Nearer and nearer

At last a weekend at home to catch up on some more chores and I actually feel like we're getting on top of things.  Yesterday I even lodged Mick's tax return!

I've had another couple of days unwell after sitting on the plane from NZ next to a fellow who coughed and spluttered the entire way.  We had a little farewell dinner Friday night with the people from my office.  Shame I felt so dreadful.

Today I packed up one suitcase ready to go to England, booked a hire car, bought a kangaroo figurine on Ebay to have a tiller pin made up, we've ordered a book of British birds so we can look out for them along the way, I've washed the fabric I want to take with me for my hexagon star quilt, caught up on all the other washing and cleaned out the freezer.  All the bills are paid and the paperwork is up to date.

Things stepped up a little for us this evening.  Garry who is co-owner of the shed where we are currently living is going on holiday to Canada with his girlfirend Trish on Tuesday.  We'll be gone by the time they return in 4 weeks time.  Saying farewell for a year or more was a bit of a reality check as they drove away.

Here's Mick practicing his relaxation skills...

Made our day

What a lovely surprise we got to receive an email from Peter and Margaret (nb Kelly Louise) with photos of nb Parisien Star.  Peter and Margaret had called by Aqueduct Marina and had a good look at the boat.  The report was positive which was great.

Still awaiting her blacking...

Recipe - Big Red sheperds pie

I saw this recipe advertised on tv - for Heinz Tomato Soup.  I paused the tv program and wrote it down.  I haven't tried it yet but it sounded quick and easy so I'll give it a go one day.  The instructions are rather abbreviated because I just scrawled it on a piece of paper.

Here it is :

Onion, Carrot, Celery : dice and cook them until soft

Add minced beef or lamb, stir until cooked

Sprinkle a good tablespoon of flour over

Add a can of rich tomato soup (Heinz of course)

Add a good cup beef stock

Simmer 15-20 minutes

Cook some potatoes, mash with cream and salt

Spread mince into base of dish, top with potato, sprinkle with grated cheese.

Bake 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees

New look blog header

I thought it was time we acknowledge nb Parisien Star on the blog as our future home.  I'm limited to the photos provided by the broker at this stage but we'll take some of our own when we arrive.  I won't be changing the "address" of the blog, just the heading and name.

Oh my goodness... we're really going to do this!!!

To do list - 29 Aug

Less than three more weeks.  I simply have to finish our tax for his year and get next year's paperwork in order!!  I've made good progress today on the multitude of phone calls to be made.  I've also freed up a couple of days by making a group get-together in Melbourne.  I now have this weekend free to finish my box labelling of our stored stuff.  First weekend in ages that I can stay home and get stuff done.  I'm looking forward to it.


Buy a cheaper house - done

Sorting and packing up belongings for garage sale - done

Apply for Elly's Finnish passport- done

Sell our house - done

Arrange insurance for stored belongings - done

Open a UK bank account - done

Send remaining chickens to their new home- done

Suspend private health insurance - done

Arrange for our mail to be dealt with at home - done (thanks to J&J)
Order new key for mailbox - done

Arrange for mail in the UK - that would be Lynne

Book airfares - done

Ship belongings to UK - done

Rent out our new house - done

Arrange for someone to have the pot plants- done

Pack up our belongings and store - done

Sell Elly’s car - done (my mum is buying it)

Get chips in car windscreen repaired - done

Get roadworthy for car - done

Complete car transfer paperwork - done

Book accomodation in UK - done

Transfer money to UK account - done

Work out what to do with our mobile phone numbers - done
Change mobiles to prepaid - 
Buy a caravan for temporary home - done
Set up bathroom for temporary home - done
Correspondence to arrive by email rather than post where possible - done
Return all borrowed items to their rightful owners - done
Type up list of stored belongings by box number - 80% complete
Cancel Mick's GST registration - done
Do our 2012 tax returns - in progress
Do tax returns for my mum and her partner - done
Do tax returns for my brother and sister in law - done
Set up my laptop with software to work from UK - 80% complete
Change bills and bank statements to come by email where possible - done
Partition off area in shed to be rented out for storage - done
Find tenant for shed storage area - the ad is in the paper
Make sure all our favourite recipes are on my blog - in progress
Catch up with friends and family before we go - in progress
Go to New Zealand to see Mick's mum before we go - done
Pack away the last of the belongings we're still using - last job
Make a list of what we need to buy on arrival in UK - done
Pack our suitcases - not yet
Buy a narrowboat - done, yes it is!
Boat survey - done
Boat insurance - done
Pay for narrowboat - done
Arrange for boat blacking - done
Book into a marina for Winter - done
Book hotel at airport for arrival - done
Book UK hire car -
Book NZ hotels - done
Book NZ hire car - done
Make optometrist appointment for Mick - done
Ring HSBC to update address and sort out internet banking - done
Ring real estate agent to complete paperwork in case tenants move out while we're away (thanks Clive and Marie) -  done
Book table for 9th Sept catchup with Melbourne friends - done
Arrange dinner with our favourite neighbours - 
Arrange dinner with our Bendigo friends - 
Take Mick's truck to be cared for while we're away -
Backup all documents and photos onto a portable hard drive -

