We make most of our own bread using a bread maker. We've wondered how we'll go on a narrowboat with Mick being such a big bread consumer. Will we be able to find somewhere every day or two to buy fresh bread? We have watched (several times) a DVD we have called "Life on a Narrowboat" by Mike Barrett about a couple called Graham and Vera who had lived on their boat for 17 years (at the time). They had a bread maker and Mick's eyes lit up! I have also read blog entries of people who use a bread maker while cruising.
We will definitely look into the possibility of using one when we get over there. I guess it would depend on the power the boat can generate. It seems they are always used while cruising so perhaps using a Travelpack / Travelpower system.
We'd like to hear from you if you use a bread maker on your boat!
We are two Australians who lived the dream and spent 20 months as liveaboards on narrowboat Parisien Star. Life before.... during.... and after.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Pick of the week - Forget-me-not
| My pick this week is nb Forget-me-Not which is for sale with Harral Brokerage. | ||
| Positives : lots of cupboard space, neutral colour scheme | ||
| Negatives : not so big on the coach lines | ||
| Name: | Forget-me-Not |
| Price: | £54950 |
| Style: | Semi-Trad |
| Length: | 60 feet |
| Description: | 60ft semi-trad by Dave Clark in 2005, fitted to a good standard by Nigel Howard as a liveaboard, very little cruised hence being offered for sale. Spacious forward living area with solid fuel stove, sofa bed and dining area, galley with side doors, drop leaf table and extensive worktops, shower room with shower, cassette wc and vanity, and aft bedroom with double wardrobes and easy access to the rear cockpit. Beta 38, 3kw inverter, central heating from the solid fuel stove. Light ash interior, spacious, lots of storage and an excellent liveaboard boat. |
Chest freezers
We read a boat test in a boating magazine where they'd fitted a pull out chest freezer beneath one of the dinette seats. We wrote the idea down on our list for future reference. We use our freezer a lot at home to store leftover meals and wondered how we'd ever manage without one. We use a breadmaker (hmmm... another blog entry coming up) at home and keep one loaf in the freezer in case something unexpected comes up and we don't have time to bake one or can't buy one. And what about ice in Summer - although I guess most small fridges at least have one of those tiny little ice freezers at the top.
Having a freezer as well as a fridge would add to the power requirements but we're hoping we'll be able to have one. I've looked up some prices and a small chest freezer suitable for a boat is around the £650 mark so not a cheap option.
Having a freezer as well as a fridge would add to the power requirements but we're hoping we'll be able to have one. I've looked up some prices and a small chest freezer suitable for a boat is around the £650 mark so not a cheap option.
BoatFridge.com have this one available - something like the one we saw in the magazine.
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Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Temptations
Now, this is a longish story but I'll tell it all the same.
Two years ago, and just around the time that we decided we'd work towards spending time on the UK canals, we saw a lovely old building for sale in a nearby town. It had wonderful potential, lots of space with a stone barn as well as the large original building, plus a huge garden/yard. It was being leased by a woman running a business and the lease had 7 years left to run on it.
We rang the agent and went to have a look. What ensued was much discussion and calculation. The rent would very nearly cover the mortgage repayments, and we could comfortably afford the balance. Seven years was time enough to fulfill our narrowboat dream (or so we figured at the time) as well as being a time frame that I felt I'd be ready to move on from my job. At the end of that time we could come back and run a business from the building, plus Mick would have somewhere to build and restore furniture and the barn as an outlet to sell his furniture and possibly antiques as well. The building itself could be brought back to its former glory. It really could be something special.
The bank manager said we could borrow the money. We made an offer on a Friday afternoon and it was accepted! It was too late in the day to get a contract typed up so we just paid the deposit and on Monday we went to the real estate agent's office to sign up. The agent mentioned that the vendor had requested an additional clause in the contract at their solicitor's recommendation. Although the building had been on the market for a couple of months, and the vendor had already offered the building to the lessee, the lease agreement said the lessee was to be given notice "in writing" that the building was to be sold and giving her first option to buy it. She had told the vendor, and the real estate agent, that she was in no financial position to buy the building. But.. they hadn't given her this notice in writing, only verbally. So we were to wait seven days before it could officially be ours.
