Loitering in Tamworth ...

Apologies are due - Barry didn't manage to find the time to post any photos last week while I was away as promised - he was too busy drinking pottering about on the boat doing all sorts of jobs.  He did do a bit of drinking too, especially after his boating accident when he slipped off the gunnel onto the corner of the cratch and gashed his eye ...

Returning to the boat after we'd spent a night with my sister in Lichfield, a couple of friends gave him a lift and of course it would've been rude not to go for a drink to the Swan at Fradley Junction with them.  The photo of his eye above was when I returned on Saturday - it was looking much less bruised by then I think.

The quaint bar at The Swan in Fradley Junction

We had some very bad news last Monday that's made us even more sure the move we've made is a good one for us.  On our return to Fradley, once we'd collected the hire car from Lichfield, we spotted a narrowboat we'd seen a couple of times on our trip in 2010.  We'd chatted to the boat's owners for ages in Goring and Bathampton, so were really pleased to see the boat again.  We hoped the same people were on board, and went to see before travelling to my sisters.  Indeed it was they - and we had a fabulous catch up over a cup of tea.  They had such plans for the future.  

Sadly, on Monday, Barry heard someone knocking on the boat around 0815hrs (of course he was still in bed!), and luckily managed to get himself up and out.  It was the narrowboat from Saturday, and he was told the man we'd re-met had, very sadly, unexpectedly collapsed and died the night before.  The lady said to Barry "We have a plaque on the boat which says 'Don't count the days, make every day count' - and we did!".  Bless you both, and rest in peace lovely man.  We feel very privileged to have spent time with you - and the photo I took by your boat may be the last one of you both, so please get in touch and I'll send it to you.

Carpe diem everyone - seize each day and be thankful for what you DO have, instead of worrying about what you don't - for one never knows what's around the next corner.

I spent last week in Brighton with my youngest daughter - so wonderful to see her and spend time in such a buzzing city.  The sun shone brightly on Thursday - and the beach was crowded even on a weekday - you've got to make the most of any opportunity for some vitamin D in England!

 Brighton seafront and pier

Enterprise have a great deal on car hire over Bank Holiday weekends, and we've been planning on hiring one to go to the Crick Boat Show.  Unfortunately I left it a little late to book one, and discovered they had none available from Birmingham, only Tamworth.  So rather than moving this week, we're just mooching around the Fazely/Glascote area ready to hire the car Friday morning.

It was lucky that we were still on this stretch of canal, as we had an unexpected surprise on Sunday when Andy and Helen texted to say they would be coming past us.  Another awesome evening with them, eating curry, drinking wine and playing six-handed rummy - marvellous!

I have some coaching clients booked in tomorrow and Thursday, so it's also useful to have good internet signal here.  

We'll be at Crick on Monday, and hope to finally meet Tom and Jan from NB Waioru.  Oh yes!  And we'll be looking for suitable life jackets for our grandson.  Lisa had bought one from Amazon, but it was too tight, and oh so bulky - does anyone have any suggestions for a good life jacket (that he'll feel comfortable wearing) for an almost four-year-old?

Our first sleep-overs!

'Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.' ~Henry David Thoreau

We moored on Thursday evening alongside Watermead Country Park, north of Leicester, and on Friday morning I took a walk around the lake there and discovered this fabulous King Lear sculpture.  The sun had been out earlier, but half way through the walk the heavens opened - so it cut short my day's exercise!

We then meandered along the cut to Mountsorrel, in readiness of our meeting with Andy and Helen of Captain Ahab's Blog fame (and if you click on that link you can read about our weekend in Loughborough - though just as an aside, it's the Australians that call it that funny name, not us kiwis, but that doesn't matter there may be kiwis here that do too!).  

I'm not sure if I've ever revealed how we all came to be such good friends, so I'll tell you the story in a nutshell ...

A few months into our first voyage aboard NB Northern Pride in 2009, I was staying at my parents house and received a Facebook message from Helen.  I know some people have a 'thing' about Facebook, and other social networking sites, and I'm sure there will always be the for's and against's for these.  I personally believe they're incredible tools, and used wisely and armed with the knowledge that whatever you post is in the public domain (apart from, one hopes, private messages on Facebook!), they make the world a smaller and friendlier place, especially for travellers.

