued my walk.

That started me thinking. Why can’t I walk outside after dark? In the parkland, there is a high chance that I might fall in a rabbit hole or trip over a bench, but that was not what he meant. He was talking about personal safety.

What he was inferring was that I can’t be out after dark because other people don’t know how to behave.

Think about that again.

I can’t go out after dark because other people don’t know how to behave.

That hardly seems fair, does it?

I don’t have a problem with walking after dark. I know a lot of women who do, but I don’t. A torch is useful (and my phone has one built in) so I can see when it’s very dark and the ground is uneven. Other than that, as far as I am concerned, walking in the dark is the same as walking in the daylight. But without the sun. I know that there are some nasty crimes that happen, and I have no desire to become involved in one, but I try not to let that affect my behaviour.

I imagine that there are more violent crimes after dark, because violence often goes hand in hand with alcohol, and more people drink in the evening than during the day. And I imagine that sexual offences are maybe more common after dark than in daylight, because there is less risk of the perpetrator being caught in the dark.

But that is just my imagination. I would like to deal with facts. So I have been researching, and the results surprised me.
I have been searching violent and sexual crime statistics through the Office of National Statistics.
The majority of violent crimes were crimes without injury perpetrated by someone already known to the victim. 2/5ths were committed during the day, 3/5ths at night. It is slightly more dangerous at night in terms of violent crime, but not a lot.

Sexual crimes are often underreported, so the results are harder to rely on. The Office of National Statistics have used the Police figures as well as the Crime Survey for England and Wales, and this is the best data we have.
87 out of 100 sexual crimes were committed by someone the victim already knew. That is the vast majority. And just over one twentieth of a percent of the entire population has been subjected to rape by a stranger. That is enough people to fill Brixton O2 Academy, with quite a bit of elbow room!

It seems to me that both violent crime and sexual crime committed by a stranger are very rare. I don’t think that the fear of something so unlikely should change my behaviour. I would be reacting to fear, and not facts.

The chap that suggested that I shouldn’t be out after dark, made me feel quite threatened. I’m sure that wasn’t his intention, but I started wondering whether he was being threatening. Maybe he knew that I shouldn’t be out after dark…

That made me quite cross. I was cross with myself for reacting to someone else in that way. If I find something scary, I can choose how to react to that fear. But I shouldn’t alter my mindset or actions because of someone else.

So I am going to carry on as I was. Being careful not to fall in the river or trip over a hole, avoiding people who look drunk, and going where I choose when I choose. That is the privilege of being an adult and I don’t intend to lose it.

Hey guys!

I have an article published on Medium, that I think you will enjoy!

Heres’ the link: How To Have More Time  Remember to clap if you enjoy it (and let me know if you don’t)!

There will be another blog post soon!

 

 

 

There is a very scary thing on the BBB. It lives under the floor on the stern. It’s quite loud. It can be very hot and interacting with it involves confidence.

What do you think it is?

Do you need some more clues? Everyone has an opinion on how to care for it and it is very important.

Okay – one more clue! It is mechanical.

Yes, the engine! Well done!

The engine is a vital piece of machinery in a narrowboat. It gives us hot water, electricity and propels us through the water. Whilst we have other ways of getting hot water (the Webasto water/radiator heating) and electricity (solar panels), the engine is vital. It will give us electricity when it is too cloudy for the solar panels to work and hot water when we don’t want the heating on. So far it has been a very reliable piece of equipment. And I am keen to keep it that way.

Just like car engines, boat engines need regular servicing. I understand that this is very important, but doing the service is very daunting. The engine works – I don’t want to break it! Paying someone seems like a good option, but most engineers have a very long lead time. You need to book the next service before the last one was done!

Boat engines are very simple, compared to car engines. They don’t have the computerised systems; which should make the service very simple. So simple that we could do it ourselves.

Woah, stop right there! Service our new and very good engine on our own! What kind of insanity is that! We might break it!

We have watched youtube clips, Googled and studied the manual and we were sure that it wasn’t that hard – but also quite certain that we couldn’t do it.

Through a Google search, I found the River Canal Rescue run a two-day course on diesel boat engine maintenance! Perfect! So the three of us booked onto it.

