Day 195 – Reflections on Lockdown

This morning, Honey and I were up early for my fortnightly meditation group.  I didn’t make the last one, so was great to spend a couple of hours connecting inwardly.  I felt quite unsettled and worked out that I am still settling back home after being away in Canna.  But then realised, that I am soon to change my home, so probably more unsettled, as I am in transition to a new home!

I then started taking photos of all my old receipts from my accounts over the last two years.  A couple of years ago, I started the practice of taking photos of my receipts for my accounts, storing them all electronically.  But you have to keep all your receipts for HMRC for a minimum of 5 years, so I have a filing cabinet full of paper receipts before 2 years ago.  This is something I can downsize on, so I am now taking photos of them all, emailing them to myself and then storing them electronically.

We then got the bus and headed along to Union Canal for the handover of the boat (‘Discovery’) keys and documents.

I am now an owner of a Canal Boat 🙂 🙂

The blog cover photo is of Rach (previous owner), Honey and me on ‘Discovery’, as we both start our new life adventures!

There’s a lot to learn, but I am starting to feel quite excited about it all.

Honey and I sat on the boat for a while, just soaking it all in, as the reality started to sink in – “What have I done?” !!!

 

I was planning on getting the bus back home, but then decided to walk back home to explore the area.

When I first moved to Edinburgh in 1996, I lived in Bruntsfield for 3 months and then Tollcross for 6 months.  These are quite close to where the boat is.  It was weird thinking that I am now doing full circle back to where ‘home’ was all those years ago!

Leith and my flat has been my home for 22 years (since 1998).  Even when I was away from Edinburgh for 6 years, I still had my flat, so associated the north of Edinburgh as ‘home’.  I am now moving to the south-west of the city.

As we headed through Tollcross, memories of old haunts started to come back and then onto The Meadows.  The Meadows was my main place to walk home at the end of the night back in the last 1990s!  It felt very weird.  There were loads of students around and I remembered how much I feel at home in University settings.  The Meadows was a hive of people, sitting, cycling, playing, all enjoying themselves, it felt good.  A community of people.

We then picked up Arthur’s Seat and continued our regular walk back home.

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Face-Mask Corner

From all the excitement of today, I forgot to collect a photo for today.

We now have multiple face-masks, so if you have a few you want to share, please get a photo or take a selfie and send over to me.  Include where you got the face-mask from and I will include that too!

 

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Readers Corner

Two comments today in Readers Corner 🙂

 

Ian

Ian posted a Facebook comment on Day 190 blog/Vlog, saying:

“Great Runrig tune. Glad you had a good time. So glad we got up to the Uists last month for our fix”.

 

Thanks Ian,  Yes, I really love that Runrig tune and was very fitting as we left the Hebrides!

 

Pat

Pat posted a Facebook comment on yesterday’s blog, Day 194, saying:

“Really Happy For You In Realising Your Wish On Buying The Houseboat…When All Is Calm Would Love To Visit.. Stay Safe and Stay Well Mate…“.

 

Thanks Pat!  When Covid-19 is all over you are welcome to come for a visit 🙂

 

 

It Made Me Smile

This made me smile 🙂

 

 

 

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Music Corner

You may remember reading on Day 193, about Tom Brace’s new Friday night entertainment, Bingo!  After weeks of ‘The Big Fat Isolation Quiz’, he’s started Bingo.  Round One with numbers, Round Two with tunes.

I’ve pulled together the 47 songs he played and put them into a playlist.  They are absolutely great, all the popular well known tunes.  So if you want something upbeat to listen to, this is it!

Friday Night Bingo – PART ONE

“After many many weeks of the Big Fat Isolation Quiz, Tom Brace Magic has come up with a new way to entertain us all on a Friday night (7pm on Facebook Live) – Friday Night Bingo. Round One – with numbers. Round Two – with music. Here are all the tunes he played :)”.

 

If you have any favourite songs you want to share with the ‘Blog Community’ (Brayshaw, MJ, 2020) or a Spotify Playlist you love, this is the place to share it!  Just send over the Spotify link or YouTube link or any other way you want to share (I can also embed the song straight into the blog without any music platform).

 

 

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As I come to the end of this blog, I am feeling excited about a new life adventure ahead.  It’s 32 days ago since I saw the advert advertising the boat and now I own it!  It ticks all the boxes that I have been wishing for over the last few years or so, to be part of wee community, to live more outside, to downsize, live on/near water, get out of my flat, but remain in Edinburgh.  Also to learn something new and have a new lifestyle.

On the downside, I have a lot of work to do on my flat, to get it into a rentable standard and I need to sort through everything I own and either sell or giveaway.  I hope to move onto the boat at the start of November, but can’t see my flat being ready to rent until the start of December, so there is going to be a bit of a crossover there.

I’m feel scared of moving away from an area that I feel safe and secure in, where lots of people know me.  But also feel excited to be moving to a new area, that I have known many years ago.  I’m glad that I am still staying in Edinburgh, so it’s not all new and my flat is on the direct bus route from the boat, so Honey and I can visit Easter Road / Leith whenever we want, without too much hassle 🙂

Today, the weather has been OK.  No more rain, although there was a lot of flooding on Arthur’s Seat.  It’s been quite a nice day.

Hope you’ve had a good weekend.

Thanks for your continuous reading.

Jim & Honey xx