运河上的漂流生活

2021-11-24陕西车根泉

疯狂英语·新读写 2021年11期

陕西车根泉

最近，许多英国人把在运河上的短途旅行变成了一种长期的生活方式。为什么他们选择离开城市，在运河上生活呢？

On a damp June afternoon, a floating home moved gently on the Oxford Canal. Rachel Bruce and her husband,Chris Hall,have called this idyllic (平和美丽的)spot northwest of London home for a few days, looking out from the outside of their canal boat, the Glenrich V, over sweeping fields where the wind blowing through the long grass made a low hiss(嘶嘶声).

“We're just feeling like we've made a very good life decision at the moment,”Ms Bruce said about the couple's choice a few weeks ago to give up their stationary (稳定的) lives to begin a slow cross of England's canal network.And in Britain,more people are choosing to call these canals—and the narrow boats used to navigate them—home.

The canals, a vast network once used to move goods across the country, cut their way through Britain's countryside and meandered through town and city centers. But after being replaced by trains and highways,they fell into disrepair.

Since the 1960s, though, they have been restored and become popular for leisure cruising. And for many people, turning a weekend journey or a week-long trip into a mobile lifestyle is becoming increasingly irresistible.

For Ms Bruce and Mr Hall, the stress of work,a mental health struggle and deaths in the family in the last year made them feel the need for change.Plus,they had long wanted to shake free of the boring and flat life.Within a week of looking at their first boat, they bought it, committing to giving up their decade-long London life and making the long steel boat—which they call the Glen—their permanent(永久的)home.

Life on board is tight but comfortable, with a small seating area next to a wood-burning stove. A small kitchenette with a gas stovetop is steps away,and further along the hull is a bathroom with a toilet.In the back of the boat is the bedroom,with a double bed and a small closet.

“I feel like we probably all have something in common—loving the canals for the peace and the pace, not tasting and smelling polluted air and being able to hear the birds when you're sitting out having tea,”Ms Bruce said.