Eject

My airbed seems to have auto eject. By 6am it has lost enough air that my arse has gone numb on the hard laminate floor, so I just get up instead of pressing the snooze button. I guess its one way to stop me being late to work.

Watford is within cycling distance of central London. I think Im going to give that a go next week.

And there she was...

...gone

Honey Ryder cruised away from me, leaving Limehouse basin under new ownership at 1.30pm on Monday the 17th August 2009.

It was a sad weekend, finally packing all my things into the storage cupboard, packing my bare essentials and setting up camp in a friends spare box room. Seeing Honey Ryder with a completely clear roof and an empty insides made my tummy go all flippety flop.

Now I am homeless, Honey Ryder has gone, Mr X is in France, my dog is on holiday at my mums and so it seems this chapter of ditch crawling, chance encounters along the tow path and eye opening moments of madness, anger, death, friendship and compassion ends.

This life of just less than three years has been like a re-birth. A metamorphose of a woman, her dog, her tempestuous relationship and a boat that was a perfect catalyst for the whole process.

Thank you Honey Ryder, it's been emotional.

--------------- Fin ----------------

My airbed leaks.

It feels strange to sleep with a ceiling so far away and such big windows.

Waking up without the smell of the fetid canal wasn’t too bad, but I miss the swans and ducks who used to come and say hello to me in a morning.

Goodbye old life

Glorious sunshine and there I was, standing at the side of Limehouse basin, a jar of fois gras in one hand and some stale bread in the other. A small laptop bag at my feet. Honey Ryder, my 57 foot narrowboat and home for the previous three years cruised away with it's slightly accident prone new owner in the direction of central london. My French boyfriend, recently made an ex, gone back to france and my dog, sent away and being looked after by my mum 180 miles north of London.

As I wandered back to my car that was stuffed to the ceiling with schtuff bound for storage, it finally dawned on me that I’m homeless and utterly alone.

After dropping the remainder of my life in at a storage unit I drove to a friends house in Watford, hoping that he might be in. His spare room has a very small space set aside for me amongst his vast amount of things. Just big enough for an airbed and a chair, this is going to be 'home' for a few weeks until I sort out my next floating home.

the final curtain

 

Six weeks in Watford and I've got itchy feet already. 

I've just finished a nice pair of curtains for the livingroom as a thankyou to my friend who has kindly let me stay in his spare room on my leaking airbed.

There's only so much I can ask of a friend. It's probably time I moved on for a while.  

Another friend in Reading with whome I have shared a house with a few years previously is happy for me to stay in his spare room for a while. Especially since he also has curtains that he’d like adjusting and hanging.

Thankfully he has a car that works so he came and collected my bicycle and couple of bags. I rode my sickly scooter behind him all the way, keeping an eye on the dashboard the whole way for signs of more trouble.

At least Reading is closer to Cardiff so my train there will be cheaper and quicker than from Watford. My Cube wont be ready for a few weeks yet since all the parts are special order from Japan.

14 days

How is it possible I can have so much stuff?

I surely dont need it all.
packing away the contents of the cupboards and drawers has revealed that I am infact less of a minimalist than I fooled myself into believing and more of a creative-tucker-away-of-things-out-of-sight. This will be rectified as soon as I have a moment to contemplate such ruthless skimming of "Schtuff".
Most of my possessions are now tucked away in boxes, stacked 1.5 meters high by 1.5 meters square.
each of these boxes will be quarantined, checked and double checked before I allow any of their contents to move with me to my new home. If they dont pass the usefulness test then off they go to a charity shop or well known auctioning website.
I may even put them up for free grabs on here.

Id really like to get it slimmed down to just one small ish car load. Im sure with a little lateral thinking it can be achieved.

of course, before it gets moved anywhere, I actually need to find something to move it into.

the seach continues, Plymouth, S & NW Wales, W Scotland, Belgium and the Netherlands await.