Anyway, initially I couldn't remember who Helen was - I've had a number of 'Friend' requests on Facebook over the years from people I've met/worked with, and my long term memory isn't the best! Occasionally the request is from someone I've never met, who wants to connect for a variety of reasons, and I have no problem with that (unless they sound and look dodgy or their reasons are spurious!).  This time, I private messaged Helen asking how I knew her and of course as soon as she told me I instantly remembered her with great fondness.  We worked together as midwives back in the early 1990s.  Conversing, as you do, about what we'd been up to since that time, I told her about my emigration to NZ, meeting Barry and returning to live on the waterways for six months.  She then messaged back to say they also owned a narrowboat, and of course I told her about our blog and she revealed they too had one - it turned out we'd been reading each others stories for a long time!  

I truly believe people come into our lives for a reason, and was blown away at the coincidences of Helen contacting me at that particular time.  Needless to say, we've hooked up again many times since then.  The boys are now great friends, and Helen and I have renewed and strengthened our friendship.

So, back to our sleep over weekend.  Andy and Helen drove to Mountsorrel to meet us on Saturday afternoon, having dropped off a supply of jams and pickles for their Wild Side Handmade Preserves Company to 'Wandr'ing Bark ready for their trip to the Droitwich Canal Festival this Bank Holiday weekend (go and say hello if you're around).  Helen also brought me a special jar of 'No bits' Lime Marmalade with Medlar Vodka that she's been storing for me - and I had some on toast this morning - delicious!  If you haven't sampled her products yet you're definitely missing out.  

Helen had asked me a few weeks ago whether we were changing the name of our new boat, and I'd wondered why - this is the reason ...

She'd had this incredible and unique boat decoration made for us - it's just gorgeous!  Bless you Helen :-)

We talked together lots about our plans for spending more time on the waterways, and it was fabulous to be able to pick their brains about different canal festivals and running a small business in England - thank you again.  During our outward and return journeys, Helen and I chatted on board the boat, working the one lock between Mountsorrel and Loughborough, while Barry and Andy talked while driving the boat.  

It was great to have a larger boat to accommodate guests - on Northern Pride it was always such a tight squeeze with extra people and their bags, but now it's a dream!  We've got a few people lined up in the coming months - and next time I'll remember to take photos (luckily Andy was more on the ball, so check out his page for them - oh and we've pinched his photo of us for our front page - yet another thank you!).  I think Barry took some of Andy, but it takes him so long to edit them it'd be a week or more before we posted if I waited, lol! They may come eventually ...

In the meantime, we're back moored in Loughborough Basin, probably moving along a little tomorrow towards Trent Lock.  We've had notice today that our boxes from New Zealand left last Friday, and if all goes well will be with us at the end of June, so we'll be heading slowly towards Fradley to arrive by then.

Teething problems, wildlife, and some surprising synchronicity

'You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.'~Brian Tracy

Adjusting to a change of life takes a little while, even when it’s something you’ve been working towards for a long time. One of our challenges has been Internet access.  Having thought we’d got out internet and phone packages sorted with The Carphone Warehouse (TCPW), last Tuesday my phone suddenly wasn’t ‘allowed’ to tether to my laptop anymore. I’d been sold the package (Three Ultimate SIM 600) by TCPW on the understanding that it came with unlimited Internet and tethering – the only service provider to do so I was (un)reliably informed. Anyway, long story short, it didn’t and doesn’t and so we’ve now invested in a ‘Mifi’ (Mobile Wireless Internet) package instead, with 15MB per month, so that both Barry and I can use the Internet as much as we were able to back in NZ. Without this we wouldn't be able to earn as we travel.

