So I've found some pictures that can break up my little story about changing the gearbox oil.  Here's just one from a while ago, showing how the saloon looks with a few books in it:

Sorry it's a bit skew.  In brief here's what happened;  I bought a pump to empty the oil ( a friend spend hours cleaning up when he used the drain plug!) and all went well.  I even found the manual to be wrong by a factor of two in how much oil was in it!  Then we went for a nice trip up river, went shopping and bought a nice ready meal courtesy of Tesco.  For some reason (maybe the smell) I went into the engine room and was horrified to find most of my oil had been sprayed around the engine.  I had left the filler cap off the gearbox, meaning to check it last thing.  It took Nik & I hours to clean up my mess, and she really pitched in.  Horrid job, smelly, sticky, goes on everything.  Not a mistake I'll make again.  So, Pride does come before a Fall!

Another day recently we took ourselves back up to Mapledurham for a night by the riverbank, with Burdock, and it looked like this next morning:

He was so cold next morning when we brought him in (he sleeps on the aft deck) that his teeth were chattering!  It was the first night we've managed to sleep in our own bed in the front, without him worrying.  We left all the doors between wide open so we could hear him, and he us, so maybe that worked.  Here he is deciding whether to mount our new Burdock Ramp:

Most of that day he spent on the bank, which was nice for him, but a shame as he had been fully groomed and shampood for the trip and lying on the cow's field (you could tell) made him smell like one!  Here he is in the field, far left:

Oh and we have in the T&K Marina a family of black swans who come for food, and receive lots from all;

Sadly the little white signets are now just one, but much larger and unlikely to fall prey to any predator (e.g. pike, carrion).  They also have one from last year's brood in tow. 
Regarding the boat, we have most everything perfect now and working.  I'll leave other stories until I have some relevant accompanying pictures.
On the house, all new flooring is down, some last minute painting will happen tomorrow (our decorator comes at 8am) and I'm mid-way through putting a panel on the bath.  We've also had two agents call to start advertising the house;  it may take some time!  Tad is on the verge of moving out, and is tomorrow testing the internet at a house he plans to move to.
That's all for now!