Facebook kindly reminded me this morning that eleven years ago today we had a ‘farewell for now’ party, on the deck of our gorgeous house on Hillview Terrace, Gisborne. Shortly afterwards we headed to England to commence our inaugural six-month narrow boating adventure on the canals and rivers of England and Wales, landing on 4th April 2009. We bought NB Northern Pride a six days after we landed, and had two super seasons on board before selling her in February 2011.
On Friday 17th April, we published our first blog on the website we had until April 2014 . If you’re interested you can read it here –http://nbnorthernpride.blogspot.com/2009/04/welcome-to-bloggings-of-barry-and-sandy.html
Rather serendipitously, our first trip was on the Llangollen Canal. Today we’re very close to where it all began all those years ago …
Spooky!
A Breather After Two Days Inside
I’d like to say I’m enjoying the ‘down-time’ of our lockdown, but for now I’m still ‘busy’ working inside. I have no doubt it’ll quieten down soon, once I’m up to date with all my accounts. Not that I’m concerned if it doesn’t of course! I love my ‘job’, the flexibility of it, the fascination of researching and getting to know a range of small business clients and the services they provide, building their Google Ads accounts, optimising them and watching them give the customer a return on their investment. I’ve always been a bit of a nerd; I’m aware it certainly wouldn’t suit everyone! The Ad-Extra team are well used to working at home, alone, with monthly team meetings using Zoom, which it seems unsurprisingly has suddenly become extremely popular!
Barry meanwhile, did a spot more painting of our pole and plank. I’m guessing there’s an awful lot of boaters doing jobs they’ve been wanting to get around to for a long time at the moment …
My daily exercise today consisted of a solitary walk around the nearby Hurleston Reservoir. Not ALL the way round, as that’s not possible. But probably three-quarters of the way.
A pleasant spring afternoon, but a chilly breeze still, which sadly didn’t deter the millions of pesky midges! I could just make out Areandare in the distance …
We’re feeling fortunate to be ‘stuck’ in such a glorious place for a while. We can watch the farmer as he ploughs his fields, listen to the birds singing (the woodpecker returned this evening), wave to the occasional passer-by (thankfully the foot and cycle traffic has slowed considerably now), and watch the sunset on the horizon.
Last night the sky was once again replete with stars and an increasingly large crescent moon. So still and calm. Not a plane in sight. This evening I gazed in awe at another spectacular sunset display from Mother Nature.
One day at a time folks. That’s all we can take this.
Which reminded me to check into the COVID-19 Symptom Tracker! Phew! We’re both fit and well and fine. I hope you are also.
Kia kaha.