Well, well, it's been an awfully long time since I posted anything here. Those of you who read the blog that are not family or my small circle of friends (so that's probably one or two people), will be wondering where my enthralling tales of life on board have gone. Let's delve into the last 14 months of my life - I'll leave out the nitty gritty bits (A total lie. It's all nit and most definitely all grit) and get straight to the point.
Where did my boat go?
Long story short, I sold it. Did I want to sell it? No. Could I afford to keep it while co-habiting with my partner? Also, no. It was tough to sell her (the boat, not my partner. Although I do wonder how many camels she's worth) but it was a decision I had to make. After moving in with my partner, it was clear that broads tax, mooring fees, and maintenance were out of my budget.
How do you sell a boat and is it similar to selling a house? Selling my boat was a fairly simple process, I used a company called BoatShed - which acts essentially as an estate agent. They come and value the boat, ask many questions, and then advertise it for you online. Simple, right? But, for any of you who have had the pleasure of selling a property, you will know that it's one of the most stressful experiences of your life that will make you wonder why you ever started the process in the first place. After a few months of advertising, my boat had a buyer. Fantastic. I had a few issues with the buyers, but I expected it from my experience selling my flat. Nothing ever runs smoothly. After constant back-and-forth conversations with BoatShed and the buyers, the day finally came.
My partner and I had cleaned everything out of the boat (it's surprising how much crap you can fit in a 37ft long vessel) a few months prior and left the keys with the marina - meaning that when the buyers were ready, all that had to be done from BoatShed was to transfer the funds to me. This happened within minutes of receiving a confirmation of sale email (a big shoutout to BoatShed for this as I was expecting it to take a few days)
It’s important to note that there are other ways of selling a boat - privately selling it is a viable option but, if I’m honest, I didn’t want the hassle. BoatShed does take an administration fee, so be aware if you’re thinking of selling.
So where does that leave me now? Good question.
What am I doing now?
A lot of things have changed since I last posted. As you know the boat is sold and I'm living with my partner and two cats, but I've also changed jobs. I've never really talked about my 9-5 on the blogs, it's probably not something people are interested in, but I'll talk about it anyway as I’m stretching for content for this post. For seven years, I worked in marketing for an automotive company - this was one of those jobs where they combined content creator, PPC expert, social media manager, and many other responsibilities into one job. I get tired just thinking about it. But, for the most part, I loved it. Until the point where I was getting so stressed out that my right eye would constantly twitch and I would sit there on a Sunday evening and panic about what the week ahead had in store for me. Something had to change. So, my partner and I started job hunting - a tedious task of neverending application forms asking for information already on your CV and company interviews during your lunch break only to never hear from the said company again.
At the start of 2023, things changed. I'd landed a job creating content for more money, fewer hours, and hybrid working opportunities. Having the opportunity to work from home two days a week has been a game changer - it's not for everyone, I get that, but for me it allows me to have that extra time in the morning and the evening to get chores done or get in some much-needed exercise (looking at me you'd think I'd never lifted a weight a day in my life). I’d love to talk more about the benefits and cons of hybrid working, it’s a topic that frequents my LinkedIn feed, but we’ll save that for another day.
As for the role itself, well, I now have time to learn new skills that will benefit my job role - I'd always wanted to learn the basics in After Effects but never had the time, I've since taken a few courses and am continuing to learn how it can improve my content creation. A win-win for myself and the company. Overall, it’s a pretty sweet setup with a team that is relaxed but hard-working at the same time.
It may sound like I'm slagging off the previous company I worked for and to a certain extent, I am. (Just kidding, I do all my slagging off in person so there is no written trace to come back and bite me in the arse. Until this post came along). At the end of the day, the job was no longer suiting my needs and I needed the change. I did, however, learn an awful lot in my previous role, met some pretty awesome people, and had some excellent opportunities thrown my way - for that alone, I’m grateful to the company for taking a chance on me when I knew absolutely nothing about marketing.
How is living on dry land
Do I miss the boat in summer? Hell, yes. But, as I’m writing this it’s June and it’s pissing it down with rain - in the cold, wet, and windy weather I couldn’t be more grateful for the warm house, plus a partner and two fur babies to cuddle. Also, living on a vessel where you have to clean out your toilet and fill your water tank up (in all weather) puts things into perspective, I don’t have to worry about any of that where I live now.
What does it mean for the blog?
Another good question. I won’t lie, over the last 14 months, I haven’t had the itch to start writing here again. However, since the start of the year, that itch returned. The only problem? I had no idea what I wanted to write about. I’d still like to keep writing - my new role involves a lot more written content and I’d like to think my writing skills have gotten better (cue everyone reading this thinking, my god, that certainly isn’t the case) and I’m fairly open to writing about several different topics - you know I’ll throw in some broads related posts as I can’t keep myself away (although a broken wrist has hindered me slightly, meaning I couldn’t get out on the water during the 2 days of good weather in the UK so far this year) So keep an eye out for my nonsense posts if you’d like to be notified for when one goes live, you can sign up to receive email notifications.
Now for my favourite bit that no one cares about as much as I do - it’s music recommendation time. I haven’t been listening to anything new, but I'm currently obsessed with this Talking Heads cover by Paramore. I’m not a huge fan of Talking Heads but I was, and still am, a big fan of Paramore - their music brings back many good memories. This is their take on a song called Burning Down the House (After listening, if you don’t randomly start shouting “Burning down the house” while doing your vacuuming then I don’t think we can be friends)
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