I hired the houseboat because I want to buy a houseboat to live on and I wanted to test out what it was like. What I've realised now is that on the boat you need to be pretty precise - it is a small and quite confined environment and everything works in a particular way. So you need to wash up in a precise way, deal with the toilet in a precise way and so on. Having said that, and after a few panicked phone calls to Olga about how to do things ( which were responded to very quickly and helpfully) we had the most brilliant time. The boat is such a little warm home, and the location is extraordinary. Sitting out on a deck chair on the Thames at sunset watching the herons swoop over the boat is very well worth a small learning curve about loo procedures and water switches. A completely magical experience. Thank you Olga.