Farewell Diane

I've enjoyed a few catch-ups with Diane of nb Gypsy Rover AU while she's been home to Melbourne.  It's been great to hash over the dozens of questions I seem to constantly have about life afloat.  And... I didn't have to type them!

Last night Diane flew off back to Ray and their boat to really start off on their life afloat.  Banjo the dog is with them now so this is how life will be for them for the foreseeable future. Idyllic!

It's likely the next time we see Diane it will be when we're in England starting our own adventure.  With Ray having to return to Melbourne for a work visit in the first half of next year we hope we'll see him then.  Come up for a country visit Ray.

We look forward to reading of your travels.

Searching for supermarkets

I'm at my brother's house tonight and we were just reading the comment by Amy on the previous entry about the supermarket app.  He just showed me something else just as useful.

On a smart phone, well on mine and on his, is "Places" or "Google Places".  You can type in "supermarkets" and it shows you a list of all those nearby.  It tells you the distance of each one from your current location and you can choose to see one on a map, and you can get walking or driving directions.  Fantastic!!

Supermarket app

I read about this app for a smart phone.  It shows you where the supermarkets are in your vicinity.  What a great idea for someone on a narrowboat!

The main criticism seems to be that you need to choose which supermarket chain to show rather than being able to see all the different ones at once.  But still, it's a great idea.

Has anybody used it??

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.smartquoteit.android.superstoresapp

Only my mum.... again!

"What happend to your arm, Mum?"  (nasty looking round sore on her inside fore-arm)
"I'm not telling you."
"C'mon Mum.  What happened?!"
"You'll laugh at me."
"Tell me.  I'll try not to laugh"

She had decided to remove one of the armchairs from the living room - it was too cramped.  She couldn't wait until her partner came home so she pushed and shoved but the chair was wider than the doorway.  She tipped it on an angle to try and fit it through the door.  Somehow, and this is the part that could only happen to my mum, she got it wedged in the doorway with the weight of the chair pinching a chunk of skin on her arm between the chair and the doorway.  So now she was one handed and couldn't find a way to lift the chair up to release her pinched arm.  In the end she had no choice but to pull her arm away - leaving behind the chunk of skin! Ouch!!! 

I tried, I really did.  When she got to the bit about trying to get the chair through the door I was starting to laugh.  Somehow I just knew what would come next.  I couldn't help it!  It seems so mean to laugh about your mum hurting herself but honestly, how many different ways can one woman hurt herself!? 

Hope it's feeling better soon, Mum. xx

Recipe - Corn fritters with avocado salsa

While we were in NZ we had a lovely breakfast one morning with corn fritters and an avocado salsa.  We decided we'd make them ourselves when we got home.  I browsed around for a recipe and came up with an amalgamation of a few I found.  We tried them this morning.   Suggestions or improvements welcome!

INGREDIENTS

125g tin creamed corn

125g tin corn kernels

1 ¼ cups plain flour

½ cup milk

2 eggs

1-2 spring onions, sliced finely

Salt and pepper

1 tsp baking powder

(can also add some chopped ham, bacon, grated cheese, grated zucchini)

METHOD

1.       Whisk milk and eggs together

2.       Add other ingredients and stir well

3.       Heat frying pan, spray with oil

4.       Drop spoonfuls of batter into pan and cook

AVOCADO SALSA

Mix together the following :

1 avocado, chopped

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 red capsicum, finely chopped

1/2 small red onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander leaves

1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce (or a dash of Tabasco)

A bank account in GBP

A friend mentioned to me the other day that HSBC now have a savings account in Australia that you can hold in a foreign currency.  These types of accounts that I've investigated in the past have had quite high fees and little or no interest so really weren't meant for saving.  I've done a little research on the account HSBC offer and the interest rate is extremely low, just .5%.  But, the bank charges can be kept at nil if you keep within the rules - minimum average monthly balance of AUD 1,000 equivalent and no more than 10 withdrawals in a month.

I have contacted HSBC to ask if this account could be used on arrival in the UK and will update when I hear back.  The other thing is that the account does not offer Visa or Mastercard access.  Still... it's worth considering.

http://www.hsbc.com.au/1/2/personal/savings/foreign-currency

Pick of the week - Moonshine

Today I've trawled the boats for sale to choose a pick of the week - it's been a while since I posted one.  This boat jumped out at me as ticking pretty much all our boxes.  It wasn't until I started to type this blog entry and looked for the boat name to put in the heading that I realized Barry (see Sandra's blog entry : http://nbnorthernpride.blogspot.com/2011/08/few-days-down-south-part-one-england.html ) may have chosen the same boat as me!  

So back to nb Moonshine - listed with ABNB Narrowboat Brokerage.
Pros : the layout is fantastic - we'd love to be able to have a separate little room for an office/visitor so this is our ideal layout.
Cons : the insulation is thinsulate and we'd prefer spray foam, our first choice would be a pump out loo.
We would put a desk area in the empty cabin, plus perhaps a fold out bed.  It would be fantastic to have another space like this so we can have somewhere to go away from each other.  I'd love to have a work area so I wouldn't have to pack everything up all the time.