On the last of the seven days the lessee piped up saying she was buying it! We were devastated!! Here we were thinking we'd found a great future plan. A way for me to get out of working in Melbourne and a way for Mick to get out of the building industry and working out in the weather. Now it was snatched away. We were extremely upset about it for a long time. We were out of pocket with solicitors fees. We weren't happy.
Last year we saw it for sale again, barely a year later. The lady was selling the building and the business together at double the price we'd been about to pay for the building. The business was all but worthless as she'd run it down to nothing. We'd heard on the "grapevine" that the locals had been disappointed that she bought the building because they'd hoped someone new would give the business new life. We watched with interest but forged ahead with our narrowboat plans. There was an auction a few months ago and there were no bidders. The starting price (put out by the vendor) was already way too high. Mick had spoken to the new real estate agent and mentioned that we'd been about to buy the building the year before.
So here we are two years after this all began. It seems the lady who runs the business really wasn't in a financial position to buy the building and now she's in trouble. Yesterday we had a phone call from the real estate agent offering the whole lot to us at just $50,000 more than what we'd been about to pay for the building. Now, as I said the business would be worth nothing, but our real estate market has been strong the last couple of years and this price really is a bargain! How tempting!
We wavered last night. Maybe we should consider it. Do we really want to defer our narrowboat plan? We'd be looking at a good five years of building up the business to where it should be. There would be a huge renovation project. We'd have to hurry and freshen up the new house we've bought up the street (so we can sell it on again) and we couldn't do that until after settlement at the end of June. We'd be under a bit of pressure to sell our house. And then.... in a few years time... we'd have to lease out the business again in order to pursue our narrowboat dream.
No. We won't do it.
Two years ago, and just around the time that we decided we'd work towards spending time on the UK canals, we saw a lovely old building for sale in a nearby town. It had wonderful potential, lots of space with a stone barn as well as the large original building, plus a huge garden/yard. It was being leased by a woman running a business and the lease had 7 years left to run on it.
We rang the agent and went to have a look. What ensued was much discussion and calculation. The rent would very nearly cover the mortgage repayments, and we could comfortably afford the balance. Seven years was time enough to fulfill our narrowboat dream (or so we figured at the time) as well as being a time frame that I felt I'd be ready to move on from my job. At the end of that time we could come back and run a business from the building, plus Mick would have somewhere to build and restore furniture and the barn as an outlet to sell his furniture and possibly antiques as well. The building itself could be brought back to its former glory. It really could be something special.
The bank manager said we could borrow the money. We made an offer on a Friday afternoon and it was accepted! It was too late in the day to get a contract typed up so we just paid the deposit and on Monday we went to the real estate agent's office to sign up. The agent mentioned that the vendor had requested an additional clause in the contract at their solicitor's recommendation. Although the building had been on the market for a couple of months, and the vendor had already offered the building to the lessee, the lease agreement said the lessee was to be given notice "in writing" that the building was to be sold and giving her first option to buy it. She had told the vendor, and the real estate agent, that she was in no financial position to buy the building. But.. they hadn't given her this notice in writing, only verbally. So we were to wait seven days before it could officially be ours.
On the last of the seven days the lessee piped up saying she was buying it! We were devastated!! Here we were thinking we'd found a great future plan. A way for me to get out of working in Melbourne and a way for Mick to get out of the building industry and working out in the weather. Now it was snatched away. We were extremely upset about it for a long time. We were out of pocket with solicitors fees. We weren't happy.
Last year we saw it for sale again, barely a year later. The lady was selling the building and the business together at double the price we'd been about to pay for the building. The business was all but worthless as she'd run it down to nothing. We'd heard on the "grapevine" that the locals had been disappointed that she bought the building because they'd hoped someone new would give the business new life. We watched with interest but forged ahead with our narrowboat plans. There was an auction a few months ago and there were no bidders. The starting price (put out by the vendor) was already way too high. Mick had spoken to the new real estate agent and mentioned that we'd been about to buy the building the year before.
