A few of our favourite things... (and some others)

THE FAVOURITE THINGS

In no particular order (thanks to Ian and Lorna for leaving many of them for us):

Binoculars:- Essential when approaching a lock to see if it is open and ready to sail into. Some locks have very disturbed water close to lock entrances especially those on rivers. River locks very often have spillways and weirs to one side of them. We had an interesting experience on the Yonne when we had to turn a corner in the river to see what the locks was doing, it was closed and still emptying, ( we were locking up), keeping the boat in a holding pattern so close to such disturbed waters was difficult so I decided to do a u turn only to find in doing so, that the boat was being pushed sideways down the river!

“Thomas“:- An ancient and venerable but very effective spinner of wet, rinsed washing. Thomas does a better job of ‘wringing ‘clothes than any modern washing machine we have ever had. Long may he live, he has obviously had a hard life over the years but is still working valiantly and hanging together with the silver tape mentioned below.. (Thomas is a German brand name) Add to this the ‘Wonder Washer’ which is essentially a small barrel you tumble to wash the clothes in.

Large plastic drum:- Wondered what we would use this for, (other boaties think we brew in it) fabulous for rinsing clothes, great saw horse, useful as a prop for one end of a door being painted, emergency fender ,not needed as such yet

Saws:- Ordinary ‘wood’ saw and recently purchased hacksaw

Mastic gun:- to use with silicone sealer. Much used, especially for fixing leaks. Catherine is getting better and better at it and has settled on her favourite brand of mastic. She is Queen of the Mastic Gun.

Fat Max:- very useful Stanley knife

Silver all purpose tape:- great adhesive qualities, lost count of its many uses, including holding Thomas together, backing tape to stop carpet fraying.

Electric drill, screwdriver set and screws:- no explanation needed

Brian’s pointy tool:- yes this does need a little explanation. The wonderful Brian (our next door neighbour in St-Jean-de Losne) recently bought a fancy tool with extra fittings in the handle. It looks rather like a stout nail on a handle. He bought an ‘old’ one at a vide grenier recently and declared it was better than his new, fancy one which he kindly gave to us. We don’t know its proper name but it is fantastic for “drilling” small holes in walls prior to putting screws in, for piercing holes in the saloon carpet that Catherine then did blanket stitch around the edge of, and a variety of other uses.

Straight edge and tape measure

French/English Dictionary:- Catherine’s very extensive language skills have not in the past included sophisticated nautical language nor “hardware” French.

Masking Tape

New wine glasses bought in Beaune and Pastis glasses

Corkscrew

Comfy camp chairs for use in cockpit when using above

Ike:- sturdy little folding stool/coffee table bought at IKEA

Boat hook:- all normal functions and temporary clothes line prop

Bicycles

Paper towels:- multitude of uses, not all suggested by manufacturers, particularly when using silicone sealer

White Spirits:- aka turps (of the mineral kind)

Variety of ropes, Stretchy cords and string

Work clothes/overalls: We didn’t bring enough of theseand have had to buy some here - very fetching!

Sewing kit including 5 only pins, haven’t bought any more, they are very expensive here.
Sandpaper:- never be sucked in to buying cheap varieties!

Casserole/saucepan (Dutch oven):- Very versatile, bought also at IKEA, can be used on top of stove or in oven

Camera and Emilee (aka Eee small portable computer)

Rubber bands

Old green canvas: About 1.5m x 1.5m great as a protector of carpet when painting or sorting out tools and other messy jobs. Useful to spread on nettles that are just where you want to hang the solar shower, nice to lie on in the shade of a tree after a swim in the river on a very hot afternoon.

LESS USEFUL ITEMS

Spirit level : (think about it - we didn't!)

Teflon oven tray too big for oven

Iron

Sewing machine, little more than a child’s toy (Update, have just bought a small useful sewing machine, Janome Mini, and used it a lot already to sew curtains and cushion covers.)

Kitset crane: former owner used it to bring motor scooter on board

Trolley/trailer:- to be towed behind bike when carting diesel and gas bottled, so far we have managed with supermarket trolleys

BBQ:- slightly inconvenient to use as it can only be used on deck attached to bottles in gas well

Fish finder: we think it was installed to be used as a depth finder

Chrome book stand

Hair dryer will plug into cigarette lighter

Rechargeable cordless drill, no battery or charger with it

3 Spare bicycle tyres: didn’t fit the bike that was stolen and don’t fit the new ones either

...AND SOME THINGS THAT ARE PROVING VERY HARD TO FIND

Coffee mugs that we like, mustn’t be too thick, that go with the new colour scheme of the boat

Dinner set either they are cheap but thick and/or ugly or if they are half way decent they cost an arm and a leg

Curtain material French tastes don’t seem to coincide with ours and of course we want something suitable for the boat. Most furnishing fabric shops only carry samples so ordering lengths of material is impractical for us.

Flat sheets Here a double flat sheet is routinely 220cm by 290cm, miles too big for the boat beds.

Face flannels French people use a mitt made with thick towelling, odd for us.

Slices of bacon of the kind we are used to

Fresh cream for whipping French version is difficult to find and whips up into insubstantial froth barely able to support the weight of a slice of kiwi fruit on top of a pavlova, and UHT milk and cream seem to be the norm.

Sour cream we haven’t found anything like the product we are used to

Kumara French sweet potatoes just don’t taste like our kumara