Working Girl

I have not worked since June 1st last year and I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed my year of leisure! The best part, of course, was my long cruise and the worst was breaking my leg, but that is all behind me now as I have re-entered the world of work.

I have been so incredibly fortunate in my search for work. I only decided a few weeks ago that my leg was sufficiently strong to enable me to do a job and so my search had barely started. I had put the word about at Fradley Junction and my friends were keeping their eyes open for me. Stan went one step further and spoke to Toby and Bonnie Williams who live at Alrewas Hayes, a beautiful, Queen Anne style country house, and use the location to host weddings and other events. He was game keeper for their father and so knows the family well.

As a result of his conversation, Toby asked me up for an interview. I went and met them both and liked them and the set up immediately. The motto on the crest of Alrewas Hayes is ‘to be rather than to seem’ which I love and which seems to be borne out in the feel of the place. They immediately offered me a part time post which I immediately accepted!

My role is varied. At present I am doing a little of everything to get an overview of the work there. So I have set up for afternoon tea and for a full scale silver service dinner for 140. I have cleaned the bridal suite and served breakfast to the guests. Each wedding is different as Toby and Bonnie want to, as far as possible, let the couple do whatever they choose so that adds variety to the work.  In the summer they have some students working for them and they see my role as being a whipper in or student wrangler! In fact almost the first thing they said to me at my interview was that they were so glad I wasn’t young!! I took that in the spirit it was intended – employing lots of younger people is great for the energy levels but they do need some managing.

It is also so nice to be involved in ‘happy’ work for a change. Helping people make their special day as perfect as possible is infinitely preferable to either selling tat to people who can’t afford it or trying to convert people who don’t want to be converted, not to mention arresting people and ‘banging them up’! And the relief of not having to post my cv out to employers, compete with hundreds of people for one job and put up with rejections is indescribable! Having work on my doorstep so no commuting is the cherry on the wedding cake!

The hours are fairly light at present but they will increase as the venue is booked at weekends right through almost to the end of the year. Bonny (my dog not my employer) is coping well considering she is having to stay behind for the first time in her life (she celebrated her 4th birthday last Monday). If I am on a 3 or 4 hour shift she has her big walk and then gets left to sleep. If it is all day then my faithful friend Jan comes and takes her out and even took her back to her boat one afternoon. Stan has also offered to dog walk if I need it.

All in all I would say I am the most fortunate person I know – in home, mooring, work and friends – oh and with Bonny behaving – in dog too!

More good fortune but less time

Just a quick post to say that I have found myself a job! I had heard horror stories in this area - like Asda advertising two full time jobs and receiving 6,000 applications!! Or a pub in Lichfield with one bar manager job available getting 700 people sending in cv's.

Anyway I will write more about how I got the job I have found when I am not rushing out, but it is in a country house that hosts weddings and other events. It is called Alrewas Hayes and I can see the drive way from my boat, so not much of a commute! Have a look at www.alrewashayes.com if you want to see it, but it's lovely!

Dog Diary Part 2

I am in the dog house today. After lulling my mistress into a false sense of security, I escaped from her yesterday, ran wild in Holsworthy Woods and nearly got run over on the main road that runs from Launceston to Bude.

It all started well. Holsworthy woods are very exciting with nice wide logging trails so I can see who is coming, but at each side of the trail there are the deep, dark woods with tempting undergrowth to wriggle through and become invisible in. I had followed at Mum's feet for the first half hour or so and made sure I came every time she called; she was so pleased with me - sucker! Then, with no warning, I dived into the woods where the gorse and brambles were thick so she couldn't follow me. She wasn't too worried to begin with and just kept walking, calling me in her pretend calm voice. I wasn't fooled - she was starting to get worried and that made me feel very anxious too.

Suddenly she was the scary thing and not the deep dark woods. It had been raining for a while now and I was wet through and really worried. I tried to give myself up to a couple of passing strangers, but they didn't understand and thought I was just playing with their dog. Every time mum walked towards me I dived back into the undergrowth. I wasn't playing now, I really wanted to be safe with mum, going home, but somehow a switch triggered in my brain and I felt like a wild creature. Various humans and dogs joined in the chase which just made me more fearful and so I laid low until they gave up.

After an hour or so of playing hide and seek I had slowly worked down closer and closer to the car park. It is only a little way in from the road and I wasn't really sure what I was going to do when I got there, but I knew in that direction home lay. Mum could see what I was about, so she positioned herself between me and the road. She sternly told me to stop and wait, instead I dodged easily round her and ran straight into the road. The cars were going really fast and the fear in my mistress jumped to panic level and I realised this was not good. For a moment I just stopped in the middle of the road - frozen with fear and indecision. A car swerved round me, covering me with gritty spray.

Then my Mum did something quite clever. Instead of chasing me, she ran away from me, up a logging trail on the far side of the road, yelling like a banshee as she went. I instinctively ran after her, in full flight mode. Suddenly we were running away together, rather than me from her. She gradually slowed down and I followed her - at a distance to start with and then closer. There was no one else around on this trail and that helped calm me down. After ten minutes or so, Mum came to a halt and waited for me. I darted into a ditch but then realised that, actually I really didn't want to play that game any more, I just wanted to be safe. So I climbed out of the ditch, walked up to mum and sat at her feet, hoping she wouldn't kill me.

