Back in Blighty & all that jazz ...

We arrived safely back in England mid-day on Monday, and we're getting over our jet lag now.  Amazingly I managed to sleep for over 8 hours on the Sydney to Dubai flight (>14 hours long!) so that helped somewhat.  We're staying with my parents in Worcestershire until Thursday when we will return to Northern Pride.  In the meantime, a little more about our trip to Sydney ...

Fortuitously, it was the Darling Harbour Jazz and Blues Festival weekend while we were there and we had a very pleasant evening on Friday listening to some sounds - they were more reggae and motown based than Jazz and Blues, but enjoyable nonetheless!  Stan Walker was playing on the Sunday evening, a kiwi singer from Gisborne who won the 'Australian Idol' last year - unfortunately we couldn't get to see him as we were on our way to the airport to catch our flight to Dubai and Birmingham.

Darling Harbour is a vibrant place, buzzing with locals and tourists.  My daughter Lisa spent New Year's Eve of the Millennium selling glow sticks there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Very mixed weather - sunshine after the rain with a pot of gold in the Commonwealth Bank!

 

 

The 'Aquashell' (floating stage) at Darling Harbour

  

Having exhausted our tolerance for being in the city, we took a train ride south on Friday to visit the daughter of a friend of mine who sadly passed away two and a half years ago. 

We didn't get to see too much scenery from the (double decker) train, just  lots of gum trees and the occasional glimpse of the ocean. 

Australia is such a vast country, we only touched the surface of it.  Hopefully when we next visit in November, we'll go to the Blue Mountains and maybe get to see a kangaroo or koala!

 

 Barry's nieces at the airport to say goodbye

Bondi and beyond

On Thursday we made the most of the fine weather and took a ride out to Bondi to visit where my eldest daughter lived for almost a year back in 1999/2000.  Bondi is known as a surfer's paradise - though it'd be challenging to avoid riding over a fellow surfer - even in late autumn the sea was teeming with wetsuits riding the waves.

 Chilling in a Glebe cafe

Some shots of Bondi beach ...

 

 

 

  We had a drink in the 'Icebergs Bar' at the top end of the beach where there are salt water pools  you can swim in at high tide - it looked rather chilly, but not as much as it will do in mid-winter when they apparently put ice in the pool and some mad people jump in!  Hence the name I suspect.

  View across the harbour from Watson's Bay - not a narrowboat in sight!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Awesome to see these beautiful birds flying wild - a rainbow lorikeet and a kookaburra

 

 Dramatic scenes from a cliff top walk

It's great to have Barry's amazing photography back on the blog; writing can be interesting but '...a picture paints a thousand words'

A narrowboat chat in Sydney

On Tuesday we began our journey back to England and Northern Pride via Sydney - my first visit to Australia.  After a very early start (we were up before 5am), we chilled for a few hours in the 'Koru' lounge at Auckland airport, as Barry had accumulated sufficient airpoints from travelling to UK and back twice last year.  So we had a chilled morning eating and drinking and relaxing - Barry had his first glass of wine about 10am!

Barry looking laid back - having a massage at the airport before leaving Auckland ...

... and the entrance to 'Luna Park' in Auckland

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arriving across the ditch (as they say down under!) mid-afternoon on Tuesday, the weather was very grey and miserable, cloudy and raining but Barry still managed to find a smile in 'Luna Park', a funfair across from the Harbour Bridge.  Can you see the scary resemblance between the two faces ...

Luckily the rain abated on Wednesday and we had a fun day exploring Sydney's sights, including a vast array of sea-faring vessels from a P & O cruiser, a replica of the Endeavour (the ship that Captain Cook sailed to NZ and Australia) to Jessica Watson's 'Pink Lady' - the boat the 16 year old Aussie completed her nine month 'round the world' trip in last Saturday.  I couldn't believe how tiny it is - about 33 foot long.  And there's us thinking our narrowboat is small, what an incredible young woman she must be.

 "Ella's Pink Lady" - not sure who 'Ella' is, but that's the name on the boat!

 

'The Bounty' replica - up close and personal

Having a coffee break

 

Inside the famous 'Queen Victoria Building' shopping complex in the city centre

 

A view vertically upwards at one of the stained glass domes

 

 

An interesting mix of old and new in the city

We wandered around the town centre feeling oppressed by the huge buildings - amazing as they all are we're just not city people and both visibly breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived at the Botanical Gardens and open spaces.  These are stunning - there are 'flying foxes' in many of the trees - bats just hanging around waiting for their nightly flying missions.  Unfortunately these fascinating creatures are destroying the vegetation so they're trying to find humane methods of moving them on which is sad ...

