Fradley pics

I've been using lots of words recently, but not so many pictures, so here are a few of Fradley in the snow. The first shows a little of how thick the ice is on the canal at present. The lumps lying on top are around 4" thick.

The second is the beautiful sunrise that Bonny and I see most mornings on our walk before work.

The last is the view out of my window at present!

Oh, and good news - thanks to boaters working together yesterday, we managed to join 4 hoses together, stretch it across the frozen canal and water all the boats in this pound. What a relief! I had my first shower on my boat this year to celebrate! (Note, I have showered this year - just not on my boat!)

arctic life and message to the snoop...

Well, I'm still alive! As anyone who lives in Britain will know, it has been snowy and freezing since before the New Year. In fact I last managed to fill up with water on 30th December. All the boats are now frozen to the spot and I am reduced to using two 5 litre containers to fill up with water at work every day. Diesal wise I'm fine at present and I can get coal and wood from a friendly boat moored at Fradley. My loo tank is getting full (I know, too much information), but I have a porta potty that I can use. I have had to start sleeping in the saloon as the back cabin gets too cold by morning, but that's OK.
I've had to alter my working hours to 10-4, rather than 9-5 as the road from Fradley is snow and ice covered and I have to wait for some of the 4x4's to use it before I can get through. I also don't want to risk the return journey in the dark, hence leaving at 4pm. I get paid less of course, but at least I feel safer.

I write this blog thinking that I am writing to my friends, but an incident today reminded me that anyone can read this - not all with kind motives! So... to the person who read this blog and then made an anonymous phone call to Barton Marina and complained to Lorraine that I am using the showers without paying (5the January blog), I have a message for you. Firstly, get a life! Secondly, I am actually using the BW shower at Fradley, using the word marina was a slip of the keyboard and thirdly, thank you, you did me a favour, as Lorraine and I had a good chat and cleared up a misunderstanding between us. We also expressed sympathy for the sad person who has nothing better to do than to report on other people's blogs and toiletry habits!! I wonder if you are the same person that reported my autumn conversation with friends about fences and rules to the marina office? If so, please come and see me in the shop and tell me in what way I have upset you.

Happy New Year!

I hope 2010 is a great year for all of you and I hope nobody is too cold at present!
It's icy and snowy here and it is impossible to move the boat to get water or diesal. However, I have bought myself a generator (thanks to generous Christmas contributions from my brothers James and Douglas), which means that I can charge my batteries and therefore have power even if I run out of diesal. I have coal and wood to keep the woodburning stove going, although I have been shocked to find that I am using over 2 bags of coal a week. Water has been trickier as I need to fill up every week. But until a better solution presents itself I have bought two 5 litre bottles of water from the supermarket and I think that if I fill them every day at work and take showers in the marina, then I should be OK as long as I'm careful.

The mooring saga has entered a new phase. I have moved off the chains as on my second day there I slipped trying to board the boat and bruised my leg quite badly. The other boaters here say the mooring is not safe and that's why no one uses it, except as an overnight visitor mooring. I have moved on the visitors moorings opposite and it is bliss. I can now step, in a lady like way, on and off my boat, rather than launching myself into space and hoping I land in the boat. I am also back in daylight which is nice and since I am now above ground, I don't have dogs peeing against my windows!! Bonny loves it too, a bit too much as she has discovered how easy it is to get off the boat! I have had to chase her around the nature reserve on a couple of occasions.

British Waterways know I have moved off the chains and 'Rob' has said that they will see what they can do to sort the problem out. I obviously can't stay on the visitors moorings forever as there is a 48 hour limit on them and even if I was allowed to stay permanently on them, if I moved the boat to get water or diesal or to go on a trip, the likelyhood would be that there would be no space for me to moor on my return.

Spiritually, the experience has been very good for me as I am learning to let go of the security of having my own space to be in. I am also practising enjoying the present moment - ie the pleasure of being moored here today, without worrying too much about where I'll be moored next week or next month. I say I am practising - that's because I'm not that good at it yet! There is also something quite elemental about my major concerns being heat, water and power. It is putting all the other things I fret about into perspective. It is also amazingly beautiful here- especially in the frosty mornings, and so peaceful after having been moored next to the A38.

