Thursday 31 January 2008

Retired but working hard

Well thats the end of an era for us, we are now no longer self employed, we don't have to serve anymore customers nor get up at a specific time to open the shop. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah. But we are working harder, as the last bit of packing has to be done, the flat cleaned and cars packed. but hey, tomorrow the adventure starts.

Matilda Rose is still at Tooleys where she is having some rectification work done, as well as her bottom blacked. We shall be moving onboard Monday, but till then we are staying at a friends empty house in Oxford, she lives on her narrowboat. The downside to not being able to move onboard tomorrow is that the animals are now going to have an extended stay in Kennels, but they will then have a perfect lifestyle.

Wednesday 30 January 2008

Only 4 hours work to retirement

Yesterday, all our furniture and superflous belongings have gone to house clearance. We have one chair and a double bed, needless to say Jill gets the chair. Matilda Rose was also surveyed, a few Jobs are needed to be carried out but in the main she is a sound boat and we hope to be onboard by next Monday



Tomorrow, at precisely 1pm both Jill and I will lock the shop for the last time and we shall be officially retired aswell as knackered, infact todays title is incorrect as we shall only have 31/2 hours of work before retirement.



Jill has had an emotional three days as customers have been comming into wish her well with cards and hugs.



Thats all for today, will be getting to the interesting bit next week.

Sunday 27 January 2008

One last push tomorrow before house clearance come in 9.00am Tues. 4 more days to work. However kids kidnapped washing machine yesterday so am now educating himself about preservation of clothing ........day 1 socks on, day 2 turn inside out, day 3 swap feet, etc - underpants day 1, well lets not go there!
The current owners of Matilda Rose have just told us that they have reached Aynho, on the Oxford Canal and will hopefully be through Nells Bridge by 12 pm tomorrow, Nells bridge has been impassable since the heavy rains but is now navigable with care. This is one of the last stress points we will have prior to the survey.

Role on Tuesday and hopefully as Jill, has just interjected "Tranquility and no dead lines"

Saturday 26 January 2008

Her side of the story

Techno's stop here. Now I am the first to admit that I am not a girly girl, but this downsizing is very scary. It was pointed out that I was taking 7 pairs of shoes, these included wellies, walking boots, riding boots, deck shoes (sailing) and snow boots. You can work out the maths for the girly stuff! I charity shopped my clothes to the point of tears - and one "keep" bag got crossed with charity bag which didn't help. He then asked when I was going to sort my wardrobe! In this last week I have been sorely tempted to abandon the 66ft purchase and opt for 2 x 33ft NBs with a switchoffable tanoy between the two.

Thursday 24 January 2008

In Seven Days

Panic, can we get everything done we need to, 7 days to retirement, no early retirement and so much to do. The kids are comming down in 2 days time to collect furniture they want and to take most of our depleted belongings to a friends house in Oxford, on tuesday the house clearance people will be here, Jill is going to have to run the shop and oversee the clearance on her own as I shall be in Banbury watching and listening to the boat surveyor.

Can it all happen smoothly?

Wednesday 23 January 2008

Days to Do

Eight days to retirement, what a pleasure, but life has been very hectic.

Six days and hopefully our marine engineer will give us the go ahead to buying Matilda Rose, a 66ft Jonathan Wilson/Anthony M semi trad Narrowboat at present moored on the Oxford Canal.




20th November 2007 saw Jill in our shop talking to a customer who wanted to buy a knitting pattern, instead she ended up buying our business and home, her husband now goes around telling his mates "we liked the product so we bought the company".

That weekend we searched the internet for a Narrowboat, and found Matilda Rose on the ABNB site, and the rest they say is history. except....... that story is for another day.





Baxter on our caravan, fed up its raining and he wants to go out.




Mutley is Baxter's son and knows he is as beautiful as he looks in this picture.






This is Big Ted, our senior citizen.


The boss can be seen at the top of the blog and althought the smallest of all our animals is the undisputed leader, she stands no nonsense, even from Jill and tells her in no uncertain terms what she wants by nipping her achilles tendons.

All our managerie have travelled with us on our caravanning holidays, and have in the last 3-4 years lived with us on our caravan for seven months of the year only returning to our flat in the winter. We are hoping that this has been a good grounding for our move onto Matilda Rose.