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Or the standby generators at your local hospital, telephone exchange or data centre? With the resilience of the national grid getting worse, power outages get more common so a standby source of power becomes even more necessary. The only alternative I have seen to the standby generator is the aluminium air battery, and that was a prototype 25 years ago. Too costly, limited standby life and takes to long to replace compared to a diesel generator, as it is a primary battery and thus cannot be recharged. In Peter's world there will be deaths on the operating table, no 999 services, no internet, no cash machines, no buying goods on cards and no telephones available when the lights go out.

Visitor: "How many people work in your factory? Manager: "About half of them".

It certainly sounds that way - if it was just complaining house dwellers they would close the bins and the tap too. 2 weeks is probably long enough that even the most retentive householder will have to go to the loo during that time, so if no boats are disposing of sewage and there is a continued leak it's not the services causing it. I do have to wonder if the leak is still there after this monitoring whether they will disconnect the house sewers for a fortnight but let boats use the services ...

Just in case anybody who might have been going has not yet seen this by any other route.... URGENT: AGM Postponed * Unfortunately we have had to take the decision to cancel this Saturday’s AGM in light of the Coronavirus outbreak. I initially resisted doing this but having watched BBC news channel all afternoon it is clear that the situation is deteriorating more rapidly. Indeed one of our committee has been in contact with someone who has been advised to self isolate. Bringing together a group of people, many of whom are in the most vulnerable category, is not a good idea. The medical situation nationally has moved today from ‘containment’ towards ‘delay’ and medical experts are advising people not to congregate in large groups and to avoid shaking hands or being too close. Whilst this may be seen as an over-reaction it is a reasonable precaution as our meeting is not critical at this time and no-one will be hurt if we postpone it. We will reschedule the AGM once we have seen what the trajectory of this virus is likely to be. Please refer to the blue band on the website for latest update. Thank you for your understanding. I hope to see you later in the year. Regards, Phil

I find that my small bilge area does suffer a small amount of contamination from grease that sometimes finds it's way inwards through the stern tube packing. I usually ignore it, on the basis that the rest of the daily grease has already entered the canal through the stern tube bearing anyway.

No, I don't, my bit of Greater Manchester is in Cheshire!

We are planning to do the Thames from Oxford to Redding this spring but we obviously don't want to do it with strong currents. Our plan was to head down to Oxford for the beginning of April, however due to the excessive rainfall this year we are now wondering if we may have to leave it longer. So my question is, when does the collective wisdom of the forum think the Thames is likely to be back on green boards again?

Stick them in the air fryer. Lovely crispy skins and all the fat drains away into the bottom of the pan.

Back in gods county Tim

Yavari, like it says on the first vid in David's posting. It also has a Petter S as a generator (?) engine N

How big/strong is the dog? How about a set of panniers on the dog with a 5l can in each? Jen? Obvious dangers with a dog carrying petrol. It might go woof! ?

Athur's friend popped in for some kibbles last night when I was outside, he was exiting via the well deck, but decided to dive overboard when he saw me, straight in at full speed jet propelled, scrambled up the bank. I'm not sure if he vaulted on to a resident duck, but there was a helluva quacking, and ducks everywhere.

Two reasons, one that people do moor there for up to 14 days without receiving any attention from the enforcement officer. and the second because I was involved in the campaign about three years ago to keep the moorings open and have a letter from Richard Parry confirming exactly what I have stated. My concern is that boaters who do use the mooring may feel intimidated by the company putting out these notices. When this all started in 2014/5 it was because of harassment which resulted in the boaters leaving their moorings and the moorings not being re-advertised and subsequently closed.

He is, of course, not the only one who could tell you about rain and the BCN Challenge...

It was not actually that simple if you had studied the plans at the time. These developments are really only an "earner" for CRT and their development partners, if they are able to cram in as many houses as they can at the greatest density. If they had allowed 15 feet or more from waterside to the face of the buildings, something else would have had to give. A very similar problem existed with the plans for Bulbourne Yard, again trying to cram in what they said was required to make it an attractive development proposition resulted in something fairly horrendous, and with inadequate parking. Unbelievable at one point they suggested residents could use the car park at the Grand Junction Arms, (or whatever it is currently called!). I'm not condoning what has occurred - it was always going to be a problem, but at least the original fight stopped them knocking down the historic carpenters workshop entirely, (they declared it of no historic interest), and stopped the crane being relocated to a daft location where it would never have ever been used in the first place. The second modified planning application should have also been thrown out IMO, but unfortunately it wasn't, and it was at least an improvement over the first one submitted. ll this is academic now. The facilities will probably ultimately be lost anyway, but engines running, noise, smokey chimneys, and bad attempts at pump out will all serve to make it more likely, I fear. All boaters will probably ultimately reap what only a few have sewn.

And most profuse apologies to the person who retied the grey/red/black boat near Brinklow, presumably after it came adrift while I was away last week, leaving one of their own pins to cross-pin my bow line. It's a fairly new boat to me and I hadn't got round to buying another couple of pins to supplement the mooring hardware that it was sold with. No excuses, I knew it was iffy mooring on such a shit bit of towpath, and I shouldn't have on just two lines and two pins. It was stupid of me to chance it. If you're on here and read this, can I: Give you your pin back? Offer you a beer/whisky by way of apology? Little things like these are one of the things which make the boating community so special, in my humble opinion. Thanks again.

Yes you are! Do your washing on the move or even moored up with the engine on, when its finished go fill with water. If you haven't got enough water fill up move away then when washing is over refill with water. Failing that there is a good laundrette in Berko Its not difficult to show consideration for others.

Maybe it is such antisocial behaviour that has led to the current situation. "I don't want to follow the requests, therefore I'll ignore them"

Lard or better still mucky dripping is better than oil for proper chips. No oil used as kids. Too much fat or oil is bad for you. I know this for a fact as my Dad had full English every day and died young aged 90. I have just cooked my mums dinner with a few chips and she is 99 lol. Bet you don't know any 99 year old vegans. Bye the way she eats white bread always with butter and full cream milk ?

I had to google that!

Windy windy windy. Did I say it's a windy spot?