Brrrrr.....

Although we have had some very cold weather & sharp frosts at times giving the marina a thin coat of ice, we haven’t been frozen in as such as there was still clear water in the gap between the boats, until this morning that is.
The boat has been creaking, banging & making some really weird noises in the ice all day & although the weather forecast is for milder weather it certainly isn’t at the moment!

With the towpath being frozen hard so I was able to walk into town via the towpath this morning without getting muddy - didn’t need any shopping just the exercise. Since deciding to shed a few pounds I try to walk for an hour most days, have managed to lose 3lbs so far - not a lot but at least it’s going in the right direction!

We have had a change of plan re the shower & decided not to re-tile, I think I would always worry that it would happen again no matter how well we did it.
I like the look of these panels by Bathroom Marquee & have sent for a sample, we had something similar in our ‘house’ bathroom as a bath side & they were very easy to work with.

Our BW licence was due for renewal in November & we paid via Bluewater mid October & up to Christmas no licence had arrived although cheque had been cashed early November - not unduly worried as had receipt from Bluewater. But as still no licence in January gave BW a ring, they assured me it had been sent in November so deciding it must be lost in the post, sent a replacement which has now arrived.

I have been having a go at making bread & been trying out some of the mixes as my attempt to do it from scratch was not a great success! The mixes seem to work well & so far we’ve had granary, multigrain & sunflower ( Marks favourite). Can’t beat the smell of fresh baked bread.

Whilst looking for pics to upload thought I'd show you one of my more useful Xmas presents!

Another useful pressie was a sea searcher magnet, had a quick go in the marina, nothing but rusty nails to date.......

A good start to 2009 ?

Well that's another Christmas been & gone. We went up to Hannah & Chris's on Xmas eve & had a lovely family Xmas.

Finlay " is it big enough"

Astrid investigating her stocking

& Chris doing a cracking breakfast

A bit of dog walking on the beach before dinner

More presents

Janis & Barry did the honours with Xmas dinner & it was a triumph!

followed by some fun & games

By new year the cold I had was improving but Marks, which had all but gone returned with a chesty cough so we dozed in front of TV most of the evening & were in bed by 11 but did wake up when the fireworks started & managed to wish each other a happy new year before falling asleep!

I don't usually bother with new year resolutions but I have put a few pounds on in 2008 & as we have just booked a holiday in Gran Canaria for February & not wanting to look like a beached whale on the beach has sufficiently motivated me to do something about it so I am officially on a diet.

The cats will be off to a cattery whilst we jet off in search of sun so they have been to the vets for their booster injections. I would like to say they handled it well but no, they both made a fuss & Soona managed to bite both Vet & Mark. I tried to explain it was for their own good but they were having none of it - not without a fight anyway!

I shall be checking out the local catteries in the next couple of weeks, when we lived in a house Rob would look after them whilst we were away but he's too far away now to do that so a cattery it is.

We have discovered a nasty problem in the shower - I spotted what looked like damp on the bulkhead that forms the inside of the under sink cupboard on one side & the shower wall (tiled) on the other. We eventually figured out that the only place it could be coming from was the shower & somehow water was getting behind the tiles. As a temporary solution we put a shower curtain up to try to prevent any more water getting through hoping to be able to wait for warmer weather before tackling it but regular checks on the damp patch showed it to be getting worse so on Friday we bit the bullet and removed 19 tiles from the bottom up before we got to dry bulkhead. Mmm.... looks like the grout has failed/cracked so no longer waterproof.

this pic was taken after several hours of drying out

What bit of research I have done, mainly on Canal World Forum ( brilliant site) says that the hull contracts & expands therefore grout must be flexible or will probably crack - as ours has. So we can only assume that ours was done with non-flexible or not done well enough.
Bit of a bugger really... Anyway the plan is to dry it out with fan heater (good job we are currently on shore power !) then redo tiles with flexible grout. Just glad we took them off when we did as it would have only got worse which could have meant a new bulkhead.

Watch this space.........