29^th May

Great day today. Took Chilli Oyster out for the second time. This time we got the sails up, although there was very little wind but we still managed to move along a little bit around the Felixstowe area. We motored back in at low water so had to divert to Ipswich Haven Yacht Marina. This was quite an experience in itself as you enter it through a lock, a rather large lock that could take 10 Oysters. We are used to narrow, narrow Boat locks where you rattle against the brick work, thankfully in this lock there was plenty of room and no rattling! Matthew from Oyster Brokers came with us and joined us in a glass of Champagne to celebrate the sails up. We have now celebrated: the purchase, the mast going in, the boat going in the water, the first journey out, and now the sails going up,  all with champagne.

We had a nice lunch at the marina. Spent the afternoon re-arranging sails in lockers and untangling Jordan’s fishing gear, while Becky battled with the kids schooling.....still going fairly well. I then sorted out the log, which had stopped working. This involves taking the log out of the bottom of the boat, I really do not like doing this as you get a gush of water coming up into the boat before you can plunge the blanking plug in. The thought of cross threading the blank and not being able to stop the torrent preys in the back of the mind. The other problem we encountered was our anemometer has stopped measuring wind speed. Oh dear this is a bosun’s chair job to the top of the mast....the kids have both volunteered....I am tempted!

28^th May

What a terrible night, huge thunderstorms all around the boat and Molly, our bearded collie, became a quivering wreck that insisted on sitting on either Becky’s pillow or mine. The whole bed shook with her tremors, as the flashes of lightening lit up the cabin followed by claps of thunder. To cap the bad night’s sleep Tim from Fox’s arrived to do the mast light connections at 7:45am. There was a time when this was late for me, after Molly’s antics it seemed blearily early. Tim was very apologetic, it was clear he was looking at a man on auto pilot.

Spent the rest of the day on the boat, odd jobs and cleaning the decks. Home schooling took all of the morning, I was trying to work editing ENFSI papers but constant interruptions prevented me making much progress so couldn’t complete ‘till the afternoon. In a late surge Becky made great progress cleaning the decks, teak is beginning to look good, only done the port side though so will have to be careful which way round we moor!

27^th May

Took her out at last! We motored round to the fuelling dock and braved the addition of 500 litres of diesel, this is a magnitude of refuelling that makes the wallet hide in the depths of one’s cabin. We could have gone on as we were still not full but we bottled out and gave the pump handle back to the grinning harbour master. My first task, however was to moor the boat at the fuelling dock, as we approached we saw that a very newish 62ft Oyster, in all its shining glory, was moored half over the pump position. An attempt to reverse into the doubtful space in front of her only threatened to make the maiden voyage a very expensive one.....flying bits of gel coat flashed in front of my eyes. Thankfully the professional Aussie skipper let me off by offering to allow us to raft up along side. We did so gratefully.

So we motored out with grins on our faces and there we were on the water on our own in our own boat, great feeling. Champagne all round, even the kids had a glass! Had to squeeze her back in but that went well, bow thrusters make you look a lot better than you are!

26^th May

Dreadful, dreadful day, Bank Holiday Monday, we are down to 12C, windy, raining, not a blue bit anywhere. Least said about this day the better!

25^th May

Very windy and impossible to put the sails up, I guess I will wait until Tuesday and do it with Matthew of Oyster. So today we pottered, one of those days when you do this and do that, help the kids with a bit of schooling even though it is Sunday and hey presto the day has gone by.   

24^th May

We spent last night at Oli and Lisa’s. Good to be back in a bed again without the sounds of everyone around you. Off to Chilli Oyster today and Oli and Lisa have offered to load up their car and come with us so that we do not have to do two runs, or get the trailer. We hope to see much progress when we get there.

Rang Mother to say happy birthday, we did celebrate it yesterday, of course, and gave her lots of presents. We included an IOU Certificate for two plane tickets to a destination of your choice to join us in our travels. A few tears then a few smiles, joy and sorrow mixed together.  

