It's strange how quickly time passes. When I was a kid, summer holidays seemed to last forever... easily bored, my poor old parents must have hated trying to keep me occupied.
I suppose that's why by the time I was a teenager, I was mowing the village green or painting railings etc. to occupy me. It's not even that this was totally 'pre' computer games... we started off with a Vic 20 and Atari which gave the option to spend hours glued to the tv screen typing in code, just to get your name filling the screen or bouncing around if you could be bothered with the extra lines.
That's where the stupid 'work ethic' came from ... boredom. Better to be doing something rather than nothing. Even working with my dad and uncle in their garage was better than being bored - with the added advantage of being paid 12 quid a day (for a 10 hour day 6 days a week).
Daft thing is, here I am, nearly 40 years (eek) later, and I still struggle not to have something to do. Boating does help in that regard - there is always some or other chore, niggling at the back of my mind that needs doing... although these days I AM getting better at putting things off to last minute.
Painting the roof being one of them. When I repainted Ellis last time (4 years ago during a dry docking for DIY Blacking), I didn't really pay the roof much attention - mainly because the shed I was docked in had bracing bars on the roof so it was a complete pain to clamber on the roof without banging my bonce on the bars. Ergo, I slapped a bit of paint quickly on it and that was that. Of course, having not rubbed down and deal with the patches of failed non slip stuff, it's gradually gotten worse to the point that now I need to take it all back and do it again properly.
I WAS tempted 18 months ago when it was in for blacking again to do it but the same constraints put me off. Enough is enough however so when we leave the marina, we're going to begin doing it - bit by bit as we chug off to meet customers.
Rewind a bit. You'll remember the original plan to run the boat as a 'live-aboard experience'? ... well I'm still doing it but have conceded that in order for it to actually WORK properly, it HAS to be more like a Hotel. I'm still making it quite clear on the website that it's NOT A Hotel boat but to be frank, people read what they WANT rather than what is written - ie, they come along WANTING a hotel boat.
Business wise - I've made a few mistakes... the initial idealism that it would be fun to have people come along and share the adventure was a little naïve. Same thing with the idea of NOT charging solo travellers a supplement. THAT was probably the biggest mistake... solo travellers sometimes take WAY more effort to host as many of them seem to stick like glue and suck the life out of me want attention/company all the time. The exception being the intrepid American or Australian solo explorers - THEY are great.
AS such, I altered the website to make it clear that the 'cost' of a trip on Ellis is the same whether it's 1 or 2 guests... effectively I'm a private charter. I have however made it quite clear (if folks read that far) they are not to expect a master and servant relationship lol. Sometimes I have to point this out - SEVERAL times!
I realise this has been a bit of a pointless posting... it was just to try and get back into the habit of writing as thoughts come into my head. There does of course need to be a bit of a catch up as to what's been going on over the last few years - which I'll try and do soon... I just need to think WHAT is appropriate to share or not. That's difficult for me... filtering has never been my strong point.
Anyway - here's a lovely photo of #legsellis from last season enjoying the cooler evening air - hiding under trees whilst trapped on the Grand Union during the 'drought'... not gonna lie, for middle aged ginger puff, I've got great legs !😜
Until next time...
