Well, it has been a long time – far too long really…. I have tried to write entries but have had nothing worth posting so far…..
Originally, when writing a blog was suggested to me, it was intended to while away the long, lonely, cold evenings – although life never works out as planned (in this case happily so). Following my last entry, one of the people who helped me has become a much bigger part of my life. I had already committed to the possibility of running an attraction for the kiddies on the beach for him, but didn’t expect for him to become a romantic interest as well. But I am so glad he did. I think I have found my soul mate. Scrap that, I know. So I haven’t had so many long, cold, lonely evenings.
At last I have found someone who doesn’t just pay lip service to my talk of leaving this cold and wet country, someone who isn’t more concerned about the hows and whys of the present – someone who can share my dream, and even more than that, evolve it with me….. funny how life works sometimes. Which kinda brings me on topic – Sacrifices…… or rather standards – which I don’t have so much of either anymore.
Whilst my little boat is fine for me, when there are two people on here, it’s limitations are a little more obvious. Mainly in terms of space – she is very badly designed for living aboard, especially for more than one.
So what am I noticing? Well, thankfully, although my lover spends an awful lot of time here on Maestro with me, he hasn’t moved anything in. Which is good because there is hardly room for my belongings, never mind anyone else’s.
I am also noticing the things I ignored before, like the fact that the water tastes appalling. I let it go to be honest; I got a water filter and just put up with it. (It is bad because it spends so long in the lines in the marina; it tastes of plastic – unless I run the hose for 10 mins before filling my water bottle.) When serving it to someone else I notice it more though. Kind of like I notice serving food on plastic plates, and wine in plastic tumblers (although that is his fault for breaking one of the pair of glass glasses), but still, orange plastic plates are hardly serious cuisine – and I do like serving nice food for those I love. And that's before I describe the trials of cooking on what is essentially a glorified camping stove, never mind the lack of food storage / refridgeration / freezer.
Other compromises?….. Well, laundry for one…. Don’t think I realised I was born living in a house! Last week my lover drove me to the launderette. It was costing me £5 to do a wash on the marina, and given that I’m not meant to be living here I have to do it late in the evening, so we tried the launderette. The faulty machines there meant we came back with dripping clothes that needed extra money in the driers here – saving nada. Faulty machines aside, it would still have cost more, and the pub we waited in (while the wash was on) was extortionately expensive…… ahh well, guess every day’s a school day.
So, if it isn’t actually dirty (and the defining standard of dirty is something that has itself changed) then it don’t get washed. Same as I now don’t get to wash the dishes under running water (yeah, bad I know but I have issues with food and water coming together)….. Same as how running water itself is a luxury… and flushing toilets, and showering in my own bathroom not on the marina, and it not raining through the vents in the roof onto the cupboard which houses my clothes….. and never mind the composting toilet – there is more on that to come….. it need modification – serious modification.
But overall, my life is very much different, but do I regret it? Do I wish I had a house (and there is no way of typing the word “house” as I think it; ie a dirty word)….. hell no. I stayed in a house a while back for the night, the room was 10 times bigger than my v-berth and yet it felt claustrophobic – it wasn’t moving, I couldn’t sleep.
So for all the sacrifices, the things I now do without, or have limited access to, for all the little niggles – I wouldn’t change it. The good ship Maestro is the best thing I have done in my life for a very long while.
