Saturday, October 25, 2014

Time Marches On!

Now I know we have all heard it before, but just how fast is the time flying by? I am a huge lover of quotes and such like, they often pop up on face book. Now and again one will really hit home with me, as this one did, so thought I would share it with you.....I like this 

It really makes you think doesn't it? The older I am getting, the more precious my time is.
I am the worst culprit I know for, ' wasting time'. I will spend ages just standing at the side hatch staring at the sky and marvelling at how the cloud formations change by the minute. I can spend hours on my lap top chatting to people I have never met, reading their comments and being interested in their lives and what they are up to, especially if they are fellow boaters. I may have dishes in the sink, an unmade bed, countless chores that need seeing to but I like my bouts of wasted time, because to me they are not wasted! I love them! Granted some days I will get to bed time and think that was a waste of a day, I could have been doing this, this or this, but all in all I enjoy my, 'me' days, I go at my pace and just do the things I want to do!

It fascinates me when I watch people bustling about. I look at them and wonder, have they even noticed the gorgeous colours the trees are right now, can they see the hundreds of Canadian Geese flying over in perfect formation, do they notice the clouds and how lovely the sky is, or is all this wasted on them? People have so much going on in their lives, jobs, families, money struggles all of life's ammunition that gets fired at us constantly, ill health, squabbles the price of fish!

 I am not for one minute making light of these personal problems, every individual deals with them differently,I am not belittling the importance of what is distracting a person but, to all those people the sky is just as beautiful, the rainbow that has just appeared after that nuisance of a downpour is every bit as gorgeous, the cute little dog that just walked past, the cheeky toddler in a pram just waiting for your eye contact so they can try out their brand new, 'Hiya' they have just mastered!

I have watched people walking along the opposite towpath, the sun set has been stunning and they don't even lift their heads to see? I want to shout, "Oi look at that sun set, your missing it"! For fear of being locked up, I don't!

I suppose if I really stop and think, not everybody sees things as I do, and as always it is down to personal choice. Some people, namely me, can lose themselves in a sun set or a rainbow when there are more pressing things I should be dealing with, things that others would find far more important, to them anyway, things they will miss that rainbow for. Maybe I have my priorities so wrong, but I feel safe in the knowledge that these wonderment's of nature are not, and will never be, wasted on me! Is it since I have had the boat or have I always been the same?

I vividly remember playing as a child in the garden and using my imagination to play my little games. The Red Hot Poker flowers growing in the garden that I would pick bits from and put them in water and pretend it was a gold fish in a pond or lake!! All that mattered to me in that instant as a child were these little fish that I had created, my imagination held no bounds! I loved to get lost in it all.....as I do now as an adult, not that I play pretend gold fish anymore, I now have real fish and water to look at!!

I also love to lose myself in my writing, stuff and nonsense as I often call it! I often like to stop the world and get off, just to be in my world and not have to share this world with anybody, just for a short time. I then have to run to catch up with the real world once again, I liken it to seeing a person running after an old fashioned bus, you know the ones with the open ended back deck, I just grab the pole in time and drag myself back to reality, just in time to immerse myself into mundane, ' Have to do's' like work and chores!!

I will never lose sight of the fact I have a charmed life. For all the moaning I do, and believe me I do, at times, a mean female version of Victor Meldrew, I know I am a truly lucky person. Lucky in the fact I haven't had some of the horrendous traumas people have had to endure, traumas that maybe sadly diminish their ability to find wonderment in the simple things. I have lost people, as we all have, close family like my Dad, my Nan Grandad Grandma and friends and my little Dog, who have been taken far too early, all of which leave a deep sadness that you have to learn to live with, otherwise the gift you have of life that was whipped away from those you have lost, is wasted on you....

Now I ask myself, what brought all this on? In all honesty I have no clue, I just wanted to write what was in my head, so I did, because I can!

I love my days off, I love my selfish, 'Debbie Days'. I love writing things down. I wonder if in years to come people will come across this blog, read it and think, what a nutter. I do hope so!! It will have all been worthwhile!

Changing the subject somewhat, my fire door has been re glazed and re roped, so Dan will pick that up for me Tuesday, I can then have my stove lit when on the boat. I just need to reseal the fire, put my new chimney in place then jobs a gooden! My central heating has come in handy while my fire has been out of commission, but you can't beat the wood burner, to be honest it hasn't really been needed up to now the weather has been so mild. I still look forward to lighting my first fire for Winter, even after ten years of doing it! 

Right I really must go get that 'real world' bus there is one due any minute! Needs must, I really do have chores to do, besides there are no Rainbows to look at right now! Then again the sun has just come out, the view from the side hatch is stunning......late for the bus again!




Wednesday, September 10, 2014

I'm Back!

Well, I didn't really go anywhere to be honest, but my trusty old laptop gave up the ghost. After being hammered for five years, it had finally had enough and given up!