20 days and 20 nights

Another 10 days have disappeared in the blink of an eye and money has been pouring out the door.  We've paid for Parisien Star, boat insurance, the survey and now hull blacking.  Here at home it's been no different.... airfares, hire car, hotels in NZ and the car windscreen and roadworthy.  With our property rates due too our bank balance will be on a real decline!

Reality is starting to set in.  We actually own a narrowboat and in less than three weeks we'll be in the UK without a return ticket.  After next week I'll be "borrowing" my mum's little car as officially I will no longer own one for the first time since I turned 18. It's all rather daunting but at the same time very exciting.

I'm so impressed with the service we've had from Aqueduct Marina - beyond the call of duty.  Nick has patiently tolerated our multitude of questions and requests, even now after his job is officially done.  He's gone out and taken us more photos and he's even made us an inventory of every item on board the boat.  It's been reassuring as there is always a tiny niggling worry that something may go wrong.  We feel he's looking after her for us and although he's probably rolling his eyes every time he sees an email arrive from Australia, he has cheerfully (in writing anyway) dealt with every one so far.

Overall everything appears to be falling nicely into place.  The timing just couldn't have worked out better with renting a house, selling a house, selling my car and the many, many other things we've had to deal with to make our dream a reality.  I even got a letter from World Vision today saying that the program in the area where our sponsored child lives in Chile has been completed and this will be the last month we sponsor her.  They sent us a farewell letter to write and send to her and details of a new child to sponsor - this time in Bangladesh.  I'll ask my 9 year old niece, Minka, to keep up the correspondence while we are away with the new sponsor child.

A few photos : our current home and common sight in rural Australia (preferably grazing and not leaping in front of your car!).

 

 

New Zealand

I know... I know... a bit of a lull in the blogging the last few days.  We've been to New Zealand to see Mick's mum before we head off to the UK.  It was a whirlwind few days and we've come home to our caravan exhausted.

Our evening flight on Friday night turned into an extremely late night.  The flight was late leaving and by the time we got to bed at the hotel it was well after 2am.  We had the alarm set for a relatively early getaway.  We went and picked up the hire car and headed off on the 2 or so hour trip to Katikati to catch up with some old friends of Mick's family - Jack and Anne.  It was an enjoyable visit and I even got to check out the local quilt shop!  I picked up one small roll of fabric for my hexagon star quilt to remember the visit to Katipatch.

In the afternoon we drove to Taupo where Mick's mum lives.  We checked in to our hotel with a lovely view of the lake and went and had a chat with her before going out for dinner to the Mole and Chicken.  We love the name of this place, it sounds so English.  It's not in the central part of the town but the locals obviously love it.  It was busy with the rugby on - Australia was thrashed by the Kiwis in the Bledisloe.

Sunday we had breakfast at Dixies.  We browsed the shops and bought ourselves a waterproof jacket each (yes, we're listening Paul and Elaine).  Mick's mum took us to a lovely wool shop and bought us each a possum and sheep wool hat and scarf.  Then it was lunch at a brand new cafe in Taupo called The French Cafe.  Excellent food there was too! 

Following a visit to the honey shop we took Robin home for a nap and took ourselves off for a good long walk around "Craters of the Moon" to look at the bubbling mud pools and thermal activity.  It's a strange place with only very low vegetation due to the heat in the ground.  We also made a stop at Huka Falls as I never tire of watching the water exploding out from the rocks.  There were no jet boats to see when we were there but lots of tourists.  We had dinner of cold chicken and vegies and an early night again.  We didn't sleep so well in the hotel bed.

