Best wishes to all, it's nearly Christmas!

Tuesday 23rd December.

Hello people, as so often nowadays I am beginning with an apology for not having written for a while.

Although I wouldn't say I'm always busy, I do find enough things to do to fill my days. There are always the regular maintenance jobs, like cleaning the fire out, emptying the ash can, laying and lighting the fire each day. Whilst it has been so mild of late, I've been letting the fire go out during the evening and then relighting it in the morning otherwise it gets so warm and stuffy. As it is I have the sliding hatch open all evening to let the fresh air in/ warm air out.

Another job is to empty the toilet cassette, this I usually do every 3 or 4 days so its not too heavy to carry. I don't do solids in the boat toilet, as I'm not too far away from the Marina toilet and shower block.

Once a week I fill the water tank, I've not yet run out of water, and I find filling it at about 7 day intervals means it doesn't take too long. In fact it takes longer to run the hoses out and connect them up than it does to fill the tank. This is because during the winter months the marina turns off the supply to each individual mooring to stop them from freezing up and they leave one tap at the end of the pontoon 'live' as it has a heater in it. Unfortunately Bracken is at the OTHER end of the pontoon and so far away it takes a 200 foot extension hose to reach it which has to be reeled up afterwards! heavy!! Fortunately though, the guy whose boat is almost next door to Bracken gives me a hand and we do both boats at the same time which is soooo much easier! During the summer of course its a doddle as the tap is only 3 feet away from Brackens stern.

I read a lot, its a great way of losing time, and I can get totally lost in a good book, sometimes its the rumbling of my stomach that reminds me I've almost missed a meal time. 

I had a visitor last week from Kent. Margaret, (first wife and mother of my sons)  was visiting her relatives who live near Graham and Jaq and popped in to see me and deliver some Christmas goodies from friends and family in Kent. Lovely to see her again and to catch up with family news.

Yesterday evening I popped in to see Jenny, and this evening I'm going over to G and J's as I won't see them over Christmas as I'm going up to spend a few days with Beth.

This year has seen some life changing situations develop for me, starting with buying Bracken, then being diagnosed with cancer and being forced to retire due to ill health, going through Chemo and Radio treatment only to find that it didn't kill the cancer, moving onto Bracken full time, and so to the seriously invasive surgery to remove the tumour along with surrounding arteries, muscle and  tissue etc . Hopefully next year will be different. I've always thought 'The Man Upstairs' has a strange sense of humour, hopefully he'll smile on people like Les Biggs, and me, and soooo many other people in similar situations and give us a good cruising year in 2015.

A very Happy Christmas to everybody out there, and a HEALTHY New Year!!

bfn

Dave