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Dunno if it's true, but I heard that many years ago, a radio programme had an interview with a Romany family, about their way of life. They told the mother that as the Romany custom of cooking hedgehog by the ball of clay method was a well-known thing, they couldn't really avoid asking her about it, but they wouldn't ask her anything about catching or killing the hedgehog, or the actual cooking, to avoid lots of complaints from animal lovers. Ands she wasn't to talk about these aspects in her answers. The interview went on something like this: "I'm sure a lot of our listeners will have heard stories about Romany people eating hedgehogs. Is it true?" "Oh, yes, quite true." "Have you ever eaten hedgehog meat?" "I have, yes, but not for many years now. It's something that goes back to the Old Days. It's not done as often as it used to be." "What does it taste like?" "Difficult to say. It's a bit like cat." The switchboard went into meltdown.

You laugh but...

Saw a couple of gravel barges this year near Strasbourg, ordinary peniches, a bit battered, doing a shuttle from a quarry to a concrete plant and back. probably carrying a couple of hundred tons or so per trip but they were fitted with conveyor belts over the bow so when they arrived at the plant they just plugged into the electric and the boat unloaded itself into a hopper and then belts took it off to the plant , I guess they had hopper shaped holds as well. Clever though.

Coltishall Lock, Norfolk Broads? I don't know it but this looks exactly like it

Judging by her distinctive leather toolbox, she's a Vodafone lineman - the mobile phone mast behind her gives it away.

Perhaps not the same one.......

Vanner equaliser all fitted today all battery’s are back in the bank all battery’s are and have been monitored today must be working as 12volt socket is showing 13.1 volts which means that the battery’s must be being equalised as if by magic will monitor tomorrow but yes looks all good many thanks for your help advice etc..

It's not a matter of inverter rated output per se but what instantaneous current the device will provide to start the fridge. In practice that means a 1200W inverter. 800 is too small, there aren't any / many 1000w units available in general circulation. Bimble sell such a unit for a reasonable sum - but it's 24v - and I assume you're 12v, so I didn't bother to make a comment earlier. I tried 'several' units and the lowest power rated one to work was 1000w rated. It even started a two motor large fridge freezer without any problem.

Why have you gone for the AtoB? A good alternator and an external regulator is only about £500. You dont need the AtoB. They are only useful if you have alternators that dont put out the 14+V required for LA's. I know. I am on my 2nd boat with alternators that only put out 13.9V. The AtoB is then a good solution.

Yes, I have a whole range of symbols at my fingertips because I bookmarked this page a long while ago: ASCII code linky Press and hold 'alt', type the code on the keypad, release 'alt'. As far as I know it only works on a proper PC with a 102-key keyboard, not a battery-operated toy one. I can draw a fence too ╬═══╬═══╬═══╬═══╬═══╬

It's not a Marina that lends itself to hireboat operation.

As above ^^^ . I have not long got back from a great cruise over Xmas/ New Year down to Ely and Cam and took the opportunity to have a sedate meander round the Lodes. Last year I got well caught out and stuck between St Neots and Offord lock for a couple of weeks when the River came up somewhat rapidly after some heavy rain on Boxing Day (it wasnt even on caution when I left). All part of the fun of winter River boating-winter is a great time to get about-LOADS of moorings ?

According to which of the definitions they adopt? Irrelevant though, as official recognition is given in BW's old EoG 'informative' (long since brushed under the carpet as it is) to riparian rights of mooring on rivers. Referred and linked to several times here, over the years, within identical topics, but the link no longer gets anywhere. If I remember next week, when back at a 'proper' computer, I will try to find it.

IMHO the lockie was talking rubbish, it is a wonderful trip through London on a narrowboat, and coming out of Limehouse is easy you just go straight ahead and the river turns you round to point in the right direction. I wonder if he was the same lockie who a few years ago sent us out at Brentford on what turned out to be a falling tide in the middle of the afternoon, so that we grounded in the channel below the lock just before reaching the river and had to sit on the mud there until we floated again in the middle of the night. When we asked him afterwards why he had done that he said "I never did understand about tides but I sent you out then because I wanted to get away and have a tea-break" Having said that I agree, go downstream and come in at Brentford.

You can find full details of the planning application on Leeds City Council’s planning portal here. Comments on the application can be submitted up until Wednesday 16 January 2019.

https://southleedslife.com/new port-to-be-built-in stourton/ A planning application has been submitted to create two new wharfs on the River Aire at Stourton capable of handling up to 200,000 tonnes a year of bulk cargoes such as gravel, aggregates, steel, timber and shipping containers. The Canal & River Trust has submitted the application for land off Skelton Grange Road near to Thwaite Mills on land formerly part of the Copperworks site.

End of garden - maybe. A piece of field in the middle of the coutryside - unlikely. See https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/boating/moorings/long-term-moorings .

More likely to be a Brexiteer, I'd have thought.

There is a world of difference between locks as a "fashion choice" and locks worn by a conscious man or woman. Personally I don't have a problem with anybody wearing their hair(or lack of same) as they choose.

