Hold the front page. I spent some money today.

I rang around a couple of wood yards and then phoned the boat builders Harveys of Tamworth (found their advert in one of the mags) to find the price of the 9mm ash faced ply for lining out the boat. Unbelievably Harveys won out and were the cheapest. They are also just up the road and I have ordered the lot from them. £800 odd for forty three 4x8. I'll need more for bulkheads etc. but that should be enough to keep me busy for a while. There is an extra reason for acquiring this timber at this stage before the journey back to the Ashby. The boat is currently sitting between four and six inches out of the water and rather than use rubbish bins filled with water to ballast the thing I may as well fill it with heavy articles that will be fitted anyway. The heaviest and one of the most expensive is the ply. If I place all that at the rear, with one or two other items I intend to buy, that should hopefully be enough to get the stern into the h2o. If necessary I can fill a couple of bins with water and use them but I think I'd rather not have open containers splashing about every time I hit something, an event that is highly likely on the way back. With a bit of luck it will be ready for collection on Wednesday when I've got Ken (of outlaws fame) in attendance to help load the timber.

I also ordered a twin burner paraffin stove as I have been so impressed with that fuel as a heating medium. When we went down the other day we had to work in tee-shirts with the hatches and doors open as it was too hot inside with the heaters going. They are hard to find even on-line at a reasonable price. We intend to have a solid fuel Rayburn to power the cooking and the central heating eventually but initially this will not be fitted (this is a gas free boat). In the summer, when it will be too hot to have it powered up, we will need something else to cook on. It's my intention to have the paraffin stove permanently in the kitchen under a flap in the worktop so it is always available for use but hidden. I haven't any idea if they are any good or not but we'll soon find out. I'm scrabbling around in the dark here. It might end up being flung out of the side hatch that will be conveniently nearby. I'm also not sure what the BSS has to say about paraffin powered things but I'm sure someone will tell me.

I also got my insurance sorted with Craftinsure. At £161 I considered that quite reasonable with no no claims etc. It was also very easy to set up and it was mine with the minimum of info and filling in boxes with pointless information. About three minutes start to finish.

We are also experimenting with our intention of living without a television in the future. Terri took the telly, DVD player and didgi (sic) box in the living room with her when she went back and we are left with a thirty year old one in the kitchen and one that we don't know how to tune upstairs (Lisa threw away the instructions when we got it and we never could work it out. Being a man I didn't think I'd need the instructions). So our thinking is that with the TV companies going the way of on-demand, iplayer and watch again type things we can be selective about what we watch and don't have to be totally radical and withdraw from the modern world entirely. We have loaded all the relevant software onto Lisa's school computer and have it set up in the living room. I know that this sounds like we a are chickening out of not being without the telly and you are absolutely right, we are. Go and lead your own lives and don't be so sanctimonious with ours.

Lisa likes the soaps and I like to shout at Jeremy Paxman, “Ask him the bloody question Jeremy. Go on, ask him. We both know he's lying don't we. Ask him thirteen times if you have to.” But this way there's no excuse for not getting on with something that may be more important in our lives. We are not confined to the timings of the channels and don't have to be blasted with government and big business propaganda.