This morning after Natascha woke up and went to the front of the boat, she noticed that the door of Anton’s bedroom was wide open. She called him and there was no answer and so she went over to his boat. He wasn’t there and it immediately dawned on her – somebody broke into his boat. Nat came back late last night from a meeting and it was already dark, it must have happened before that. Then she saw that our bicycles on our boats were moved, somebody tried to nick those too. They also tried to enter our boat, for sure.

She called Anton and he came back as soon as he could, and yes, there were several items missing on his boat. Ironically, some things he actually wanted to get rid off.

Even though nothing happened to us, Natascha started to have this uneasy feeling and didn’t feel safe any more. Still we didn’t move the boats which resulted in her not leaving ours until Adnan came back.

Antonios & Natascha had to move the boats and we had to pass the Islington tunnel with the boats towed together. Never done this before, it wasn’t exactly an enjoyable event, but a memorable one. The boats, especially Antonios’, crashed into the tunnel wall again and again, damaged the side lights, scratches on the paint, etc. We had to endure a kilometre of near darkness, once we were out on the other side, there was no suitable mooring in sight.

We ended up at the bottom of the St Pancras Lock and moored up there. Anton didn’t want to go through the lock, Nat wasn’t happy with the location at all, not least because we were the only two boats there. This is in fact a no-go situation for boaters.

Adnan was in Switzerland for a week. Nat was alone, she wasn’t in the right space of mind to do anything, she was still numb from the news about her friend. This was also the moment when we left Hackney behind, it became clear to Natascha that life will not be the same any more, we will be on the move again and again.

Paralysis on her 39th birthday.

A very dark day.

Nat got a call from Lucio, whom we offered to stay on the boat previously, that our beloved friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was a mother of three young children. Nat wasn’t sure if she can call to Berlin or not, so she made a few phone calls to other friends in London, things were not going ok. It was a heavy and dark moment, nothing could be done at this point.

We decided to leave the flat on 21 February, a week prior to the official deadline, which was a wise decision, the flat above was vacated early too and they started with the renovation straight away.

So, it’s official: we are bargees. The past week was a difficult one, physically and emotionally. The boat was moored up on Broadway Market and we could carry all our stuff from the Goldsmith’s Row flat to the boat. Antonios lent us his trailer, which made it a bit easier. Natascha was in an unstable mood and was afraid of what is going to come. The unknown, the lack of space, lack of amenities. Leaving the flat after 9 years was hard, she had her routines and old habits die hard. Though in this instance those habits, like doing the washing when you want, had to die immediately. From now on we relied on launderettes. We received a weekly veg box from Riverfold for some 7 years, this was now delivered to my friends place and we had to go there and pick it up. Putting on the central heating when it was cold? Gone. Instead we had a coal powered Morso stove.

The fact that we have to move the boat every 14 days didn’t make the situation easier.

And Natascha didn’t know how the cat will take it and kitty was very dear to her.

Lastly, when we wanted to use some water we realised that the tank was empty. We had to go to the water point at Victoria Park. Antonios’ boat was towed with ours, so we had to un-tow his first in order for us to manoeuvre out of the other moored boat. Natascha then had to pull Antonios’ boat back in. On top we were hoping nobody will come and double moor with him in the meantime… It all went well, apart from the cat having a nightmare because of the engine noise.

Quintessence is moored up in Clapton and reality hit hard. As mentioned in an earlier entry, Natascha worried that the living situation in the Hackney flat will not improve, the proof came through the letter box. She received an eviction notice requiring possession. Section 21 means that the owner will use the property for his personal use. What utter bullocks, it was clear that this will not be the case. The flat will be renovated and rented for a much higher price. She was given two months to leave the flat, though she could have stayed on, so that the owner would have had to go to court. But was it worth it? No.

Natascha had two choices at this point: to move in with Adnan to the boat or return back to Switzerland. Her work situation then wasn’t going in the right direction either, leaving the current job was looming on the horizon too. As it often is in life, many things come at once. Still, to become a boater, or not, that was the question…

A few days later Natascha got a phone call from a friend, asking whether he could stay for a while in the living room, he was being kicked out from the flat. He couldn’t pay the rent any more, the council suddenly decided to stop his housing benefit. This was really hard but Nat had to refuse him staying with her, the living room started to look like a removal van, card board boxes piling up. All we could offer him was the boat until mid February 2015. A few days afterwards he moved onto the boat.