Length: 57ft 1in  
Builder: Colecraft Engineering  
Fitter-out: Harveys of Tamworth  
Year registered: 2008  
Style: Semi-trad  
Safety Certificate: RCD 2008, BSS not needed
Engine: Beta B-38 diesel  
Plating: 10/6/5/4  
Last blacked: 2011
Fit-out materials: Light oak panels with hardwood trim 
Insulation: Thinsulate
Headroom: 6ft 5in  
Berths: 2+4  
Berth sizes: 6ft 3in x 4ft 1in permanent double
Mains Power: Landline, Victron Multiplus 1600W inverter/charger, 3.5kVA Dometic engine driven alternator
Cabin heating: s/fuel c/heating > rads  
Water Heating: C/heating + engine + 230V immersion heater > calorifier  
Water tank: 120 gallons built-in tank
Cooker: Stoves 500DIT drop-in gas cooker  
Fridge: Shoreline 12V 4cu ft  
Washer/dryer: Zanussi Jetstream 1600 washer  
WC: Thetford swivel seat cassette wc  
Shower: in tiled cubicle with doors
Other: Empty cabin aft could be fitted out as a Pullman dinette, office or a second bedroom
Location: ABNB, Crick Wharf
Price: £60,000

Only my mum!

Some people have mothers who are working women, some people have mothers who stay home and wear pink fluffy slippers and bake biscuits..... but me.... I have a mother who has made a career out of being accident prone!

Some of her more memorable moments.....
She stamped on a pizza box and impaled her foot on the little plastic prong that holds the lid of the box off the pizza.
She slipped on the back stairs at our old house and broke both bones in one ankle so her foot was just hanging loose (surgery and metal pins).
She stabbed her foot with a pitchfork while gardening.
She stabbed a large kitchen knife through the bottom of her thumb while trying to open a coconut.
She used the stairs where Mick was working on the new back deck at her old house (after Mick told everyone not to use those stairs) and walked into a sheet of corrugated iron, giving herself a huge gash across the head (emergency department for stitches).
She walked barefoot across the building site while Mick built the house we had before and stood on a galvanized nail - straight through her foot.

There's more... lots more... countless visits to the emergency department at the local hospital where I grew up.... broken toes, cuts to be stitched, back injuries, needle stick injuries and chemical splashes at work, numerous heavy objects dropped on her foot.

Having moved from Melbourne to Bendigo a couple of months ago, Mick and I joked about how long it would take her to make a visit to the emergency department at the Bendigo Hospital.  This week was it!  Her partner called me Wednesday afternoon saying Mum was in the hospital.  She'd swallowed a flat fish bone and it was stuck in her throat well beyond reach.  The whole thing dragged on but the end result was nearly 36 hours of terrible pain and Mum in surgery last night having the fish bone removed.  It was a pretty nasty situation and she now has a very sore throat, a raspy voice and a fish bone in a little plastic container with a lid.

Love you Mum!

Reno - Colour scheme

Neutral.

We've never really been neutral colour scheme people.  Our little house in Melbourne was painted a lovely soft yellow inside.  We loved it. 

The house where we live now is rather more bold on colour.  We chose these colours from a heritage paint chart.  This is our spare room.  The red trim is typical of the era.

So then to "the house up the road".  We know we'll be renting it out.  Plus...  it would be nice to have a neutral background so pretty much any furniture or accessories would go with it.  We've chose a Haymes colour for the walls called Heritage and for the trim Wild Rice.  It will certainly be a change for us!

Reno - Heating and cooling

We've bought a wood heater with a glass door for the living room up the road.  It's the same as the one we have in our lounge room here at home - a Heat Charm.  We've been very happy with the one we have now and it efficiently heats most of the house.  It's only that the back room of the house (kitchen and sitting room) are a few steps lower than the rest so the heat won't travel down the stairs.  We have a wood fired Rayburn in the kitchen so this room is always cosy warm anyway.  The new house is all one level so it won't be an issue.

As we'll be renting the "house up the road" out while we're in England we're going to put in a split system heater/air-conditioner.  They are a popular choice in Australia now.  We're quite happy relying on firewood for our heating (Mick is occasionally asked to cut down a tree for someone and he gets the firewood so we don't always have to buy it) but for a tenant we think it would be better to have electric heating available.  Plus, this option will give us air-conditioning to get through the next Summer or two.

When we return from England, and if we decide to stay in that house, we'll install ducted evaporative cooling like we have now.  We much prefer the evaporative cooling to refrigerated air-conditioning.  It's nicer to be able to have a couple of windows or doors open and have fresh air moving through the house in Summer.  With refrigerated air-conditioning you have to close the house up to keep the cool air in.  The running costs of evaporative cooling are much lower too.  You are basically only paying for the running of a large fan (blowing air over a tray of water).  During a normal hot Summer we can have the evaporative cooling going from first thing in the morning until after we've gone to bed, or even all night in an extreme heatwave. 

There is little difference in our electricity bill between Summer and Winter.  In Winter we occasionally use a portable electric heater as a backup - for example if we've been out and the wood fire has gone out and the house is cold we'll put the electric heater on for an hour while the fire is getting established.  In Summer we often have the evaporative cooling going every single day for weeks at a time.  The cost is minimal.  So we're happy with how things work for us now and will eventually have a similar setup at the new house.