Who are you?

A web service called StatCounter is monitoring visitors to this blog, and tells me that we have just had our 500th visit since September.  Now, that's not a huge number in two months, and nothing like as many visits per week as my teaching blog "Grumpy Old Teacher" which I stopped doing last year, but numbers aren't what the blog is about anyway.  The most interesting thing about the stats which StatCounter gives me is the locations of readers.

We have a reader in Australia, so that is bound to be my cousin Sheila or one of her immediate family.  There's one in New Zealand, and that must be our old friend Jenny.  The oddest thing is the seven readers in the States, all of whom came to the blog direct, rather than by stumbling across us in a Google search or similar.

The biggest mystery of all, though, is our UK readers, because I know that most of you must be family or friends, but really have a problem knowing who you all are.  So would you do me a favour, please?  Would you just go to the bottom of this post, and add a comment, saying who you are, and where you're from?

To give you a clue, these are the towns which show up in Statcounter against readers - not necessarily the town they live in, but a nearby one, where their Internet connection is registered.  Which of these towns is you?

Rotherham
York
Berkhamsted
Sevenoaks
London (on PlusNet)
Milton Keynes (on TalkTalk) - is that you, Mr Doody?
Stevenage
St Albans (on BeUnLimited)
Doncaster
Hitchin
Lincoln
London (on Exponential-e)
Huntingdon
Westerham
Hemel Hempstead
Leicester
Preston
Stockton-on-Tees
Sheffield

I have lots of relatives out there, most of whom I've never met - cousins once removed and their offspring in particular - and more than a few friends.  It would be really good to know who you all are.  Would you take a moment to do that for me, please?  Oh, and if your town's not in my list, say hi anyway, please, give me a name and where you're from!


And who are you folks in the US?

Weight a minute!

In the first two or three weeks we spent on Kantara, I lost four or five pounds.  I don't know why.  I was well, eating as normal, just doing different things.  I was pleased about that!  I could happily lose a few pounds.  But recently, I regained those pounds and added a few more to them besides, so now I am the heaviest I have ever been... by a small margin.


Of course, this is down to the fact that, as a teacher, I was used to doing a lot of walking around the campus, hurrying up and down stairs, standing up throughout lessons, and moving around the classroom constantly.  In the boat, there is little walking to be done, and no stairs. We are eating healthily enough, possibly better than we did when in St Albans, but I have really missed the exercise.

Cruising is another issue.  On the cut, I will often be walking ahead of the boat to get to the next lock - it's common for locks to be in groups spread out over a mile or so, so it happens often that I stay off the boat until we have left the last lock.  And then there is the locking.  Opening and closing the paddles at a lock, and opening and closing the gates, takes a lot of energy, not just keeping my weight down, but also building muscle in arms, back, abdomen and legs.  After just one typical week, I really notice the difference.

Victorian Reading Room

Yelvertoft High Street!

Thatched cottage on High Street

But I have done little of that this past couple of months, so I have been rather too sedentary, and I have to do something about it.  So today, I started on my plan to walk every day for at least an hour.  I did a very brisk four to five miles, and returned to the boat feeing the better for it.  I shall do this every day, building up my time and mileage gradually until I am really benefitting from it.  And I join Grace's brother-in-law Mike in my determination to lose significant pounds before Christmas.

Victorian pub

Hallowe'en Party

One of the several advantages of being at Yelvertoft Marina is the social life of the moorers.  I have just returned to the boat after helping to clear all of the lights, decorations, sound system, tables and chairs from the marquee which had been erected next to the lounge for yesterday's Hallowe'en Party.  The highlights were the good company, the opportunity to get to know new people, an excellent quiz, and the food and drink - takeaways from local Indian and Chinese restaurants, real ale and hot mulled wine.  The lowlight was the wet and windy weather, which created an enormous amount of noise with the marquee!

The weather yesterday was the coolest I have experienced here, and wind was very strong again, unlike today, which is warm again for the time of year.

