It’s been a while since I posted an update – nearer two months than one, in which time lots has happened on board Iris Abbott, pretty much all of it good! There is lots to say so this will be split over a couple of posts.
I’ve been around boats for most of my life (I was 7 when we had our first holiday on a canal boat) but Iris is VERY different to anything I’ve handled before, so moving her for the first time was always going to be a big moment.
I’m not sure where the time has gone, but as I write this it is exactly a month since I boarded Iris Abbott in Northwich and Matt and I brought her down to Acton Bridge.
To be fair, a lot of the answer is, as ever, work. As much as I’d like to spend my free time getting my new home sorted, it has to fit around the rest of my life. I spent a few days working in Swindon at one point, and have also spent time in the office or at meetings nearer to home.
I’m writing this on Monday evening, 22nd January, five and a bit days after arriving in Acton Bridge. It’s been a crazy few days, but returning to work today forced me to pause for breath and that in turn made me think it would be good to summarise the experience so far.
The run down from Northwich to Acton Bridge was great fun. I’d moved Bream as far as Saltersford Lock the afternoon before, then caught the bus back to Northwich on a cold and misty morning. Iris was moored on the island, just below the footbridge.
The question of whether I would live afloat “forever” has come up quite regularly over the past 24 years. I very quickly came up with an answer, which I’ve repeated many times – “I’ll do it until something more interesting comes along.”
About 5 years ago, the answer changed. I said to people who asked, that I didn’t see myself living on Bream in another decade. It was the start of a thought process that has gone in and out of my mind ever since. I wasn’t actively looking, but I wasn’t actively ignoring either.