So here we are two years after this all began. It seems the lady who runs the business really wasn't in a financial position to buy the building and now she's in trouble. Yesterday we had a phone call from the real estate agent offering the whole lot to us at just $50,000 more than what we'd been about to pay for the building. Now, as I said the business would be worth nothing, but our real estate market has been strong the last couple of years and this price really is a bargain! How tempting!
We wavered last night. Maybe we should consider it. Do we really want to defer our narrowboat plan? We'd be looking at a good five years of building up the business to where it should be. There would be a huge renovation project. We'd have to hurry and freshen up the new house we've bought up the street (so we can sell it on again) and we couldn't do that until after settlement at the end of June. We'd be under a bit of pressure to sell our house. And then.... in a few years time... we'd have to lease out the business again in order to pursue our narrowboat dream.
No. We won't do it.
Folding bikes for narrowboaters
I have been re-reading the book "Living the Dream" by Trevor Pavitt.
The author mentioned an incident where some kids gave him a hard time while riding his folding bike. I must say, the ones we've seen did look a bit funny with their tiny wheels. This morning at breakfast we were browsing some of the huge pile of magazines passed on to us by Diane before she and Ray left for the UK a couple of weeks ago. Mick saw an advertisement for a folding bicycle and we got talking about them. A bike would be very useful for getting around if you're moored a little further from shops. We plan to buy one.
I did some internet browsing and came across this one. It is much more conventional looking! It's the Montague Swiss Bike X50 from Foldingbikes.co.uk. We'd be interested in comments from narrowboaters who use a folding bike! Click here for more info.
The author mentioned an incident where some kids gave him a hard time while riding his folding bike. I must say, the ones we've seen did look a bit funny with their tiny wheels. This morning at breakfast we were browsing some of the huge pile of magazines passed on to us by Diane before she and Ray left for the UK a couple of weeks ago. Mick saw an advertisement for a folding bicycle and we got talking about them. A bike would be very useful for getting around if you're moored a little further from shops. We plan to buy one.
I did some internet browsing and came across this one. It is much more conventional looking! It's the Montague Swiss Bike X50 from Foldingbikes.co.uk. We'd be interested in comments from narrowboaters who use a folding bike! Click here for more info.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Garage sale pics
It took me four days but eventually I had all the boxes unpacked and sorted and displayed. I wanted to remember how much stuff we sold that weekend!
People from all over the world
It always amazes me when I look at our blog traffic feed or stats and see visitors from so many different countries. To think that people from so many places are interested, or in some cases addicted, to the canals and narrowboats.
It brought a smile to my face reading today's blog entry by Debbie on nb Tickety Boo.
A woman from Germany discovering narrowboats and now she's dreaming about a life on the canals too! Germany holds a special place in my heart - I have a very dear friend there. Claudia and I have been friends since we were teenagers and I visit her as often as I can. It's a very happy side benefit of our narrowboat plan, that I'll be able to use my frequent flyer points to fly across to Germany to visit her more often for the time we are in the UK.
It brought a smile to my face reading today's blog entry by Debbie on nb Tickety Boo.
A woman from Germany discovering narrowboats and now she's dreaming about a life on the canals too! Germany holds a special place in my heart - I have a very dear friend there. Claudia and I have been friends since we were teenagers and I visit her as often as I can. It's a very happy side benefit of our narrowboat plan, that I'll be able to use my frequent flyer points to fly across to Germany to visit her more often for the time we are in the UK.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Owls and royal weddings
We go out for dinner with our favourite neighbours every 4-6 weeks. When we booked in Friday night's dinner we didn't think about the royal wedding being that day. Our dinner was at a little local restaurant in the next town and they had thrown themselves into the spirit of things. The menu was a Royal Wedding Menu and they had set up a lovely little wedding display in one corner. We don't usually make a late night of our get togethers but this time we headed home to watch our recording of the wedding (in fast forward).
On the way home we were treated to something we rarely see. Just a couple of minutes from home, on a rural section of the road, I could see there was something on the edge of the road. At first I thought it was something dropped from a car that the headlights were picking up but as we got closer it was taller than it was wide. Much to our surprise there was an owl standing on the edge of the road! When we lived in Melbourne we had a resident owl in the street and we'd occasionally see him sitting on the top of the stop sign just outside our house. It's been years since I've seen an owl.