Where's the time going?

As I write this, my former teaching colleagues are enjoying their last couple of days of the half term break, and we've been on Kantara for that whole half term plus the break - eight weeks!  We've just arranged with Colin for him to winterise the boat on 5th December, and we'll be going home on that same day.  Twelve weeks, and these first eight have gone fast.  There just remain the covers and curtains to be made, and Grace will do those at home in St Albans.  Oh, and there's the not insignificant matter of the generator not working.  I'm hoping to hear from Foxton Boats about that soon.  I've only emailed them twice!  We'll need that to provide us with 240v AC power while we're on the cut - largely for the washing machine and microwave oven.

Tonight there is the marina Hallowe'en party - fancy dress, Indian or Chinese food, wine, ale and good company.  And Grace and I are singing, this time, we hope, with better equipment.  We have four songs prepared, and a bassist to rehearse with later today.  Michelle will be glad to know I've chickened out of the Michael Buble song I had prepared - I have the looks, but I'm not sure about the voice!

The weather is still wonderful.  Yesterday and the day before, the sky was clear blue, and the water very still.  It was a shame we didn't get out, but we had things to do in the marina.  I even washed one side of the boat!  We'll have to bowhaul her over to the adjacent, empty mooring to wash the other side.  Today, perhaps!

Nearby Watford Locks

Visitors!

A few weeks ago, we had to cancel the visit of sister Jill and her husband Rod, because we were both feeling unwell.  On the same day, Howard rang to ask if he and Linda could visit that afternoon, and we had to turn them down.  On Sunday, Jill and Rod came to see us, and we spent a really good day together.  The wind was well up, and the weather generally was not inviting, so they declined the offer of a trip up the canal, but I'm sure they'll come again, in better weather hopefully, and spend some time on the cut with us.

The next day, along came Howard and Linda, old friends of ours from church, whose son, John, was one of a large group of teenagers Grace and I took on a wide-beam canal boat for a week about fifteen years ago.  What a fantastic week that was, too!  It had been the first canal experience for all of them apart from our three, so the excitement level was very high.  They were a terrific group of kids, though, and the week brought us all closer together, with a great deal of fun and laughter.

Nearby Foxton Locks

The weather was better for Howard and Linda than it had been for Jill and Rod, so we took them out for an eight mile, two hour or so trip which we all enjoyed a lot.  Howard has a 3D camera - I'm really looking forward to seeing the pictures he took.

One of our intentions with Kantara is to host lots of such visits of friends and family, so, if you fall into either category, please email us, and we'll happily make arrangements with you.

Cushions, covers and curtains!

The last few days have seen Grace busy with a fairly major project upon which we, mainly she, has embarked.  The seats in the dinette need to be recovered. The curtains, while being very pleasant, and having nothing wrong with them, are just not to our taste. And we need some floor cushions upon which to seat people when we have visitors, since our sofa only seats two.

So, Grace brought her sewing machine back to Kantara from home on Monday, and has started by creating a set of eight floor cushions with the filling from six larger ones brought from home.  Today we went on a fabric hunt for curtains, seat covers and cushion covers.  Not entirely successful, I have to say, but it gave us our fist visit to Leicester.  We didn't see much, but what we saw was quite amazing.  It has the  most impressive shopping centre I have ever seen, both in terms of the architecture and the range of shops - and believe me, I am not usually impressed by shopping centres!

Secondly, it has an incredible outdoor but roofed vegetable and fruit market.  It is vast, and the goods are laid out very tidily, but the oddest thing is that this market has perhaps 100 or more traders, and they all sell pretty much the same wares at the same prices.  One wonders how any of them makes a living.

Tomorrow will have us shopping again, this time mainly to stock up with food.  We have family and friends visiting next week.  The weather forecast looks promising, so we hope to get them out on the canal. After that, we will have perhaps another three weeks before we overwinter. We just might get a longish cruise in!