Gas Street Moorings, Birmingham

See how the poor bricks on the path have cracked because of all that snow and ice we had in January.

And still it snows!! Though I don't think we had any today, but it is bitterly cold and the rain is icy.

It was David's Birthday yesterday and we had lunch at Edmund's again - his favourite restaurant. Then it was back onto the warm boat and the big arm chair and the telly for the rest of the day.


Continuing our saga on living on this boat.... This is how we planned the boat: 57 1/2 ft long (ordered 57 but got an extra 6"), traditional stern and small front deck. (Thought that as we were in England it would probably rain rather than not, so more inside than out might be useful.) Windows to the bathroom and then portholes for the bathroom and bedroom. Beata 1905 engine and diesel central heating (our only real mistake, but more later).

Going through the front doors and the living space. Ceiling to floor cupboards each side of the door. A 3-4 seater settee along the right side. The galley is "U" shaped with a cupboard in the front facing the doors. Inside the "U" a fridge, washer/drier with gas hob and work surface above, sink and drainer with cupboard underneath and on the back wall, a cupboard on the bottom with a gas cooker above and a small cupboard above that. Between this and the window, another cupboard and a 'hole' underneath. On the opposite wall by the hatch and under the window a small cupboard with drawers.

As we had, in theory, made Caroline homeless, we made a bedroom for her which also housed my sewing machine and the computer. It had a permanent single bed and sliding doors for a bit of privacy. We also had three shelves fitted and two cupboards fitted, one at the top and the bottom ends of the bed (very snug).

The bathroom, we made a walk-through. It gave us a lot more room and enabled us to have a full-size domestic shower with sliding doors. We also went for a pump-out toilet.

The master bedroom is behind and behind that a large walk-in wardrobe with lights, hanging space and shelves.

Finally the bit at the back where the engine is, but that is not my territory!


This is David's birthday card from me. He has a "thing" about Amanda Holden so I used a couple of pictures if found on the Internet.

I started with a 5x7" white card and folded the front in half, back on itself. I used some lilac dotty paper and matted a panel onto gold card which I then stuck down on the "back side" of the front of the card. Then I printed off the photograph and matted it onto gold, patterned and more gold card before fixing it to the flap, almost at the bottom.

Finally, I added the peel-off strips. (Should probably have added the ones under the picture before I stuck it down, but didn't think of it at the time.)






On the inside I printed off another photo and matted it onto gold card and fixed it to the inside of the front of the card. On the other side I matted the patterned paper onto gold card and a panel of plain white paper down the left hand side for the message. I added another strip of gold peel-off down the right hand side, and that was it.







This is what it looks like when it is stood up.