Progress is good but far from complete, we are now way behind schedule but I guess it is our schedule and we can always change it. Somehow there was deemed to be cause for celebration by the girls and the champagne came out again! Toast all round. After unloading and getting her fairly ship shape we went to the Butt and Oyster, Chelmondiston for late lunch. Good food, great beer and fantastic view of the Orwell. We watched the tide coming in over the mud flats re-floating the boats. Huge Dutch barges on rusty old anchor chains that appear to be used as house boats.

23^rd May

Early morning rise to get the Narrow Boat back to the Marina at Hillmorton. Just a few locks down and I guess we encounter the incorrigible Ted again. He looks disappointed that there are no bits hanging off and no tales of woe and no damage report. So he sets about telling the latest young lad to do this and do that, and then in true Ted style takes the job at hand off him and shows him how to do it.

We left the boat spick and span, loaded the cars with grandparents, children, dog and almost as much food as we brought and ,of course, clothes that we mostly didn’t wear but you can never be too sure can you what might be needed!

Took my parents back to their car at Beck’s Mum and Dad’s and after a quick visit to Cruisehill to load up with boat stuff set off back to Oli and Lisa’s for the night.

May 20th to the 22rd Still to be written up!

May 19th

Today we are off for the rest of the week on a Narrow Boat with my parents, my son Oliver and his wife Lisa and of course, Jordan and Indy

May 18th

As a special treat Becky has decided to cook the Sunday lunch and I will fix the showers. The 'family bathroom' shower is particularly vengeful in that it refuses to turn on until you turn up the temperature to scolding.  Then it will deliver a stream of steaming hot water in a gush and then it will stop. So if you survuve the heat long enough to get the shampoo on your head, it then stops leaving you groping for the controls. In the struggle soap gets in your eyes and you fall onto the bathrom floor blistered and tearful. So I got my own back and took it to pieces! This is a complicated bit of plumbing with separate controls for temperature, shower, bath, together with hot and cold entries of course.

When I got the beast off and opened the gate valves water gushed from the hot and cold pipes so plenty was on offer. I went for the tap washers but they were good, so it was in the complexity of the temperature adjuster.   I had reached the position that, with the tools at hand, I could not get it further apart so I took it to farmer friend Martin.

At Martin's it gave way to further internal examination and things came out of it that neither of us had seen before. You know that point when you feel anymore and your repair is likely to result in the generatiion of scrap metal...well we had got there. Certainly things now moved in the internal workings that did not move before so we put it back together! On the way back I bought new shower heads for both bathrooms. Sometimes the mysteries of life go in your favour, luck was with me the tap went back on and it all worked. The new head in the en suite revolutionised the output. However both could do with a pump.

By the time my plumbing adventures were concluded the 4pm lunch was cooked, so we all ate, drank and got generally merry..........which brough a fitting end to the day

May 17th

Fly back from Rome after a late morning rise and a beer in the hotle garden! Flew via Zurich to keep the cost down and so it took most of the day. Arrived back at the In-laws our current lodging place.

May 16^th

The annual meeting finishes and we have two new board members. We have exchanged Latvia and Italy for Sweden and Zurich.

Message from Fox’s that they are having trouble with interfaces and need to buy more stuff for Chilli Oyster.

Decided to take Beck’s out on a special meal tonight

May 15^th

Start the day with my re-election to Chair in accord with the ENFSI Board rules. The Board meeting itself runs like clockwork, speeches go well as far as I can tell and Becks joins me tonight so that’s good. I will have to eat humble pie after the ordeal she went through last night with the Alfa man.

Given up on the coffee breaks, we are still on one espresso machine for 60 plus people, but the food is good and I have discovered pasta, looking at my expanding waist line that is probably not a good thing. Ah well conferences are for education, edification and gluttony!

The evening is spectacular, the Carabinieri on horse, a hundred horses in all, 20 to 30 in the band and the rest charging about, half white and half brown/black. Lots of swords, brass bands and of course spaghetti uniforms. We are honoured by the show and I have to do a presentation at the end to the General in charge of the horse. It looked so effortless and graceful when they performed it, I was surprised to see the sweat pouring off the General and then realise how much effort most go into such performances. Becky is with me, her youth was spent on horses, like so many pubescent girls, she is more than impressed. If I had been asked to ride one, I would have deferred to her.