It was fantastic. I now understand how a diesel engine works. I know where the fuel, air and oil filters are and I have practiced changing them. I know how the fan belts should feel and I know how to adjust and change them. I also know what they are there for! I understand the coolant system, which is quite amazing. Before the course, I couldn’t grasp that coolant and antifreeze were the same (antifreeze is added to the coolant). I thought that coolant cools – antifreeze warms? Now I understand that coolant contains antifreeze to stop it freezing (no surprise there) and to stop the metal corroding; and that it runs through the hot water tank (calorifier) and the keel tanks to cool it down before it travels around the heat exchanger to keep the engine cool.

There is not a part of the engine that I can’t identify! The tutor was able to explain how things worked on the demonstration engines, and then could explain to us how it looks on our particular engine.

It was also fascinating to meet the other students on the course. Everyone’s story was different. We met a lovely guy who owned his narrowboat as part of a consortium. Their boat was being regularly used and went all over the place! One couple had a 1966 cruiser.  They were based near where we used to go on holiday. One guy hadn’t bought a boat, yet. He has a much better idea of what to look out for, now.

We were the only liveaboards. People who liveaboard don’t have to worry about the same things as people who don’t. We don’t have to worry about damage in the cold weather because we are there keeping it warm, but we have to service the engine more often because we use it more.

When we arrived back after the weekend, the batteries were low, so we switched the engine on to charge them. Screeeech! Squeel! Aha! One of the fan belts is loose and needs tightening! We’ll do that tomorrow, in the daylight! It was a great feeling of independence.

We had a look in the daylight. We checked the fuel filter and found there was no water. Great! We moved along to the fan belts and found they were very different from the ones we had seen. And they were hard to get to. And it was getting dark. And the batteries were going flat in the torch. We did our best and felt deflated and frustrated. We decided that we would look at it again the next day, in the light. Life got in the way and we had to move the boat before we got a chance to look at the fan belts. And they worked brilliantly! Charged the batteries and made no noise! Go us! Go the River and Canal Rescue!

I am going to order the parts for our service tomorrow. I never thought I would say this, but I can’t wait! Working on a boat engine is like trying to play Twister while tied up in a string bag. There is no room – any room you have is not near where you need to be. I know that doing the service will probably make my back ache and everything will hurt, but I am looking forward to it more than I thought possible!

And you guys know that I will tell you exactly how it goes! Fingers crossed!

I’m feeling quite satisfied today. It’s grey and wet outside and the weather is definitely becoming quite wintery. I loved knocking about on the BBB in the long summer weather that we had this year – starting in early spring and ending late in autumn – but I really don’t mind winter starting and this is why…

Steaming Showers

I have just showered. A steaming hot toasty, lovely shower. Perfect when it’s cold outside. Last winter I was a bit worried about condensation, so I didn’t enjoy hot showers as much. We survived the winter fine, without mould setting in, and we now have our new toilet (named Kevin – apparently it is not normal to name your loo, who knew?!) which helps to keep condensation low. It is a composting toilet and has a little fan which keeps it dry inside. It also makes a great bathroom extraction fan! Leave it on full for 10 minutes and the steam has gone! In the summer we don’t have as much hot water, because the water heating is connected to the boat heating: you can’t have one without the other. And in the summer it is too hot to need the heating, so we don’t get hot water! With less daylight in the winter, the solar panels don’t do as well. Sometimes we have to use the engine to charge the batteries, which also creates hot water!

Relaxing Rain

Last night I went to sleep with the soundtrack of rain on the roof. That is a wonderful sound, I don’t think I will ever tire of feeling warm and snuggled up and hearing the rain on the steel roof. Aaahhh!

Clear Cruising

Traveling is fun at this time of year. There are fewer boats around which makes it much easier. No worry about finding mooring spots and we can make as much noise as we like because there is no one nearby!

Huggy Hygge

There is nothing quite like coming in from the cold, all wrapped up and sitting in front of a hot fire. Watching the animals outside continuing their lives despite the weather and seeing how the scenery is changing. Walking on crisp crunchy grass, watching the snow swirling as it settles, making footsteps in the fresh fluffy snow.

But that is not all that winter will bring…

It is harder to dry washing in the winter. Anywhere, not only on a boat! I dry it on the stern, under the canopy. The air is so moist that it takes ages and often still feels cold and clammy. I don’t like to dry it on the boat, because it can build up condensation. Even on the coldest days, the washing dries well if it is sunny, but that doesn’t happen often in the winter!

