Getting Ready

29 - 30 May 2018

Now that all the interruptions of May are behind us, it is time to start preparations for the Next Big Thing: fitting insulation and ceiling boards in the living room.  The area needs to be cleared as much as possible, to give us free movement and workspace as well as standing room for scaffolding, while also allowing us to access the kitchen.  We'll move our sitting area back into the music room, and any remaining chairs can go outside - even if it rains, they'll dry thoroughly very quickly.

 Dave keeps the garden alive, most evenings

 The living room, as it is.  This needs to be largely empty space before we start work.

The area under the mezzanine can be used for storage as we won't be putting scaffolding there.

Escape to Fiscardo

25 - 28 May 2018

Proceeding with the plan, we launched the boat on Thursday, fitted her out on a pontoon and took off for foreign parts on Friday lunchtime.  After overnighting in a quiet bay, we were ready for the hustle of Fiscardo, and the Champions League final - which Liverpool failed to win, unfortunately.  A stop-over in Kioni, where we explored the vegetarian options of the two best restaurants - lots of very fine lentils! - and then back home to start the next phase of the ceiling insulation.

 Flying the flag - Liverpool FC - which we only do for Champions League finals!

A selfie in Kioni

Dave's Doings

16 -23 May 2018

While I was in the UK, Dave finished off some stuff on the boat.

 A shiny new base board for the dinghy

 Tropi, shiny and black and ready to launch, with a shiny new anchor, too!

Baby re-visited

16 - 23 May 2018

I like to spend a week each year with my Mum at her house, and this year my baby grandson came too.  This resulted in a gathering of the Clan, and quite a busy weekend, especially as Mum saw this as an opportunity to get some jobs done around the house and garden.

 Mum meets her great-grandson

 The garden team in action

 Time out for a picnic under a willow by the river

Richie and I pegged up Mum's peas and beans

Boatyard Interlude with planning meeting

2 - 15 May 2018

As planned, we spent a busy two weeks in the boatyard, finally giving Tropi-boat the attention she deserved.  We got through a lot of stuff, including updating all our safety equipment: new fire extinguishers, new flares, new horseshoe buoy (courtesy of Kate, who gave us one she was recycling), and even a posh new radio which gives automatic identity and location information in the event of a distress call.  Dave fixed electrics and serviced the engine.  I cleaned things.  We asked Dmitri to do the hull and decks, and he obliged.  It all went rather well, actually!

On 14 May, we caught up with Constantine, our architect, and had a meeting to update ourselves on proceeding towards getting the house signed off.  The insides don't need to be finished, just the outside, but there are some deviations from the original plans that need to be addressed.

On 16 May, I left for a week in the UK with my mother, and Dave had a week of pottering with the boat to fix up the snag list.

Ukulele Group

1 May 2018

The inaugural meeting of the Goat Bottom Ukulele Group was a roaring success.  After singing lesson on Tuesday, Rosa stayed, having brought her uke.  Kate returned, having borrowed a ukulele.  We had a go at several chords - Dave, of course, got straight into it, as did Rosa.  Kate and I picked a chord and strummed whenever it came up.  Dave took us through 'Man of Constant Sorrow'. 

What was surprising and fun, was that, just as we got the hang of the song, Naomi and Pete turned up, half an hour early, for Greek lesson.  So we played it again for them.  Then Lyn arrived a little early for Greek, too, so we played it for her.  Finally, Paris arrived, so we did a rousing finale for everyone - which was an incredible buzz for me, (who has never played in a group before - not even one chord at a time!) and, I think, for us all.  Rent-an-audience appeared on cue!

A few minutes later - the cross-over from Ukulele to Greek lesson