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| The Dalesman café in my parents' village in the Yorkshire Dales |
Friday was the start of
our week’s holiday but first we had to makes some deliveries to the
boatyard. I had already disconnected the
washing machine and fridge and had them in the cratch ready for loading into
the car. At about 7 in the morning we
backed the car up to the boat and loaded up then I went to the boatyard to drop them off. Even though the washing machine is a domestic
one, it is smaller than the standard size; with only two of us it’s not like
having loads of washing as a family with children would.
Even though it is smaller,
the washing machine is still really heavy and took both of us to get it into
the car. When I got to the yard, Andy the
carpenter, who’s a big lad, just picked it up in his arms and carried it into
the boat shed.
The fit out has continued
apace and the only major things left are the flooring, kitchen worktops and our
bed. The worktops were due to go in on
Friday and the flooring finished by Monday.
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Stove installation in progress – they
assured me that a proper chimney flue will replace the wooden board!
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Apart from dropping off
the white goods my other task was to go through the spec in detail just to
check nothing has been missed.
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| Little things like the ball hitch at the rear for mounting the bicycle rack could so easily be missed |
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| My children had bought me ceramic butterfly knobs for a present one year and we are having them fitted to all the doors in our bedroom – again something that could easily have been forgotten as we dropped them off about two months ago |
The check was well worth
doing and there were two easily rectified things that seemed to have slipped
the net; a couple of sockets without USB slots and a 12volt razor socket in the
bathroom. What was surprising to all of
us was that there were no pole and plank holders on the roof. These are usually cast when the shell is
built and it seemed amazing that none of us had spotted they were missing in
the three months since the shell was delivered to the yard. It means they will have to retrofit some
chrome ones.
We set off for Scotland
mid-morning but called into the boatyard again so that Karen could see the
progress and answer some questions about where she wanted shelves and hanging
poles in her wardrobes.
On our drive up we stopped off to see my parents in the Yorkshire Dales.
They live in Gargrave which is on the northern point of the Leeds and
Liverpool canal and is one of the reasons for getting the new boat. We haven’t cruised the Leeds and Liverpool
and some of the other northern canals because our current boat is too long for
the locks. We have always found this
ironic as my parents live on one of these canals. The new boat, being 12 feet shorter, will
enable us to explore these canals once Karen finishes her contract.
When we visit my parents
(and especially when we have our children with us) we like to have lunch in The
Dalesman café in their village (see top of this blog entry). It has a good old fashioned sweet shop attached
to it and the children, even as adults, still enjoy spending loose change in
there.
We had a good journey up
to Aberdour which sits on the north shore of the Firth of the Forth opposite Leith
and Edinburgh.
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| Bit murky when we arrived but this is our view across our garden to Leith and Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh from the dining room. |
We gave Buddy a run along
the beach as he had been cooped up in the car all day. He loves beaches and races around then stops
to dig a hole and then races around again – he’ll repeat this behaviour all the
while he is on the sand unless a friendly dog joins him of course.
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| Buddy running down to the little harbour at Aberdour |
In the evening we drove
into Edinburgh to drop some furniture etc. off for Jo. She has moved into a new flat for her final
uni year and it was good to see where she will be living.
Our plan is to take it
easy today (Saturday) as Karen has been working so hard and needs to
relax and , after all, we are on holiday!
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