So, today, all is well! I hope it is also well with you.

another new beginning

On 28th December, amid freezing fog and icy towpaths, I moved Don't Panic from Barton Marina to Fradley Junction. Not to the mooring I actually bid and paid for, but to a mooring a little way up, tying to chains rather than mooring rings. That makes it interesting in a lock flight, since the water level is constantly changing and so I could come back to find the boat hung up on the wall if I tie her too tight. But having the ropes loose means that every time I move about on the boat, she rocks and thumps against the side. It is also dark on board because the wall is quite high which makes getting off and on interesting! However I am at least here and not in the marina any more and Fradley is lovely - even in freezing fog.

I managed to speak to the senior moorings manager, who has visited the site. It was like pulling teeth, but eventually he did admit that the description of the mooring site 'contained inaccuracies'. He refused to admit that it was actually a different mooring they had been advertising, and when I pointed out that the boat on that mooring had an expired mooring permit, he said he wouldn't know anything about that! Strange, considering he is the 'senior moorings manager'. I won't bore you with our tediously drawn out conversation, but the result of it was that I will be provided with temporary free parking while I am on the chain mooring. If I don't feel safe there, I am allowed to go onto the visitors moorings opposite, on a temporary basis. Then he has agreed to look for a more suitable mooring in the New Year. I was happy with that, until he said that if they find another mooring, I will have to pay the guide price for it, rather than the amount I won the bid with, which is likely to be more money. I pointed out that it would effectively mean I would be paying for British Waterways' mistake. Still, one argument at a time. I will wait to see what, if anything, they offer me and then negotiate the price. They are amazing though. He wouldn't budge an inch to start with - even trying to make out that they couldn't give me free parking as they weren't in control of the car park. When I pointed out it was a BW car park, he said 'Oh, well I mean it's not my department'.

So I am off the umbilical cord of the Marina. It's quite scary really. If I run out of diesal, I won't have any power (because I wouldn't be able to charge the batteries) In normal weather that's not really an issue, but we have had frozen canals here recently and if I can't move her, then I would be without water as well as power. It also crossed my mind that if I slipped and injured myself - or worse - nobody would know and it could be days before anybody noticed! So I need to keep reminding myself not to panic and to remember one of my favourite sayings - 'Don't let your fear stand in the way of your dreams'.

Having calmed my fears somewhat, I commuted to work for the first time today and my car broke down!! That hadn't been a worry of mine until it happened. Fortunately I had reached Barton when it happened, but I had a horrible picture of Bonny and I having to walk the two hours home in the dark and pouring rain. But helpful people helped me at Barton and it turned out that all the water on the road had temporarily drowned my engine. At least I hope that's it - I'll find out in a couple of hours when I return home.

Despite the difficulties and anxieties, I am still sure this is the right next move for me. It is refreshing in a way to worry about such basic requirements as warmth, power and water. It puts other anxieties into perspective and in a strange way it makes me feel more alive!

So, at the dawn of another new year, I face another new start. I hope for all my readers that 2010 will be a great year of challenges overcome and hopes realised. Happy New Year!

Happy Christmas

A happy Christmas to all my readers! It's lovely to have people interested enough to read my ramblings and even get in touch with me about them. This icy picture was actually taken last year when I was trying to escape from Crick, but it could just as easily have been taken today as we are all iced in here. I'm hoping to move my boat on the 28th to my 'sort of' new mooring, so I'm rather hoping for a thaw!

Talking of mooring matters, the saga drags on. The initial person I have been talking to in British Waterways has gone off for Christmas now and so has passed me on to the 'senior moorings manager'. This is apparently the man who published the details of the mooring in the first place and is where the buck stops. Sandie told me that he was inspecting the site last Friday morning to see if my complaint has any merit. Naively, I thought he might actually be in touch with me to explain what's going on, but no. All I have received so far are 'I'm out of the office' messages. I suspect I will hear nothing now through the Christmas period. This is not helping my temper! I have bent over backwards to be reasonable, but there is nothing more annoying than being ignored! I have sent another email saying that I will wait it out until 4th January when the world goes back to work, but if I haven't heard anything by then, I shall be contacting Trading Standards and / or a solicitor. Happy days!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and if, I like me, you are travelling anywhere, you arrive safely. Bonny and I are going to the New Forest to spend Christmas with family. I only have 3 days off, so we have to travel down on Christmas Eve and back on Boxing Day - Oh Joy!

mooring saga update

Well, I have discovered that British Waterways are not an organisation to be trusted!
After my last blog entry, they got back to me the same day to say that it was my mistake - the mooring I thought I had bid for wasn't actually in the location I thought it was! She told me where the mooring actually was and agreed to meet me there on the 8th (the day I officially start my mooring agreement) to show me.