 

One of the bats stretches its wings mid-afternoon

 

 

There are some interesting trees in the gardens - this one looks as though it's about to fall down - it's actually tied to another tree!

 

 

Various views of spectacular Sydney Harbour

 

 

In the evening we took the ferry to Manly to see Paul and Elaine, a couple originally from England who've lived in Sydney for many years and got in touch with us through the blog last year, as they're considering buying a narrowboat and becoming 'continuous cruisers' for a few years in the not too distant future. 

Paul sounded as enthusiastic as Barry had been in the 18 months prior to us following our (well his really!) dream, soaking up UK Waterways Sites blogs with a passion, and he and Barry chatted away companionably.  Elaine sounded a little cynical - I can definitely understand how she feels, must be a female thing - so we hope to be able to bring her encouragement through our blog in the coming five months.  Paul had very kindly bought us a bilge alarm for Northern Pride which will warn us of impending disaster - so hopefully it won't be put to good use at any time!!

We had a lovely evening having drinks and dinner at the Manly 16' Skiff yacht club -not the 14' or 18' Skiff yacht clubs which are nearby!  It's all about size you know ...

We leave Sydney for England tomorrow evening and according to the internet the flights to UK are all on schedule so far, but of course things could change at any time.  Fingers and toes still crossed ...

The journey north begins again ...

Having packed, unpacked and taken 'stuff' out of the case a number of times (and transferred one or two items into Barry's lighter case!), I think we're just about set for our flight to Auckland and then Sydney tomorrow.  We're still each about 5kg over the 20kg limit (it's just far too little for a 5 month stay!!), but hopefully they'll let us off or allow us to pay a small excess baggage fee.

I had my last walk on Wainui beach late in the afternoon on Friday - the weather here is still warmer most days in late autumn than UK in late spring at around 20 to 22 degrees, but I'm hoping the sunshine is just around the corner up there?  Maybe the weather is feeling as glum as some people who seem concerned about what the 'new' government is planning - interesting times ahead I'm sure ..

Last year I grew my hair long for our trip so that I could tie it back on the boat, but on Saturday I finally plucked up the courage to have a short crop to see if that's simpler to manage without the luxury of hair straighteners - the previous version was a bit of a pain with my unruly locks!  Barry reckons he'll have to keep his beard now or people won't be able to tell us apart!

 

Charlie (bless him) has been back to Northern Pride last week and fitted us with 3 new batteries, so she should be 'ship shape' and ready for us to board next Thursday - assuming that we'll arrive in England on schedule rather than be stranded in either Sydney or Dubai (I can think of worse places to be stuck).  Que sera, sera ...

In the hands of fate …

Barry flew down to Wellington yesterday to see his son Tom for a few days before we abandon him and leave NZ for another five and a half months – he’ll be 20 in August so I’m sure he’ll survive OK.

Today was mothers day in NZ so I took Barry’s mum out on the local steam train from Gisborne to Muriwai (just a half hour jaunt each way) and then out for lunch at his brother’s cafe in town.  It’s also her birthday on Friday when she’ll be 86 years young – wow!  She just missed getting the prize for the oldest mother on the train this morning – pipped to the post by another passenger who was 86 last December!

I have just four days left to work, then four days off to help Barry get everything sorted before we head to Sydney next Tuesday.  I may get more excited once I’ve finished work – so much to complete there and so little time; but whatever isn’t finished will have to wait until they find someone else to take over my job, I’m sure lives won’t be lost!

It’s getting pretty cold here in the evenings and mornings – down to about 7 or 8 degrees C – by Gisborne standards that’s blooming freezing though possibly not by UK ones!  Our log burner is keeping the house warm – no such thing as central heating here for the vast majority of kiwis.  But then when the North Sea gas supply runs out in the northern hemisphere, everyone who’s grown up with and can’t live without gas central heating will have to find another way – and it’s not so bad honest!

Unfortunately the news seems to be that there are still some issues with the volcano in Iceland so it’s in fate’s hands as to whether we actually fly according to our schedule - we can only hope for the best.  Tragically, a friend of Barry’s who he talked to a number of times before we planned our narrowboat trip last year, passed away suddenly last week.  He’s been going to UK or Europe for the past few years, buying a narrowboat, travelling around for up to six months and then normally selling it before returning to Gisborne.  Barry was inspired by him and gained some really useful advice.  Apparently, on his way to France a couple of weeks ago, his flight was diverted due to the volcano and he was stuck in Korea.  I believe that the minibus he was in crashed and he sustained a few broken ribs and was hospitalised.  He improved over a few days and was about to leave hospital when he had a heart attack and died.  It’s so sad, he should’ve been on his boat now cruising along.  Once again it brings me back to the adage of seizing the day – but at least he’s been having some fabulous boating adventures for the past few years.  May he rest in peace …