The Alfa saga continues, this is a warning I will remember, there are some things you can sell on Ebay there are others that you may wish to insist someone inspects before they buy. 

May 14^th

The Thematic day goes well with a few little surprises from the speakers who seem to spend a lot of time ‘off piste’. This is not my responsibility as it is for the hosts to arrange the speakers on the Thematic Day. But we are blessed with the Head of the Carabinieri and lots of spaghetti labeled uniforms. I think the British version is scrambled egg! The military associated, origins of the Carabinieri is expressed clearly in their uniforms, they look good in them and it adds to the pomp and circumstance of the occasion. Italian organisation ensures that I have to shout at everybody to come back from coffee after half an hour, one espresso machine for 70 people!

On the whole the day goes well lots of new people to talk to and plenty of contacts made and enjoyed. Chilli Oyster seems a long way away at the moment.

The evening meal, in the officers club of the Carabinieri, overlooking the Tiber, is punctuated by frantic phone calls from home. It seems the Ebay winner is not happy and the Alfa does not meet expectations. We have used Ebay a lot and have immaculate feedback of over 300, a defensive statement I know  but I do wish people would view things like this before they buy. Becky is having a bad time back at Cruisehill, which of course we have already rented out, good that John the tenant is being very supportive. It is eleven o’clock before the buyer leaves having paid and grumbled all the way through. I wish now I had put it into a classic car auction, it is so much more impersonal that way.  

May 13^th

The Board Meeting was painless enough and it seems the annual meeting should go fairly well, a bit worried about some of the speakers on the Thematic day but we will get through. One of the Board members, Maira, has lost her voice, and has become the sexy whispering Queen from Riga.

Late afternoon some of the Board members head off to Rome centre, I stay behind to finish off my papers and put the finishing touches to the tributes I will have to read out. Then I persevere with the Ice Master, the story of the doomed 1913 expedition of Stefansson. His goal was to discover the, as yet uncharted, continent of the Artic Circle, which of course we all know today does not exist. I am in Rome but this book makes me feel cold, and oh yes it is raining again!! And most of the meals for the conference are planned as outside events!!

We have sold another possession my Alfa Romeo Spider 1984 and the Ebay winner has decided he wants to collect tomorrow instead of when I will be there on Sunday as previously agreed. I am a little worried about this as Becky will have to handle it. It is an old car and has its foibles as they all do and I have not used it since last October. I have explained all of this in the Ebay ‘advert’ but I would be more comfortable if the winner had been one of the people who came to see it. All said it was a lot better than they thought it would be so should be OK.

May 12^th

Today I have to travel to Rome. I will be there until Friday. I have to prepare for and Chair first a Board meeting of ENFSI (European Network of Forensic Science Institutes) and then the Annual General meeting, this is a gathering of some 60 Directors from around Europe. I arrive in Rome, after leaving a sun kissed England, I am greeted by the Carabinieri and a huge downpour. It rains for the rest of the day. So I hole up in my hotel room and go through all the papers and write a few speeches which I will have to deliver later in the week. I have started a new book ‘The Ice  Master’ by Jennifer Niven, recommended to me by father-in-law, it is a difficult book to get into and depressing.   

It seems I have made it to Southern Europe but not by boat and the weather is worse than England!

May 11th

Rush, rush, get the grass cut, nice stripes before the guest arrive for the fairwell do. Fix Jordan's 125cc Honda, i.e. put the bits back together again so they can be stored economically and do the last few things on the to do list. Show somebody else around the Alfa, finishes on Ebay tonight and entertain the guests for drinks and nibbles. The party expanded from just the parents to about 16, at least 50% imbibed rather more than normal for a Sunday afternoon. Then came the rush on the nibbles, and finally we gave in and sacrificed the cooked, chicken bought for our leaving/evening sandwiches, to what had became an alcohol fuelled ravenous throng. In other words a good time was had by one and all but we still had to pack up and leave. Becky did this with a tear in her eye.