We continued on home and just metres from our driveway I spotted something sitting on the electricity cable. I backed the car up and put the lights on high beam - it was a bird. As we rolled a little closer we could identify it. This time it was a tawny frogmouth. Click here to see what they look like.
On the way home we were treated to something we rarely see. Just a couple of minutes from home, on a rural section of the road, I could see there was something on the edge of the road. At first I thought it was something dropped from a car that the headlights were picking up but as we got closer it was taller than it was wide. Much to our surprise there was an owl standing on the edge of the road! When we lived in Melbourne we had a resident owl in the street and we'd occasionally see him sitting on the top of the stop sign just outside our house. It's been years since I've seen an owl.
We continued on home and just metres from our driveway I spotted something sitting on the electricity cable. I backed the car up and put the lights on high beam - it was a bird. As we rolled a little closer we could identify it. This time it was a tawny frogmouth. Click here to see what they look like.
Going, going, gone !
It had to happen. Our favourite boat of those we saw on our trip in October is under offer. Over the last few months we've toyed with the idea of buying the boat now and leaving her in a marina. We would have gone over once a year for a few weeks holiday until we were in a position to make the extended trip. Two sets of friends said they'd "hire" the boat from us. It was so tempting. We knew the boat would sell once the UK Summer began to approach and with our house not yet on the market we weren't in a position to do anything anyway.
That option is gone now because there is no way we'd buy a boat we hadn't seen in person. Oh well.
For one last look at nb Pukeko .....
That option is gone now because there is no way we'd buy a boat we hadn't seen in person. Oh well.
For one last look at nb Pukeko .....
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Catch up
It has been a very busy 10 days for us. Preparing for our garage sale, the two very hectic days of people coming to buy things, a big cleanup afterwards.
I had a trip to Melbourne to talk to someone about work for a day each week and had lunch with the girls from the office. Another one of the accountants has since resigned so it wasn't only me who found it an unpleasant working environment.
My friend, Tammy, and I spent the better part of a day planning and booking our 3 week trip to the US in October. We'll go and see the original of my hexagon star quilt project at Scotchtown in Virgina. Click to see my progress. We're hoping to catch up with my friend, Sheri, in Kentucky and while there we'll go to Paducah (lots of antique and quilt shops). And, finally, a week in Pennsylvania to see how the Amish live, learn about the history, and..... more quilts.
I've been feeling a bit flat lately without work to focus on so this has given me something to look forward to. I like to have routine in my life and it has been difficult without it. With preparing to put our house on the market there is lots to do around the house but it just isn't the same as getting up in the morning and going to a job where they need you. I guess that's the thing... I don't feel needed. I'm glad to be dealing with this issue now rather than if we'd finished up with work and headed straight off to England!
The final big event of the week was my mum and her partner buying a new house. They just sold their Melbourne house and had decided to move to Bendigo. She's very excited about it and we'll now be only half an hour away instead of more than an hour and a half. She has just retired so it will be a big change for her too.
I had a trip to Melbourne to talk to someone about work for a day each week and had lunch with the girls from the office. Another one of the accountants has since resigned so it wasn't only me who found it an unpleasant working environment.
My friend, Tammy, and I spent the better part of a day planning and booking our 3 week trip to the US in October. We'll go and see the original of my hexagon star quilt project at Scotchtown in Virgina. Click to see my progress. We're hoping to catch up with my friend, Sheri, in Kentucky and while there we'll go to Paducah (lots of antique and quilt shops). And, finally, a week in Pennsylvania to see how the Amish live, learn about the history, and..... more quilts.
I've been feeling a bit flat lately without work to focus on so this has given me something to look forward to. I like to have routine in my life and it has been difficult without it. With preparing to put our house on the market there is lots to do around the house but it just isn't the same as getting up in the morning and going to a job where they need you. I guess that's the thing... I don't feel needed. I'm glad to be dealing with this issue now rather than if we'd finished up with work and headed straight off to England!
The final big event of the week was my mum and her partner buying a new house. They just sold their Melbourne house and had decided to move to Bendigo. She's very excited about it and we'll now be only half an hour away instead of more than an hour and a half. She has just retired so it will be a big change for her too.
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