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I am happy to have a Norman again. I registered our first boat, a Norman 20, about 18 months ago on the NBAS. She was called "Bobcat" and I sold her (she was a bit too small) to a very nice couple who took her on to the Chelmer. We bought a Headline Cruiser (23 ft) shell, very cheap, which we did up over the winter and renamed "Lucy in the Sky". Then Freebird (formerly called Ad Astra) came along at a good price, so we bought her and sold Lucy in the Sky to a family at our cruising club who had fallen in love with her. I am keeping Freebird for a while, as she is a good size for leisure cruising. She is in very good condition, so we don't have to do anything major. We did take out the pump out toilet as the tank was a bit small. It was fitted under the seat in the dining area and was not much bigger than 3 porta potti tanks. Would have worked out a bit expensive to keep getting it pumped out at twelve quid a time, especially with the amount of beer we drink! (I keep saying we. The other bit of we is my hubby, Glenn).

We are going to make the back cabin into a utility room and sleep in the bow cos its more cosy. We also need to fix the Paloma as the guy we bought it from forgot to drain it last winter and it burst. It only needs a new diaphragm, I think. We want to make the loo into a shower room eventually, but there's not too much hurry for that.

We are members of and moored at the West London Motor Cruising Club on the Grand Union at Alperton. We have only been boating for 18 months but we are on our boat every weekend without fail. I just love it and it has completely taken over my life. I like doing up boats and I like cruising and I also like just being on the boat even if we are not going anywhere, even in the winter. There are about 30 boats at our club and there are actually more cruisers than narrowboats. Glenn and I would like to come to one of your meets one day but we don't get more than 2 weeks holiday at a time so would be difficult in the boat.