So what have we been up to apart from a few teething problems?  I’ll condense some of the events of the last week and a half …

Tonight we’re moored up north of Leicester adjacent to the Watermead Country Park, having spent two nights in Leicester.  We’re often regaled with tales of terror about Leicester, but our experience in 2010 and recently are very different.  We’ve found it to be a fabulous city, multi-cultural, diverse, overflowing with history and interesting places to visit, and embracing their waterway.  Last night we went to a very uplifting live comedy show at The Guildhall where, sadly, we were the only people to have bought tickets up until about 15 minutes before the show commenced when another couple arrived.  The audience was made up of the four of us, plus staff and the support acts!  We were pretty incredulous that they continued with the show, and enjoyed a very intimate evening, filled with hilarity and farce – and wondered why on earth the event wasn’t a sell-out.  The main comedian was called Anthony King and much of his act consisted of amusing songs (anecdotal maybe?) he’s written, with a highlight being a recent one about King Richard III and the discovery of his skeleton in a car park in Leicester in September 2012.

Anthony King singing in front of the ornate fireplace in the Mayors Parlour at The Guildhall

The cobbled walkway to the Cathedral and Guildhall after the show

St Mary De Castro Church (1170), on our walk back to the boat, lit up magnificently

We wonder whether people are so busy watching all the bad news on the TV about whatever the media believe is the most fascinating current viewing (we don’t have a TV), most of which the general public really don’t need to worry about – or was it just because it was a Wednesday? 

Since our last blog, we spent two nights in Welford the weekend before last, then on Monday set off for Foxton.  Along the way we encountered an abundance of fascinating wild life.  That's one of the many perks of living on the waterways, having time to get up close and personal with natures wonders. 

On the canalside, moored just past the Bosworth Tunnel, I noticed some movement amongst the leaves, which turned out to be two very well camouflaged toads copulating, and captured a couple of amazing photos before they hopped into the water.  On a walk to Husbands Bosworth we saw a beautiful butterfly, had a bee on board, almost trod on a frog on our way back to the boat from the Bridge 61 pub on Monday evening, then when Barry was cleaning the boat on Tuesday before we set off down Foxton Locks, he spotted a water lizard …

In Market Harborough on Thursday, we’d just moored up when Barry spotted Pam and Terry’s boat ‘The Rooster’s Rest’ passing us by, so he shouted out a ‘hello!’ to them and they stopped.  Pam has been following our blog for a long time, and has been in touch on and off. It was lovely to see them and she spoke of reading our blog about our Boat wedding in 2009 at Bodymoor Heath – at that point I recalled being very touched by a sweet card sent to the pub from a blog reader, and asked if it had been Pam (having temporarily forgotten the name in the card).  Pam said no it wasn’t her.  We showed them around our boat, and as we stepped off the back, another boat pulled in behind us, and incredibly, it contained Angie and Dave on narrowboat Lady Esther – the people who’d sent us the card to the Dog and Doublet!  That really is synchronicity - the universe works in mysterious ways.

We had a fabulous day, chatting and sharing stories with Pam, Terry, Angie and Dave, culminating in an evening aboard ‘Lady Esther', Angie and Dave’s boat, as Pam and Terry had set off on their travels late afternoon.  I recall thinking we must get a photo of the three girls, then completely forgetting.  We’ve since taken photos of us with the two couples separately which will appear in the future – once Barry’s sorted his pictures out!  We caught up with Pam and Terry again on Tuesday in Leicester

On Sunday my eldest daughter Lisa came to visit us at Foxton, with our grandson, and we had an exciting though exhausting day with them.  You have to have eyes in the back of your head with a three year old on a narrowboat – but it was wonderful and made coming back to England so worthwhile for such opportunities.

Barry’s now got a brew of red wine bubbling away, and a barrel of beer fermenting. We’re so unused to paying ‘proper’ prices for alcohol, and have cut down heaps since we’ve been here – not a bad thing at all in my humble opinion!  We’re managing to find fairly decent red wine for around £4.50 a bottle at the supermarkets, but the brew we have on now should give us 30 bottles within three weeks at less than £1 a go, and 10 litres of beer for around £10.

And this weekend, Captain Ahab and Belle are coming to visit us – our first sleepovers! What fun we'll have ...

It's all coming together, saving the best till last ...

"I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers. There aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision." 

W. Clement Stone

Well we're definitely taking concrete steps and our vision is becoming a reality!  The elephant that has been seeming so large over the past few months, weeks and days, now appears to be shrinking - we've been eating it piece by piece.

