Hello to you all again

We are still in January but its almost over and spring is on the way and I can't wait, we are still at the Marina and are struggling to get away cos there is always something to do, or somewhere to go, we booked a last minute holiday so on the 15th Jan we flew to Sharm El Sheikh for a week, it was absolutley gorgeous the sunshine, the hotel and all inclusive food & drink package, but I forgot how much I hate flying, I wont be doing that for a long while yet, although people call what we had a "lovely flight" no flight for me is a lovely flight, so thats that I don't know why but that's it. we met some absolutley lovley people, Colin and Catrina, Brian and Linda, our new friends from the North (Scotland) and then there was Tony and Jane, from the west Midlands, and then on our red sea cruise we met Clare and George and Jenny and Dan who were also staying at our hotel, I said I would give them all a mention on our website so that when they are reading it, they will hopefully feel like I feel when I read about myself on other peoples websites, just that people thought you were nice and that they liked you enough to write about you, so hello to all of you and hopefully we will all meet again someday on our travels. We came back on Thursday last week and a narrowboat is no place for unpacking dirty washing, so instead of doing the washing on the boat and having to get it dry we took it all down the launderette and got it sorted in one go, washed dried and now all the summer gear is stowed away in one of those bags that you suck the air out of and it shrinks right small, "amazin" and stored in the storage area under our bed. On Monday we went back to King's Lynn for a few days to see the Grandchildren and grand baby bump, hopefully she will soon be delivered and then we will get to see a  new baby girl so "come on Sarah get on with it !!! and like I said you don't feel a thing it's well easy!! x x.We took the boys with us this time as they had only just come out of the dogs home after our holiday, so Linda said we could take them to stay with her, they will be no trouble she said, well I think Giggsy has age related mental issues, he snapped at Harvey which is really bad, he also took himself off up Linda's stairs and thought he might sleep in her spare room, so cosied himself down on the bed and thought he might spend the night. well he might seem cute and funny but he is getting a little vicious and not to be taken lightly we won't be able to take him near the children again, and we may even need to re home him, we will speak with the vet and see what to do for the best. We got back  today and have decided to go out on a little cruise down to Fradley for a few days we can't go too far as we may get the call to go see the new baby, and we still have Joanne and Andrew's wedding to go to in London so until after the 13th of Feb we cannot set sail for any length of time as we like to leave the boat in the Marina. Last night in King's Lynn,  Linda Sally and I went to the Corn Exchange to see the most brilliant group I have ever seen perform there, the show is called "Let's Hang On" and it is a group of youngish lads doing all of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons songs and they performed them Brilliantly, I loved it and will hopefully see them perform if they are playing anywhere that we travel to when we get out and about  I will be checking out there Website to check where they are playing next. They are from the Midland's but you would never guess from Franki's New Jersey accent, I cannot rate them highly enough.      "letshangon".co.uk  check them out for yourselves

Bye for now

Love Chrissie & Richard x x

p.s Just watched the Dogs Trust Advert and they seem to have all the old dogs they need !! ahhh poor giggsy we cant send him away, well he better behave !!

About time too 2009

Hello and Happy New Year to all of our readers, sorry again that I haven’t written before now, but you know how it is too much fun to be had out in the wilds, well I did write this about two hours ago but the wire came out of the back of the computer and I lost the lot, how annoying is that? Now I finished our last entry with our pre Christmas trip to kings Lynn to see the Children and Grandchildren and even Grand baby bumps!! We had loads of visitors before Christmas and I never stopped cooking mince pies, well I cooked two batches which is more than enough cooking for any boat bound goddess, but it was lovely to see every one Abbi & Adam, Nicki, Andria & Mia and all of the usuals.

We were spending Christmas Day with Joey and Jayne and Kimberley, so on Christmas Eve we sailed to Hopwas, serving a buffet and hot rum punch, which I had copied from a recipe on the worldwide web, an amazing place just enter whatever you want to cook up and you can get a video of the recipe being cooked before your very eyes, which is pretty much fail safe, even for me!! we sailed to Hopwas with Joey Jayne, and Jayne’s parents Chris and Lynn who enjoy the outdoor life, the weather was perfect and so was the punch which everyone enjoyed, I might make it again someday soon,  we had a wonderful dinner again thanks Jayne you are a wonderful cook.

