January 5th, 2014.

Happy New Year ! I hope you had fun.. ate everything, drank lots, hugged for hours. And now.. I’m dragging you back to the old year.. (Wahey!) This is how December was.

A Month Away From The Boat.

Living cheaply works pretty well for us most of the time. We don’t drink much or smoke anymore, and as you’re probably aware.. we know when the best deals on fresh food are. The only times it becomes an issue, are when we need to ‘fix the boat’, or when we need to travel.. to see friends and family, for example. Most recently – getting home for Christmas. As it turned out, early December – Mum was visiting my sister and brand new baby Rohan, in Cardiff, so we were able to get a lift most of the way. Train prices from Newbury to Manchester make me throw up a little.

So.. we have spent the past month in Manchester, and it has been greater than wonderful. Families are fantastic. If ever I was to give any advice about life, which I wouldn’t normally, but I do usually.. particularly when drunk.. I’d say stay in touch with your families. Hang out with them as much as possible. They know you better than anyone, and in most cases.. ours included.. they are great fun to be around.

Anyway.. the hectic days of Christmas and New Year have settled down a bit.. I feel really good about this year. After all the things that happened to divert our path, or block it even, (prevent us from getting to Oxford, as was the plan four months ago) I feel calm, and grateful for what we have.. the freedom and the choices. I feel optimistic.

Adam’s optimistic too, but he is a ‘realist’.. pretty lucky actually, as I’m really not one of these, and it’s important to be around them.. for.. stability..? No, that’s not it.. for ‘safety’. He keeps me safe when I’m a happy hazard.

New Year, New Start

After a month away we returned to the boat on January 3rd.. via a lift from my sister, brother in law, baby Rohan, and Jasper the Hungarian Vizla. It was a ‘cosy’ trip with everybody and all our stuff, but it was nice.. they finally got to check out our new abode, and we are extremely grateful for the lift. Furthermore.. we are extremely grateful for the laptops they donated to us, which we are now typing on. I’m writing this blog, and Adam’s writing a post about this really clever thing which zzzap karrp mmmmrrrp *some text missing*.

Both of our previous laptops died within two days of each other, mid December. It was, at the time, another small shit on top of what was already a rather high pile of unfortunate events, but we had ignored it and tried not to worry. Thank you so very much for the new old lap tops.. you have no idea how amazing it is to have them, and words can’t really explain our gratitude. You guys rock.

In other news relating to my sister and brother in law.. I have embarked upon a guitar swap scenario. My faithful Fender has served a great purpose the past four years, but it is a plastic guitar, and very thin. Things needed to change.. So.. I have swapped it for a full bodied wooden Yamaha guitar that was sitting in the corner of their house, just to see how music feels for the next couple of months with a ‘real’ sounding guitar. I did ask, and they said it was ok, as whichever guitar was in the corner would merely be there to collect the dust for the next few months, as they deal with more important brand new baby related events. For the record.. Rohan is the most amazing baby boy in the world right now. He likes pandas, and constantly being rocked.. so.. he will fit right in when he comes to stay on the boat. Here is his tiny shoe behind the door for Father Time.

I think it’s probably my favourite picture from 2013. Unfortunately though, contrary to my previous opinions, not all small things are cute. You’re about to see why.

Back To The Boat.

We left it sitting stagnant for a month. My biggest fear was that it had sank. After this I’d worried maybe it had been broken in to, vandalised, perhaps somebody was squatting in it, or the damp and mould had completely eaten away at anything that was previously quite nice.

On first inspection everything looked fine, and in retrospect, it is fine.. there was a fair bit of mould and the quilts were damp, but we cleaned up and bought new pillows, quilt and covers before evening.. we slept cosy.

One thing that had not crossed my mind while we were away, was that somebody other than a human could have moved in. This is precisely what had happened. What can only be described as either a ‘big old rat’, or at the very least, a ‘small but very stupid borrower’, had set up camp. It ate all of our pot noodles.

It actually ate a whole lot more than this. Pancake syrup, cheese slices, licorice tea bags, and.. sadly.. alot of our clothes. Do not leave things out if you leave your boat.

I think it must have been a designer from the eighties.. Adam now has half a sexy pair of denim hot pants for the summer time.

This is his not-so-happy face.

Anyway.. we remained calm.. we cleaned up.. and we bought a trap.

As much as the rat should not have moved in, and as rank as it is that he’s been walking all over, pissing on, pooing on, and sleeping in, our stuff.. I can’t really blame him, and I absolutely do not want to be the death of him. Rat traps which snap necks are £3.50. Rat traps which catch the rat so you can release him elsewhere, are a twenty minute walk away, in the rain, at a specialist gardening shop, and cost.. a fair bit more than this. Morals over priorities unfortunately.. whenever such a war should occur. I just couldn’t kill him, and neither of us fancied picking up the pieces of a dead rat.

Stupid rat. I didn’t want to live with him, but I didn’t want to kill the poor guy. (Who is definitely a guy, not a girl, and absolutely not pregnant with dozens of other rats.)

Ironically, we had just re-homed the degus a month ago.. because we did not have room for them, and they were noisy during the night. (What’s that, passing thought? No way, nope. They weren’t what kept the rats away before.) Throughout our first night back on the boat we were kept awake by the sound of our new rat.. eating our crisps.. somewhere behind the fridge. Son of a..

That’s enough rat chat for now. Stay tuned to find out whatever the hell happened next.

MUSIC.

After Christmas I played a gig at The Black Book Cafe in Stroud, met some lovely people, sold some CD’s and had a really lush time. We performed some new songs for the first time and I can’t wait to record them for you. I also can’t wait to debut our duet as guitar and vocals with accordion. If you can make the Bristol gig on the 23rd of February, at The Louisiana, we’d love to show you. This year is all about music for us. Music in as many forms and as many places as possible.

Fred Humphries kindly filmed part of the Stroud gig.. There’s a clip of us playing ‘Broken Toy’ at the bottom of the page.

Career Progression.

While we were at home my Gran had me dig out some DVD’s she’d had made from old video’s of when me and my sister were younger. It was fun to watch.. turns out I was an aspiring rapper at the age of four, donning a batman T-shirt and sword, with an ‘I don’t like you and I don’t like you but I do like you and I like you too’ rap, whilst running around the living room and pointing the sword at various members of my somewhat concerned family. Turns out I didn’t like anyone except my cousin Kevin, twice. I apologise for this, and would like to point out that I’ve since realised.. the rest of you are actually alright 😉

I will be revisiting my rap career throughout January.

Thanks for reading, guys. I wish you all a wonderful year of adventures.. Dream big, fly far.. live lots..! See you soon,

Bex x x x