Friday 22 June 2012

Goodbye and Good Riddance!

One of the most popular question I get asked about my life on the canals is "what do you do with your car?"  The answer, in a nutshell, is that the boat and the car move independently of one another - and I either go on ahead of the boat with the car, waiting for Drew to catch me up, or after a day's cruising, I cycle back to get the car.  Often arrangements are a little more complicated - and can depend on if there is parking where we hope to moor, if there is any public transport that I can use, or if the towpath is suitable for cycling.  Some people live aboard their boats without having a car - but for our work it's pretty much essential.  When we first moved onto the boat we tried life without a car, but after 3 months we gave up.

Our trusty Fiesta gave up the ghost in February and she was replaced by a not-so-trusty Escort.  Ugly, rusty, but cheap, we took a risk - and were burned (in more ways than one - the one thing the car COULD be depended on was to overheat!).  She lasted just over two months before dying in a blaze (almost) of glory. 

...and so we've welcomed a new member of the family - a lovely blue van - great for lugging stuff around - and hopefully a bit more dependable.  We also learned a valuable lesson - you need to spend more than £350 on a car if you expect it to last more than 2 months.  Clever mechanics amongst you might disagree, but I'm not clever and I'm not a mechanic and I'll be damned if I'm ever going to make the same mistake again!