A Matter of Choice

Many years ago on one of my regular library trips with my Dad, I chose a random book which caught my eye - London Pride by Beryl Kingston. It was I think the first book got from the adult section, I remember feeling very grown up to be able to leave the kids area behind along with it's Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley High! London Pride' started me on a love of wartime stories and since then I've read countless different ones, so I was very excited to read 'Maidens' Trip' by Emma Smith. 'A Wartime adventure on the Grand Union Canal'  as I've spent time on the Grand Union myself. Maidens' Trip is the memoir of Emma, who in 1943 at the age of 18 left her middle class background and joined the Grand Union Canal Carrying company under their wartime scheme of employing women to replace the boaters. They very quickly learn, by necessity how to handle a pair of 72 foot long boats, while carrying a cargo of steel from London to Birmingham, and coal f...

There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, but there might be a bend in the middle blocking the view. Eventually you come out the other side.... This photo sprung to mind as soon as I saw this weeks Gallery prompt - Light.   I took it several years ago on my first narrowboat trip on the Grand Union canal, just as we came out of Blisworth tunnel. The tunnel is 2813m long and after doing that in the dark the daylight is lovely to see as you emerge. After digging out this photo it's now taking pride of place on my fridge to remind me that we'll always reach the light eventually!

A couple of weeks ago for Flashback Friday  I was looking back to our days spent messing about on the canal. Although my favourite times were in the pre baby, drinking all night days we had a surprisingly good 10 days aboard with a 5 month old Leo for his very first holiday. I was a little worried about how we would get on, especially as there were usually at least 3 of us on board making it much easier to work the locks, I was concerned about reaching a lock at feed time and if would would be able to cope with just the two of us.  It turned out to be just fine, in fact it was very good for us and him as he slept through the night for the first time ( and carried on when we got home) and was left to his own devices a little more than usual where we were so busy. It was going so well... This was the first and only time we used Leo's baby carrier, aside the fact that I had a bad back and Aaron has a dodgy shoulder and Leo has always been heavy just after this photo was ...

One of the very few things I miss about England is the canals, although it pains me a little to say it as it means Aaron is right again! His family have been big fans of narrow boating for years, they owned a boat before I met him and several years ago brought another. In the last couple of years Aaron and I went out on it many times, with various friends and once just the two of us, although that's much harder work without a 'crew' to help with the locks! I was very surprised how much I enjoyed it even in the rain, it turns out rain is not actually that bad if you are dressed for it which until boating I never really had been!  Aaron had always described time on the boat as a '4 mile per hour pub crawl' but to be honest I thought it sounded a little dull - I'm all for pub crawls (or being lazy more likely to find one and stay there!) but I'd never had any big yearning to spend time in the countryside, especially given the fact it was bound to be cold an...

I've seen this meme on a lot of blogs recently and thought I'd give it a go..... Where were you five years ago? A long way from here, in more ways than one! We were living in our first house brought together in Walderslade, Kent having been married for almost one year. I was working in a dull but bearable office job and we were just kind of bumbling along, no immediate plans for a baby or to move house, and certainly no idea that we would EVER move abroad! It seems like a lifetime ago. Where do you want  to be in five years time? Still in Cyprus, and still in this area but possibly in a different property, although I love this apartment and I would desperately miss our lovely view I feel it will be too small as Leo grows up. We have no plans to have another but "never say never" and if we did it would definitely be too small. AJ would love to have a villa built but  I cannot see that happening within 5 years! What I woul...