Diane "breaks" a leg

Tuesday 4^th December 2012 to Saturday 8^th December 2012

Quite a week it has been this week.

The kitchen was now ready for the worktops to be installed and the doors to the cupboards put on – exciting isn’t it when the end of a project is nearing.

The last stage - fitting the doors - Mike is still smiling about it all

Mike continued his high level of attention to detail and we have been most grateful for the care that has taken place.

We are now well pleased with the outcome – it has exceeded the expectations that we initially had – it is just not possible to fully visualise the total end result.

These 2 pictures show the before

... funtional but a bit dark and some wasted space

Now much brighter and better storage and work surfaces

The kitchen is now much brighter; more open; easier access to the lounge; more work surface; more storage; more space in the lounge – how did we do without it.

plenty of storage and a larger work surface

A bit smaller on this side but very usable for us

Of course we will need to live with it for a while whilst we decide on many many small details – exactly where is the best place for certain items that we use often and how to most efficiently use the new and vast storage space.

Before: looking from the lounge through to the
kitchen - where is the kitchen

Now: much bigger opening and easier to see right through

There is still some tiling to be done – floor and splashback – these will be done in the next few weeks (hopefully), but for now we are going to enjoy it.

Especially happy with the wine rack
using the space at the back of the pantry

The last few days have been additionally cold to that previously – with Wednesday night getting down to -3C and the ice in the marina more extensive than earlier; fortunately the heater is going well.

There was a bit of an unusual event occur on Thursday – a small 2-person helicopter approached the marina and landed just near to the main building.

Just popping in for breakfast

Who was this on board? The guy had just dropped in for breakfast – not a bad way to hop out for a quick bite to eat.

The sunrise this morning was absolutely fantastic – bright red (not a great sign for the day ahead) and it remained this colour for quite some time. It was a cold morning but with no breeze it was only cold and not chilling to the bone – a fresh crunch under foot as I took Banjo for a walk.

Sunrise - the best part of the day for views like this

A little later but still quite something to look at

Still not enough ice on the canal as a boat was moving along – I guess they had to before it froze over completely – the boat eventually coming into the marina and taking the last mooring on our pontoon.

We froze later in the day as the breeze did finally come up; but we are cosy and warm tonight.

Diane decided to do her best impersonation of a turkey being dressed for xmas lunch; but neither Mike nor I were there to see it all happen and we only knew about anything when we could hear some groaning from the back of the bedroom.

Upon investigation I found Diane there telling me that she had broken her leg. “Where?” I asked.

“Outside on the pontoon when I slipped on the ice” came the reply.

“But you have got back on the boat and down the back stairs” I said

“But it’s broken”

Upon further investigation she had badly scraped her leg and there was a small amount of blood and I am sure that it would have been quite painful – so only one solution – to her bed and off with the trousers.

About an hour later and I was able to dress the “wound” and “repair” the “break”.

By this time Clive Penny had arrived to do the lights and he was not giving any sympathy – in fact the reverse – it took the form of a “tongue-in-cheek” sympathy.

Later in the day she was up and about and getting on with everything as usual.

Nurses as well as doctors do not make good patients.

It didn’t take very long for Diane (broken leg and all) to sort out where everything that was in the old kitchen, should now go in this lovely new one.

It took a little bit longer for me to work out where things had actually gone.

There are still some bits and pieces to be sorted through – the mechanism for the pull-out pantry is due here next Wednesday, and until that is operational we can’t fully complete it all – but suffice to say we are very happy with the result.

I thought long and hard about it (well about 2 minutes to be precise) – Saturday afternoon seemed like a good time for the “boys” to get out and have a couple at the local. To start off there were three of us – Barry (nb Winton’s Folly) and Mick (nb Parisien Star) and myself but there is an expectation of more to join us.

And a very pleasant couple of hours we had indeed – I haven’t heard of any complaints from the management on the other two boats – I did say to Carol (Barry better half) that the women were welcome and would be tolerated (I’ll get into trouble for that one).