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while, you will know the perils of flooding from this post: A boat drought?! We had problems with getting water when the river was flooded and the BBB getting damaged in the flood. Now we have flood rings, so the boat should be much safer. We already have wellies and we know how long floods can last. So we are all prepared. Hopefully! But we can’t travel much in the winter without obsessively watching the weather forecasts. It would be very dangerous to be stuck on the river in a flood. I feel envious of canal dwellers at this time of year, they don’t worry about flooding!

Bring it on!

I might regret this… but at the moment I think, Bring It On! We can weather winter. We are prepared. And the things I like about winter outweigh the things I don’t!

Stay warm and dry and enjoy yourselves in this arctic atmosphere!

 

What happens when you have a medical emergency when you live on a boat?

It’s not something that people think about much when they decide to live on the water. For us, we thought about it quite a bit after we moved onto the boat. We thought and tried to plan, which was all a bit pointless.

It is really important to know the quickest way to get off the boat in a fire, although it isn’t that difficult! There are doors at the front and back (with keys nearby) and a hatch in the middle. If needed, the windows are easy enough to remove from the inside. We have a smoke/CO2 alarm, fire extinguishers and a fire blanket.

But that is the easy bit! On New Years Day we needed the emergency services to come to the boat. An ambulance, initially.

Calling an ambulance was easy enough… 999, ambulance…address. Hmm. We were moored about half a mile from the nearest road which involved navigating a cow field! We knew the address of the nearest bit of road, so we had the ambulance dispatched there and had someone waiting for it, who led the ambulance crew to the boat.

The ambulance crew needed to take the casualty with them, which was a bit tricky. The mooring was uneven, with a step up onto the land, which the ambulance crew couldn’t manage, and then a half a mile walk through a cow field. They called the Fire Brigade to help. To take the casualty out of the boat we had to remove half of the canopy and turn off the gas supply (in case the knobs got knocked). Once out, the Firefighters carried the casualty between then through the cow field, to the waiting ambulance.

The second emergency we have had was more recent. We were traveling a lot, enjoying the quieter rivers, before they flood in the winter, when a close relative was rushed into the hospital. We moored the boat in a marina, which gave us a base without having to worry about moving the boat every couple of days. We also had electric hook up and water on site, so we didn’t need to worry about things. The BBB probably thought it was having a holiday! Thankfully the relative is home now, and much better, but it started me thinking. When I was researching the practicalities of life onboard I didn’t see anything about emergencies, so I am putting together my own helpful list. Feel free to add to it in the comments below!

1. Always have cash onboard for an emergency taxi. Lots take card, but not all. And remember to replace it once it is used!
2. Know where the nearest road is. It’s not normally very far, it’s a good excuse for a walk!
3. Keep a torch handy. Mobile phone torches are good, head torches even better.
4. This is the biggest and most important tip… Don’t let the fear of an emergency stop you! You only have one life, so live it.

 

 

 

There are different types of boaters (people on boats; not hats!) just like there are different types of road users.

Just like road users, boaters can be prone to a little tribalism, and bit ‘us and them’. Think about how many people complain about Audi or BMW drivers, or ‘White Van Man’. Or how people view drivers of eco cars or the 4×4 driver on the school run. Sometimes people belong to more than one road using group (maybe a lorry driver who gets cross with performance car drivers but enjoys taking the Porsche out at a weekend).  Boaters are no different.

River boats come in a variety of styles. From big commercial barges (not too many of them around in the UK) to tiny inflatable boats. On the River Great Ouse we mainly have variations of Cruisers and Narrow Boats. And rowers – the river equivalent of bikes!

Cruisers are generally made of fibreglass, and they vary from roughly 20 feet to around 40 feet in length. They are generally white or cream with an accent colour. Cruisers are usually steered from a steering wheel which is either at the front, back or in the middle!

Narrowboats are the long thin, colourful metal boats that people associate with canals.  Most narrowboats are 6’10” (2.08 m) wide and in a variety of lengths, from 20′ (6m) to 80 ‘ (24m). They are generally made of steel and are driven from a pole at the back, called a tiler. A popular choice of narrowboat on a river is a widebeam narrow boat. These have a similar variety of lengths to narrow boats but are wider. Generally, widebeams are between 10’ and 14 ‘ wide which allows more living area. Some widebeams are steered with a tiller, some have a steering wheel.  The Big Blue Boat is a 60’x10’ widebeam. (Surely a widebeam narrowboat should be called a medium boat!)

