Its been about a week since I've written a blog. The reason being that not an awful lot has been going on. Don't get me wrong, we've been enjoying ourselves, pretty good weather, loads of jobs being done, spending as little money as possible. Most people write their blog as a little convenient diary of their time afloat for themselves and a few family and friends. But what happens when loads of other people start reading it as well, there becomes a sort of duty of care to make the blog interesting and informative.
So when nothing very interesting goes on I'm less likely to write to save the boredom of the other hundred or so readers that are likely to click today expecting photos and accounts of our journey. The problem is that I'm going to be reading this in thirty years time wondering what was going on this week.
There are three things that have and will continue to dictate the slow speed of our continuous cruise. Firstly money. We're on a tight budget, we have a monthly allowance for diesel and engine servicing that restricts us to about fifteen engine hours per average week, and that is for any moving, generation or cooking. It gives us about eight or nine moving hours that we try to split into two. The first week of August we used the engine for twenty six hours so we had to cut back a bit for a couple of weeks.
The second thing is any imminent plans. Over the next three weeks we are going to Poole to visit Jess, so need to be close to somewhere to hire a car; expecting guests so need to be close to parking, pub and somewhere suitable for a short cruise; and we have finally booked LJ on to be blacked on September the eighteenth, and its only about ten miles and thirteen locks away. So even if we had more diesel money that would all need to be taken into account.
Lastly the reason d'être for our journey to a certain extent is to see some of the UK at snails pace and we are only going to see it if we get off the cut and find it. So be warned in advance, the next blog will be about the cafe we had breakfast in, oil in the bilge, where I'm up to with polishing and painting what people are saying about CaRT on FB, weather or not Stan will end up being an only child, and probably what we've had for dinner. I can't promise excitement but at least I'll be able to remember what we were doing when I read back in thirty years time.
Hi James and Debbie
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wouldn't worry about the blog being boring, you might be surprised at what some readers (like me, anyway) find interesting.
I'd love to do what you have done and am more interested in what life on a narrowboat is really like, so the nitty-gritty, humdrum is what I'd like to read. For example, the fact that you are coping on a tight budget for diesel, as that is exactly the position I'd be in. Or any modifications/work you've done to make life easier and so on.
I'm not so bothered about fancy photos of places you've visited, preferring to see those of the boat or moorings out in the sticks. And if all else fails, photos of Debbie eating cake always go down well, as you know. ;-)