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Mid-January, Rain - January 13, 2012
Almost Midwinter - December 14, 2011
Saturday, Noonish, Sunny - November 05, 2011
October, White - October 31, 2011
October, 2011 - October 04, 2011


September 13, 2008

5:39 p.m.

Offshore and Back

Our two days on the canal boat were fun! Couldn't live long in those close quarters, but it was lovely and novel and we ate great food and drank great wine with our hosts, and tried to imitate each other's accents.

Here's another view looking across the roof of their boat.

So you step down into the front cabin, which is sort of a wee sitting room and kitchen, and your feet are just about at water level. Behind this room is the tiny lavatory (chemical toilet! Fun!) and a narrow hallway down one side. You go by the "main bedroom," just a curtained sort of chamber that is all bed (you climb up into it), and through another door to the final room with two narrow twin futons, one on either side. Beyond that is how to get to the back of the boat where the steering wheel is. I slept in the front, which meant that when our host was ready to POP out of bed in the morning and make tea, I was somewhat interrupted. Oh well. They were jolly nice people and we had a great time.

I still feel like I'm rocking on the water, though, and we've been on land for two days.

Gloriously, our venue last night put us up in a nice B&B where I had my OWN room and bathroom for a few short hours. Now we're with some folks who saw us last year, back in Yorkshire again. We're here three nights -- maybe four -- and this is positively the worst bed I've encountered in England. It's like a set of springs with a potholder between them and my ribs. I don't know how I'll manage this time because I can't find any other comforters or padding. There is a throw rug in this room; I'll try that under the bottom sheet. I'd rather not bring it to the attention of our hosts lest they be insulted that I'm telling them their guest bed is horrible. It is, but I'd rather not get into that with them if I can help it.

Anyway their house is very interesting, early 19th Century, in a little row of houses that used to be for workers at the local mine (long since closed). They quarried stone, then mined coal, maybe iron later on. We took a gorgeous walk in our Wellies, with them and their dog. Beautiful country here. In a few minutes we'll go get Indian takeout, then chill for the evening. There are blackberries growing absolutely everywhere, and the ones here are sweeter now than the ones we found in Birdsedge. Not enough sun this summer to ripen them properly. But today was very nice.

I ate McVitie's dark chocolate digestives for a snack this afternoon. Not supposed to have the wheat, but I was really hungry and simply didn't want an apple. GOD, McVitie's dark chocolate digestives are good. GOOD. COOKIE. GOOOOOD.

I talked to Dar on a not-so-great Skype connection. There was a delay and we each kept breaking up a little, though I had plenty of signal and he was in a place where his signal should have been good. Don't know what that is, sometimes. He wants to amass a nest egg through '09, after finishing paying off a loan this year, so we won't really be house hunting seriously until probably '10. It makes sense, though I'm impatient. But, he said, "If you happen to see something, let me know." I guess I'll put my house-hunting dreams on hold for just a little bit.

Right now I'll settle for getting back to my apartment.

Dinner time. I'm sleepy.


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