People who have cruisers generally use them for holidays, sometimes very long holidays, but they don’t tend to live on the boat. Narrowboats (and widebeams) are used both as homes and as a holiday boats. Most people who live on their boat have a home mooring, usually in a marina. That makes it easier to get to work and get the kids to school. Others  live aboard boaters travel around the canal and river system and don’t have a regular mooring. They are called continuous cruisers.

Boaters are a very friendly bunch and are happy to help each other out and share a drink. But we can still be quite tribal. Cruisers will call narrow boats sewer pipes or baked bean tins! Narrow boaters will call cruisers Tupperware boats or yoghurt pots! This is usually good natured and we use the terms about ourselves (‘I’m on the big blue sewer pipe over there!’ or ‘Mine’s the little Tupperware with the mad dog on board!’). Sewer pipes and Tupperwares need to be careful near each other because a 20-ton steel boat can easily damage the fibreglass. But this is usually totally fine. We all help each other.

The biggest tribalism comes with the liveaboard boaters. I have had people tell me that certain restrictions (mooring limits etc) are designed to put off the liveaboard boaters. I am a liveaboard boater. Why do they want to put me off? I use the pubs/cafes/shops. I only stay at the moorings for the allotted time (48 hrs in a lot of them). I put my rubbish in a bin- I even recycle! Why don’t they want me? My boat takes up a lot of room- but I don’t travel as much during the school holidays, so there isn’t a problem of space.

On further investigations, it turns out that they don’t mean liveaboards. They mean continuous cruisers. And they don’t seem to have a lot of evidence that continuous cruisers are actually causing a problem.

The rules for continuous cruising are a bit vague.

You must move neighbourhood every 14 days and be travelling to different areas. The Canal and River Trust state that “you must use the boat to genuinely cruise (A to B to C to D rather than A to B to B to A) from place to place and must not stop for more than 14 days in any one place”. It is a bit nomadic, or gypsy like! It is actually quite hard to follow the rules for a long period. It makes it hard to maintain friendships, have a regular GP and work. Continuous cruisers save money because they don’t pay for a mooring, although they have to spend more on diesel because they travel more.

I think people don’t like the idea of someone else getting something for free. The negative view of continuous cruisers stems from a sense that they are getting something for nothing and therefore they aren’t doing things ‘properly’. I also think it has something to do with a lack of understanding. If you (in a house) want clean washing- you pop it in the machine? You jump in the shower to get clean? Get your groceries delivered to the house, or pop to the supermarket?

In a marina, it’s not that different. You have a home base for deliveries- the marina is ‘home’. You can do washing there, shower there, go to work from there.

Although you might be out on your boat most of the time, you still have a home base. If you continuously cruise you don’t have a ‘home’.

You have to find the shops, you can’t go to work- how can life be possible. These people must, therefore, be good for nothing layabouts who want to overstay at moorings and have no respect for anything?

Not so- a lot of continuous cruisers work from home (IT, writers, artists…) or are retired. They don’t need a home mooring and enjoy the variety of moving regularly. In all other respects, they are the same as anyone else! How would you know if a narrow boat is traveling from a home mooring or is continuously cruising? You wouldn’t, unless you asked them!

That brings me to a neat conclusion. Never assume! People are nearly always nice, so talk-ask them! Help each other (especially at locks and moorings). Talk to each other. Respect each other. Don’t assume things about people- lose the preconceptions. And we’ll all be better off for it!

Maybe this would work on the roads, too?

 

 

I’m sat here on the BBB listening to the rain battering down on the roof and secretly enjoying this brief break in the hot weather!

It feels like a good afternoon for a magazine style quiz with a cup of tea and a biscuit. I have written the quiz for you, but the tea and biscuit are up to you!

Would I enjoy living on a boat?

1. Can you swim?

A) Yes, I am a confident swimmer. I love sea, rivers and swimming pools. Bring it on!

B) I like splashing about in the pool, but I wouldn’t swim anywhere else.

c) I don’t swim. I sink- I think my body must be made of lead.

2. Do you like to know where you are, when you wake up, without having to look out of the window?

A) No, I like my whereabouts to be a constant source of surprise!