We despatched dogs, the miniature rough haired Dachshund, Hattie, to my mother and father the Labrador, Bridie, to Becky's sister and Molly, the Beardy, came with us to Mother and father-in-laws. So we are homeless, a little ahead of schedule and by the good grace of the 'in laws' we have a roof over our heads. The kids see this as a great adventure, it is certainly becoming very real now for Becky and me.

Sold the Alfa on Ebay, did a bit better than we thought. We had a record for us of 92 watchers, the two that came to see it didn't get a look in. Anyway hope the couple who have bought it get as much fun out of it as I have done. It has been a great car and I can recommend Alfa Romeo's Kamm tail, of 1984 vintage based on my personal experience of one car. Oh should say had along discussion with son senior Oliver, about his pick up VW which he has put on Ebay. Lots of interest and someone wanting to get into 'Buy it Now', it is an enthusiast vehicle and hard to judge the market. He is 'off shore' at the moment, so finds it hard to make decisions from afar. What did we do before the thrill of Ebay? In the end we thought the best thing to do is let it run for another day or two.

I am off to Rome in the morning for the rest of the week to work. I have decided not to be frisked for a lap top at every check point and so I will be without the ability to keep the diary up. Becky has volunteered to step into the breach, I am looking forward to a change of style and a different view of how we are doing.

May10th

Our penultimate day in the house. Lots to do and running out of time, so only a short note today. Massive bonfire in the evening and barbeque again, the weather is still glorious. Guy came round to view the Alfa, really nice, chap arrived in a 1935 Morris 8 in immaculate condition. Goes by the name of 'Silly Old Fool' on Ebay! he was complimentary about the car which was good and he knew a bit about the sailing fraternity in the Portugal which was even better, so we have a port of call on the way out to gran Canaria.

May 9th

So the carpet cleaner cometh, the oil man cometh, the gas man cometh and the day ended with an Indy fairwell party. I carried on fixing things like security lights that I had meant to do all last winter. The carpet cleaner was very efficient and did a good job, she man handled a huge machine that removed all but the most stubborn marks. The oil man put £600 of oil in the tank and the gas man, well he came to inspect the calor. Criticised the original installation because it had no pressure testing point, then installed one, then declared there was a tiny leak. We spent the next three hours tracing pipe, changing pipe, ripping out pipe, then gas man's dad arrived. He said lets have one last check through, Beck had the cheque book ready to go and buy an electric cooker. Outside gas man's dad fiddled with the pipe going into gas man's son's pressure meter. The drop in pressure stopped! The pressure held for the requisite time and a certificate supplied to say we were not going to be blown sky high (we had used the cooker for the last four years without incident) nor would our tenant on Monday meet a gaseous based end. The bill reflected the embarrassment factor, I even argued it up by 50%, he had after all turned up in our hour of need, he had installed the pressure point and he had been been good company and his father was a fellow sailor. Dad was about to sail from Penzance to Ireland this weekend, good luck to him!

The day ended with India's water fight party, thankfully all on the lawn. Two hoses, at least a dozen water pistols of ginormous size, about 100 water bombs and four buckets were all employed to soak, even attempt to drown while still standing any body that was near at hand. Twenty two children joined battle for at least an hour, there were no sides just general mayhem as water went everywhere. After an hour I switched the mains off, and we supplied burgers and hot dogs and coke and fanta from the barbeque until no more mouths came to be fed. The engorgement took 30mins and then after some swift changes of clothing they all managed to sit on the trampoline in the field and play 'trick or dare'. They are all around 11, so there was lots of shouts of 'kiss, kiss, kiss'. Thankfully all of this took place obscured by a large oak tree as far as Becky, Lisa (who had stayed to help) and I were concerned. The whole proceeding seemed to become a lot more bearable for me after two bottles of Speckled hen and then, when that ran out, a can of Boddingtons. The music rained supreme for the last hour as little bodies imitated the latest in writhing that seems to be the de rigour accompanyment to the deep chanting that emanates from most pop records these days. We survived, we dealt with two asthma attacks, a suspected broken leg and a lost mobile phone. Although successful in the medical areas unfortunately we failed in the latter, lets hope I spot it before I mow it!