A little list I made earlier on when I had some time on my hands and was feeling ponderful, about all of the little things that I have discovered and learnt since moving on board! 1. All of your clothes will smell faintly of ‘real fire’ or coal, regardless of how recently you washed them. Initially this is an inconvenience but eventually you come to rather like it. 2. If you own any white, cream, or pastel coloured clothes, they will soon take on odd black smudges, regardless of how careful you are about keeping them away from the stove, hod, or anything else coal related. This remains as an inconvenience and does not fade. 3. When visiting another boater, it is uncouth to ask to their toilet, unless you are at least a fifteen minute walk from another toilet facility (for women) or a wooded area/ bush (for men.) 4. If you have boater visitors over for more than four hours at a time, you will find yourself spending the latter half of their visit thinking that surely they must need to pee soon/ is your bathroom so nasty that they are too scared to want to use it/ how much more tea can you ply them with as a kind of pseudo-scientific experiment, just to see what they’ll do in an emergency. 5. Visits from other boaters will seldom exceed four hours without them either departing/ needing to go back to their boat for a minute/ having to ‘pop back to the car for something,’ see point four. 6. ‘Townies’ fill gaps in conversation by talking about the weather. ‘Boaties’ fill gaps in conversation by talking about water levels. 7. Pump out or cassette? Oh hells no. Don’t even go there. 8. It’s okay to insult a man’s wife, children, career choice, hair, or dress sense. But engines must always be coo’d over and spoken of in hushed approving tones, regardless of their size, condition, or maker. Shhhh! She’ll HEAR YOU! 9. If you are expected to go to work in anything approaching smart casual, you have likely got a pair of boots ‘for the journey’ that are generally covered in orange clay- like towpath mud, and also a pair of ‘smart shoes’ that are clean, patent leather, and walk less than ten steps a day. Plus a bag to keep each pair in, separately. 10. You become obsessed with what you can convince your stove to burn... Large, unwieldy or inflammable objects of rubbish will all be graded highly, according to your success in convincing the stove to eat them. 11. Ecofans. Having an opinion is mandatory. Having ever tried one is not. 12. If you have a posh new shiny boat, you are probably king of the marina. Conversely, that may also make you ‘king shit’ and/ or a N00b/ ‘more money than sense joker’ out on the cut. 13. ‘Online’ no longer just means that you have internet access, and committing the faux- pas of confusing the two meanings in conversation is verboten. 14. Portholes or windows? See point seven. 15. It seems perfectly normal to you to have both the stove/ heating going full pelt, and all of the windows open. 16. If you can’t manage to have a thorough shower, including shaving your legs, washing and conditioning your hair, and brushing your teeth in under four minutes/ four litres of water, you have failed as a boater and should probably consider moving back onto land. 17. Whenever you go to work in an office, visit a friend in a house, or have cause to use a hotel, you need an extra bag to haul along all of the things you want to charge up from their mains while you’re there. 18. Irons, microwaves, hairdryers and hoovers are all for posh people. 19. You used to own ten big thick jumpers for use in winter. Now you own two big thick jumpers, and a bottle of Febreeze. 20. And... You can make ten cubic feet of stuff fit into four cubic feet of space. 21. You keep a mop on your roof because everybody else does, but you’re not quite sure why... 22. When everyone else on the train home standing up is swaying about and clinging to railings, you are in the middle of it all freestanding, swaying with the flow and not falling down (until you do!) 23. Your mailing address is the same as your parents, for the first time since you were 16 years old. 24. Rosie and Jim are Bad People. 25. You probably started life on your boat with a novelty neckerchief, captain’s hat, pirate bandana, or “I’m on a boat, Mother F***er!” t shirt. By your third week therein, you have experimented with how that burns on the stove (see point 10) and roll your eyes and snort derisively at the fresh faced wannabe’s who have taken your place in committing aforementioned fashion faux-pas. 26. You have a beard. This is neither negotiable, nor gender- specific. 27. You can answer the question “is it cold on a boat in winter?” sensibly, only a finite number of times, before deciding to mess with people and saying “yes, it’s terrible, I have nearly died of hypothermia twice this year already, and I don’t know how I’m still alive...” 28. You thought you’d save money in winter by using the open bow as a fridge/ freezer for your food... Until you realised just how much alcohol you could actually store there if you stacked it all up right. 29. Upon hearing ‘man overboard!’ you reach for the camera first, and the life ring second. 30. When other people fall in, you are never there to see it/ photograph it. But you know damn well that when YOU fall in, there’ll be a group of Japanese tourists there, immortalising it on film and upping it to YouTube within the hour. 31. You can cook and serve a full Sunday roast for four, with less than two square feet of counter space to work on. 32. You stop thinking to yourself, “there’s some funny people on the cut” around the same time you realise that you are just like them, actually. 33. The 8pm engine/ generator off collective: You’re either with them, or against them. 34. You know that you have to disown any of your former friends who are apt to order “a pint of lager, please” in the pub, and you’re okay with that, actually. 35. Your hands and nails are NEVER clean, no matter how much you wash them. 36. You WILL have some kind of nasty toilet emptying related incident within your first few weeks away from mains plumbing. No one can teach you how to avoid your own personal initiation into boat toilet hell, you’re just going to have to grit your teeth and wait for it to happen. 37. When you started out with the boat, you had a little list of about five things that you needed to do/ buy/ sort out. However, due to a phenomenon I like to think of as ‘boat mathematics’ you learn that for every one item you cross off of said list, another two appear. Three months down the line, your list has about 30 essential and time sensitive things you need on it, and your earnings for the next two to four years are already committed to it. Oh well, spaghetti hoops for dinner again... Anyone have any they'd like to add?