Two weeks left in Gisborne

Barry finished his work at Montana as one of the vintage cellarhands last Friday.  While there he took his still in and made what’s known as ‘grappa’ by fermenting grape skins in water with added sugar, then distilling the mixture.  I found a good description of this on-line:

“Grappa is a uniquely Italian drink.  Traditionally, made from pomace, the discarded grape seeds, stalks, and stems that are a by-product of the winemaking process, Grappa has been around since the Middle Ages.  For generations, Italians have sipped this "firewater" after meals and even added a little to their morning espresso, to "correct" it.”

The alcohol produced when Barry brewed this potent substance was about 81% proof and smelt like drain cleaner to me! I believe that he and some of his work mates had a drink or two during their leaving bash on Friday afternoon (not with their morning coffee I hope!) and are amazingly still here to tell the tale!

Montana Winery in Gisborne – just a small part!

I have 8 working days left and finish my contract on 14th May, so also have a few days off to get things packed and sorted before we fly away on 18th May.  We have tenants moving in on the day we leave, a (temporary) home for our cat, have borrowed a small sum as a mortgage on our house, and just a few odds and ends to tie up before we depart including my work’s leaving party at a bar in town on Saturday 15th May (no grappa involved!).

We’ve bought annual memberships for the National Trust and English Heritage this time; we missed visiting so many places last year because we couldn't afford to pay all the entrance fees so we’re hoping we can make the most of anything close to the canals around Birmingham and the south this year.

So we’re almost ready, time will fly by …

The story of stuff

As we work through our 'to do before we go' plan, we become more aware daily of one of the big adjustments we'll be making once again living aboard Northern Pride - there's very little space for 'stuff'.  We seem to accumulate more depending on the size of our home, but I know that we're perfectly able to manage with very little.  A friend told me about a 'you tube' video called 'The Story of Stuff' which I checked out yesterday, rather long at over 20 minutes, but it reiterates the things I've been talking about and have felt for many years - there are far too many people in the world working harder and harder to buy more and more stuff that they don't have time to appreciate because they're working so hard!  When they get in from work they're so tired that all they can do is slump in front of the TV where they get bombarded with adverts telling them what they must have so on their days off they shop and buy more stuff they don't need so then they have to work harder, etc, etc.

Apparently this phenomena can be linked to the end of the second World War when, to 'ramp up' the economy, the American government set about making goods that were not designed to last - what is known as a 'planned obsolescence' - they planned  to make goods that would not last.  There's also now a 'perceived' obsolescence whereby people pressure each other to have the latest phone, computer, car, fashion, etc.  One of the reasons I love living in Gisborne is because for the majority of people, having the latest of anything is NOT a priority.  We don't follow fashion, cars are owned until they don't pass their Warrant of Fitness rather than having to have a new model every two years, most people keep their mobile phone until it breaks, not until a better model comes out and so on.  As soon as I get back to UK I notice the stark difference and it scares me because I so don't want to get caught in the trap again - so many people there seem to have been brainwashed to believe that if they don't have the latest whatever, they have less value than their mate who has just got the best, most up to date gadget phone/computer/ipod/house/car, etc, etc.  I hate it!  It makes me feel as though I'm suffocating by the banality of it all and I want to scream at everyone - STOP!!!!  You really don't need that, you could stop working so hard and have more leisure time with your family and friends if you just stopped buying so much bloody stuff!

There's a great web site linked to the story, it's a little American but apart from that it's very thought provoking and I recommend you watch it at least twice to really appreciate it.

On a similar vein, Captain Ahab's wife hijacked his blog the other day to ask whether boaters are using biodegradable substances to clean their body parts and clothes as anything used on board is drained into the canal.  It would be interesting to take a poll and see what percentage actually do consider the environment and how easy it is to find such goods to use.  However, I also see that Halfie has suggested that all products now have to conform to environmentally friendly status so all we're doing is paying a lot more for ones that say they're better - hmmm, it's a tricky one ...

As to working too much, at the moment Barry and I really are like ships passing in the night, or at any time really!  He's on his 13th day in a row now and I'm on my first day off for 7 days.  I'm then working two nights tomorrow and Tuesday.  We don't have time to buy much 'stuff', nor is that the purpose for our current mindless working pattern, but we're certainly looking forward to having time to DO stuff and spend time with family and friends in UK in just over four weeks time!

