Loafing at Tixall Wide

22nd & 23rd January

It's been a couple of quiet days here on Tixall Wide, at least as far as activity is concerned, though the weather has been pretty stormy, as forecast.

Yesterday, after a lazy start, I walked into Great Haywood to shop for a paper and bits and pieces. Waterways World was out, so I bought a copy of that, too. Back at the boat, the obvious thing to do was make a cup of coffee and start reading. I'm pleased to see that Richard Fairhurst chose to publish our letter describing our diesel split calculating spreadsheet; it'll be interesting to see if it results in any more traffic to the website.

After lunch I took advantage of a lull in the weather to cut up some of the bits of driftwood that have been cluttering the roof. There's still a couple of larger pieces to take care of, but all the rest is now tidily either stacked by the stove or in the bread tray on the roof.

Pleasantly tired, I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the first three episodes of Neverwhere, the Neil Gaiman seriously weird fantasy about an alternative London, on DVD. Had a bit of a chat with Elanor on the phone, ate dinner, read paper, went to bed.

Today I'd planned to move Sanity to Great Haywood to be handier for Elanor when she comes to visit tomorrow, but the weather was still pretty windy, whereas the forecast for tomorrow is much better, so the boat move was postponed until then.

It's made for a very quiet day, feeling a bit flat really, which is always the risk of not doing a lot when on your own. No matter, it's a gala day in one sense: two years ago I tentatively posted my first blog, so today is the blog's birthday.

Hurrah!

OK, things we're pleased we got right:

• Choosing the right boat builder and agreeing to a Tim Tyler hull. When building from new, it's really important, and quite difficult, to get the right builder. It has to be one that you can get on with, and whose basic style and approach matches yours. Visiting and reading a lot was the key for us.
• Getting the right mix of solid fuel stove, gas cooker and diesel heater, so that there's always a choice for heating the boat and cooking.
• Getting a decent fridge freezer: I know I said we'd review which one if starting again now, but having some decent freeze down capacity, so as to be able to take advantage of good butchers when we pass by, makes so much difference to my cooking.
• Similarly, having a decent sized galley: Sanity's is about a third longer than usual, so as to have a good length of work surface available, plus lots of cupboards underneath.
• The study bedroom has been brilliant. Having a dedicated desk area makes this job and all the others connected with communicating with the outside world so much easier.
• The cross bathroom is excellent: more floor space using less cabin length, and a really big shower cubicle. It wouldn't work so well if we had more than two of us on board most of the time, but of course, we normally only have visitors for a few days at a time. In the same room, we've never regretted putting in a pump out, and I feel vindicated every time I see someone struggling along the towpath with two cassettes balanced on a trolley.
• Installing a wood floor: at the time they were not as common as they are now, but they are just so much easier to clean than any of the carpet solutions we've experienced on other boats.
• Putting the washing machine in the engine room, giving a longer engine room, so easier access in and out of the back hatches, and more cupboard space in the galley.

In general, our choice of layout works well for us, but in this as in almost everything else above, it's a matter of choice and compromise, and what suits us would not necessarily be OK for others.

I can't think of any other specifics to mention just now: things like using a Mac are not specific to living aboard; oh – not having a TV. We've not missed it, but did add a DVD player after a while. Until then we watched DVDs on the laptop, but that's restrictive when one wants to watch and the other prefers to do some web browsing or whatever.

Right, that's definitely the lot for just now. Next time I'll see if I can answer Adam's other questions, if I don't feel so downright lazy/dozy as at present!