For New year we went to Drayton manor there was a seven course Gala dinner and disco which was absolutely super, we went for the seven course because, well because it was the one with the most food, but it was good there are three suites and there was a dance in each one really good food and loads to drink, some of us drinking more than others!! “You know who you are “, unfortunately we both

Forgot to take camera’s so there are no pictures of the evening, but I will describe it for you, we all looked really great all night, I looked especially young and gorgeous unfortunately we have no camera evidence but you will just have to take my word for it !!!

The New year started Icy and Sunny and it has stayed that way until today when it rained, the canal has been frozen for almost every day since January and has been beautiful, and hopefully the cold icy start to the year has killed off some off the nasty old bugs that have been hanging around, I have said it before and I will say it again “Global Warming My A#*e” !!   May you all have a Happy and Credit Crunch Free New Year, dont forget to check out the pictures in the gallery.

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

Merry Christmas one and All      

Here we are again happy bright and gay I’ve given up Asda, won’t do that again. No I’m afraid shop work isn’t for me but I earned a couple of bob, no but honestly if you think it’s easy working in a shop filling shelves, it’s not it’s mind numbingly boring so I take my hat off to all of those that do it. 

We went to King’s Lynn last week for a few days, I had to see the rheumatoid nurses at the hospital, I didn’t think I would get in as the place was ringed with police stopping people going in as the hospital was trying to keep out the winter vomiting bug, but they let me in as it was O.k. for the clinics it’s just that they didn’t want any visitors on the wards bringing their germs in, which can only be a good thing, we also had dental appointments and opticians, We stayed with Linda as usual she is so good putting up with us, no sorry putting us up, so on Wednesday Me Sally and Linda had a girly pre Christmas dinner, that Sally had prepared, it was great to see them again and catch up with the gossip and drink wine and sing quite loudly, which isn’t like me at all !!!

The night before Jamie had cooked a lovely roast dinner for us arriving and it was great to see the grandchildren, who were more than happy to sing all of the songs from their nursery nativity play. Thanks Jamie you really are a super cook, mind you I did make the gravy.  Thursday we went to the Chinese in West Winch with Stuart and Emma, Simon and Sarah and Jamie and Zoe which was another lovely night, Emma had to get off to work straight after as she was doing a night shift at the hospital as she has just recently qualified as a Staff Nurse, so as we finished early Richard and I then went to see a new band at the Riverside pub in Sunny Hunstanton, well they are not really a new band there was two boys from the Keno Kings, and the doctor from the Blues Tubes which are both bands that we have seen a lot of, but not of them playing together and very good they were too, the photo’s of all these events will be on the gallery, came back on Friday to find Curtiss from Amber Boats fixing our Central Heating which is now fixed so thanks for that Curtis and Amber Boats for being so efficient what a wonderful after service, apparently we had got a lot of Carbon in something which could come from dodgy fuel, so I don’t know where we picked that up. The guy’s from the car hire place that we had had the car from were there for us too, they were really efficient too, we will certainly be using practical car hire again, so Thanks Chris the boss of the place, so by 1pm we were unpacked and settling down after a very busy but fun few days.

Sunday made more mince pies and then went out to lunch with Joey and Jayne, Abbi and Adam, Nicki, and Kim and Dave another fun day and Great to see the girls more pictures to put on the gallery, and Adam if you’re in work early and reading this, glad you like the website and the boat so much and do come for a ride with us one day.

That’s it for now which only leaves me to say to all our readers a very merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year

With love

Chrissie & Richard x x                                         

Hi all

I know I haven't written for a while but I did say there are not many adventures when you are not on the move on the canal, but the weather and scenery are very adventuress, its absolutley gorgeous here we have had a lot of frosty mornings and they are just lovely, especially to go out on long walks in the countryside, which is what we do,

Although I have started to work for my little Christmas period I dont work many hours, so I still have plenty of time to go out walking, I have put some pictures on the gallery to show you just how gorgeous it really is.