Monday was a huge day, firstly calling in to say goodbye to Mick's mum. Then we drove to Matamata, Mick's home town, for more visiting.  We had coffee with our UK friend Lynne's parents, then lunch with more old family friends - Brian and Binkie.

Our last stop for the day was enroute back to the airport to visit Clive and Marie.  Clive is Mick's childhood "partner in crime".  Mick said his mum used to ban him from playing with Clive and I have a feeling if we lived closer I'd be banning him too! We're hoping Clive and Marie will make their plans for next year a reality as those plans involve visiting us in the UK.  They want to spend 6-9 months touring the UK and Europe.  Hope to see you guys!!  We had dinner at an Indian restaurant before heading back to an airport hotel and collapsing into bed.

A very early start this morning.  We were checking in for our flight just after 6am.  On the flight home I was looking forward to getting back to our temporary home and we arrived in Melbourne to glorious sunshine.

Despite being extremely tired, there was no rest to be had.  I had my car booked in to have a couple of stone chips repaired in the windscreen before it's roadworthy test tomorrow.  I drove to Bendigo and my mum came with me to drop my car off and I spent the hour and a half having coffee with her.  By the time I bought some groceries so we'd have something to eat for dinner and drove back home again I'd really had enough.  What a few days!!

 

How we came to buy Parisien Star

I've told this story and emailed it several times now.  It seems there's a bit of curiosity out there about how we came to do the very thing we said we wouldn't - buy a boat we haven't seen!

Firstly, we were contacted earlier in the year by a lovely Tasmanian couple who had just bought a narrowboat - sight unseen.  We've kept in touch with Peter and Jennifer since then and waited with eager anticipation for their opinion of their purchase once they arrived in the UK.  It all appeared to go as well as can be expected.

Peter and Jennifer "introduced" us to John and Jen, also fellow Aussies who were in the UK on their boat Aussie Mossie, built by Crown Narrowboats.  They were planning on selling at about the time we were arriving but after much studying of photos and many discussions we decided it wasn't the right boat for us.  It was a stretch on the budget, and there were a couple of things we couldn't change that we would rather be different.  It was a lovely boat and we're glad to hear that the first person who came to view the boat bought it.  Good news!

nb Parisien Star was my "pick of the week" at the end of June.  It stuck with me because the dinette was in a cabin of it's own and as I'm going to be working about 3 days a week on the boat it would be far preferable to have a separate space. 

We had a comment left by Adam from nb Briar Rose (one of my all time favourite "pick of the week" boats) telling us about the builders of Parisien Star.  I made contact with Yvonne and Roger and they were very helpful with a couple of queries we had about narrowboat matters.

At the end of July we had a comment left on the blog from David, the owner of nb Parisien Star.  He wasn't well and had lowered the price.  We took another look at the details of the boat and asked Yvonne and Roger what they thought.  Lynne, our friend in England, went to check it out for us and after a couple of sleepless nights agonizing over it we paid a deposit and booked a survey.

We were basically happy with the survey, we were impressed with the excellent communication and help from the broker, and here we are.... owners of a boat we haven't seen.

We'd like to thank Peter and Jennifer for unwittingly starting the ball rolling and for putting us onto Towergate Mardon for our insurance.  

And to David... if you're reading... we'll take the best of care of her.

We'd like to introduce - nb Parisien Star

Here it is at last... our new floating home.  I'm having problems rotating the sideways photos so there is only these few for now.  I've set up a separate page for the boat and will update it with new photos when we get over there and see it for ourselves!

Here's a link to the boat page but it's also at the top of the blog page. Click

And here she is......

BUILD

Hull : G J Reeves

Fit out : Crown Narrowboats

Stern : Traditional

Build year : 2006

Steel thickness : 10/6/4

Overall Length : 57’

Width : 6’ 10”

Interior Headroom : 6’ 4”

Draught : 2”

EXTERIOR

Paintwork : dark blue cabin with cream coachlines and light blue roof.
Side doors : large side doors on port side opposite dinette.  Internal fly screen on runners.

Lockers :  bow lockers port and starboard including bow thruster locker.

Windows/Portholes : windows throughout cabin area with large portholes in bathroom and bedroom.

INTERIOR

Insulation : Spray foam behind cabin linings.

Cabin lining : Oak veneered ply with solid oak trim. 

Flooring : Carpeted throughout with cushioned flooring in bathroom.

Seating : Loose recliners in saloon. Pullman dinette provides seating for 4.