I'm almost finished packing up the boxes that we'll be shipping - how on earth we still have so much stuff after we've let go and sold so much is beyond me!  It's taking a lot of willpower to keep reducing our belongings down to the absolute (honest Barry!) essentials.  The remainder of our furniture will be taken this week - so by Friday we'll have very little left, apart from items the new owners have bought.  We're so lucky to have lovely people coming to live in our house and Suki, our cat, is staying too.

We had an awesome leaving party at the Hospital Social Club last Friday night arranged by some friends ...

The hall was decked out in red, white and blue with a few All Blacks flags too - what amazing friends we have, we're very lucky.

Next weekend I am flying to Auckland for my Diploma in Holistic Life Coaching Graduation which is awesome - it's been a long journey to achieve this, in time, money and commitment, but it's been so worthwhile.  I have two more clients to get to complete my 100 hours of case studies, but I'm waiting until we get to UK for that or it will be too disjointed.

And the very best news is WE'VE BOUGHT A BOAT!  Well, we've put a deposit down subject to survey.  Barry came home last Friday with the details and said it's the closet he's seen to the boat we've been searching for - and after some deliberation and the fantastic Captain Ahab taking the time to visit her in person and report back to us, we decided to go for it!  

She's called 'AREandARE', which we pronounced in a variety of ways, until we discovered it actually says R and R!  So apt, we're very pleased.

We'll be seeing many of you in the very near future ...

Barry's canal fixes

After a great night out on Friday at The George Hotel in Lichfield, Barry managed to achieve his canal fix over the weekend, though it was touch and go for a while!  We were meeting up with Andy, aka Captain Ahab, who'd informed us he was somewhere between Tipton and Oldbury.

Without either an A to Z or a GPS, just a road name and a large AA Road Map, it was rather challenging.  I was just about to give up, saying I'd had enough and we'd have to stop somewhere to buy an A to Z, when we spotted Andy at the side of the road - hurrah!  He'd said he was on Dudley Road West, but in fact it turned out to be Dudley Road East - we'd been travelling round and round in circles looking for the west of the east road (!) and been on the way to Sedgely, wherever that is, before turning round!

Barry fills up with a cooked breakfast before the canal clean-up

Hurrah!  Finally we found the Captain!

Barry was a bit late for the canal clean-up that was in full swing, but he did manage to pull out a few plastic bags and other random bits and pieces.  Following the work party, he and Captain Ahab and Jeff found their way back to Wand'ring Bark and took a short trip to the pub to celebrate St Patrick's Day, had an overnight stay and then a cruise back to the Marina - Barry would have been in his element.

Collecting him from Whitchurch Rail Station on a sunny Sunday evening, we stopped off at Grindley Brook for a bit of a waterway walkabout ...

Grindley Brook, a few minutes drive from where my daughter Lisa lives

Tomorrow Barry's catching a train back to Birmingham to meet up with some more friends, Fred and Sara from Sheffield, and Lisa and I will drive back to Ombersley with our adorable grandson.

Barry's hand and our grandson's hand etched to compare 56 years, versus 2 years of age!

Only eight days of our trip left, we knew it would fly by and it certainly is, but we're having a fabulous time and it's so uplifting to spend time with my family - and we know that when we return to New Zealand we'll be on the countdown to coming back to live in 12 months time when we won't have to rush around so much either on the canals, or with family and friends.

We made it back to the motherland for mother's day...

Well here we are once again in England - Barry made the flight to Auckland last Tuesday night, thank goodness.  

It’s been 16 months since we were here, so it’s fabulous to be seeing my family again.  So far we’ve stayed with my parents in Ombersley (no photos yet Dijon!), been to Brighton to stay with Kim and Joe, had a brief visit to my sister in Southampton and then back to Ombersley.  

A couple of hours in Kuala Lumpar airport - with a humid jungle walk in the background

Within a day or two of arriving, Barry had managed to visit the Droitwich Canal, where we had a walk around the basin – we’re looking forward to travelling on this newly opened (in 2011) waterway when we return in 2013 – Barry took a few photos on his camera, so we’ll upload those when we’re back in New Zealand as he doesn’t have his card reader or laptop here.

