Back on the boat!

We are back on the boat and it is so peaceful, even in the marina, even in a large town.
I know Oscar Wilde (I think it was him - no it wasn't - am reading Christopher Hitchen's memoirs Hitch-22, and he says it's Samuel Johnson - he will be right!) said something along the lines of if you are tired of London you are tired of life, but it's just not true! I found it so noisy and unrestful (is that a word?) that I felt tired most of the time. The best bit was walking along the towpath from White City to Paddington Basin - once again the peace of the canal (apart from right next to the railway works that are being done near White City) overrides the city noise - even below the A4 flyover thing!
We arrived back yesterday arvo after a trip that was extremely slow getting out of London - for some reason I didn't check the route the GPS had plotted and it took us from Putney up over Hammersmith Bridge on to the A4, instead of on the South Circular which would have got us to the M4 next to Kew Gardens. Instead of overriding it, we stayed in a long long long line of traffic. Once out on the M4 though it was pretty much plain sailing, ignoring the GPS then to continue on the M4 to the A404 which does a lovely bypass up to High Wycombe.
The boat has had its bilge pump replaced, the poo pumpout pump removed so we are now reliant on commercial pumpouts (to David's relief), an oil change and the horn pulled apart, reassembled, found to be working and then inexplicably not working. Time for a replacement, we think.
It's a good thing we aren't planning on moving away till Monday as we are aground! It feels strange to be on the boat and have it not move at all! The top pound of the Maccie is quite low, so we are keen for the weekend's predicted heavy rain to help lift us off. We may be bowhauled off this mooring and moved to the visitor mooring at the Canal Centre if the opportunity presents itself.
Today we will unpack the stash of stuff David brought back from NZ - on the conveyor belt tonight we have:
15 packs of Griffins gingernuts, 2 packs of double ended clothes pegs, 2 jars of proper Marmite (NZ of course), spongey microfibre cleaning clothes from the New World supermarket, 2 plates given me by a friend (already hanging up - the plates, not the friend), some plate hanging sticky things from the same friend (thanks Gregor!), 2 bottles of C&O polishing oil, 6 packets of Greek yoghurt mix for the yoghurt maker.
As the weather is still dry I will prime the duck hatch hinge that one of the residents re-welded yesterday - cost: 2 bottles of wine.
David is now filling the water tank, our 6 year old great nephew is playing happily with his transformer in the saloon having been breakfasted earlier, and I am still in bed. But not for long - laundry calls, as does unpacking the groceries and my clothes from my time away. Time to get this boat back into being ship shape!
It is so GOOD to be back on board!