Stocking up on all those bits and bobs in Banbury

Moored Banbury, Oxford Canal

It’s all the odd bits and bobs that I can’t get in little village shops along the waterways… elastic bands, staples, brown tape, you know that sort of thing.  I use elastic bands a lot.. fairly big ones.  Elastic bands are used especially for putting round opened packets of stuff, such as flour or sugar.  It's not like living in a house.. this house might get knocked at a lock or something similar, and  what flies out of the cupboards onto the floor is dependent on how hard I thump No Problem!  Oh I have only had Vic’s beers out of the cupboard and on the floor once in 3 years, so not so bad really!!

Brown Tape has two main purposes on our narrowboat.  The first one is that it is used to tape up the large plastic bags that we keep all the ‘visitor’ bedding in that lives in the lockers underneath our bed.  It keeps it all compact and dry in the bags.  I was looking at those bags that you can suck the air out of, they look good for that sort of stuff.. but what we do seems to work for now, and there is plenty of storage..

The other purpose for the brown tape is for sealing up all the fresh meat for the freezer.. it is an art you know, putting 13 or 14 meals for two people into one of those little freezer compartments in these small fridges.  The meat comes with tons of packaging on.. I normally try to buy enough to be able to split into two meals.. cutting roast joints in half.. well then that gets put into a sandwich bag, all the air out, and sealed with … yes brown tape.  Then the magic marker comes out and the brown tape is labeled.. it all looks the same in the freezer!… Anyway, it all only just fits in when I do a main buy… so whatever comes out in the morning is what we have for tea!

Ann and Chas on NB Moore2Life went on north this morning.  Chas’s mum has arrived for a week, and they are all making their way to Braunston for next weekend.. final wave from Ann as she goes out of sight..

We are still in Banbury, Vic is seeing the Doc here tomorrow afternoon for a bit of a MOT before we ourselves move on north…. Lucy is complaining.. she is definitely not keen on pavement walking!