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About this blog

a narrowboat in a white bikini

Entries in this blog

The cats outta the bag

quite literallly the cat, was out of his bag as I was on a mission this weekend to rehome my beloved ginger moggy, previously a rescued stray and then rehomed with my Grandad in Chesterfield, who recently passed away, leaving a cat in need of a new home. So Ginger ( aren't I creative when it comes to names!) did his best to foil me in my attempts to find him a better life with my boss in the south of england. I originally mentioned to Yann I was thinking of putting the cat on the boat, but bef
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

Gerrinside, save yerselves!

I was sitting at work yesterday, again doing my best not to do too much because Im a lazy sod. anyway, i saw the met office forecast of -4 for the night time and then thought about the boat having no heating or frost protection.   We headed over to the boat after work ( around 11pm) for an unscheduled stop over to add a frostat heater. it was quite chilly inside but with the fire lit, the central heating turned up to stun and a fan heater in the bedroom we were warm and toasty in about 30 mi
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

stick me on a 40 wash and be done with it

A turbulent weekend just passed by in a blur, so im going to do a slo-mo action replay to see if I can see exactly where my time went. Saturday, I woke up to the sound of rain and pulled the duvet over my head to try and get 5 more minutes. A busy day lay ahead and I already had a grumpy boyfriend to contend with. He's pissed off that he hardly sees me during the week and he thought once he got me out of my shared flat and into the boat we would have more time to do stuff together. WRONG! I ha
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

them wa' days- shell suits and bad hair

When you move home you tend to find lots of photographs you forgot about, and this is one of them.   I was 15, this was my 2nd dinghy, I had a fibreglass rowing dinghy before this from the age of 10-13. I had moved up in the world with this Astral french rib with inflatable keel. Wooden floor boards were a luxury and behind me out of shot was the awesome yamaha 5hp powerhouse that was my pride and joy. it replaced the old seagull 4hp I had before it. it almost, very almost was powerfull enou
honey ryder

honey ryder

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could be worse...

just when I think I'm having a miserable time on the canals, I am always reminded that in fact some people have it far worse.     still doesn't stop the really funny young people who knocked on my boat at 6.50am this morning, just because they thought it would be funny to wake us up. The man was just ready to leave for work so they got a suprise when he popped his head out of the doorway asking if he could help them. Stuck for anything interesting to say, they wished him happy new year.
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

ice breaking

Ive never been on a boat capable of breaking ice before and had ice to actually break.   thats quite fun.  
honey ryder

honey ryder

1

lessons learnt: what the neighbours think

So after my unexpected brush with complete stupidity out in the kayak earlier in the day I was sitting in the warmth and comfort of the boat reflecting on my actions.   What struck me was that in all the time I was out playing on the water and potentially causing a major 999 television drama re-enactment, my neighbour was STILL polishing his mushroom vents with brasso. The neighbour on the otherside was also busily cleaning and polishing and between the two boats I felt like I was witnessing
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

that's a quiet engine...

So, there I was in the morning, a bit tired, not exactly with it and turned on the tap in the bathroom to be greeted with splat splat put put splat... as air was escaping the system, thats odd I thought. So I went and used the kitchen sink instead and that was running fine. Strangely I thought the neighbour was running their engine, it was very very quiet, ive heard it before and its so quiet Im almost jealous.   After I came home from work that evening Im sitting in the bedroom getting out
honey ryder

honey ryder

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feeling a bit tan-tastic

Ive got my new dinghy! hurray.   I arrived in Cornwall at 4.30pm (after first driving to stansted airport and then to croydon and then back to harefield) to collect my new dinghy. Its a smart little thing, called a Minipram, it was made in the 70's for the lady i bought it from. She gave me home made cake and chocolate chip biscuits and a drink of fruity squash. With the dinghy and launching trolley strapped to the roof of my car and my wallet £100 lighter i was on my way again. Now if only a
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

Hell in a handbasket

What is happening to me? Am I in an alternative dimension or something?   I woke up this morning as I usually do on a wednesday by my bank text messaging me a summary of the weeks statement on my account... I spy an odd number and an unusually low bank account, whats this? I nip onto my internet banking only to find to my horror that someone is withdrawing money from my bank account, somewhere in Italy or Spain with a clone of my bank card.   So far around 700 euros... yes we arent talking
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

The Victoria park posse

Life in London, moored on a busy towpath is never short of activity, gossip and curiosity. Not to mention unruly dogs and children.   This week, life in the nut house involved several events of note, hardly note-worthy on their own, but as a group, collectively they turn from curious to just plain odd.   So it all started on the Saturday morning when both myself and the Man set about a bit of bike fettling, the man was outside tightening up his bottom bracket (fnar) and I was inside struggli
honey ryder

honey ryder

3

Dinghy love and driving without a licence

Ive just bought another boat, ok its only a little dinghy but im quite excited. The good old Fl'eabay rides again, and mines a little redish orangey thing coming in at just under 8' and weighing in at around 30kilos.   So its in the bantam weight category. The only slight snag is that I have to drive to cornwall to collect it. thatll be a 500 mile round trip! Im going to collect it in a couple of weeks, I havent told "the grumpy man" yet because i dont want to make him unnecessarily grumpy
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

