we are sailing, we are sailing.......

well ive just about thawed out! mum dad, uncle colin, aunty sue, ruby and i all went on the canals for 4 days over new year. we hired a 56ft barge from stoke golding and pottered around on the canals. it was quite nice to get away from everything, all i had was a radio, a tv when we'd moored and my mobile that was on silent (couldnt have turned it off! fipping heck, im not going that far back to basics!! :-P)! i did take my dissertation with me though! sad i know! we set off in heavy rain, not very pleasent but we (well i say 'we,' dad and colin did all the steering while the women stayed indoors doing the cooking and playing cards etc!) battled on against the elements!

THE GANG! (sue, colin, dad, me, mum, ruby)

when we moored for the night we noticed our heating wasnt working too well so we tried to bleed the radiators but that did nothing, we ended up having to call out the guys from the boating place to help us! our boiler was dodgy but we put hot water bottles in our beds and went to sleep. i slept well and only snored a little bit! i managed to have a really good lie in only to be woken up by everyone syaing that colin had fallen in! he was trying to get his bike off the roof to get a paper and ended up in the canal instead!!!! hehe, he was ok though and thankfully the shower was warm so he soon warmed up! we'd also worked out how to work the boiler - you had to keep adding water to it every 4hours or so.

TYPICAL VIEW ON THE CANAL OF ANOTHER BARGE.

we spent most of the days playing cards and chatting and then in the evenings eating and drinking! not too different from uni really! hehe. it was fun being on the canals in winter cos ive only ever been on in the summer so it was nice waking up in a snug bed and watching the world go by from your window untill you decide to brave the nippy boat away from your bed!

ME STEERING! EEEK!

i did actually venture outside once or twice to steer (as you can see above!) mainly on straight parts of the canal so i didnt have to master corners! i also walked on the tow path although it was really muddy and ended up being about 3ft higher by the time i got back onto the boat due to the amount of mud on my shoes!

on new years eve (dad's birthday) we moored near brinklow in the middle of nowhere and sat with the telly on, chatting, eating and drinking! (not much changed from the day routine really!!). at midnight we went onto the back of the boat while colin set off some firewroks from the bank and dad opened the champagne while we sang auld lang syne together.

MUM, DAD AND I ON NEW YEARS EVE.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!"

it was quite good fun to have a new year at home, not sure where ill be next year, might be in london in my new flat! who knows?!

cant really think of much more to say, im so tired! been dead busy and still am, got so much work to do still cos didnt really do anything before and during chrimbo! oops! thatll learn me!

xx