Sorry it has been so long; it has been a bit of a crazy time.
First came the final gig with Magna Carta at The Theatre Carre in Amsterdam on the 5th of May 2009; a week later I moved out of the cottage into a bedsit (thank you Andrew and Angela for putting a roof over my head).
I used the time there to get rid of all the things that would not fit on the boat (that was quite a bit of stuff I can tell you) and get together the things I would need for my new project.
In August my boat was supposedly ready. By that time, everything I owned fit into a small transit van - and even then I knew that more would have to go!
Chris and Heather helped me to load up and off we went.
When we arrived the boat wasn't ready and so everything went into Paul's garage (thank you for coming to our rescue). Chris left and Heather and I made ourselves as comfortable as possible for the first night aboard.
Having never had anything to do with narrow boats in my life; I was suddenly living on one!
I had long since decided that the boat was going to be a big part of my new project - but I soon realised that there was no way that I could have three young musicians permanently on board, someone would have been thrown in the canal within a week. I was going to have to rethink the whole thing.
As the boat wasn't ready I had to stay in the marina for several weeks, in the end I simply had to leave so, even though there were still a few problems there was no choice, I had to find someone to help me to get from Northwich to Lancashire.
Chris Davey and Ivan Sangster had both given their time to help me to get used to the boat - but there was no way I could go it alone!! I was introduced to Derek by a mutual friend and he came along for the first couple of days.
Sadly the headlamp, which had supposedly been fixed twice, failed in the second tunnel. Bang, scrape, panicking dog, scrambling for torch, more banging and scraping .... by the time we emerged we looked like a battle ship after 14 years of active service. My brand new cover on the cratch was a mess and the paintwork was scratched .... she was no longer a shiny new boat!! In a way it was a relief because it meant I didn't have to worry about the first scratch any more - I now had lots to choose from!
We were almost at the Wigan flight when Derek went home and Tony joined us to do the rest of the trip. We met Heather (another Heather) that evening, she gets around single-handed and told me that it wasn't so difficult once you got used to it. It was so good to hear that as I was starting to think that perhaps I had done the wrong thing.
Heather, who reminds me of the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, and will probably never speak to me again if she reads this, said she would give us a hand. Neville said he would come along too and between us I thought we did a pretty good job. We teamed up with a boat full of strapping lads who hit their first Guinness at about 10:30am and spun themselves into most of the locks thereafter.
Harvey was having none of it - he had decided that he hated locks and so walked along with me the whole time. He got into a good rhythm ... laying down on a comfortable patch of warm grass in the sun as we got the boat through a lock and then ambling along to the next one. There's no rush ... not when you're the most handsome Labrador in the whole world.
There was much fun aboard as we twice lost all the hot water ... first time because we thought we had a leak, second time because we didn't investigate the sound of running water and later found that the hot water tap had been running for some time. All we seemed to eat was chips and curry and I can't remember the last time I laughed so much.
Ben joined us for a day - he was a total natural as regards steering the boat - why can't I do that?
His Mum and Dad came to pick him up that evening - along with a very pregnant, and glowing, Naomi. Harvey went crazy when he saw Sheila - he so loves her, and the love is not misplaced.
[Naomi has now had a lovely bouncing baby boy, Alfie, he's a great little character]
Jet was coming over for a week and I had got the dates wrong so poor Pete and Bev came to the rescue again - they collected Jet and brought her along the day after, by which time we had made it to the moorings in Lancashire.
Tony stayed an extra day so that Jet could go out on the boat, and it was sad to say goodbye to him ... but great when I found that he had enjoyed himself too and we became firm friends ... so much so that he's going to be coming along to help me to put this project together.
A week with Jet on the boat - getting used to the new surroundings. We had a lot of fun despite the fact that it was rather chaotic; then she was gone and I had to get ready to go to Holland myself.
I was missing all my Dutch friends and so made up a list and contacted everyone to see if we could get together.... It wasn't possible to see everyone but I hope to be able to do it again maybe later this year.
It was a great time, catching up with wonderful people, doing my first solo gig and taking in a S.L.Y. presentation before going with Matt, to meet 'The Eeks' to see Fleetwood Mac ... what a night that was!
Every day I managed to see someone - sometimes I saw two lots of people in one day but it was a really happy time. I'm so lucky to have so many great friends and I do appreciate it, even though it's impossible to stay in constant touch!
My final night was spent in The Cantina at the Eekhoornnest where we had a wonderful jam session - it was so special, everyone was on top form and I think we could have gone on forever if life hadn't got in the way! It couldn't have ended on a higher note!
Back home it was starting to get cold, very cold.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this project - how was I going to be able to do anything meaningful if I couldn't have musicians on board?
There were other musicians on the marina; we got together and played a little. I went to the music night at the pub across the canal. They all played so well that they frightened me to death! Then I went to the Victoria Cafe with Joan (she owns East End in Skipton ... more about that later) and we bumped into a friend of hers who said I should go to Rainhall Drinks Company as they had music in the cellar bar there.
I don't know why but it felt right. I got in touch with Alan and Penny and convinced them to let me put an evening together. To be fair I conned them a bit because by that time I had a seed of an idea and I wanted to see if I could do it.
To be continued......
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