Two months in.

By fletch Monday, February 8th, 2010

Well. I just paid my third lot of rent on the boat and suddenly I realise that I’ve been living in a floating metal box with an engine for two months, on what is essentially an old fashioned motorway. That’s two months down and just four more to go.

It feels like I’ve been on it for years. It’s absolutely and utterly normal, so much so that when folk find out that I live on the canal I’m starting to be surprised at their reaction. I mean, how is living on a canal boat not a standard thing to do?! Oh.

Part of the shock to people I think comes from the fact that I turn up to work suited and booted, looking every inch the young hexamshire professional, when what you might expect of a canal dweller is something akin to this:

Sure, those people do exist, in fact I have met and drunk with a few of them but there’s a massive range of people floating about in London, prices if nothing else mean there would have to be.

You can buy a boat for £5K and float it up and down the grand union until the day you die. You’d spend barely any money in the process and survive. It would probably be preferable to buy a big dutch barge permanently moored in Little Venice for £280K and live well-off like the rest of Maida Vale I suppose, but it’s horses for courses eh.

Anyway, back to the present. I’ve got four months left on the boat and following a long chat with landlord Gary who came to visit on Sunday afternoon and do an oil-change, I’ve been thinking about what’s coming next.

My default action I think is to move back into a flat. I definitely wouldn’t rule another boat out, but I’m not actively looking so I’d say that if one comes along and it’s right I might have it but otherwise I think I’m shore-bound.

The big thing for me is that that I’d like my turntables back, for that I need 240V so a boat that’s moored permanently with a mains supply. Generators are not the answer.

Being permanently moored costs more than a flat.

More than a flat just to float on the water.. I’m not convinced it’s worth it.

Spring is coming so they say and I’m very much looking forward to watching life spring up around me. This is going to happen in the next few weeks and I’ve already noticed more chirping than usual going on in the mornings. Come to think about it yesterday I even saw a pair of ducks doing it in the water.

I’m moored at Little Venice now myself for a week or so, if you’re in the area.. pop in for a brew. 2 mins walk from Warwick Avenue tube.

bye bye

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Hello! Fletch.cx has been going since 1999 in one form or another, yep incredible, when will it end? For more of my bullshit see last.fm, lluckj.com, facebook and if you really want a constant avalanche of musings, observations and lies then follow me on twitter..