We haven't been doing much while we have been here apart from making friends eating and drinking out,and generally socialising, its the life we chose and is turning out just as we hoped it would, Today we were Christmas shopping, we take the bus in to town and we usually walk home, tonight it was as pretty as a picture, although I didn't have my camera with me, let me try and describe how lovely, we walked from town passing Tamworth castle which is right in the centre of the town, and nestled next to the river, so the footpath runs between the two, I mean how gorgeous is that for us that appreciate it,the sun was just setting so the sky was the most delightful shade of pink and dark blue with the moon almost full, and looking far over the lights of the town we could see hopwas wood standing in the back ground, like mountains against the dark sky, but they were just the trees, but if you didn't know . I will take my camera next time as it is such a pretty little place if you look from the right angles, well we love it anyway.

Getting ready for Christmas, just got a pressie for Stuart today, hope he will like it, we also have to turn our Christmas in to a tiny thing that fits into our 58ft narrowboat, so its tiny tree,tiny lights and being able to make things fit, but so far it looks lovely, I will take some photo's when I have finished so that you can see what a cute little boat christmas looks like.

I am going to the ballet on Thursday with our friends from narrowboat Mosie 2, Pat and Pete, they got tickets but Richards is not interested, its the nut cracker and he's just about had enough of that !! but it is a lovely Christmassy ballet.

Today I had a contact from a new reader of our site, it was a Johnny B, now I dont know if its Johnny be good or what but he looked at our website and he really liked it so Johhny  B welcome to our site Johnny is actually  from a website called boatsandcanalsoftheworld.com  I'm not sure what its all about but hey its a new reader and maybe he will let me know what its about.

Giggsy & Rio had a hair do on Sunday they look absolutley gorgeous, and the lady that did them put a little bow on each of them they look so sweet, and smell it too, poor Giggsy hasn;t had a bath since we left King's Lynn and he's fallen in the canal so many times, he was just so dirty and scraggy but we didn;t have a salon to do them, any way while we were out walking the other day we came along a salon for dogs so we went to the door and asked if she could fit them in for a wash cut and blow dry, " Course I can she said, I had noticed when you were passing that that one (meaning Giggsy ) looked well scruffy", aahhh bless him he did look bad, but if we bathed him on the boat he would do as he did at home as soon as he got out, and start runnning around like a maniac and throwing himself at the walls, well I;m afraid there just isn't room for that kind of thing on the boat, so the poor lad was just a stinking horror, but now they are both as cute and smelling as sweet as sweet things.

I will put up the pictures that I have and hopefully soon I will have some more, Global warming I dont think so, we have been having some freezing weather and hopefully we will have some more.

Thats it for now but I will write soon I sort of semi promise, it depends how busy we are having fun,  anyway enjoy what I write and if you have anything to say please send us a contact and let us now what you think.

Bye for now

Lots of Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

Hello Colin Marshall and all,

I write this for Colin one of our Avid readers who reports to my brother when I haven't written, so as he is hounding me again I thought I'd better write, well he thoroughley enjoys his regular fix of our nonsense, and who am I to stop his little pleasures,so for you Colin.

I know I am not writing much at the moment, but that's because we are in the Marina and we dont really have adventures in here, although it is beautiful you are just not going to get the action packed installments, that you have when we are out.

I am putting some photo's up on the Gallery to show you just how lovely it is on the Cut at this time of year, every day changes colour, the sky the trees the sunrise and sunset, so for us it still makes it as exiting and we can pop out of the marina for little jaunts, when the fancy takes us, however with my little job now up until Christmas in the Asda Superstore we are a little tide to here, but it will pay for my frivolities, such as hair do's and shoes which I always need.

Richard went home last week for a couple of days to see Simon and Sarah and Jamie and Zoe, and also his favorite band who were playing at the Arts Centre in King's Lynn (Nine Below Zero) "I know I'd never heard of them either" but they wrote and played the Old Grey Whistle test themetune,  for our readers who are old enough to remember that. so I just mooched around the boat cleaning the brasses that got rained upon as soon as I had finished doing them, so they are as bad as when I started.The weather is changing this weekend and we are in for some cold weather so hopefully I may be able to get some frosty pictures for you, I have just taken some of the birds by the boat aswell there were Gold finches, Tits of all kinds, and a woodpecker, but I need a longer lens cos I'm just not getting the photo's I want, so maybe father Christmas will bring me a longer lens for my Nikon D40, and if he doesn't I will just have to get closer to my subjects we will see.