muppets

The muppets of the puppetry type, a guaranteed way to raise a smile and add a ray of sunshine to your day   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wMHcpMmV9g   oh and i found out last night that they caught the little muppet who broke into my neighbours car, thanks to a nice sample of blood he left on the door.   muppet.
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

lee ward and onward

Its been yonks since my last blog entry, shame on me. Ive been so busy enjoying myself and being on holiday I haven't had the time or mainly the inclination to go near the computer, log on and faff about.   but now Im back at work, let the faffing commence.   yes, now where was I? having had the car broken into at Tottenham Marshes we decided to shuffle up the Lee a bit and settled temporarily at Rammey marsh. The first night was wetter than an otters pocket, a saturday night huddled up in
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

feel the pressure

It's quite a simple, logical water system on Honey Ryder, but logic evaded my helpful, well meaning little hobbit friend as he tried to do a job we have performed several times together like clockwork, but, alas, working alone he forgot when to do what and why and it all went a bit tits-up.   what happens every four months or so is that our accumulator needs a bit of air adding to it to keep the water pump churning away at a nice leisurely Brrrrrrrrrr Brrrrrrrrrrrr, rather than a staccato soun
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

lesson learnt: what kind of world is this?

mooring fees and marinas are a touchy subject under the Honey Ryder roof at the moment,   I know ive expressed my dislike of our current mooring situation before but it really is something that eats me up inside because first of all, I feel like we've been treated like mugs and secondly the place we are forced to stay at, is for me at least, is like living in a warehouse environment. impersonal and without feeling, its all business and money and absolutely no personality or basic human kindne
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

fabri-cadabra

I love sewing, I mean I really love it. There's something quite kinky about the sensation of fabric running through my fingers as it becomes joined together and takes a new form and function.   I've had some fabrics in a bag by the side of my bed for a few weeks now, they've been calling to me and begging me to put them to use. So at the weekend when the sun and rain blessed us in equal measures I got my grandmothers sewing machine out, and set to.   I also had a little visit to Dunelm w
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

look the waters gone stiff

at first it was a novelty, after it was a good photo opportunity, then it was a good cruise and funny smashing noises, followed by a learning curve of how to steer (or not) in the ice, then it was fun smashing the ice to be able to open lock gates, after that it was an interesting talking point at work. Now Im bored of it.   Yes it was exciting to draw the curtains and see the ice formed on the INSIDE yes it was fun smashing through ice with the boat yes its lovely and cosy with the fire lit
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

solo cruising

I finally decided to move the boat, and as mr grumpy is busy un-grumping himself on holiday with a friend, this left the job to me and a friend who promised she would come and give me a hand. After hearing nothing from my friend and the time already being 10am and armed with the knowledge she was wining and dining and you know whatting the night before I decided it could easily be afternoon before she surfaced, I figured I may as well just head off solo and see how I went once I got to the first
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

double yellows

I never thought I would see the day when the river has a "no parking yellow line" painted on the side.   until I got home my impression was that the bend with the yellow line painted on the pilings was so people could see the bend more easily. In fact I got home last night to find a message taped to my door telling me to move my boat.   There is nothing at the side of the river saying I can't moor there, no written sign I mean... so I was quite surprised to see the message on my boat.  
honey ryder

honey ryder

3

french flipper

Ive been away to france again recently and in between visiting family and friends and a bohemouth french wedding party I visited a splendid little island south of Brittany. Belle I'le   its got a few little harbours and it brought back my hunger to be on the sea again, to feel the salt air making my skin feel all tight and to feel the motion of the gentle swells as Im anchored up with plink plopping as the water slaps the bow. Oh how I miss this sensation.     Canals are lovely, calm ser
honey ryder

honey ryder

2

Lock stock and two secure doors

As our marina departure shuffles slowly closer we still have a few jobs to finish before we can actually really use all the boats facilities and a few security measures needed to be added.   Since we got the boat we havent been able to securely close the rear (main) doors when we are inside.   But NOT any more! this weekend there was drilling, a little bit of cursing and then a triumphant jumping up and down after bolting the doors closed for the first time. Theres one mother-dandy of a bo
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

Bow Locks

We moved from Limehouse up the cut a bit to Bow Locks.   The more I look at the name Bow Locks.... the more it looks like bowlocks... you can see where im going with this I imagine...   yes, puerile mind at play I admit.   So Bow locks it is for the moment. I have no idea where we will be this time next week. Perhaps a little further north? perhaps a little bit more inside London village?   I saw a gorgeous boat in Limehouse on the pontoon where we filled up with water. I am sooooo
honey ryder

honey ryder

0

literary genius in the making

Narrowboating might be the death of me if I don't sell it soon.   Ok, so it's not actually for sale at the moment but it will be. I've had enough of this "living the dream", "life on the cut", "river gypsy lifestyle", and several other clichés.   Narrowboating, it's definitely not cricket. it's definitely not boating, it is definitely narrow though so I will give it that.   Im currently thinking of titles for my book, Ive searched and searched and I still cant find a book about the subje
honey ryder

honey ryder

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