Written 12th January 2016
After a great Christmas and New Year the start of 2016 has been decidedly wet here in Lagos. I suppose that we should not moan as it is not wet in the same way parts of the UK have been experiencing rain and isn’t cold. I think the 2nd warmest December here for 15 years has spoilt us somewhat. Although daytime temperatures aren’t reading much below 17º it didn’t feel that warm due to the cloud/rain.
That said, today was the first really sunny day since New Year. It dropped to 7º overnight but was a sunny and hot in the sun 21º this afternoon. Neil has “panda” eyes from where he has been wearing his sunglasses. I’ve been keeping busy mainly below deck until today when I moved up and sat on deck crocheting my Attic24 Coastal blanket (Christmas gift). When complete, it will be single bed size and I have just reached one third of the way through the rows. It takes an hour to hook a colour (2 rows) and I worked out that if I wanted to sell it at a profit and charge £5 per hour for my time plus a 40% retail mark up then I would need to charge £735! Good job I am keeping it for my bed. However, it does go to show that if you buy or receive a handmade item think about the time that someone put in to make it. It’s more valuable than you may think.
Hooking in the sun
June and Garry from Friendship got back last night from the UK. June and I went to coffee “klatch” with Jackie, Carolyn and new lady, Vib (Danish) then I had a cup of tea with June and we had our first catching up session. I’m sure we will have a few. Coincidently June and Garry have also booked Cartagena marina (Spain, not Columbia) for the winter. See Neil’s post “Summer Plans” on www.thegledaproject.com for details of what our plans currently are.
Sales of Neil’s book “A Foolish Voyage” have been steady. It is currently the top seller on Amazon under the category “sailing”. Available in both paperback and as a Kindle book both on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. He has been getting good reviews too. I may of already mentioned, but I’m so proud that he achieved his goal to publish his story. It is a a good read too – although Amazon won’t let me tell anyone that!
Apart from crocheting, I spent 2 hours cleaning the oven! Huh, just like having a house, some things don’t change. Neil and I went aboard Rivalady (Jackie and Ian) and they have the same stove as us and it was gleaming. Shamed me into doing a better job of cleaning mine. Although 2 hours I’ll never get back. I also baked a ginger cake – amazingly still some left 3 days later and not tasting stale either. Additionally, I made a privacy screen for the washboard in our cabin and am half-way through making a shade curtain for the window above the worktop in the galley as at about dinner time when I’m prepping dinner, the sun always seems to be shining in my eyes and I’m not confident chopping in my sunglasses (I’ll probably catch a finger).
Privacy Curtain
Ginger Cake
We are just about to make a big investment in a ‘proper’ fridge. Our little Waeco Tropicool box is OK when the weather isn’t too hot but it can’t cope when the outside temperature gets above 25º. As we anticipate being in places this year where higher temperatures are likely it is something we need to sort. This means that Neil will have to redesign our pod area to fit it in which hopefully will give us a better dining space even if it is just for 2 to start with. However, deep breath when pressing that “checkout” button.
I’m really looking forward to Mum and Barbs coming to visit in 2 weeks. Not least because Mum has a suitcase full (to weight capacity) of my stuff.