B) I don’t think I care, particularly.

c)  I like to know where I am at all times.

3. Are you tidy?

A) Yes. Everything goes away when I am finished.

B) Hmm, I like things to have some sense of order.

C) It looks like a wild animal has ransacked my home most of the time!

4. Do you know where you bodily waste goes? Do you like to ‘flush and forget’?

A) It’s all part of life’s intriguing tapestry. Part of nature. We all poo and pee. No problem with it.

B) I know we all ‘go’, but I don’t really like thinking about it.

C) EWWW! Ewww, ewww eww. NO, no, no, no!

5. Do you like your creature comforts?

A) As long as I have food and drink I’m happy. I need very little.

B) There are a few things that I really like, but I don’t need many comforts.

C) I couldn’t live without my TV/games console/washing machine…

6. How tall are you?

A) Short

B) Tall

C) Giant

7. How many shoes do you own?

A) Welles and trainers. That’s my shoe collection.

B) Well, I need a pair for going out, a pair of sandals, some for the beach, sports shoes and trainers.

C) Shoes, wonderful shoes, every pair, everywhere!

8. Do you like to hear ducks and geese?

A) Yes! I love the sound of wildlife around me, even the noisy ones!

B) I quite like it during the day, but I don’t like hearing them in the middle of the night.

C) NO. Wildlife should be in its own place, nowhere near me!

9. Do you like reading my boat related tales?

A) Yes, Rachel. They are fantastic!

B) Yes, Rachel, they are great!

C) Yes, Rachel, I love reading them!

10. When you think about living on a boat do you think it sounds like a nice way to live?

A) I want to do it tomorrow!

B) It intrigues me but it also scares me.

C) No. No way. Never. It’s an insane idea!

Mostly As: You old (or young) hippy! You’re happy with any level of inconvenience and nothing much bothers you!

Mostly Bs: You have a definite idea of what you need in life, and you are only willing to make certain compromises.

Mostly Cs: You’re a very discerning character! You know exactly how you like things and you don’t really want to change that!

The only questions that actually tell you much about how happy you would be to live on a boat are Question 4 and the last one. On a boat you have to dispose of your own bodily waste somehow. Either a pump out, chemical or composting loo. Some types involve more contact than others (see A Boggy Affair for more about boat toilets)

If you fall in the river it is useful to be water confident and able to float, but it is best to float until you are over the shock and then work out the best way out (most boats have a platform to help people escape from the water), rather than exhaust yourself swimming unnecessarily. Everyone floats with a well-fitted buoyancy aid.

If you like to know where you are when you wake up, you are probably best off at the same mooring, most of the time, rather than cruising. How do you manage going on holiday?

If you have an untidy home you will probably have a fairly untidy boat.

There are boats with plenty of home comforts. Having electricity to run a lot of electrical appliances can be hard – maybe easier at a marina with shoreline electricity., we all have things we can’t live without. Living on a boat helps you realise what they are!

People often assume narrowboats are low ceilinged. Mr BBB is nearly 6′ tall and Yr Mr BBB is over 6’1″ tall. Everyone has to duck to enter and exit the boat though. Maybe boats aren’t so good for people with back or neck problems!

It doesn’t matter how many shoes you own, although the more space you fill up with shoes the less space there is for other things! Cupboards can get a bit damp in the winter, so having too many unworn shoes can encourage mould into the damp areas and the fabric of the shoes (or clothes)! Best not to overfill cupboards, to allow airflow. Only store what you actually need.

There are not many people who like being woken up by anything! You get used to it and sleep through the wildlife noises after a while. Maybe boats aren’t for you if you don’t like looking at wildlife at all, though!

You can live on a boat with a shower, heating, a flat-screen TV, and an X box or you can live on a boat which is more similar to camping on water, or anything in between. The only real question is ‘Do I want to?’.

And no quiz can answer that for you!

Hopefully, you enjoyed your tea break and biscuits and are fully quizzed!

 

 

We have done it!

We have completed our first year on the BBB!

It has been a fantastic year and living in a house seems like a lifetime away. There is no way I want to go back. Almost everything is harder on a boat, but it is all so much more worthwhile. A bit like buying a birthday cake from a supermarket or making one yourself. Putting in more effort often means you appreciate things more.

I thought I would celebrate with a roundup of our year.

