Land Vs Water

Having lived on boats in London for five years, permanently moored in the comfort zone of a marina, I had a very tame experience of living on the water. I loved everything about the lifestyle, from feeding the ducks and swans through my port hole in the morning and getting rocked to sleep by the gentle sway of a ship in the wind; to belly-flopping off the roof in the hot summer days.
A lot happened in those wonderful 5 years including boat hopping to various sized vessels and housemates coming and going. I found love, got married and lived on a pirate ship with a mast for a year next door to the huge ship I had called home for so long, but thankfully still spitting distance from the portholes of my aquatic friends. The pirate ship alas was sold and we had to.......move onto land.
I never thought this day would come but there seemed no other choice at the time.  It was devastating to leave our marina family whom we had become so close to. A top floor council flat in bustling Shadwell seemed a million miles from the serenity of boat life, however we never would have foreseen that it offered an unexpected kind of peace. Being so elevated connected us with the sky as opposed to water and we appreciated a whole new element for a year. I reveled in having so much space for the first time in years. I felt like a plant that had been re-potted.  It felt incredible to be able to stand up tall, even reach my arms up and not touch the ceiling.  We could lavishly buy plants and charity shop furniture without worrying where the hell they would go. It wasn't just the abundance of space making us so chuffed, there were so many aspects to land life that most would take for granted as normal factors to daily life but to a boater seem like the most luxurious treats. We could FLUSH the toilet (even after a number 1). My old landlord always had a motto up on the wall 'if it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow'. It took me months to get into the habit of flushing in the flat and putting my toilet roll in the loo rather than a bin (to this day I still do this everywhere I go out of habit). We could DRINK THE TAPWATER, I cannot tell you how great that felt, we couldn't gulp it down our dehydrated gobs fast enough, what a precious commodity to a boater. We could shower for more than 2 minutes and as often as we liked, by God we could even have a BATH.  We could have more than THREE friends over at one time, it felt amazing to show off such a large habitat to our mates.  We were, for the time, land -lubbing converts. 
After a year of lapping up landlife, the estate agents upped our rent and again we had to find another home. A beautiful boat came into our path and it dawned on us that the fates were bringing us back to our roots to the cheapest and most fulfilling lifestyle on the table. We were willing to trade in all of the luxuries of the flat for the excitement and simplicity of boatlife once more. Who were we kidding, all fur coat and no knickers, there was only so long we could stay away. This time we wanted to do it properly, marina life was great but it was glamping compared to living on the waterways. We got a loan out and bought our very own narrowboat. The aquatic betrayal was short lived and we were beckoned to the waters by the hardy self sufficient sirens of the london canals.