Hot water, hotels and anticipation.

This week has been a canal free zone as I have been at my Mum's as she has had a new heating boiler installed. The work was quite tidily done but there is the inevitable mess and making of tea and coffee etc. I also had to strip the airing cupboard out as the hot water tank was going. A cupboard also had to be moved in the laundry to make way for the freezer that had to be moved to allow the wall mounted boiler to be hung. Then there was the bricks to find that would hopefully match the house ones to brick up the large vent for the old boiler. It all took three days and then I have been painting and re-installing the airing cupboard to store the stuff in again. Even though the hot tank isn't there now I can vouch for it still being warm in there! I found that the laundry work top wasn't secured to anything so had to fix that before I could place the freezer and whilst I was at it I cleaned out the cupboards to make room for some of the stuff from the one taken away. I am hoping that the new Worcester combi boiler delivers on it's promised 30% savings on gas. I took a meter reading so we will be able to quickly tell. The old boiler was over thirty years old so there had better be some savings!

All these controls are hidden away normally. We have a simple timer for the on and off times and a wifi room thermostat. It all seemed to be working when I left.

As a reward we are off down to London for a few days. We got a good deal With Hull Trains, £15 each return, and we are staying at the Copthorne at Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea FC. I am no real football fan so even if somebody famous goes past I probably wouldn't know. As the Canal museum is close to Kings Cross we may well pop in for a visit before coming back. I am sure there will be miles and miles of walking and hopefully a few pubs, and maybe even a brewery tour too.

London Canal Museum built in Gatti's Ice House.

(It looks like they have just got up on the balcony next door?)

Today was week 3 of the 6 Nations and a couple of good matches today I hope we are somewhere that we will be able to see the Ireland v England match tomorrow as all the matches this far have been fairly good. With the run up to the Rugby World Cup people are putting a lot of significance on this tournament.

I don't think we will be getting to London on the canals this year so we will have to make do with this quick visit. I  will have to make the most of it as it is back to the grindstone when we get back.

The reservoirs are reportedly almost full. The winter stoppages are well advanced and the weather seems to be perking up a bit. Tomorrow is March and that means only 30 days until we are off on the boat again. Can't wait for another cracking seven months. I hope that nothing happens for the ides of March (about 15th) to stop us getting away.