On Friday I flew to Auckland with a new graduate midwife I've been mentoring since we returned to NZ, for her 'Midwifery Standards Review'.  As we live in such a small,isolated place, we usually have to travel out of Gisborne for anything; very few people deign to venture here to meet us.  But that's OK, we had a cool day out and managed to take a ferry ride across Auckland harbour to Devonport for brunch - my first boat trip since leaving Northern Pride in October last year!

 

I love the Auckland skyline with the Skytower dominating the view - it's taller than the Eiffel Tower and has a revolving restaurant towards the top.

There was a large P & O cruise ship in port looking almost as big as the high rise buildings!

 

We were stoked to see a photo of Northern Pride on 4Evermoore's blog last Tuesday as they passed her on the mooring in Ammington, Tamworth.  I'm so looking forward to having time to smell the roses once again.  Thirty sleeps to go ...

Who wants to win the lottery???

Continuing on with the theme of life being about so much more than money, there was a story in 'The Gisborne Herald' recently about a kiwi living in Australia who is 'battling' for his share of a $17 million lottery win.  Along with two friends, he'd purchased a lottery ticket in July 2008 by pooling their money at an impromptu party which won this huge sum of money.  What a life changing experience that could be - divide it equally and live in comfort without having to worry about money again.  But oh no, greed took over and rather than improving their lives beyond measure it has changed them irrevocably.  They've been in dispute ever since about who's entitled to what, and have spent $2 million so far in legal fees alone.  They had been friends for over 20 years and now no longer speak to each other.  Most of the money has been frozen awaiting a trial date on April 19.

The article records other lottery 'disasters':

• An American who won $2 million and was subsequently sued by his former girlfriend for a share of his winnings, his brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him so he could inherit a share of his winnings and another sibling talked him into investing into a disastrous business that failed.  Within twelve months he was $1 million in debt and forced to declare himself bankrupt;
• Another American won US$314.9 million in 2002 and was robbed numerous times, became a very heavy drinker, divorced his wife, and some time later his beloved granddaughter was found dead from a drugs overdose that had been funded by the $2100 weekly allowance he'd given her;
• Another lottery winner (it doesn't say how much he collected) invested his winnings into a profitable business and bought generous gifts for his family and took them on holidays.  Seven years after the win he was found in the back of his van shot dead  - having been murdered by his sister-in-law and her boyfriend who'd kidnapped and murdered him for the money.

Money definitely makes the world go round, but it's also 'the root of all evil' as they say.

Six weeks to go - time for spreadsheets

Six weeks from today we'll be on our way back to the northern hemisphere to rejoin Northern Pride and travel the canals of the south of England.  We leave Gisborne at 0630hrs on Tuesday 18th May (oh so early, but the cheapest flight!) and have about four hours in Air New Zealand's 'Koru Club' lounge in Auckland airport (free food, drinks, TV and papers, etc) prior to our flight to Sydney to stay a few days with Barry's brother.  We have the two passes to the Koru Club because Barry travelled from here to England and return twice last year, so got upgraded to silver card status!  It'll be my first time in Australia, so I'm excited about seeing what's on offer 'across the ditch' as they say here.

We leave Sydney on Sunday 23rd May and arrive in Birmingham at lunchtime on Monday 24th May.  We'll go to my parents house in Ombersley for a couple of days initially before returning to Ammington and our boat around 26th May.  My dad celebrated his 90th birthday last week - how amazing is that?

In the meantime we're doing the necessary planning for another extended period of time not earning a salary.  We've produced a financial spreadsheet of approximate costs, being better informed this time of how expensive or cheap (depending on how you perceive it!) living on a narrowboat can be, with experience from our travels last year.  Unfortunately, despite working full time and saving hard, we'll still need to borrow some money in order to make the trip possible.  This scares my 'sensible' side at times, but I mostly manage to rationalise it as we've no mortgage on our house here and own Northern Pride outright, so we know we won't get deeply into debt and of course have our house rented while we're away.  As I get older, I'm also very much of the 'seize the day' attitude, when the reality of my mortality kicks in with a vengeance - you just never know what's round the next corner ...

We realise we're unlikely to ever be 'rich' in monetary terms, and don't aspire to such heights (though wouldn't turn it down if attainable!), but believe we're blessed in other more important ways and want to make the most of 'living' without the main focus being on earning more and more money to buy 'stuff' that we don't need.  I recently read a book called 'The elegance of the hedgehog' (stop now if you're reading this or plan to in the future!) where at the end of the book the main character, a poor but extremely intelligent 54 year old concierge in a Parisian apartment block,  unexpectedly dies in an accident just when she meets her (very rich) soulmate who enables her to let go of the past and finally accept that she's as good as any 'wealthy' person - how ironic is that?  I also tried to read 'The girl with the dragon tattoo' by Stieg Larsson (sorry Captain Ahab, I know you loved it, but it's just not my 'type' of book - I may revisit it!) and was saddened to discover that he'd written a trilogy of three books that are now bestsellers, but he died shortly after submitting his manuscripts!  Shame!  He must've spent his final years doing nothing but writing and never lived to discover how much people would love his work.  Why not just write one book, then live a little before the next one?  Such a waste, yet another note to self.

