Buckets for Wine

Time to post an interim blog on the galley refit. We spent an industrious and enjoyable Sunday pottering about and moving things back to make the galley into a galley again. We even managed a walk along the tow path into Whaley Bridge for Sunday lunch at The Cock Inn. Inevitably, we were remembering Rocky every step of the walk and missing him. But having seen how happy he is with Jim on our visit to Newhaven last weekend, it seems totally unjustified to be sad about his new life. We will have to be resigned to missing him whilst knowing that he is so much safer and better off where he is. And we couldn't have hoped for a better outcome because we can stay in touch. Jim has promised to bring him up our way again at some point. Even though we are hundreds of miles away, we have managed to see him twice since September.

Back to the Galley. Captain has made terrific progress, beating all his own deadlines as usual. We have a few snagging jobs and there is promise of an over hanging glass cupboard. When we were in Brighton last weekend we bought some gorgeous gold rimmed wine glasses from Zara Home.
They are perfectly proportioned. Every glass we had looked at elsewhere was way too big for our design. When did wine glasses turn into such monstrous vessels? Has this fashion come over from Venice where you get a thimble full of wine served in an oversized but beautiful glass? Very sophisticated. More likely it is a response to the availability of cheap booze in the supermarkets which means that you can neck a half pint at home without it costing that much. And claim that you have only had the one.

Generally, we are amazed that we seem to have created space, There is more worktop due to the re positioning of the sink and in opting for one without a draining board. We have also fitted a new three burner hob - space saving again. The cooker is slightly smaller giving us more bottle storage underneath (and God do we need that!). The biggest surprise is that the washing machine has forced us to clear out all the underneath cupboards, throw duplicate cleaning stuff away and generally reorganise things much better. So we have won a washing machine and gained storage under the sink. How did that happen?

Captain D.I.Y. has built a brand new fully functioning drawer where there was just a pretend front. So we have won space again to store miscellany (foil, cling film, bin bags etc.). We are pretty pleased with how it has turned out. The new under cupboard lighting has made a huge difference to the feel of the space. It is now warm, welcoming and provides a good working light. The overhead lights will only be needed occasionally and we have come up with a plan to fit new LED moveable spots into the original brass fittings. The boat will be 95% towards having all LED lighting. So all is well on the power consumption front.

That's all for now but we may be able to post an additional picture of the glass arrangement (very exciting) in the near future. It's at the pencil drawing stage at the moment but knowing the Captain it will materialise out of thin air some time soon.