I am now the proud owner of a new laptop, courtesy of my new 02 contract, I renewed at the beginning of the month. The laptop was a, "gift" mmmm, you don't really get anything for nothing, but it was the only way I was going to get another laptop, I couldn't afford to just go and buy one. So I have a new phone and laptop from 02, and a Wifi thingy majig from 3. My previous dongle was 3, so decided to stay with them, as my internet on the boat was always quite good with them.

Armed with my laptop and little wifi box, I decided to set the whole thing up, how hard could that be? The lovely young man in the 3 shop said it was a doddle to set up.....three hours later the laptop was becoming scarily close to being launched through the open side hatch! I tried to put my personal wifi code into the computer, time and time again but couldn't get on line, I was fast running out of patience. The signal strength was high on the little wifi box but my laptop just would not connect, doddle he said grrrrr!

I had all about given up, decided to take the whole kit and caboodle back to the 3 shop the next day, so the lovely young man could show me his doddle skills! I just happened to take a last look at the wifi code I was supposed to tap in, this time I looked under a bright light, only to discover one of the digits that looked like the number 1, was in fact the letter i ..... I retried and hey presto it worked.....then again it would with the right code wouldn't it?

We had a lovely ten days on the boat in the Salthouse Dock Liverpool. We decided to go when the french giants where in town, it was brilliant and the gorgeous weather was a bonus!

I haven't managed to upload any photos yet, that's another challenge that lies ahead, this laptop is so different from my old one, so if the code took me three hours to type in, heaven only knows how long it will take me to fathom out how to get photos on here! 

I have lived with my lovely new decor for nearly a year now and I love it, my new galley colour scheme being my favourite. the shelf I mentioned in my previous post is all done and up on the wall, I am so pleased with it!


So from being all tatty and dirty in Mum's garage, painted and cut down to fit, it finishes off the galley perfectly!

I love revamping things, you just get so much satisfaction out of seeing the transformation.

I have since added little led fairy lights around the shelf, it will look nice and cosy for the winter!

Talking of winter, my fire is in urgent need of a revamp, it needs new glass and rope, new liners and the fire cement around the joints needs replacing, not to mention a new chimney for the roof! I will then give it a good clean and paint with stove paint, pictures of progress in another post! Luckily I have gas central heating as a stand in until the fire is up and running!



Well, it is a pleasure to blog
again on my new laptop, hopefully I will post at more regular intervals!

Talking of boat stoves, don't they look sad and dreary in the summer when not lit, sitting in the corner looking all dark and dismal.....I decided to do something about that a few years ago. I put fairy light string balls in there with weather cones and whatever else I fancy, it just gives it a bit of life in the summer months, they can easily be removed and put away when
it is time to light the fire!



Looking forward to cosy winter nights, in with Dan on the boat. 
After ten years with Tickety Boo, the novelty still hasn't worn off, I love everything it involves, every season has it's magic! I now have someone to share that magic with...


Saturday, March 22, 2014

Annoying!!

I have been deleting items on my lap top. On doing so I deleted my bookmarks, one of which was my Blog. I Googled, Life Afloat On Narrow Boat Tickety Boo, to bookmark it again, only to find a blog that’s blatantly taken snippets from my blog to use on their site, so annoying!!  Why? They are my words chosen to describe my Blog and Posts? Ahh well I will just take it as a compliment that they have stolen them, as they think my writing is better than anything they can come up with.. Buggers!!

On  brighter note, Spring has sprung!! Not so as you would notice by the temperature! All the other signs are here though, Ducks mating, daffs and other Spring bulbs making an appearance, crisp blue skies with brilliant white clouds…and if I am up early enough, the Bunnies brave enough to graze the grass on the opposite towpath, lovely!

Today is my first day of nine days off work!! I don’t need to tell you workers out there how good that feels!!  Unfortunately we can’t go out on the boat, which is very frustrating…here’s why….

Before and After….

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The bridge at the end of our mooring is being repaired, a huge job, fascinating to watch, but I hate to see the normally tranquil Canal looking like this. Hopefully it will all be back to the way it was soon!

So, back to my nine days off! Tomorrow my youngest gorgeous little Munchkin, Darcy, is having her first Birthday party! I am looking forward to it sooo much, as all the family will be there, so it will be a lovely day! Danny is coming with me to make it even nicer!

For those of you who don’t know, Danny and I have been seeing each other for just on a Year, I would just like to know where he has been all my life? He says I am a breath of fresh air, ( he so must have been living in smog a while)!! He too is my breath of fresh air and we are very happy….ask us at the end of the week after we have spent 24/7 together, if that is still the case!!

Joking aside, I am looking forward to some well earned quality time with my Man !

Without getting too mushy, this quote I found on good old Face book sums it all up really….

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Danny is my someone…..thank you Ding….just for the record, it’s your turn to make the coffee!!

Ooohhh just realised, I hold my hand up for being a bit of a hypocrite using this quote on my blog, my thanks to the original Author whoever you are, I give you full credit for these words. Pity my thief didn’t thank me for mine….