00:01Hi, I'm Aisha and I'm opening my doors to my floating sweet digs. Come on board.
00:14I'm an artist, musician and co-founder of Shadow Sisters Fight Club,
00:19which is a self-defense class primarily for queer folks and folks of color.
00:23And I live on a houseboat in North London.
00:25My houseboat is a 10 by 50 foot wide beam and it has an open plan kitchen and living room
00:34area
00:34with a beautiful fireplace and a bedroom and a bathroom.
00:40And the best part of my boat is I also have a rooftop vegetable garden.
00:49Depending on the size of your boat, you could be paying between 15,000 to 150,000.
00:57So it depends what your needs are and how much space you want.
01:02I've worked out that if I live on this boat for four years, I'll have paid less rent than I
01:08would have been paying to a landlord.
01:10But initially, it's a big output of money.
01:14In terms of the running costs, it's pretty low impact.
01:19So all my electricity is from the sun, so that's free.
01:23Water is free when you top it up at the water taps.
01:27I'm on a continuous cruiser license, so every two weeks I wake up to a different landscape, which is really
01:32beautiful.
01:35So this is my living room.
01:38We have my fireplace here.
01:43And this is a fold-out table, so I can have big dinners on this or I can have a
01:48little small writing desk.
01:49This is my herb bookshelf, where I've got a lot of herbalism books and books on magic.
01:54And a small section of my altar is here as well.
01:58I find this area quite calming, so I'll often sit and meditate here.
02:03I love candlestick holders, and I got these two at a car boot sale.
02:09This one is an Ikea candlestick holder, which works so well with the drippy candles.
02:14So this is the perfect mirror for my boat.
02:16It's the right size, and it really gets the full length of my body in.
02:21Winter's probably my favourite season on board, as you can just set the fire,
02:26sit with a nice cup of hot tea in front of it, light some candles and read a book, and
02:30just get cosy.
02:32Ironically, living on water has made me feel a lot more grounded.
02:35There's something about being so close to the river and the water that makes you feel very held.
02:41So this section of the boat is where you feel like a proper boater,
02:44and here it says how many volts the batteries have right now.
02:48This smiley face is telling me that my batteries are extra happy today.
02:52I guess learning about solar power has been really interesting and kind of like magic really,
02:58because it is a magic alchemy to receive electricity from the sun.
03:03Both my granddad and my dad were sailors, but from my Asian side of the family,
03:09we can trace our blood back to a part of China where, historically,
03:13we were known for travelling the world in sail ships.
03:16So I've got boating on both sides of my family.
03:20I've been plant-based for about seven years now,
03:22so everything in my kitchen is as organic as I can.
03:26So I love living on the canal because there's so many things you can forage.
03:30At the moment it's berry season, there's lots of elderberries out,
03:32which I'll make into elderberry syrup, which is an amazing medicine.
03:37One of the first things I did when I moved onto the boat was start my roof garden.
03:41It's super important for me to feel like I can be in some ways sustainable
03:46and learn the processes that it takes to grow your own food.
03:52Some beautiful beetroot here, almost ready to harvest.
03:57We have kale here.
03:59Here we have some really nice carrots.
04:02Some of these might be ready to pull up soon as well.
04:06So I just got these IKEA Solvenden lights, which are solar-powered and LED.
04:11So they're perfect for on the top of my roof because in the daytime they capture the sun
04:15and then at night they will glow a really nice orange
04:18and it's actually really nice to bring inside as well.
04:21I have a compost bin on the roof which is where I compost my solids and also my food waste.
04:26So hopefully one day I'll be able to plant flowers in that compost
04:30and also maybe turn them into fuel for the fire.
04:34There's a really strong community of houseboat owners on the river.
04:38Everybody looks out for each other.
04:40I think if you're a boater you have this shared understanding that you help each other out.
04:48So I'm now going to take you on a tour of the rest of my boat.
04:51This is a corridor that has quite an interesting storage solution.
04:55We have a little wardrobe here.
04:57The perfect size to fit a lot of my clothes.
05:00So I do have a bath on my boat which I don't use very often and I do it is
05:05a luxury
05:05but you end up using most of the tank of water for that anyway.
05:09But I also have my compost loo.
05:11We have a sparkly loo seat inside.
05:15This room is quite dark because it's got a porthole window so it's nice to have lots of candles in
05:19here.
05:22And this is my bedroom.
05:24So this is my bed.
05:25It's raised because on a boat it's really good to have air ventilation underneath the mattresses.
05:30I just love all the light in this room and being able to wake up in the morning and see
05:34the water right in front of me.
05:36Under the bed there's also these drawers.
05:39They kind of need a bit of tidying up but they're a really good storage solution too.
05:45I'm excited to keep working on my bedroom.
05:47There's a lot of DIY that I've still got to do in here.
05:50Boats tend to be a constant DIY project.
05:53It's never finished.
05:56The word home evokes so many feelings.
05:59You can find home in a person but you can find home most importantly in yourself I think.
06:04And that's what I'm trying to cultivate especially in this home on my boat.
06:08Is a place where I can really be at peace with myself and find sanctuary within myself as well as
06:15within my physical sanctuary that I'm trying to create.
06:17Here's what's needed and how much of a new control.
06:17But this is a wonderfulキャラム for my particular big sake.
06:19Anyway, walk in the中 of my boat as well as well as you can find of MiniPag.
06:24If we have some other fans in theifa clan.
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