Retirement with No Problem

Moored Norbury Junction, Shropshire Union Canal

It’s down to me to do the varnishing of the new woodwork on the walls.  Varnishing has been one of Vic’s trades all his life, and he just hates doing it.  I don’t mind, although I don’t have much experience, but with plenty of encouragement and advice from him I had my first coat on today after spending more time preparing the wood than brandishing a brush!

So a bit static to say the least here on No Problem, and tonight I have been enjoying looking back to 2003 when I first started taking digital pictures.  A few of them I will share with you this evening and a few memories to go with them.. Firstly I need to introduce new regular readers of the blog to our first boat ‘No Problem’…

This is October 2003 at Kintbury on the Kennet & Avon Canal.. 6 years ago in fact.. We bought this boat from Longport Brokerage in Stoke on Trent back in December 2002 after having looked at what seemed hundreds of boats.  The thing was to try and remember which ones we like the best after travelling the length of the country.  But the way we got round it was to find one we really liked and see if we could better it by looking.. so No Problem was purchased with the original name.  I was going to change it, but in the end No Problem stuck!

Although we lived aboard from the start, I was still working part days in my business in Portsmouth, so for the first year we kept as local as we could by cruising the Kennet & Avon Canal.. cruising Tuesday to Thursdays and working the others..

It was a very cold November that year…

We got stuck near Pewsey in ice for a while, and captured a glimpse of mink scurrying along on top of the water.  We watched in despair one day when a mink caught a rabbit dragging it down to the icy water and drowning it before taking it back up the bank for a feast…

I didn’t have a washing machine in those days, and used to go into Hungerford on my fold up bike ladened with the weeks wash.. ho hum so very different now with the handy Candy machine tucked away in the utility room..

Our first winter on the Kennet & Avon was great, we so enjoyed our first year of Retirement, and we knew it was the best decision we had ever made.  I mean, how on earth can you beat that on a November day.

This is a wonderful canal, but some of the locks are very hard to do, and a lot of people think that British Waterways are not spending enough on keeping the canal maintained properly.  Here another scene from there, this is the lovely named Coblers Lock..

I used to love the farm shop just across the fields from here.. ah fond memories.. almost tempting me back to revisit it is.

I have no doubt as I continue to look at the past pictures I shall remember every single one of them as I have these few.. hey Vic even had a beard then.. I showed him tonight, “That isn’t me”  “Oh yes it is” said I as I creased up laughing.. He has even threatened now to grow one again!

If you would like to look back at the photos on the web, then click on these links.. October 2003, November 2003 and December 2003.. enjoy