Spooked!

It was the middle of the night. Around 3:30. Grace and I were both asleep. We were awoken with a start by strains of Taylor Swift singing "Fearless"! I'm sure I actually heard the first few bars in my sleep in the form of an unusual dream, but it didn't last long. Grace jumped out of bed and hurried up to the CD player. I fell out of bed and followed. She'd ejected the CD before I got there. But how had it started playing? I'd played it some hours before, ejected the disc just before sitting down for supper, and left it sticking out of the player, as I often do with discs. For some reason, somehow, the CD player had pulled the disc back in, and started to play it. Spooky, or what?

Needless to say, we didn't get back to sleep easily after that. I ended up reading "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13¾" for an hour or so, while Grace tossed and turned, not wanting to admit sleep defeat. Finally, we got some shut-eye. And finally, we woke up at 10:30. Very late for us.

The demon CD is one of eight that I bought with a voucher given to me by the kids for my birthday, when they spent the day with us last Sunday. Sunday lunch at The George, and the afternoon back at Kantara, though the weather was lovely enough for us to sit outside for some time.

It's actually got awful vivid blue signs now!

They also gave me some amazing home-made peanut cookies, and the complete boxed set of the Adrian Mole books. Eight books, the first of which I read decades ago. I've nearly finished re-reading that one. It's still as funny as it was back in the 80s.

I asked Naomi for the recipe for the peanut cookies. She described the recipe as "embarrassingly simple". Sounds good to me!

Mix together 1 cup of peanut butter (about 270g), half a cup of sugar (about 120g) and a large egg. Roll into walnut-sized balls and place on a buttered baking tray, press flattish with a fork, and bake at 175C for around 8 minutes. They should still be soft when they come out, and just turning brown on the bottoms, but they'll crisp up as they cool.

Try them. If you like peanuts, these are amazing!

Two excellent films

It being our last week this year in the vicinity of a Cineworld cinema (where we can get free tickets, thanks to Tesco points), Grace and I saw two films.

On Monday, it was The Imitation Game, a fascinating story with humour, pathos, intrigue and drama, and a brilliant piece of character acting by Benedict Cumberbatch.

"Genius British logician and cryptologist Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) helps crack Germany's Enigma Code during World War II but is later prosecuted by his government for illegal homosexual acts."

Yesterday, we joined the biggest audience we've ever seen in Rugby Cineworld for a viewing of Mr Turner. It was a film I've been looking forward to seeing ever since I first saw it trailed, and it was a very good film. But I was disappointed that it dealt so much with the character of Turner, and not nearly enough, to my mind, on his art. Nonetheless, it was a story well told, and a superb performance by Timothy Spall.

"Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him."

 

The film was all of 150 minutes long, so when we left the cinema at 7:00 we drove to The George for our evening meal - delicious as usual.

Week six...

...of Kantara's kitchen refit. I texted Roy on Monday morning, “When can we come back to Kantara? We're missing her!” He replied, “Tomorrow. There's just a few little things to do.”

On Tuesday morning, the mice became an issue. We'd been hearing mice in the house for some weeks, but traps had failed to catch them. They're heard under the floors, in the cavity walls and in the ceilings. Now they were becoming more active – or more numerous – and something had to be done. Naomi was sure she'd heard them gnawing at something, and we didn't want that to continue. So I phoned a local pest exterminator, and booked a visit the next day. Then, having already loaded the car with things for the boat, we drove back to Braunston.

The kitchen was looking great. Everything was complete except a spice rack to go under one of the wall cabinets, a frame to hold a Perspex sheet over the side hatch (so that we can keep drafts out in the cold weather and bugs out when we want the hatch open at other times), and the glass splash-backs around the working tops. Additionally, we wanted a chopping board made out of the thick piece of pine which had been cut out of the working top where the sink was installed. These were all promised in the next couple of days.

Now came the task of moving back into the boat, cleaning and tidying, making the bed and so on, at the end of which we were knackered and in need of food – and we had none in. So, off we went to The George for an evening meal. Their menu is excellent, and the quality of the food top rate.

Wednesday morning, we returned to the house and packed more things into the car to take back to Kantara. Luis, the vermin man, came in the afternoon to survey the situation, and then to lay poisonous bait for the creatures. Naomi has a cat, Samson (yes, the one that bit me!), and there are many more in the neighbourhood, so we had to be sure that the poison wasn't going to endanger them. Luis convinced us that they would all be safe, and he put down bait in three places. He'll be back in two weeks to assess his success, and again two weeks after that to be finally certain.

As soon as he left, we hit the road again back to Braunston, where Grace cooked our first meal on the new cooker in the new galley kitchen.

Thursday came and went; Friday, too. The man who's going to cut the glass for our splashbacks is busy on another contract, and keeps saying, “Tomorrow”, which never comes. Grace and I are at a loose end, with nothing substantial we feel we can do, because we're hoping that at any minute Roy will arrive with the glass, and put a stop to what we're doing.

We spent some time this afternoon putting ballast (lumps of concrete slab) under one of the new drawer units, and under the dinette; this, because the boat has had a list to port since the new galley has been fitted. The weight of the fittings and furniture needed to be counterbalanced.

We have the chopping board, a superb, heavy piece of oak to match the worktops. And Lee's cut us a tidy little board (although rather like a tombstone) on which Grace will paint roses. Then I'll screw in some hooks and hang it on the wall by the side hatch, for key storage. (It also acts to hide a bit of damage, unavoidably done to a spot on the wall during the refit.)

On Sunday, we'll go back to the house for a couple of nights, and return on Tuesday to embark on the planned trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. If the splashbacks aren't fitted by then, Roy will have to visit us at Yelvertoft some time, and do the job there. The fridge and cupboards are stocked. We're going to cruise!

Back on Kantara

Thursday morning was dental checkups and hygienist treatments and gardening. Friday was service and MoT for the car, and gardening. Saturday was shopping and gardening. Sunday afternoon was the annual Redbourn Folk and Blues Festival.

The location was perfect, the weather was perfect (it often threatened to rain on this outdoor gathering, but didn't once), the attendance was excellent, the music was mostly good, spirits were high, food and drink available in abundance, and, best of all, Said the Maiden were phenomenal! Steve recorded them, and Naomi photographed and videod them. What a good way to spend Father's Day!

Said the Maiden is a folk trio of our daughter Jess and two friends, Hannah and Kathy, who hadn't even formed this time last year. They now have a good following, an excellent and ever-growing repertoire of folk songs, a good deal of club experience in and around London and the Three Counties (Beds, Herts & Bucks), and a demo CD in preparation. Visit their website, and follow them on Twitter - they have a great deal of potential, and should go far.

We're back on the boat now. The weather is calm and warm, and we're planning our first proper cruise, to start in the next few days. Fingers crossed for lots of good weather. Feeling lazy this evening, we're off to The George for a meal.