Bye for now

Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

Back on our Boat

Hello I know it’s been a long time since I last wrote but as you know we have been very busy with looking after Ash the dog and Kimberley and the house so I have been unable to write, “well I haven’t really been unable it’s just that excuses excuses excuses” well I just didn’t, but now I am, and we were so busy that we forgot to write about our little visit that we had between the party which was a lovely unexpected surprise from our lovely Niece Kathy “Sergeant Jackson” who had finished a tour of service in Cyprus, she has now been posted to Germany but she was over on a visit and she had bought her Nieces with her, Heidi & Cary’s our Great Nieces, all very confusing, anyway because I uploaded their pictures and videos on to Facebook for the family to see, I forgot to give them a mention on here so just letting you know that we are often getting some lovely unexpected visitors and its always lovely and don’t forget visitors you get a mention too.

Whilst we were at Hopwas we had the use of the car so I took a little trip to King'slynn to see the Grandchildren and Hayley and Jamie, as they are always to busy to with work and the children to come down here, so it was lovely to see Harvey and Ellie dressed up in their Halloween costumes.

Kimberley had been really helpful with everything and it was a pleasure being at the house with her, but it was good to see Joey and Jayne come back in the early hours of Sunday morning so that we could get back on to our lovely boat as we were missing it dreadfully, there really is no place like home, and this is our home now. Richard had bought the boat from Fazely Mill Marina to Hopwas on Friday so that we could light the fire and air the place out although we had been over during the fortnight putting on the central heating and checking everything out, because we did have some right frosty weather and you never know what might happen, don’t forget it’s all new to us. So on Sunday morning we turned around down at the winding hole and came back to Fazely,having our own rememberance service and two minute silence with the radio along the way, and it was quite lovely and peaceful, the weather was perfect, but changed as soon as we hit the Marina so we were very lucky that we didn’t get soaked,  we are staying here until the New year, because there are closures and repairs go on, on a lot of the canals from now until March but hopefully when we go out in the New Year we will be able to avoid any problems. We are loving the Marina everyone is so friendly and helpful and we look forward to spending Christmas here, and I have got myself a little Christmas job in one of the large supermarkets, just a nice little job with no great worries about, month ends or other such things, so I’ll earn an extra few bob along the way. At the moment I am doing alot of bird and wildlife watching at the moment as you know it’s a beautiful little haven here our boat is right next to the wood and  Linda the lady on the boat next door has a bird feeding station set up and we are seeing all kinds, we also have squirrels and Lions and Tigers “well not Lion and Tigers but it is lovely I hope to get the best picture’s especially of a kingfisher as we have plenty round here, I have now set up my tripod so hopefully I will get a good picture for you.

A Birthday mention for another of our Nieces Joanne, happy birthday for the 5th of November and look forward to seeing you when we do.

 Until next time

Lots of Love

Chrissie & Richard x x

After the Party

Hello thought I’d better write in case you forget about us and that would never do!! After sending off Emma and Stuart who had stayed with us on the boat for the party down at Hopwas we went back to the Marina to get a few jobs done, touching up etc, (the boat not me) still not got to planting my little garden the plants I bought are still in the pots they came in, but they will have to wait now and I’ll tell you why I was shopping with Jayne last Thursday, she needed a few last minute cruisey things to go off on their Caribbean Cruise on Friday then we were going to go up to the house Richard and I to go through what went where, when to put the bins out and all that sort of stuff, anyway Joey called Jayne and I in town and said there was something wrong with Ash (Their dog) he seemed quite perky but could not walk, so Jayne told him to bring him straight to the vet that is very handily in the pet store where we were, Well the vet took a good look at Ash and said that having Xrayed and checked him all over they would need to operate this was at 7pm in the evening so we had to leave  him there, the vet operated and kept him in for the night, so with Joey and Jayne away on the cruise, we are left not just looking after the house and Kimberley, but also poor little invalid Ash. We brought Ash from the hospital on Friday afternoon and the poor little might was drugged up to the eyeballs to keep him from getting to exited or racing around and damaging himself, he has a big stitched scar up his tummy and also a couple of stitches in another opening they did under his back leg, where there appears to be a lump which is still there, they could find nothing wrong with him, well not something that he had swallowed but he did have some rotten meat left in his intestines, it appears he had eaten so much at the party or found the scraps after it, that it hadn’t been digested and had caused him a bad case of gastroenteritis (that is my spelling before spell checking) so remember do not allow animals to come to party’s they are fed by all and sundry cos they make themselves look cute and hungry and everyone thinks a little taste of whatever they are eating won’t hurt, but if there are a hundred people at the party then that’s alot of scraps for the dog, and a very expensive lesson too,  nigh on seven hundred quid, they do have the dog insured which is very fortunate for them.