Parents collected children and we were left with our two plus two extras, not bad considering the potential of the invasion. We sat under, the soon to be banned not so green, patio heater (actually ironically ours is painted green, it seems B&Q does have a sense of humour!) and I had a whiskey and dry and Becky a Vodka and tonic or two. The kids did telly! Becky and I decided to leave the house to them and decamped to the studio for our penultimate night.

May 8th

So no boat today just more house things. Merrill, our housekeeper and a personal friend, asked a very pertinent question 'Why are you doing all these things before you go', it is odd that you fix all the things you have been meaning to do before you move out. It is certainly something I have done with everyone house I have left. Of course in this case we are coming back so we are in the unique situation that this time we may actually benefit from all of the work.

Will try and call Fox's tomorrow just to get a fix on when the boat might be finished. I have reminded Becky that the Timetable is now way out of date, I will nag her to do this.

After another day on the house we went out with the 'girls' for our Thursday night curry. The girls are Lee and Lyndsey, two hairdressers that own a salon called 'Faking It'. Becky got to know them because she seemed to purchase a season ticket to the place what with nails, hair extensions and spray tans. Thankfully the extensions have gone, the nails, well the house has done for them and the spray tans will be replaced by the genuine thing, (provided Fox's get their act together, is it getting to me....oh no!). The girls were good fun as usual, they are both 'pinkies', they are sisters, but there the personalities diverge, Lee is a little prudish in an endearing sort of way and Lyndsey is as bold as brass. They brought a friend/customer with them last night, it emerged that Lyndsey used to bully her at school! As usual as the evening wore on the discussion became more riskee. It is always good for a chaps ego to sit their with four women, even though you have to suffer the occasional lapse into the latest way of painting nails and problems of colour matching hair, but the lows are countered by the sometimes envious glances of the exclusively male diners! I would not say it was ego heaven but it does lift one's spirits at the end of a dullish day.

May 7th

What a hugely disappointing afternoon to the day, George rang from Fox's to say please don't come to the boat tomorrow, they have the rear cabin all pulled out as they are laying SSB copper and they are fitting the electronics. We had hoped to get a re-injection of 'boat fever' tomorrow before Becky and I go off and work for a week next week and then it is canal boat holiday with parents the following week. We won't see Chilli Oyster for another two weeks! The previous owner Bobby Lawes was to meet us at Ipswich, he was very magnaminous about the fact I stood him down at the eleventh hour. He had graciously agreed to come and sail her with us and show us some of her foibles. Let's hope we can still do that.

The house also went through a few peturbations, we need this certificate and that certificate before we can rent it to someone unknown. Apparently you can do all sorts of things in your house to yourself but as soon as a third party is involved the great god red tape strides forward and throws nets of EU and Government regulation at you. This episode reminded me that the beaurocracy of England was one of reasons we wanted to set forth to elsewhere. I dare say that elsewhere will have its own brand of red type but perhaps not quite as many cameras and a change is as good as a rest!

Just as we thought we were getting on top of it all, despite the house peturbations, Jordan threw us out of our stride. As Becky and I were stood outside, discussing the wonders of certificates, there was a loud crash. It seems that Jordan's new driving skills have not yet extended to a swift opposite lock when negotiating the corner of a field. He had demolished about thirty feet of the next door neighbours fence. Jill took it very well considering the carnage of fence posts that lay strewn around the embedded Micra. In true fourteen year old style Jordan emerged from the car indignant, that it had slid in a direction unintended, despite that fact he was pushing 7,000 revs in first in another direction. Clearly not his fault then!

So I spent the afternoon, buying and collecting wood and mending fences. The former reminds me that we now have a conifer bonfire to rival any Guy Fawkes effort, due to the enforced donation of a forest of offcuts from Becky's sister. We have gained this edifice on the basis that we have a trailer and therefore have the means to transport bits of conifer. However the 'where to' element of the transportation was not included and so we have an impressive pile in our field.....oh well.

What a day! so tonight for the first time in absolute ages Becky and I went for a meal alone, it was good, it was peaceful and we were together. My only concern was the peacock that had taken an instant dislike to a black Toyota sportscar, he was bashing it mercilessly with his beak, dent after dent. He was, of course, attacking his reflected rival in this beautifully polished vehicle. 'There you see' I said to Becky it does not pay to keep cars too clean.  