Sleeping : Fixed double bed pulling out to 5ft. Dinette converts to small double.
Cooking : Stoves 500dit cooker and microwave.
Fridge : 12v Shoreline fridge.

Freezer : Shoreline chest freezer located under the dinette on pullout rails.
Washing machine : Indesit.
Galley worktops : Marble effect laminate worktop

Galley cupboards : generous cupboard space beneath worktops. Overhead cupboards.
Toilet : Vacuflush pump out toilet with 400ltr waste tank.
Shower : Tiled shower cubicle with chrome thermostatic.

ELECTRICAL AND GAS

Batteries : 4 x 135amphr leisure batteries, 1 x start, 1 x bow thruster.
Galvanic Isolator : Zinc saver II30A.
Inverter/Charger : Mastervolt mass combi 2kW with Mastervolt battery monitoring system.
230v : 13amp sockets positioned throughout cabin area.
Lighting : 12v halogen down lights throughout with switch down lights in bedroom area.
Gas : Bow gas locker holds 2 x 13kg gas bottles supplying cooker in galley. 
Marine care gas alarm fitted.
Entertainment : JVC cd/radio with speakers throughout.

HEATING & WATER
Fresh Water System : Stainless steel located under bow well deck with water gauge. 
Filtered water tap in galley next to sink.
Central Heating : Eberspacher diesel central heating with fin radiators positioned throughout.
Hot Water : From engine and central heating system.

ENGINE & TRANSMISSION

Engine : Beta Marine 43hp
Generator : 3.5kva Travel power
Gearbox : PRM 150 hydraulic gearbox
Bow Thruster : Vetus 55kg

30 days and 30 nights

A busy 10 days for us besides our usual working week ....

On the Friday before I forgot to bring my groceries home from the office fridge where I'd left them.  With visitors coming on Sunday I needed the food I'd bought!  Saturday morning my mum came to have coffee and got roped into a trip to the office to collect the groceries.  We had a nice drive with her griping all the way because I wouldn't stop and let her pinch daffodils from the side of the road!

Sunday we had our dear friends Kevin and Bernice over for an early dinner.  We cooked a lamb roast in the Weber.  The morning was spent on the arduous task of labeling the 75 boxes I've itemised so far.  I got maybe half way through.

I had my last 4-10 sewing group on Thursday night.  I'll miss those evenings when we're away!  It was an enjoyable time as usual but this time with pink champagne, lots of narrowboat talk and parting gifts of fabric for my hexagon star quilt.  Thanks girls!

It was my last week of my normal work hours as I'm cutting back one day a week for the last month to give me some extra time to get things done.  I now have only 8 working days at one job and 3 at the other.  We've been working on the setup for me to work from the boat.  It may be a little trial and error to get the system right but I'm sure it will all work out fine.

This Saturday was a trip to Melbourne to visit my stepmum who has been overseas (5 hours of driving to get there and back).  Mick also got to meet Edie, my new niece, for the first time.  The drive down to Melbourne was a bit of a milestone.  On the road, using my wireless internet, we made the final payment on the narrowboat we've bought.  We had to wait until after 9am so a new day had started in the UK and we could make the payment.  The boat was officially ours!

Today, after a Sunday sleep in, I had a lovely visit from three of the girls from the office where I used to work.  We had lunch at a nearby cafe and a great catch up.  I've missed working with them.  Mick joined us for lunch and then went off to do some catching up of his own. 

Mick is coming to Melbourne for 3 days this week to work a few days on his old work partners' new house.  That will be a shock to his system - he isn't used to city traffic any more.  He will stay with me at my brother and sister in law's house.  I had to laugh... I'm used to sleeping at their place now.  The bedside lamp is on the side of their spare bed where Mick would usually sleep.  The first few weeks I stayed there for my one night a week I didn't sleep so well on the "wrong" side of the bed.  I'm used to it now and that bedroom is almost as familiar as my own.  As we drove home from Melbourne on Saturday we were talking about the few days in Melbourne and I told Mick he'd have to sleep on the opposite side of the bed to usual.  I'm not swapping sides in that bed now!  He looked at me in absolute horror.  "I can't do that!  It would be like asking me to go to the toilet and use the wrong hand to wipe my backside!"  He's full of class!

1. Edie - 7 weeks and the image of her brother at the same age.
2. The posh table at sewing
3. The rest of us at sewing