The year started off with the boat being built and becoming ours. We watched her being craned into the water and had a two-day journey to bring her home. (Don’t watch the video with sound on- it is quite loud! The green is surface river weed.)

We learned a lot about helming a big boat on that journey! We managed locks (9 in total) and mooring (with and without crashing) before arriving at a marina which was to be home.

In the first month or two, we received a lot of guests and drank a lot of champagne!

We had a lot to get used to, though. The biggest thing for me was the gentle movement of the boat. I didn’t notice it when I was on the boat, but when I got off I felt dizzy and woozy. Alcohol seemed to help, but I wasn’t sure my liver would appreciate that! I was wondering whether I would have to stay permanently on water! I don’t remember when that stopped, but it is fine, now. We also had to get used to odd noises. Being woken up by geese. And swans. And crows walking on the roof! Scruuunnnccchhhh tap tap tap, screeeeeech, tap schruunnncchhh! The boat creaking and snapping (apparently that is normal and to do with the metal and wood expanding at different temperatures). Filling the water tank without getting wet. Using the inverter to control the electricity, remembering to switch it when we used the marina’s plugin shoreline electricity (as well as remembering to plug it in and much more importantly remembering to unplug it when we went out on the boat). We had to get used to using a pump out toilet. Only using Lidl loo roll (anything else blocked the loo) and trying not to land in the river, geese poo or fling sewage over your head when emptying it. We had to adjust to not always knowing where we were when we awoke. Although I quite like that! Yr Mr BBB did a lot of research into food deliveries and found it was easy enough to get deliveries to a nearby postcode, and it is vital to remember which side the boat is moored or in your food excitement, you can try exit the boat on the water side- not good!

We found that while we liked the marina (it was beautiful) we preferred being out on the river. Mr BBB and Yr Mr BBB were more natural at helming the boat – it took me longer. I found that trees would leap out in front of me!

I am much better now, but the guys are still more natural at it. They are both a foot taller, so that probably helps.

We decided that we were paying a lot of money for a marina that we were never at. So we decided to leave. The timing wasn’t great- we left as we came into our first winter. And what a winter it was!

We found that we couldn’t empty the toilet when the river was flooded (or frozen, or too windy) because we couldn’t get to the pumpout station. So we bought a chemical toilet. Then we found that the disposal point freezes which means you can’t empty it – so we needed two chemical toilets. They were a lot of work, so we changed to a composting toilet. That is much easier and I will write a post about it soon! 3 toilets in 1 year!

We had to manage frozen rivers, frozen water points, slippy frozen moorings. We had to learn how to light (and keep lit) a stove fire. We have completely changed how we use water and electricity. We check how much we have before we use it. A bit like the bank – do I have enough water for the washing machine or should I wait until we have more? We found that we are virtually self-sufficient for our electricity for most of the year, but for the 3 months with very low light, we needed to use the engine or a generator and try to use things during the few hours of daylight.

We have had to learn cow body language, and how to avoid them!  We have had to get used to people staring as they pass by (that’s quite understandable – we are beautiful people and the BBB is awesome)! We have learnt to respect the river levels and we are still learning how to predict floods and low levels.

We have moored in a wasps nest, one of us has fallen in, we have wrongly operated locks (well, I have…), we have bumped into all sorts of things and we have tied The BBB badly and found her drifting out.

But… we wake up every morning with the river as our garden.

If we look out of the windows we see herons, coots, moorhens, ducks, swans and more. We never have to be somewhere we don’t want to be – we just move. Life is slower and more enjoyable. Most people will walk to the river for a calm afternoon. I am nearly always there.

When we first moved to the BBB I totally trusted that she would keep us safe. And she has, We have survived the tougher times and we are loving the easier times. The boat has lost the show home shine and looks lived in, she is definitely home.

Thank you for joining me on this great journey. It has been lovely to share our mad, zany and amazing life with you all! Please continue to share this journey with me – we will have many more crises, disasters, and triumphs!

It has been an amazing year and there is no way I want to go back to a house, not for all the chocolate in Belgium!

Happy Birthday, BBB!

I am typing this, sat on a train in the sunshine, watching the countryside fly by, feeling tired and relaxed with my body feeling used. I feel a bit like a grubby well-loved old teddy bear!

Mr BBB and I have been to Camber Sands in Kent for the weekend, and a lovely weekend we have had, too! We have been to Pontins for a Ceroc dance weekend. We arrived on Friday and left this morning (Monday).