Saturday we had  Simon & Sarah , and Jamie and Zoe coming to stay for the night at the house with us, which with that many people is a whole lot easier to put them up, we can really only do two at a time, on the boat, so we had to get Jaynes dad to come with me to take Ash back to the vet on Saturday afternoon because I don’t know the way on my own and Richard was entertaining the family ( so thanks Chris Wood for doing that) the vet was pleased with Ash’s progress and asked to see him again on Monday so we took him to see her, she didn’t give him the injected drug that was a pain killer and keeping him calm and sleepy he is now being medicated by us with antibiotics pain killers and another little something to help him sleep at night, but he is the perfect patient and getting a little spoilt, not with food but love and attention and I hope that Joey and Jayne don’t find out he is sleeping in the bedroom everynight with us, but the vet said he was so distressed when she put the great big lampshade around his neck to keep him from biting at his stitches that she felt he would be better without it, so that is why Richard and I are keeping an eye on him through the night so that he is not biting his stitches open, and he hasn’t so far he is healing beautifully and today we took him walking down the canal with our boys who feel they are having their noses right pushed out by this “spoilt little brat” (Giggsy and Rio’s words not mine), I will put up the pictures for you to see, for those of you that squeamish there are some of Ash’s scar so maybe best if you don’t look.

By the way I did spell check and my spelling of Gastroenteritis was correct, top of the class for me !!

Bye for now

Chrissie & Richard x x

Heading back to Fazely

Yes again we head off back to Fazely, because we have another party to attend, we left you with my last update on Saturday so to begin the travels from last Sunday 12^th October and another

 week has rushed by again, on Sunday we travelled from somewhere in Stafford where we had the very cheap Carvery but it really was lovely, and headed for the Plum Pudding pub in Rugely to meet Joey, Jayne and Kimberley as it is an old favourite haunt of theirs!! We arrived about 3pm and the weather was glorious so we were able to eat a wonderful Sunday lunch outside and it was super although the choice of puds was limited so we went over the road to the other pub and had pudding there.

Monday we travelled as far as Whittington which is a few miles from Tamworth and a lovely country setting but the Virgin fast trains run by every 20 minutes, but they didn’t bother us to much once you close the doors and we are cosy inside with our fire blazing its just as quiet as can be with only the sound of crackling logs and coal burning and the two dogs snoring their heads off.

Tuesday we got back to the Marina at Fazely Mill where we have decided to stay for the winter because there is always something we need to be doing from now up until Christmas, first we are house sitting for Joey and Jayne whilst they go on a Caribbean Cruise (he nearly had another accident to stop him going like the last time he was supposed to go Cruising with us) he took a fall at Jayne’s 40^th Birthday party that he had arranged

 for her at the house, so after him warning everyone about the steps in the garden, that we should all be careful not to fall down them, he fell himself (not due to the drink he says) no he was talking whilst walking backwards and down he went like a great big falling over thing, well once we saw he was o.k its always funny, but no bones broken and although he was a little sore on Sunday he is fine today.

Yeah so we had great Party on Saturday night, although Jayne’s birthday is not until the day they go on their cruise, happy birthday and don’t worry too much I’m sure being 40 can’t be that bad, well I hope it’s not, cos I’m getting their in February !!!!!!! so don’t worry Jayne and tell me all about it so that I can be ready for that great milestone in life, and do enjoy your cruise.

Richard and I have decided to stay here in the Marina now until February  so we don’t have to worry about getting stuck anywhere with stoppages and nowhere to stay or go, but the Marina is lovely and so are all the people it’s a party place and we look forward to it all. So if the write ups become a little few and far between, its cos we are not around or off on holiday or whatever so keep checking we will write when we can.

Bye for now

Chrissie & Richard xx