Slow boat to Byfleet

You know how it is: you're at work on a lovely sunny afternoon and your boss says to you, "Do you fancy coming along with me to move my boat along the canal?".

Well, OK, it's not necessarily something that happens every day, but it did happen yesterday and it would have been churlish of me to reply, "No, no! I must stay here, indoors, and carry on with work!", so I didn't.

So, off we went to Send, to bring Little Edna 'home', along the Wey Navigation, to Byfleet Boat Club.

We made gentle progress along the canal, being overtaken by a few walkers and cyclists. There isn't much to do other than enjoy the day, enjoy the company, and pay attention to where the boat should be going. I took my turn at the tiller, and we probably meandered a bit more than we needed to but, hey, it was my first time!

Oh yes, there are locks to negotiate. I don't mind admitting to a fear of locks - it always seems to me that there's so much to go wrong! If I open the wrong gate at the wrong time, I might empty the canal! But, of course, that's not the case. A little bit of logical thinking, and I was an old hand by the end of the trip (3 locks later).

You can't be in a hurry when your top speed is 3mph. And there's a friendly vibe, "hellos" from other people enjoying the canal, "give us a wave" for photos. (Little Edna is very little - she attracts a lot of "aahs" and smiles.)

All in all, a very pleasant way to spend a sunny Friday afternoon and evening. Thanks, Mogs!

Little Edna

My first lock - Papercourt Lock

Newham Priory

Fruits of my labours

I've been a bit grumpy lately, entirely due to fed up-ness and a general lack of oomph. A cause and symptom of this has been my untidy and uncared-for home. You know how it goes: the place is a mess; it makes you grumpy to know it's a mess; you're too grumpy to sort it out. It's a sort of Catch-22. Or it might be laziness. I'm not quite sure (I couldn't finish the book...)

So, in an attempt to snap out of it, I decided that this weekend was the time for spring-cleaning. And then the weather joined in with the party, being the perfect spring-cleaning weather, that it was.

My skin is a big excuse for avoiding housework. It really exacerbates it, despite using those 'green' products (that don't really work nearly as well as good old chemicals). However, I decided to just moan a lot about it and get on with it anyway. (Incidentally, I usually wear disposable gloves, but they irritate too, so I did half the day with gloves and half without - it made no difference...)

Yesterday I cleaned the bathroom, top to bottom. I threw away all the toiletries I really don't (and won't) use. All the out-of-date sunscreens and expensive creams and lotions that do me no good at all. I chose not to think about the waste of money... I washed every surface and threw away the horrible bath mat that just won't get clean, even with bleach. Lovely clean and tidy bathroom.

Lovely clean bathroom - note empty laundry basket lower left...

Today it was the kitchen's turn. My kitchen always seems to take ages to clean properly, and my skin was suffering from the effects of yesterday, so I decided to just see how far I could get. I also had a grocery delivery due this morning, and had determined to get all my laundry done. In the end, I decided to start at the very, very messy 'dump everything' end of the work surface. Over the last couple of months, this has spread across half the kitchen and has been annoying me for ages, so it seemed like the biggest 'win' to get that cleared. It was also dominated by a bread machine that I rarely use.

My groceries arrived and took up the other half of the kitchen. So, a big load of throwing out of unused and out-of-date food from cupboards and fridge was called-for. I chose not to think about the waste of money... That done, and the piles of junk on the worktop binned, recycled or 'filed' (well, that'll be another day...) and I could stow away the bread machine, reclaim my fruit bowls and load up all the fabulously healthy stuff I'd ordered online. Phew! That's probably only about a third of the kitchen done, but it's so nice to have clear worktops again.

Neat and tidy cupboard. Just avert your eyes from the many packets of 'Pasta 'n' Sauce.

If only I had a 'before' picture, you'd realise what a triumph this is!

Not only that, but the laundry has been on the go the whole time and, with perfect drying weather to boot, the lines have been full. Now my least favourite job: the putting away...

So, I have a kitchen full of fresh healthy grub. But can I now be bothered to cook any of it after such a busy weekend...? What do you think?

My well-stocked fridge. Now I just need a personal chef...