Advice on smoking needed please!

Can anyone advise on my solid fule stove problems?

I can manage to get the fire going fine, but whenever I open the door to give the fire a poke or somesuch, the whole cabin fills with choking smoke.

Smoke also seems to be coming out of the chimney, so I don't think it's that. What can I do? Help!

Best friend's wedding tomorrow

Feeling quite anxious because I'm going to be playing the piano as she walks up the aisle. If I trip up, I hope she won't too! Have also been putting the finishing touches to my speech. Gulp.

Needless to say, I can reassure myself that people will be generally focussing on her and her husband, not on me! Note to self: nacissism is a loser's game.

Oldie but goodie

That's me. Turned 30 yesterday!

A winter weekend

Got new doors for the boat!! Martin Kedian is as good as Mortimer Bones said in her post a while back . All I need to do now is paint, varnish and fit them. I chose to pay less and fit them myself, but Martin very kindly explained how to do it, provided sealant, screws etc and said he would help me if I got stuck.

The new curtains also look great in the bedroom (see picture below). I've still got to finish the curtains for the saloon and the blind for the galley, but at least I feel reasonably confident that they might actually look reasonable.

We had a lovely walk around Hambleden yesterday afternoon. Went to a jumble sale in the village hall and bought a shirt. Saw lots of pretty snowdrops, some inquisitive bullocks and farmers spraying steaming manure on fields. Much more interesting and picturesque than it sounds...

Then we had a few pints in the Flowerpot. Frank watched Ireland get thrashed by France in the rugby and I played with a huge ridgeback and some tiny excited puppies by the roaring coal fire. Lovely!
The bedroom:

The cows:


The manure on the fields:

Snowdrops:

The Thames at dusk:

Circus

Went to Circus last night for my best friend's hen party. It's a new posh-ish trendy-ish restaurant and bar with circus-y entertainment i.e. women in their pants dancing with fire, ostrich feather fans, and in hoops. We ended up pole dancing (though fully-clothed you understand) and prancing about until 2am on their huge catwalk-cum-dining table.

My friend had specifically asked to not have horrendous stripper-type hen activities, so how ironic that we met three genuine Californian firemen to entertain us for the evening!

These are two dancers doing a routine on hoops suspended from the ceiling, over the dining table/catwalk. They are in pink and white uv-reflective bodysuits.


This was our drink of choice. Cranberry, vodka and champagne.

And this was a woman in her underwear, dancing with fire, again on the dining table/catwalk.

Money for nothing (except my soul)

Got paid £45 yesterday for spending an hour telling a woman what I thought about lipstick.

It was one of those interviews where companies pay people to tell them how they can better advertise their wares. I had been chosen after answering many questions about how much makeup I wear, what sorts, how much money I earn, which magazines I read etc...

Felt slightly guilty about taking part (do I really want to let Chanel know how they can better snare people into paying £20 for a lipstick?), but still did it for the money. So much for my morals.

The woman from the company opened the interview by asking me to tell her a bit about myself. I looked blank as I always do when people ask me that, so she prompted me by asking a few more questions: "what do you get up to in your spare time? Do you have any hobbies?" she asked.

I think she was a bit taken aback when I told her that I have a narrowboat I'm doing up. Not the usual Vogue-reader's pastime perhaps?