I went there the day before for a look and wondered how on earth they thought they were going to get away with it. The mooring is totally different from the details given on the auction site. There are no mooring rings (only a rather dodgy looking chain) to tie to. There is no car access at all, let alone an access road and free car parking as advertised. Instead of being by grass at the top of a lock, it is on concrete at the bottom of another lock. The picture and map on the website don't even show this part of the site, let alone this specific mooring! I also noticed that the boat moored on the spot I did bid and pay for is showing a 3 year mooring permit that is due to expire this month!

So I met up with the mooring officer today. I let her show me the 'new' mooring and then I produced a print out of the details given in the auction, including the photo of the mooring and the map. I pointed out all the differences between the two moorings and the 'coincidence' that the permit on boat moored in the correct mooring was about to run out. I was quite proud of myself - I was calm, friendly, polite but firm - as opposed to spitting mad and emotional which I could easily have been! I suggested to her that they had advertised the mooring thinking the current boat was going to vacate and when it didn't, rather than informing me and not taking my money, they thought they would just stick me somewhere else! She wouldn't confirm this but just said that she was new to the post and that her predecessor told her that the details given were 'just a general guide' and that they were meant to refer to the second mooring. We then walked to that one and she couldn't conceal her shock at the differences. She even said that she was a boater and she wouldn't be at all happy to tie up at the chain. She conceded that this mooring was indeed very different in detail to the paperwork, as well as conceding that it was her name on the documents and not her predecessor's.

I then said that I was prepared to accept this mooring on a temporary basis on condition that she would provide in writing an acknowledgement that it was temporary and giving the approximate date that I would be able to move on to the mooring I paid for. In the meantime, since there was no parking at this mooring, I would expect a permit to park for free in the pay and display car park under their control. She said she thought that was reasonable but had to go back and talk to her manager. I said that, if this was not sorted out satisfactorily, I would have no choice but to go to Trading Standards and possibly a solicitor. I said that if BW had taken my money for something they knew wasn't available, it could constitute fraud and that the police might even be interested. I also said that I would write to the various waterway publications with the story, which wouldn't help BW's auctioning process. If people didn't trust that the mooring they were bidding for was the one they would end up with, they might well end up with a lot less customers!

I said all this with a pleasant smile on my face. I was quite pleased with myself because when in situations of potential conflict, I often get stressed and emotional and then I don't get my point across. But today I remained calm and assertive. The only mistake I made was not getting a date from her when I would hear from them. But I shall keep on top of it. I won't be moving the boat until after Christmas, so there is no pressure as yet. I also got her to agree that I could pick the spot I moored at the new site as I noticed that on one part of the chain, there were rings I think I could tie to.

The story continues...

nothing comes easily

It is a universally acknowledged fact that nothing that is worthwhile comes to us easily. If this is in fact true, then the mooring at Fradley must be really worthwhile!
I phoned British Waterways this morning to arrange to meet someone at Fradley so they could show me exactly where the mooring and facilities are. I commented that I had been down already but there seems to be boats moored all along the stretch where my mooring is to be. The woman I was speaking to said 'yes, there are'. I asked which one was moving and she replied 'it looks like none of them'! I pointed out that BW had advertised the mooring, let us bid for it and have now taken my money for it and I couldn't believe they would do that without actually having a mooring available! Her only reply was that she had only just taken over the job from someone else and she would have to talk to them about it.
I have extracted a promise from her to meet me at Fradley on the 8th - the day I start paying for the mooring. If there is no mooring on that date then surely they will have to refund my money or find me another mooring? After all I have now given notice at Barton so I can't stay there after the end of the month.
How do I feel about all this? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!
I'll keep you posted!