Move

With so much going on its hard to know where to start.  The move went well and relatively smoothly.  Luckily the majority my stuff had already been moved and so only 1 full Luton van was left (gulp).  Not easy though.   Moving the stuff into the van was the usual game of Tetris as the van was literally full floor to ceiling.  The next step was to exit the stuff from the van which was easier.  Simply open the door at the other end and some of it left of its own accord.  No damage.   To me or the stuff.  

Moving things onto the boat was easier than expected.  The portholes (I think we had about 12) are now all on board.  As we were stacking them a car pulled up and asked if they were for sale.  Hmmm, now let me think.  That would be a no.  But you never know, no harm in asking.

The boat cabins are now liveable.  Clean (but not yet tidy).  One has to get used to living in a very small space though.  The cabin beds provide copious storage in HUGE drawers (4 per bed).  So that deals with most of the stuff I have.  The wardrobes do the rest.  But everything is still in boxes so it will take time to sort.  I planned the move well and started a month ago to pack etc.  But the problem was I did not plan time off to unpack.  Ho hum.  Never mind.

With such changes come problems.  Or challenges more like.  This is not like moving house (well, it is as well) but a change in life style.  Things need to be done differently.  For example, the place gets untidy instantaneously if you do not put stuff away.  There simply is no room to dump stuff.  None at all.  So you need to be disciplined.   Want a cup of coffee, wash up the spoon and the cup immediately and put the jar away.  Otherwise, all your space is gone in one spoon!  Not quite but it feels like it.  The second challenge (found out after first night) is that with no portholes in the cabin areas it is permanently night.  So when I awoke I had no clock and no idea of whether it was 4am or 9am.  As it turned out it was 10.00 am.  This is hard to adjust too.  But it was better this morning.

The final challengette is radio signals.  There aren't any.  So a clock radio DAB that takes its time from a radio signal is 0 use in a large tin can.  No signal penetrates that far into the boat.  No signal, no clock, no radio, no alarm.  Luckily I had the ipad.  But even mobile signals are touch and go on that deck.

As a Londoner (for the last 14 years) of course I am programmed to think that everywhere is like London.  Ideally I was looking to do the dry run to the station etc yesterday.  Things took over and it never happened so this morning was a voyage of discovery.  I awoke, did morning ablutions, packed bag (note to self to pack bag night before, but to be fair it was 1 am before I hit the sack) and headed for car.  No coffee yet, no functioning brain, sun just about up (7.55) and ice cold wind trying to scratch the skin from my face.  Trip from boat to car, 5 mins, so far so good.

Next stage was to find Chatham station.  Fully expecting traffic, queues, and general scenes of streets full of angry car drivers.  Nope.  Nothing.  Out of Hoo, no traffic, onto main roads, no traffic, roundabouts all had feeds off so that you did not have to even stop at them.  All the way to the station, no traffic.  Straight into car park (not quite true, into permit holders car park and then corrected into pay through the nose car park) and 6 min wait for train.

The train was empty, almost new, clean and warm.  I have 3 seats to myself and room to write the blog entry in comfort.  Off to LA fitness at Victoria for my morning shower.  Yep, don't panic, I am not going to be exercising.  The lifting of portholes etc etc at weekend nearly finished me off proving the dangers of exercise.  I joined LA fitness simply as a cheap place to have a shower until the boat is ready.  They supply towel and shampoo etc etc.  All good and for only £50 a month (use any location).

I am not going to be doing any work on the ship this week as over the last 6 months the ship has turned to chaos with tools and stuff everywhere while Dave did his good work all over the ship (that is not his fault, its just not really worth doing while every room is being worked on. This week's evenings will be spent

1) Moving all tools into chain room onto the new shelves in the chain buckets.  I keep finding duplicate tools I keep buying because I am not organised (I used to be very organised but as I said above, things got a little behind).

2) Put improved lighting around the ship with energy saving bulbs.  New clip on lamps are just the job.  Cheap and very effective.

3) Clean the ship.  Just to get the grime out from months of work.

4) Remove rubbish bags from around the ship.  Lots left in corridors.  Very handy while working, nightmare to move around on though.

5) Put up TV arial.

That should keep me busy.  5 may not get done due to wind and darkness but the rest will be done.  I will try and take photos tonight of the new living space.  Cosy.