To be fed up with derogatory comments about my floating paradise...

[boatwitch]

I live on a narrowboat with my 7mnth ds, and Im constantly being asked Isnt it damp?I point out that I live on the water and not in it.Ive been unlucky this winter and suffered several colds and the like,only to be asked on several occasions..could it be because you live on a boat?Well no..why should it be!!!Surely that implies that my home is somehow inferior? I have doors and windows which open and close,a fully functional kitchen and bathroom [with full size bath] a washing machine,tumble dryer,solid fuel stove..I could go on..I will..a garden,with chickens [fresh eggs every day] and a very happy healthy ds!My hospital notes referred to me as a boat dwellerwhich I know isnt exactly derogatory,but it needn`t have been mentioned,and sounded a bit,well,tree dwellerish.Am I being over sensitive?

So boatwitch, did you wake up this morning to see the mist gently wafting across the canal, subtle hints of the day's sunshine to come, a couple of mallards and a grebe floating along giving their muted early-morning call?
I woke up to next door having a squabble in their front garden and that tit with the Jack Russell letting it 'go' on the pavement again. And the roofers two doors along effing and blinding at each other.

ooh dp works with someone who lives on a boat at the same place as you!

My BIL lived on a narrow boat for a few years and we were always borrowing it when he was away working. They are fab.

Lol at 'I live on the water not in it'.

Oh dear..Im afraid I did.Ds and I had our morning routine involving feeding our` ducks..a white duck we hatched in an incubator,and her one eyed mallard boyfriend!Awaiting those funny ducklings.

I would quite like to live in a Pineapple Under the Sea...................

But anyway that sounds so idealic, just ignore people and enjoy your unique, lovely sounding life.

Presumably these health professionals haven't realised that in the Netherlands many people live on houseboats - it's just kind of a "normal" option out there!

boatwitch -i was on the K&A in Aldermaston which was very idyllic. There was a pub 20 mins either way so loved popping out at the weekends. I cleaned the sides of the boat with a canoe and I absolutely loved the way the other boat owners would score you manoevering your boat back into it's mooring -they would stand on their jetty with numbers a la dancing on ice. They even did it in the dark with torches!!

I loved the sound of the rain on the canal, I loved being more self sufficient -I used to chop the wood for the fire, drag my own gas cylinder for cooking and we had a porta potty loo not a pump out and I have many a 'fond' memory emptying that into the large poo pit I did my own washing for the first year but then my hands got too chapped. I made my own curtains out of charity shop ones cut down and blinds also. Oh and practised my cello also!!

My top tip for beating damp is to have carpet under your matress as that stops the draughts.

I met so many different types of people up and down the waterways and even wrote my final disseration on 'The history of canals as told through songs '

...sighs nostaligically...

I'm afraid that I would ask you if it was damp as my experiences of staying on boats (many and varied classes of yachts from super sophisticated to the tub that my friends bought when they first got married) have been universally damp!

My plan when I first moved to London many years ago was to live on a boat. Then i discovered how expensise it was.

Very desirable lifestyle though.

I would love to live on a narrowboat

wanna house swap...........forever....im so envious..........people that say that must be soooooo jealous

Off for coffee with the girls..thanks for lovely comments..happy day

'So boatwitch, did you wake up this morning to see the mist gently wafting across the canal, subtle hints of the day's sunshine to come, a couple of mallards and a grebe floating along giving their muted early-morning call?'

I woke up to mist on the salt marshes, egrets and redshanks (I think) scrabbling about on the mud flats and, a bit later on, when the tide came in, the appallingly noisy sex life of ducks under the porthole!

Just be thankful you're not in Norfolk too then you'll be labelled as NFN

I always said that if I wasn't married to dh and living ina shoe I would be living on a boat. Can't wait til we can make full use of the pils

An ex of mine has a narrowboat and it was very cold and damp when we went on it last Feb but he only used it occasionally. I loved seeing the people who actually lived on the boats it must be idylic
He always said he'd like to live on one I hope he gets his wish.

Narrowboat was always my Plan B for if I didn't meet a nice man and have children. Narrowboat with children sounds even better (as long as your family is not too large).

the idea of going to Tesco by boat sounds bloody wonderful! Big boat community here in Oxford, we can smell the wood burning stoves in the evening, rather nice.

We owned a narrowboat for years.It was warm and cosy in winter and cool and airy in summer.We didnt live on it all the time but we did dream of it.

I'm intrigued about the chickens....do they live on the roof?

We have a garden!

Have to say mine was defintaely not cool and airy in the summer!!! It was a little like sitting in a large baked bean can with the sun beating down directly onto it. We once cooked an egg on the top it was so hot! I also remember the dogs doing some sort of dance and going from leg to leg which we thought was rather like those lizards in the desert. We then realised it was because the top was too hot for their paws

I think you are right about Tesco catering for the boat fraternity, we also have a local Tesco with moorings! How lovely

Just read about the dogs..v.funny!Not for the dogs of course! I have a few trees on my mooring which keep the boat cool.Not so much fun in autumn though..

I went to school with someone who grew up on a boat.... I thought it sounded lovely..until I found out hehad 5 brothers and sisters with him. (my sister & I drove each other bonkers and we had separate rooms!)

We live on a boat and my children have separate rooms!

seeker - but six (well seven separate rooms0 would be impressive!