May 6th

Contact re-established with Fox's marina, Ralph is away on holiday but still replying to emails! Matthew is ready and willing to help with re-rigging her. I will need to ring Bobby Lawes today, the former owner, to see if he is available as arranged for Thursday. The downside is I suspect they are still working on the boat, as I have not heard from George who is doing the electronics.

Delivered the dory to Weston Super Mare, another item gone and now the Alfa is on Ebay and the bidding has started. Really loved that car, going to work with the top down, always a difficult choice between the Alfa and the motorcycle. With the Alfa most people presumed that it was a lot more expensive than it was, a few more my age would reminisce about the Graduate and Duston Hoffman and the effect it had on their pubescent lives. A great film that divided the sexes, the boys all envious of Dustin getting the older woman, a boyhood dream, and the girls all gooey about the romantic end. Dustin the Crusader getting the girl, wielding the Church Crucifix like a sword to win his girl back.

The man who bought the dory had been on the site and pointed out that progress to date had not been as expected, he thought we would be in Dartmouth by now. Oh well the best laid plans of mice and men, I will get Becky to revise the schedule.

The house cleaning continues at a pace and we are nearly there.

Lisa has arranged for Iona to be surveyed on 12th May. So the survey should be ready for Oli's return on the 17th May 2008. I think at this rate they will be on the water and away before us!

May 5th

Got up today knowing that I would need to fix the wiring on the central heating, I wired it eighteen months or so ago on a temporary basis. On the day it was cold, it was wet, it started working, but did not obey the room thermostat and the central heating and the hot water were like siamese twins, but I was inside and it was getting warmer and it was freezing outside where the new boiler was. Becky declared it was wonderful that I had got the new boiler going and so I thought I would leave it at that. No need to go back out in the cold to check the wiring and no need to disturb the increasing warmth that was surrounding us on a grey wet English winter's day.

Now eighteen months later I need to make sure it all works so that our tenant who moves in on Monday does not have the inconvenience that we have had. After sacrificing three three amp fuses in dramatic style, I was down to my last fuse when it all started, there was no bang, and the operation to separate the twins had been completed successfully. Now all I had to do was programme the thing, Becky is very good at programmes so I think I wil leave the finishing touches to her!

The wrestling with the central heating took 'till 15:30pm, admittedly I did not start until 11:30am as I did not get up until 10:30am, even taking phone calls from Jill next door and from Becky's mother. I guess this was sub-consciously my last attempt to put off the fateful day of 'doing the central heating'. Now it is done and you always feel good once you have done a job you have been putting off.

India arrived back from a weekend away with Lauren (her friend) and John and Halina (our friends). As is becoming usual when they deliver India back after a few days, they stop, we demolish a bottle of wine or two, have convivial conversation, and as it happens a bit of tax advice about Chilli Oyster and then they set off back to Shrewley.

Jordan has dug a big hole for me to cement a post in the ground so I can lock the trailer to it. As a reward I inject life back into a rusty MOT failed Nissan Micra, that was my daughters Flick, and let Jordan drive it around the field. It is his first drive in a car. He beams from ear to ear and declares he does not want to go sailing after all.

'This is brilliant, I love it!' he cries. It cast me back to my first driving experience, in a 105E Anglia, with my Dad sweating nervously at my side as we kangaroo petrol along the road. For me the Jordan experince is much more relaxing, we are in a field, everything around is relatively soft, the car is a MOT write off and hey lets go! In no time Jordan is going solo, proud Mum is filming the event. India after a little persuasion joins him as passenger. This again cast me back to when Oli and Flick used to drive my 1937 Austin 7 Ruby around another field I once owned, they used to dress up as Bonnie and Clyde and zoom about wrecklessly. The car a 50:50 partnership with a great friend, Peter Burdett, survives to this day, although I am not sure if Peter has put it back together yet!

