Well here we are at the going down of the sun in the west or is it the east. I am confused daily by being in the northern hemisphere but as Rhonda says I am always confused anyhow.

Rhonda's Comment: When did I ever say that!!!!

The skies are clear blue today after a late storm yesterday which arrived about an hour after we had unloaded a truck with our 17 tea chests and wheeled them down the marina ready to lift on board. What a mission, glad we are a bit fitter with all our walking etc. Just got the stuff onboard when down came the rain. Never mind, we cracked a real bottle of champagne tonight to celebrate our efforts and it sure seems more like home I must say. Rhonda is attempting to make real spaghetti tonight after several glasses of champers so who knows what we will get.

Thanks to those good people who have responded to our emails and blogg page as it makes us feel so much closer to home as they say. To those who have put their pics on the blog page, a very special thanks.

We look at the Herald on-line and the news in Kiwiland is about as dark as it is here re financial matters except we don't appear to have so many rascist attacks or comments but that might only be a feeling at this time. I can't believe some of the rubbish which is printed, however, I am sure we will get the same here.

Just to let you know what marina life is like, we have a South African family here with two small boys who are being schooled aboard boat with some lessons being given by a blind man called Thomas who is amazing really, he lives on a nearby boat. He has a seeing eye dog, black labrador called Magic who is wonderful to watch guiding Thomas around the marina fingers. Thomas sails his large dutch styled ketch with the help of his wife. They have two small children whom will also be home schooled. This fellow has amazing hearing and other non sighted skills, so much so, when Rhonda was introduced to him this morning with Harry he asked if all was well on our boat so she replied that we were concerned about the water pump and he said yes it has been sounding off colour for some time so needs attention. His boat is about 30m away from where we are berthed so it just shows you. One of the other people who were in the discussion pointed out that he has these amazing skills to hear when mechanical things are not right, tell you what needs to be done but cannot do his own. There is an amazing mixture of folk living aboard their boats so look forward to meeting them as time goes by.

There is a Club at the marina, The Penton Hook Yacht Club (very toffeee nosed), however, as they will let Harry in we will probabaly become members so we can buy a meal from time to time and get a drink. The other day, I had a pint of Fosters and Rhonda had a small scotch and coke. GB 6.50 which we reckon equals NZ$ 15.50. How does that sound to you kiwi drinkers who know the prices?

We have also been asked to join the local community club nearby who operate on some nights only and then on the weekends however, we have been warned if we go there on a Monday night which is Bingo night to be sure we don't sit in someone elses place as it can turn quite nasty so we will have to arrive late to see what seats are left over I guess. Most of the locals have little or no knowledge of New Zealand but are slightly ahead of the Americans who thought New Zealand was part of South Africa. or Greenland and so on. We as a nation still have a lot to do to bring the world up to date eh.......

A couple of days ago we visited another marina who have a larger chandlery than Penton Hook. Well when I say it is larger it is rated as the biggest on the Thames but would fit in the rear corner of Smart Marine, Burnsco or Sailors Corner. However, they did come down here yesterday to tell us what we needed in water pumps and TV set ups so $10,000.00 later we are somewhat ready to get organised we hope. After taking two buses and then walking 20 mins from the last bus stop and then repeating it to come home, we have decided we may look for a small runabout car for the winter but we will have to see what the market is doing. While prices have fallen here like in new Zealand, MOT, Insurance and Road Tax is heavy, so we will have to weigh it all up. Just the thought of walking the streets in the winter frosts which have already started on the odd night is not appealing but we will see. It is possible to rent a car long term for about GBRP 1600.00 for 6 months with free monthly mileage of 2000 miles and all we have to do is pay for petrol , so that is looking tempting at this time so we will have to do our homework.

Rhonda's Comment: We had to stop for numerous cups of tea on this mission to Shepperton Marina and back.

Last night, Saturday, some folk who have similar barge to ours invited us over for drinks and nibbles which was just great. Their barge is so well set up and was finished off by a special bespoke company so it is quite magic inside. I will get some pics when the opportunity arises. The wife is a semi retired school mistress and he is a full time excec winder upperer as he calls it liquidating companies throughout Europe for the big company he works for. In addition to our selves they invited another couple from another boat. He was a big striking fellow who sure enough turned out to be a retired Bobby. One of the old school I would think and then another fellow came along who is employed by airlines to work on cabin crews training with the new hand held computers which records all the inflight sales of drinks etc and automatically re-orders from base scource etc. At this time he is with Easy Jet so is really busy. He related some great stories to when he was working out of Auckland for Air New Zealand on several 3 month stints and what a great time he had. He is a great rugby follower so we got on well. He chooses to live on his boat here as it is so convenient to London central and to Heathrow. A couple of the fellows were relating when they had the big floods here a few years ago when instead of walking down to your marina you had to climb up steeply to get onto your boat. They also recalled when the marina iced over for a couple of days and also when they had over 5 cms of snow over everything. None of these things we are looking forward to, but will have to grin and put up with it if it happens.

Rhonda's Comment: Just check this Bread and Butter pudding made by the clever hands of me - really, truly.

As promised here are some local supermarket prices for food so you can do you own homework doing conversions etc

15 Panadol tabs 1.53
100gms honey roast ham 1.69

2 pork chops( small) 2.50

onions 305 gram 0.28

potatoes 800 gram 1.19

bananas 640 gram 0.54

table salt 400 gram 0.29

nestle kit kat 0.42

wholemeal bread Vogels UK Made 1.29

50 w light bulb GE 2.00

house white chardonnay M&S 3.79

pkt tea bicuits like(griffins wine biscuit) 0.49

For those of you who have complained about your winter temperatures, just spare us a thought as the forecast for tomorrow morning is down to -2 so the pontoons will be as slippery as a butchers to say the least. So the heaters are full on in preparation as there is sleet and snow promised to follow.

Rhonda's Comments: Yeh, I can't wait to see snow.