Muriel is now officially British.  She arrived at Hanbury at the beginning of March and should be available for 'hand-over' by the end of the first week in April.  We've actually seen her - we visited the New Boat Co last week to speak to Will the signwriter and Doug the Cratchman and she was there, sitting amongst the other new arrivals along the canal bank.  She's a bit dirty - wouldn't anyone be who'd spent a few days travelling on the back of a lorry from Poland - and still looked like she'd just left the factory, which she had, but underneath the surface grime and protective wrapping she's wonderful.

Although we couldn't spend too long onboard there were a few things that pleased us about the layout.  Aqualine have retained the position of the cooker below a window - we thought it was to be moved to behind the dinette on the grounds of health and safety.  The granite work surfaces have been rounded off, again for H&S reasons, and looked the more pleasing for it.  I tried out our seven-foot bed (we've had a foot added to the bedroom to accomodate my length) and we both cooed over the chrome pack and dark blue and cream paint job.

 

Will, the signwriter, came up with some great ideas about where to place the name and some of the other detail we would like Muriel to display.  He also suggested some styles, 'painting' them with his finger in the surface dirt on her side as he did - we were very impressed.

 

All that remains now is to wait.  Oh, and plan a route to Loughborough where she'll live... and buy some furniture... and sort out her licence... and plan this year's criusing...