May 4th

Did a car boot today, is this one of the 101 things you have to do before you die. We thought we would be good, get up at 5:00am, pack a load of stuff into the the trailer that was destined for the tip and re-cycle it. £10 for the pitch, £5 change for the float and we made £55 after several hours of dealing with people who do not want to pay more than £1 for a pair of shoes and complain if the computer you are selling for £5 does not have vista on it! This is a whole new set of values that I struggled to comes to terms with, £2:30 for a bacon bap from teh fat van and bargaining over £1 for a pair of trousers, a skirt, a shirt. Thank goodness it rained at 10:30am and we made a sharp exit. The skip will be the next port of call for the goods! We did have some laughs though, when we noticed that we had put out, in our haste, a stuffed toy that the dog had chewed the nose off and a bag of treats for a rabbit! We have never had rabbits! 

After watching the Moto GP, we went to my parents for Sunday lunch. It is always good to eat a meal that some else has cooked but even better when it is your own mother's cooking. There is a certain je ne sais quoi about tasting the traditional Sunday lunch that you were fed as a child. Jordan woofed his down and then had seconds so he was satisfied.

May 3rd

A whole week and no word from Ipswich and Fox's. Ah well we have worked hard on the house and I am begiining to see the TR in the garage come together. We have sold a few more things and Becky's bike has gone, so a bit more cash to add into the piggy bank.

The TR is still on the spreadsheet as a realisable asset but the more I work on it the more attached I become. When I mentioned this to Becky her response was robust 'If I have to sell my belowed 4x4 Mercedes the TR will need to go!' However like the good woman she is later in the day she said 'Well if you really don't want to sell it.......' What! if I really don't want to sell it what, you won't sell the Mercedes, we won't go sailing, you won't mind. To presume the latter might be a little risky. I remember reading an advert for a beautiful red Ducati 'Bike for sale, I bought it mistakenly thinking that when the wife said "Do what you effing well like she meant I could have the bike", only two hundred miles since new!

Lots of conversations with parents at the moment, some of them uncomfortable, the thought of us miles away from anywhere is troubling. This is one apsect of 'going cruising' that is not mentioned in the guide books. There is all the mechanical things to deal with sure but there is also the emotional side of things to. People vary from 'you are completely mad and you must not do this stupid thing' to 'what a great adventure wish I had done it when I could'.  

May 2nd

The deal on Iona is clinched subject to survey. It seems they went in a bit low to begin with as the broker burst out laughing when the first offer was made but they have now got to an agreed price which could be re-adjusted if the survey discovers some issues. Champagne time, I spoke to Oli off the coast of Africa, he pointed out with great relish that unlike our flimsy Oyster if we wanted to smash a bottle of booze against his new;y aquired, very heavy metal hull we were more than welcome. Our bottle of Champagne remained on ice as Lisa could not make it round...it will wait for a better day.

May 1st

Thursday and we are keeping to our pledge to leave Fox's alone and let them get on with Chilli Oyster. We have much to do on the house to get it ready for renting. Despite the expert advice of our friend to get it on the market early because everyone who comes around will want a month or two, or even three to sort their affairs out, it seems everyone who comes around our house has not had an affair and wants to move in right away! We have now people competing to renting our house that is looking lovely in the bright emerging greeness of Spring. Even the Ash trees have decided to wake up, however the oak remains stubbornly asleep. The curse of the grass twice a week season is upon us, we are about to re-engage Dave our gardener as a part of the renting deal.

The rod for the gas barbeque arrived today to attach it to the pushpit. The Chinese must have bought up all of the stainless steel as well as everything else if the price of this rod is anything to go by. At least it has 'marine' written on it, guaranteeing a premium price should we decide to resell. The Barbeque itself has taken sometime to sort, the cylinders it required were a rarety, we have now four to keep us in burgers whenever and wherever we are!

Jordan decided to give it a trial run, propped it on the cooker in the kitchen and attempted to toast some bread, the house filled with smoke and the alarms went off as the Barbeque blackened the bread. As normal vision returned Jordan read the label 'Do not use in doors'. LIke all boys of fourteen and many men of grander age, reading the instructions is not necessarily high on the list of priorities. 

The other 'boaty' thing we did today was wash and re-waterproof all of the cockpit cushions. How you can put a liquid in a washing machine with the result that the washed object comes out waterproof always amazes me but that is what happens.