She didn't. Despite the fact that I was covered in mud and soaked to the skin, she picked me up and gave me the biggest cuddle and then said a very rude word that I won't repeat here! Safely on the lead, I trotted back to the car as if I was an obedience champion. Gosh I was tired when we got back to the house. I hardly had the energy to eat my supper and as soon as it was polite to do so, I took myself off to bed. My mum wasn't far behind me either, although I don't know why she was so tired, she hadn't run nearly as far as I had!

Bonny in Devon Heaven

Here is a few pictures and comments on our trip to Devon from Bonny’s diary…

It is lovely and sunny here for a change. I am enjoying chasing anything that moves, playing carefully with Maisie the cat and having walks off the lead. Sometimes I get a bit carried away and then my mum gets a bit anxious and I have to be restrained, but mostly I am being brilliantly behaved. I like holidays and I better make the most of this one as it looks like mum might just have the sniff of a job when we return.


At the beach, or rather above it – exhausting business climbing cliffs.


Onwards and upwards - or perhaps not. I'm not used to heights!


Bonny on top of the world!


You can feel very small sometimes!


Bonny with her new best friend – Pearl. Behaving beautifully in the woods, off the lead.


Relaxing after our walk with mum.

Return to Devon

I haven't posted anything recently as I have been engaged in boring activities such as job hunting and cleaning, but this week I'm taking a break from the mundane and yesterday I drove to Devon. I am staying with Roger and Shirleyann, the same wonderful friends who looked after me when I was laid up with my broken limb.

It is very strange and wonderful being back here with two working legs. I can walk up the stairs rather than bumping up and down on my bottom. I can take Bonny out for walks myself rather than relying on others and I don't have to be waited on! Best of all I can have a bath!! I was here for six weeks and couldn't use the bath because of my cast. Only another boater or anyone living with only a shower will know the frustration of that!

Bonny has settled down as if she has never been away, although she is keeping a nervous eye on Maisie the cat, who is set on letting Bonny know whose house this is and has cuffed her across the ear at least three times since we arrived yesterday afternoon!

I am visiting friends in Halwill this afternoon and have a skittles evening lined up later on in the week, despite the fact that I haven't touched a ball in over four years and will be playing in a cup match! It's lovely to be back.

Single handed boaters

I had a comment posted by Kath, another lone boater and she is planning to cruise from the Fossdike to Skipton - respect! It would be lovely to hear from any other lone boaters who are cruising on a regular basis. It would be interesting to hear any tips / disasters / great days etc.

Meanwhile - good luck Kath, I haven't even had the courage to tackle a broad lock on my own yet!

Boating in a blizzard

Well, if I had any doubts about my ability to manage the boat after my accident, they were dispelled by the end of my mini cruise. The first four days out were perfectly reasonable, weather wise. I had heeded the warning for snow on Friday and so reluctantly left Great Haywood and got to Kings Bromley by Thursday afternoon. I got the boat pumped out and dieseled up and then tied on mooring pins in the woods, prepared to wait Friday out.

Actually the mooring up wasn’t that straight forward as the wind had really started to blow and, as I usually find, it was blowing my boat away from the bank. The problem with that if you need to moor on pins and are single handed is that you need to get the boat to stay put while you hammer the pins in, but without anything to moor to in the meantime, the boat is likely to end up in the bushes on the other side of the cut!

Mooring up is the one thing I had been anxious about as that is how my leg got broken – hauling the boat in on the centre rope and mis-stepping on a tree root. I tried to get in a couple of times but as soon as I got off, the boat  started to drift out. So I ended up joining a long rope to my centre rope (whilst steering the boat and trying to hold her steady), then leaping off with this long rope, crossing the towpath and wrapping the rope around the nearest tree. That meant that at least ‘Don’t Panic’ wasn’t going to leave without me and I had time to hammer the pins in and then haul her in closer to the bank. The whole procedure took around 30 minutes from start to finish and having been cruising all day, I was finished!

Then the snow started. It snowed non stop all Thursday night and then all of Friday too. On Saturday morning I was starting to worry that I would get frozen in here in the middle of the woods with no access to my car or water. So in the middle of a blizzard I pulled out my mooring pins and made my way to Woodend Lock. I have never seen so much snow round and lock and the wind was blowing it into drifts. I knew this was a seriously risky business, operating a lock alone in these conditions, but once past Woodend I only had a few minutes before I reached Shadehouse Lock (the top of Fradley flight), mooring rings and safety.

I made it, with again much pulling on ropes in the wind to get her safely secured. The next day, again in snow and wind, my mate Stan helped me get her down the flight and back to my home mooring – a bacon and egg butty being his reward!

I would not have chosen this weather, or to finish my first mini cruise in such a fraught way, but it has done wonders for my confidence and I am  happy now to take the boat out alone – but I think I’ll wait for Spring to finally arrive before venturing out again!

ps Thank you to those of you who left such kind comments after my last entry – I don’t feel particularly brave – just very lucky to be able to live like this!