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Rest and relaxation - escaping from the build


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The danger with a self build, is it becomes all consuming.  Taking a bit of time out sometimes does wonders...

Despite having a long list of things to do, they were all put aside today as we went searching for puffins.  Glad to say we found some :) 

Enjoy...

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This is so true, when you're not doing something self-build or reading about something self-build, you're thinking about something self-build. It takes over life completely.

Must be lovely to see wildlife in it's natural environment - don't get that in London lol

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My Sister is here for the week. Part of me says "bugger, I can't get on with the house" but it least I will be doing something different, including hopefully a day on the boat.

Dolphins from a week ago (seen from the boat)

dolphins.jpg

 

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4 minutes ago, Tennentslager said:

Heatwave on Tuesday 

Get the prosecco in the fridge

Came early to Manchester, today. Beer o'clock from 4. 

Do very little on the house at the moment. Wife leaves me for a few weeks now so I need to get back on it. Long list of things still to do. 

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Reading the OP has made me realise that I havnt taken a day off (from either work or the build) since Christmas. :( 

I would quite like to take a few days off but I'd only sit and fidget fretting about the things I could be doing! 

Worse still is that I'm travelling overseas a a bit for work at the moment. Next trip is Miami, leave Friday PM work Saturday and Sunday, return Sunday overnight so I can be back at the office Monday PM. Glamerous it ain't :( 

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Well we have just had  a weeks holiday ( on site but no work) as my wife has not had a holiday from work since Christmas also, she is slightly miffed that I am on site regularly but she is still working 130 miles away and feels she is missing out on the progress ( what progress!!!!!), so whilst down in Devon she looked for jobs and found two so we may be moving down there sooner than later. She has just left for work and she looks so much better for the weeks break but adamant she will work down there ASAP.

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We took a week off at the end of June, Me & the Mrs went to St Lucia for a week on BA Miles and her mum looked after the kids.

We'd originally (and over optimistically) booked it as a 'end of the build' celebration a year ago and were in two minds on whether to go or not (it was fully refundable) but I'm glad we did as we're in the finishing sprint now and it was good to recharge the batteries.

Had a few trusted trades on site when we were away but deliberately deferred many of the more involved items until we were back.

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2 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

We took a week off at the end of June, Me & the Mrs went to St Lucia for a week on BA Miles and her mum looked after the kids.

We'd originally (and over optimistically) booked it as a 'end of the build' celebration a year ago and were in two minds on whether to go or not (it was fully refundable) but I'm glad we did as we're in the finishing sprint now and it was good to recharge the batteries.

Had a few trusted trades on site when we were away but deliberately deferred many of the more involved items until we were back.

We are sturggling to get our 2 looked after for 1 night.  But we've done it.  Heading away for a night in 2 weeks, first one in 2.5 years!!  

2 under 2 they said, no bother they said!

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On 7/18/2016 at 14:03, DeeJunFan said:

We are sturggling to get our 2 looked after for 1 night.  But we've done it.  Heading away for a night in 2 weeks, first one in 2.5 years!!  

2 under 2 they said, no bother they said!

Gets a bit easier when they're older, not much though!

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I done it a bit different. The goal at the end was by me doing a lot of the work myself we would save upwards of £10,000 and use this towards a holiday.

Had loads of moments when it seemed like it would never end but it did and once we got finished and moved in we had saved enough to go to Florida for 3 weeks and done everything and ate like pigs or Americans if you want. 

Set the goal of something like this if you are doing a good amount of work as it does get you down at times but thought of a holiday did help me get through it.

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Downed tools a little over a week ago and got my boat back in commission- she had languished on the mooring all winter growing a good crop of barnacles and weed.

Had a fantastic sail up the Minch to Stornoway, were followed by a pilot whale at one point, so close you could almost have touched it. Masses of sea birds as well, as our passage took us through the Shiants which are a huge breeding ground for puffins etc. It was our 4mo son's first trip and he seemed to enjoy it, slept like the proverbial baby afterwards anyway. Spent several days in Stornoway catching up with old friends, then SWMBO+baby bailed out by ferry leaving me to spend two days slogging to windward to get the boat home again. It's been great to not think about the build for a while, although not quite as relaxing as I had hoped!

