Sunday, December 28, 2008

Talented young men


Talented young men
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Sam and Charlie discovered how to balance balloons on their tongues-with this much ingenuity they are both no doubt bound for MIT!

Xmas with the boys


Xmas with the boys
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Our xmas celebrations started with a bowling party on the 23rd with the boys, except Al and Conall who were missing due to illness. Lots of fun was had by all and it was wonderful to catch up with everyone one.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Oh what a month!

Things have been pretty busy in our house lately to say the least. The two major life changing events were matt and getting a permanent post in lincoln (yippee!!! and thank you to everyone who kept their fingers crossed!) and buying boudicca. We are all over the moon that matt now has a permanent post as lincoln's newest itu consultant, it means the past 6 months of worry and uncertainity are over. He has been in lincoln since july but initally on a locum basis but as of nov 28th he is there permanently. He likes the job and thinks there is lots of scope for growth and is looking forward to settling in there properly. Lincoln is a great city and we are all looking forward to getting to know it better and in time move there and make it our home.

The market is so bad at the moment that we decided not to sell the house yet but to buy somewhere for matt to stay while he is on call and when he has back to back surgery days and that somewhere is boudicca!! We had initally thought of a flat but all of the nice ones were out of our budget and came with too many restrictions about parkting pets etc. That is when we started exploring other options and came up with a narrowboat. Our good friends christine and tony who live on board there boat were fully of helpful tips and even came out boat hunting with us. Boudicca was one of the first boats we saw and despite seeing lots of others we always came back to her. She is so light and airy and seemed just what we were looking for. Everything fell into place and she is now ours and moored at a fantastic marina up in lincoln, about 10 min from the hospital. She has made such a difference to matt's on calls and going forward is going to mean that he does a lot less commutting. Sam and I are spending lots of time on her as well, whenever matt is on call we go up to keep him company. We have had a few teething problems with the heating but fingers crossed that is now sorted. We are looking forward to lots of family outings on her when the warmer weather arrives ( how long till summer!?) and to exploring the rivers and canals around the country.

Formal education has taken a bit of a backseat these last few weeks but sam has learned a tremendous amount about boats, going through locks, heating, engineering, geography and history not to mention water safety!

We have been so busy with sorting out the boat that xmas has jumped up on me. I am very behind with everything but hopefully it will all come together. All of sam's presents have been bought so at least the little guy is taken care of.

Monday, December 01, 2008

The captain concentrating


The captain concentrating
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Matt took to boating like a duck to water. He did a fantastic job keeping us on the straight and narrow-despite a crew who did things like drop a spike in the river, get the ropes wet and flood the loo!

Reviews of the river bank


Reviews of the river bank
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
This is the sort of view we had all weekend. It was so quiet and peaceful, that we hated to come back to dry land.

Getting to grips with the kitchen

The kitchen is small but has everything you need. The range is amazing and keeps the boat toasty warm.

Just chillin'


Just chillin'
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
The dogs have adapted to boat life, though miko is not very keen on the getting on and off bit! Matt is going to build her a ramp because she is way too heavy to lift on an off each time.

Keeping an eye out for wildlife

This is rogue's fav place on the boat, he sat here all day watching out for birds and other wildlife.

Watching the world go by


Watching the world go by
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Sam really enjoyed the weekend on the boat and spent most of his time at the tiler helping M. When it got too cold and rainy he came inside and played lego and and on his ds.