Our boat HAS to be here somewhere. There are so many and we still haven’t found IT!
We were about to put in an offer on one we saw yesterday, but decided to do another thorough viewing first. It turns out there is some asbestos on the exhaust. The engine room part has new lagging, but there is some old lagging (asbestos) on the rest of the exhaust. We are trying to research the cost to have it removed/replaced and think about whether we want the bother . . . but we like the boat. Well, this boat has fewest compromises. We should be more excited than this! Perhaps MAE is the problem (my term for my mid-life crises, known as Middle-Aged Existence!)

The campsites are keeping us on our toes. Infrequent internet (grrrrrr) and cold showers! Tonight’s campsite in Enschede is very nice and the most expensive so far. However, it is still cheaper than a hotel, so one must not complain. I do have to mention the showers here though, they are hot, very hot and you can’t turn them down. I had to put each limb in one at a time, in a sort of naked dance, ‘put your left hand in, put your left hand out, in out, in out’ . . . well you get the idea. After I had acclimatised my red limbs, I elegantly skidded under the shower to scald my skull. The floor does not have any non-slip material and it’s quite a feat of achievement to stay upright. The lights come on automatically and are nice and soft. The radio is on and as I lather up, concentrating on keeping my feet under me, the music blares and a techno tune pumps into the cubical (is it still called Techno?) Anyhow, the music is hot, the shower is hot and I with my feet slipping in jerky movements, start slipping and sliding to the beat – now I think I am hot! It’s the funkiest shower I’ve ever had, well you had to be there . . . well, maybe not . . .

So, that was a nice little interlude of fun. Well, we are having fun, but we are a little dispirited with the lack of excitement with boats. Maybe we don’t have the right budget, but we are determined to stick with it. As one old friend said (old as in long time, not old as in old-git – right Foggy?): ‘you picked Holland for a reason, you just haven’t found it yet.’ This advice (and others similar) has been taken on board (pun fully intended) and we shall lift our game.

I have to lift my game in another area, techno dancing in showers and endless boats aside I think I am having mid-life crises. I’ve elected to call my particular crises MAE – Middle-Aged Existence, as I only have a couple of symptoms. More on that soon.