Cleaning always takes longer than you think...

I've moved from a small boat to a larger one. Looking at the amount of stuff surrounding me you'd think I'd moved from a large one to a small one. How on earth all this stuff fitted onto the narrowboat is beyond me. Although some do say that I have a particular way of organising and sorting things out magically. Where's that magic now? I'd like it to clean the boat top to bottom please in 5 minutes!

So, I swept through, took the rugs outside, then got out the vacuum. The problem with the old boat is that it is very damp. The wood is rotten in places and I'm not sure how we are going to fix this. I'm not sure how I lived on it for so long and believe this could have been the cause of my chesty cough that would last for months each year.

I then took a trip to the shop to buy a decent mop. The market didn't have anything mop like, everything I touched in the mop department of the supermarket fell apart! So I tried a pound shop place, they had something limp and yellow, but it wasn't very appealing and they didn't have any washing up bowls, nor did they seem to know what one was, despite my dramatic actions and explanations. So I tried another shop which seems to have everything, Zebedee's, great ladies that work there, always bickering with each other in front of the customers but in a funny way. One of them saw me struggling holding lots of things (I'd found a cutlery drawer, washing up bowls, a baking tray, glasses, some tea-towels...) and she rushed to my aide and put it all down at the counter saying 'that's for the lady over there, she's pregnant' - I grinned sheepishly, then seeing nothing else bought my stuff, including a proper mop with handle that you have to bash on (I'll get Jam to do that in a minute, it didn't look like it would fit to be honest). It was a little pricey, but I had at least got what I went out for, without too much hassle and came home.

Jam was resting, he's a bit exhausted, up for work at 5.30am then always something to do on the boat - tiling, but that's another story...) so he was having a rest and I sat beside him with my book, thinking 'I'll have a little read then get on with the mopping, when suddenly my phone rang, my book was on the floor, neck cricked and dribble running down my mouth, two hours gone by, hmmm. So a quick chat, cup of tea and a tea-cake, and I'm off to do the mopping, although I may just leave it until tomorrow morning and catch up with the sorting out of this boat, or just one more chapter of Agatha Christie? I feel like I've been cleaning this boat for years!

All in a day's work

Today the electrician came to try and sort out our electrics. Funny how just like when you visit the doctor with a disease you're sure you have, it all seems fine when they examine you and sure enough the electrics were behaving! Still the very nice man carried out lots of checks and found a couple of problems that were easy enough to fix, then noticed that the boiler had a blank valve that was leaking so he found a washer in his van that fitted and sorted that out with some wax stuff usually used on steam engines, a very nice and informative man.

There is a problem with the inverter though, and he is intrigued by it for he is the Superman of the waterways and seems to fix every boat around. The coal boats happened to be passing and they were shouting over asking him for a new head gasket, 'those types of boats are not actually using them' he says, then I'm lost in the jargon and carry on back up to sit with the van so he doesn't get a ticket, nowhere to park round here. I'm not complaining, even though it's cold for I have a good Agatha Christie in my bag that I'm devouring!

So he comes back up the steps to get some more tools from the van and thinks that the batteries are all fine, he's tested them and it's just the inverter is unable to cope with more than 16amps, which isn't very much, and we can't just run from the mains electricity from the shoreline for then the batteries won't charge. He says he's seen it on three widebeam boats already this year, all brand new and yet only set up for cruising with nothing much running. Not really the words we want to hear and I wonder if we can't just run another line from the mains with an extension lead adapted on the end so we can run more electric through without overloading the battery converter, he says that would work, but unfortunately didn't have any of the connections in his van, but he was sure Jam would be able to sort that out. I'm going to monitor the output and write down what we're using so we can work out when it overloads and take it from there, he's keen to know why this is happening, it's not a great solution and we just have to be frugal with the electric, but it's quite frustrating for I only had the boat lights (that run off the 12V battery)and the computer and nothing else on and it cut out.

So our lovely engineer was quite frustrated at not being able to sort the problem out, and had to head off to rescue a narrowboat that had sunk in the Maida Vale area, he tried his best, and we'll have to get him out to fix the electrics on the narrowboat, meanwhile I'd better get on with the cleaning of it for the landlady's daughter is coming to stay on it at the weekend!

I'm being followed...

Gosh, all new to this part of the blog where people actually read you! My dear friend LLG (www.LibertyLondonGirl.com) has tweeted about me and I must admit I feel quite naked!! I will get my head around adding photos and posting links and being regular and understanding all the jargon I promise!

Right now I'm surrounded by boxes and bags of things from the other boat and can't see my computer with my photos on - or is that an excuse to just use Jam's fast laptop and delay the inevitable sorting?

I'm exhausted and excited and ever so slightly amused as Jam is cooking and can't seem to find anything 'I know there's a spice drawer around here' as he scratches his beard looking perplexed and hungry. Dinner may be a while, we're still getting used to the Heritage stove as well...

Still moving...

Hmmm I'm not sure how much fun this is! Being pregnant I can't lift heavy loads and so am moving things bit by bit and it's taking rather a long time! I'm just stopping for lunch and still there's so much to do, then there's the cleaning...

The Big Move

Well, this house moving is fun! The boat's all up and running now, the Heritage stove man came out and he was a 'problem-solver' rather than the regular engineer and he had tools with him that meant he could drill a hole into the tank and make sure the stove worked, instead of having to come out again. Hoorah for problem solvers!

What a difference the boat makes when it's warm! It actually feels like cheating not having to chop wood, forage for kindling and get the wood-burning stove going, but I think in my present state I can get used to it!

We'll need to get the electrician out though and work out how the batteries are operating for they are extremely noisy and the box is right beside our bed, so we need to get that sorted soon.

The main thing I'm finding with the slow process of moving things over bit by bit, is that lots of things are damp from the other boat. Two boxes of my Hidden album CD's are a little soggy - but I'm sure they'll dry out soon enough on this boat. I'm using them as part of a make-shift shelving unit. Jam's brilliant at finding useful things people leave outside as rubbish, true wombles we are, some lovely wood in a skip - that'll do nicely for the shelving thank you! Two little chairs, slightly damaged - perfect for the step base! Wonderful. I love it!