Barry caught up with a friend in Brighton for a few drinks on Saturday afternoon.  Well when I say a few I may be understating the facts!  He suggested they'd managed to drink about 8 pints of Guinness in the space of a few hours, he really is incorrigible …

Despite that over indulgence, he obediently found his way back to Kim's on time, in the early evening, and we went out with Kim and Joe and a friend of theirs, Joanne, to a night-club in Brighton called ‘Cassablanca’s’ – there was an excellent band on and the girls boogied to the beat while the boys talked boy things and drank beer (I'm so thankful I'm a girl, I think we have so much more fun!).

Joe and Barry, Sandra, Kim and Joanne off in a taxi for a big night out

On Wednesday we managed to squeeze in another canal fix for Barry, this time to Stourpourt as I craved some good old British fish 'n chips and curry sauce - yum!  We were just in time to assist a boat through the locks after lunch ...

Stourport locks heading onto the river Severn - and above the foot bridge where a boy fell off his bike and sadly died - now covered with ugly scaffolding

We’re now at Lisa’s and have met our grandson for the first time – hurrah!  At last!  He's the sweetest little boy you could ever wish to meet and adores his Grandad Kiwi - he's had many more cuddles than Grandma Kiwi who's maybe just so much more scary.  We're off again this evening to Lichfield for my sister Kath's partner's 55th birthday party and another live band to dance to, then tomorrow, I'm handing Barry over to Captain Ahab for a weekend of canal cleaning around Tipton and Oldbury, then a night on Wand'ring Bark - he will be in seventh heaven bless him.  

I'll be driving back to Malpas, in Cheshire, again to spend Mother's Day with Lisa - her first one ever so it'll be very special.

News from the edge of the world (or rather the beginning) ...

On Friday last week I had to travel to Auckland for my eighth 'Diploma in Holistic Life Coaching' weekend, usually about a seven hour drive, through beautiful scenery.  Gisborne is literally on the edge of the world, and is the first place to see the sun each day (well that is until they changed the date-line on 31 December 2011 and Samoa 'lost' a day).  There are only two roads north from Gisborne, one through a gorge which is the shortest route and the other around the East Cape, another three hours at least.  On Friday morning a friend of mine phoned to say that the gorge was closed for a few hours, due to a 'slip' of something onto the road, so I waited a while.  By 12 midday though it was announced on the radio that it would be closed until Sunday - so off I went the long way and arrived in Auckland around 2130hrs - a nine and a half hour drive of around 650kms.  In the early hours of Saturday morning, a massive landslide occurred in the Waioeka Gorge, which has now closed the road for 4 - 6 weeks!  So it's likely it won't even be open when we get back from England - incredible.  How fortunate that it didn't happen when someone was driving past.

It's now Tuesday afternoon and my bags are packed ready to head to Auckland airport this evening around 2200hrs.  Barry is still working in his shop, ezimade, and is scheduled to catch the last flight out of Gisborne at 1840hrs.  Let's hope nothing goes wrong with it as there's no way he'll be able to make it to Auckland by road if he doesn't!

Not many photos at the moment, but here's one from last night - Deb and I went to 'Euro', a restaurant owned by Simon Gault who is a famous NZ chef.  The food was delicious, but expensive, and actually not as amazing as I expected and nowhere near the quality of The Marina Restaurant in Gisborne that we went to recently with our English guests Jean and Jeremy.

Deb and I at 'Euro' on the waterfront in Auckland

We've more or less arranged now to catch up with Captain Ahab and Belle on the weekend of 17th March, so Barry should get his canal and narrowboat 'fix'!   It'll be lovely to see them both again.

We arrive at Heathrow around 1615hrs on Wednesday 7th March, where we'll collect a hire car for the 20 days of our brief visit, and initially drive to my parents in Ombersley.  I'm hoping that the traffic isn't too awful, it always takes a bit of getting used to after the delightful slowness of New Zealand.

We'll stay there for a few days before travelling to Kim's in Brighton on Saturday until the Monday, before heading back to Ombersley for a few more days, then up to Malpas to see Lisa and our gorgeous grandson for the first time in person - we think he may try and put us back into the computer as he's only ever seen us on Skype!

It's coming into autumn here and we'll be arriving in UK to the spring - I'm looking forward to seeing the daffodils and crocus's, as well as my family, and I suspect Barry is looking forward to drinking more English beer - that's if he gets to Auckland on time ...