So we're not waiting until we've saved up enough money to retire before we do the things we want to do, we're coming back to England to live on our narrowboat once again for at least five months, maybe longer, depending on whether we find a way to earn a few more pounds to make it possible, and we plan to truly live and appreciate every single moment of it  ... 

Changing seasons and preparing to change lives once again...

While spring is blooming in England, autumn is spreading it's magical colours across New Zealand.  All the native trees here are deciduous, it's only those that have been brought in from other countries that shed their leaves, so it's never as bleak in winter as it seems to be in UK.  There's a chill in the air now at night, and it's beginning to feel as though the time is drawing closer for these two old birds to fly north for the summer ...

Although I love living in New Zealand, at the moment it's associated with working full time (and more, some weeks!!); subsequently I'm now counting down until we leave and return to England to travel around the canals and rivers of the Midlands and south England.  Barry is enjoying working again, but he's lucky to get just one day off each week, and I'm sure at the end of his 8 weeks will be more than ready to be at home again!

It really is a life of contrasts, we have a fabulous home here in NZ that I adore, but am not getting a lot of time to enjoy.  But we do have a large 'section' of land, a three bed-roomed house and of course an automatic washing machine!  Back aboard Northern Pride, space is limited and we'll be living in the proverbial 'corridor' once more with just the one 'fixed' double bed and no washing machine!  I think that's what I'm mostly not looking forward to; but luckily the benefits of living on a narrowboat and travelling around outweigh the disadvantages.

The weekend before last we had a trip 'down the coast' and spent some time walking on the beach in the sunshine and a temperature of around 25 degrees, and then dropped into some hot springs for a relax with some student midwives who have come from Edinburgh to have their elective placement with the maternity unit.

 

Barry is excitedly planning where he wants to travel first on Northern Pride, and we're hoping to spend a couple of weeks at least, travelling around the Birmingham Canal Navigations.  We did a trip in April 2007 from Tardebigge; 4 days and nights in a loop passing through the centre of Birmingham.  It was all such a rush having to travel at least 8 hours a day in order to get back to the hire place on the Friday morning so we're looking forward to a much slower pace this time!

We moored up in our hired boat in Gas Street Basin and Barry couldn't believe that we were in the centre of Britain's second city!

 A walk to The Mailbox for a spot of Tapas one evening

Barry at the helm of the hire boat in 2007; the beginning of his passion for the canals

Northern Pride and the kindness of strangers

Barry has started his first 'proper' job after selling his photography business in September 2008, and is working for Montana wines running the centrifugal CT6 separation system (!!) which separates the water from the grape juice for the production of low alcohol wines (are you with me so far?!).  This machine is designed to spin the grape juice under heat, in a vacuum, to separate water from the juice.  A part of this process will be low in alcohol and used for cheaper wines and grape juices, whilst the remaining, more concentrated part, will be used in higher alcohol production.  Those in the know will understand that more sugar in grapes = more alcohol in wine, and it's imperative to get the timing right to harvest the grapes.  During the process more sugar may be added, but it's considered cheating and definitely frowned upon in the winemaking industry which is such an inherent part of New Zealand culture!  Another way to increase the alcohol content (so Barry reliably informs me) is to use lower 'brix' grapes, and separate the water from the juice.  The current challenge apparently, after working for two days (well one full day as the harvest has been put back a week due to previous heavy rainfall!), is that the CT6 machine, which is obviously crucial to the process, isn't working!  Fingers crossed they get it sorted by Monday when he should commence full time as a vintage cellarhand.

Our other exciting news is that the story I submitted in November to the Australian/NZ Reader's Digest, has been published in the March edition that we received today.  Of course it is (extensively!) edited from my original submitted article, the wordage being reduced at least by half (the fewer words the less money paid!!), but the general idea is there and the really cool thing is that a photo of Barry and I is featured on the 'contribute' page.  The story describes the people in the two boats who so kindly stopped and jump started us - our guardian angels - when we were stranded close to Rugeley, on the Trent and Mersey Canal, towards the end of our travels in 2009 on our way to Bodymoor Heath for our English wedding.