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Yesterday "summer" arrived and we all had another day on the boat. Lovely weather and great relaxing sailing but no dolphins this time.

3AM this morning the thunder storms started, and went on for the best part of 12 hours, the longest thunderstorm I can remember. This morning my internet connection was lousy, only some sites would load, and then only very slowly and intermittently, in spite of re booting the router 3 times. I guess something somewhere got damaged. All back to normal now.

Weather back to normal, summer over.

And this evening I find I'm getting grumpy at the lack of work done on the house, and the fact I have to work on Friday so still can't get to work on the house.

Grrrrrrrrr......

 

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@ProDave and @Crofter ... you've got me seriously thinking. How about  a nice 18 foot clinker dinghy to potter round Morecambe Bay, and maybe to pop over to the Isle of man? Or down to Angelesy and back?

Your posts made me remember how good it is to look forward to a good sail somewhere - even if the trip is hard work.

Maybe when the house is finished. Now there's some motivation. 

 

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28 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

@ProDave and @Crofter ... you've got me seriously thinking. How about  a nice 18 foot clinker dinghy to potter round Morecambe Bay, and maybe to pop over to the Isle of man? Or down to Angelesy and back?

Your posts made me remember how good it is to look forward to a good sail somewhere - even if the trip is hard work.

Maybe when the house is finished. Now there's some motivation.



 

If you want to go sailing, buy a fibreglass boat. If you love sanding and painting and fettling, and don't particularly want to get out on the water, buy a wooden boat.

Don't get an open dinghy unless you really are planning on keeping it ashore and launching to sail then retrieving. A much better prospect is something like I have, a small 1980's cruiser. It's only 18ft 6 and when new in 1983 was described as a "spacious family cruising yacht" a description we would laugh about now. But having the cabin to store all your gear and having a self righting boat that's unlikely to capsize anyway just seems a much better way to sail to me than an open dinghy.  You will buy a boat like mine, a small 70's or 80's pocket cruiser for the same money you would spend on a good dinghy.

Don't buy a "project" boat. History has shown anyone who does either gives up, sells it at a loss, or never gets it finished. And on the rare occasion they do, it has cost twice as much as it would to get one ready to sail.

 

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Our poison is our cottage on one of the Greek islands.  The main downside is it's really hard to come home to the grind :(

This is moonrise in the Autumn from our terrace.  Shirt sleeves and a glass of wine!!

autumn moonrise on our balcony.jpg

Edited by TerryE
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37 minutes ago, ProDave said:

If you want to go sailing, buy a fibreglass boat. If you love sanding and painting and fettling, and don't particularly want to get out on the water, buy a wooden boat.

Don't get an open dinghy unless you really are planning on keeping it ashore and launching to sail then retrieving. A much better prospect is something like I have, a small 1980's cruiser. It's only 18ft 6 and when new in 1983 was described as a "spacious family cruising yacht" a description we would laugh about now. But having the cabin to store all your gear and having a self righting boat that's unlikely to capsize anyway just seems a much better way to sail to me than an open dinghy.  You will buy a boat like mine, a small 70's or 80's pocket cruiser for the same money you would spend on a good dinghy.

Don't buy a "project" boat. History has shown anyone who does either gives up, sells it at a loss, or never gets it finished. And on the rare occasion they do, it has cost twice as much as it would to get one ready to sail.

 

Have you got a pic of the old girl ?

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18 minutes ago, TerryE said:

Our poison is our cottage on one of the Greek islands.  The main downside is it's really hard to come home to the grind :(

This is moonrise in the Autumn from our terrace.  Shirt sleeves and a glass of wine!!

 

My wife is Greek and eventually, we will move to Greece. She's just gone to Crete with the boys. Her mother runs a dozen holiday apartments, I'll be heading out for a few weeks at the end of August.

1.jpg

Her Dad is a fisherman so we should get out for a trip in the boat too.

 

Hard work to do before then though

Edited by daiking
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