The train journey was relatively painless- delays and cancellations on the Peterborough to London line, but once we got onto a train it was quite easy and fairly quick.

The journey back has been good so far – there’s a group of young guys having a great time, but they are too far away to be able to eavesdrop, unfortunately!

The weekend was fantastic- so much fun! We started dancing about 3 years ago, and love it! Ceroc hosts weekends at Pontins Parks (and one or two at other places) all around the UK, all year round. They also run one abroad, Medfest and a cruise. I love the idea of the cruise… one day!

We arrived on Friday and joined in with an icebreaker workshop, with a great teacher called Tim, who often dances barefoot (I would stick to the floor if it were me) and a Tango Taster.

I have never really danced the Tango – it is a very different style and I was straight back to being a beginner. It looks amazing, very sexy and sultry. But not when I did it- a drunken toddler might be a more apt description! In the evenings there was a choice of 4 dancefloors each with different styles of music; standard Ceroc style, a slower bluesy soul room, a tango/blues room and a varied room which could have anything! In the 4th room, they have plenty of Sack the DJ sessions where dancers can have a go at flying the decks. One day, when I’m brave enough, I’ll try to get people dancing to some rock- Bon Jovi and Guns N Roses would work, but Iron Maiden might be a bit fast- don’t want to injure anyone! The ladies might spin so fast they drill holes in the floor!

In the past, Mr BBB and I have stuck to the standard Ceroc music, fairly fast tempo with a very definite beat- slower breaks which allow for some expression, but generally quite fast and with a heavy beat. And we looked at any other styles with envy.  The standard Ceroc music allows the dancers to perform some awesome moves, with as much style as they wish, but not have too much time to add in any extra finesse. This weekend we have honed our sultry sensual moves! Mr BBB has an amazing wiggle and a sexy sway! We have been to workshops to help- the amazing Tim with bare feet taught us to move on from just dancing moves and to feel the music and move with it, an awesome 22-year-old teacher called Ashley (he must have been dancing since he was 2 to be a teacher so young) taught us that our dances can be a communication. The man (or leader) starts a move but the way it happens is down to both partners.

And to smile. So easy to concentrate on what you are doing and forget that you have a partner, let alone smiling at them! It’s no fun dancing with someone who seems oblivious that you’re there and looks like they’re having a poo!

We also had a couple of workshops with Marc and Rachel, who are the sexiest dancers I know – they move like one person. They taught us some brilliant blues moves. A very different style of leading and following, but it linked in nicely with the lessons from Tim and Ashley- make sure you connect with your partner and have fun! Ceroc is supposed to be fun! And we did. We managed to dance in the main room, the slower room and the blues room (apart from the Tango time- I am not ready to show my drunken toddler to the world just yet). We danced together and with other people and we had a blast! So much fun!

When we weren’t dancing we were at the beach, which is stunning. I’m a bit sad – I am always impressed by beaches. Sand as far as you can see, shingle, stones… as long as there is sea – I’m impressed.  This was a beautiful cloudless weekend, a beach with sand for miles and a turquoise sea, It looked like a poster for a Caribbean holiday.

Some Cerocers danced all night- they took a ‘survivors photo’ for those who are still dancing at 6.30 am! But not me. I can’t stay up beyond 2, and I can’t do that very often! When we stopped dancing and went back to our chalet we were so tired it didn’t matter that the Pontins beds are a little… uneven- we would’ve slept soundly balanced on the roof of a moving train!

Today, we had to check out at 10am. Mr BBB had the day off work, so we have been appreciating some of the local areas. We have appreciated a cafe for breakfast, a lovely ice cream cafe in Rye, and a pub for a sneaky lunchtime half. We also had another look at the beach. It still looks awesome.

The first part of our journey (Camber- Rye) was by bus and we decided that it was daft to be stuck on a bus for the 3 and a half mile journey, there was a good foot and cycle path so we should walk (with a rucksack and 3 wheeled cases- we must have made quite a sight)!

My right thigh may never be the same after the leans and drops class. My legs, in general, feel like they have been walking nonstop for a month.

I am grubby from the beach and the dust, and sticky from the train’s heat- but I am very happy and will do it all over again in a heartbeat!

*for all the AC/DC lovers out there…