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Heard a Doctor on TV say to get through the bordom of self isolation we should finish things we start and thus have more calm in our lives. So I looked through the house to find all the things i've started but hadn't finished... and I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle of Jock Danielas, a butle of wum, tha mainder of Valiumun srciptuns, an a box a chocletz. Yu haf no idr how feckin fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all who need inner piss. An telum u luvum.

No doubt this will bring out the trolls, but, assuming that the two are of the same family (not subject to the 2m rule), and have no symptoms are they not just carrying out their permitted once a day exercise?

People who are bored are lacking in imagination... come on, there're lots of things you can do. I'm doing things that're proving to be so fascinating, for instance yesterday I counted 380 perforation strips on a bog roll, while another one, packaged in the same bundle had 374. Try it, it's a fascinating hobby. If only I could get hold of two packets of rice crispies to audit ? BTW before anyone reports me to the PBP [Panic Buying Police] the bog rolls were a Christmas present, and grumpy people should wind their necks in!

The current issue of Waterways World can be read for free online, in recognition of the fact that most people can't get to newsagents/chandleries right now: https://reader.waterwaysworld.com Lots of good stuff in there (not just my map of the Middle Level ).

There's always one what? Oh, I see. Widebeam you mean...

The worst thing about Coronavirus, is that men are being punished. Their daily routines are being ruined, no sports on the telly, no trips to the pub, and no restaurants. Women however get to carry on as normal, there is plenty of laundry, dishes to clean, and housework to be done. It’s not fair.

If it looked like this yes, it was me.

Exactly, which was the nub of my objection to the reason for this thread in the first place. Boating, by definition, is incompatible with social distancing.

WhatsApp Video 2020-03-25 at 11.25.38.mp4

I have seen a few videos on YouTube which show how to make a mask.... havent watched any yet, just saw they exist, whilst I was looking for examples of how to make hand sanitiser. As a result of some help here, I got some IPA, (99.9% Alcohol), and found that you need to mix it with Aloe Vera or Glycerine. I had neither, and both were hard to find in stock, so I made some with some hair shampoo, and with an ageing 100ml bottle of sanitiser - chose to go for the 70% alcohol mixture, rather than 60%. Glycerine arrived today, so I've made a 0.8 litre mix of sanitiser, and will add a few drops of citronella essential oil when I get it from the boat, (during a dog walk). Anyway... at the end of this exercise, we will almost certainly have more sanitiser than we will need, so am trying to find a way to distribute it to some of our neighbours, if they need/want some.

For those about to die, we salute you

Ruby the wonderdog taking me for my daily walk in the low sunshine. She looks like Max Wall.

https://youtu.be/OxOJ7hh3H-I

Well there seems to be a it more to it than that. At the moment the plan is to lift the foot off the brake briefly in a month or two once the infection rate "appears" to be falling, then when it starts racing up again then put the brakes on hard for another couple of months. Keep doing this until the vaccine testing has finished and found safe/effective. OR, some other strategy for controlling it gets developed e.g. copy what they have done in S Korea. Lots of calm and dispassionate analysis by this bloke here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIp8DxCdoBo&feature=youtu.be

Hoody. Puffer jacket. These people are just everything that's wrong about Brits today.

I don't think he is understanding the 1st rule of rowing / paddling. 1) Make sure the oars / paddles are in the water

I thought he meant hideous pram cover.

There is some minimal airborne transmission, in that it can stay alive for short periods in airborne water droplets from coughs and sneezes (and theoretically their breath). That's partly why we're being asked to keep 2 metres away. The 2 metre thing is also a reasonable distance to make very sure that nobody accidentally touches you. The most likely source of transmission is touching surfaces which have bee recently touched by others (recent can be up to 72 hours depending on the surface type). This is why it's off crucial importance not to touch your eyes, mouth, nose or ears while you're out and to thoroughly wash your hands when you get in. Obvious things to think of are door and gate handles, pin keypads, any kind of touch screen, anything which is passed to you - paper, coins etc. When you do need to shop, think about the items you're picking up, which would benefit from wiping down when you get home, and then you wash your hands again. This also applies to delivered items. Be careful not to feel too secure about wearing gloves. They absolutely will not help if you touch a contaminated surface while wearing them and then wipe your eye or mouth. These sort of actions are often done instinctively without realising. I've had to explain this to people who have said they aren't at risk because they're wearing gloves. If you need to open the lid of a communal bin, a good idea is you use a tissue or piece of paper to open it with and then throw it in the bin when done.

That's what they all say. All heart, me... Of course not. That's why I offered to buy it without seeing it. I mean, like, houses are all much the same, seen one, ya seen 'em all don'tcha think!

Since CRT is a charity, it cannot make a profit. It might have a surplus on its account, though. I've paid my licence up to December 2020, so I'm expecting to get a big chunk of 2021 for nothing, but we shall see.

But useful all the same ...........

With some places charging well over 80p and supermarkets charging around £1-04 the difference is not that great

It strikes me that wearing disposable gloves should be thought of as equivalent to washing one's hands. The level of protection they afford seems to me to be more or less equivalent.

Not all doctors are medical trained. In fact many are not innitt.

Spot on Tony. It's all about the Plasticisers. The duck isn't very good on Plasticisers. He's made of poyethylene. Most electrical cables in the UK are sheathed with PVC and to make them bendy and supple the PVC contains a far whack of plasticiser....without that it would be brittle and prone to cracking. Typical plasticisers were made from phthalates or other fatty acid type compounds. When these cables are laid in polystyrene foam, a couple of things CAN (but not always) happen. Firstly the plasticiser can migrate out (or leech out) into the polystyrene foam and collapse it. Other than this the plasticiser will not really 'damage' the foam or the plastic. I think this is the effect Alan is seeing on his boat with the wire forcing itself into the foam. The second effect is that if all the plasticiser migrates out, the PVC sheathing is then left in a brittle state and can therefore crack if put under stress. Typically the brittle PVC will still have good insulation properties but cracks could lead to short circuits and potential for fires. You can see this migration as the outside of the wire becomes sticky or the colour of the wire sheathing changes. How dangerous is this? I can remember in the 80's and 90's incidents of house fires caused by failed PVC cables ie cracking and shorting out, but these were not common. In the 90's the PVC manufacturers started to switch to plasticisers that did not 'react' with PS foam so by 2000 the problem was much reduced (not convinced it has gone away though). Many polymer experts see PVC as the devil's polymer (incl me). Taking my 'expert' hat off, If I had a narrowboat with PS foam insulation, I would not be worried as long as I had 2 or 3 smoke alarms (that I knew worked....try the bacon test) and a few CO monitors. This migration of plasticiser doesnt always happen and not usually to the extent the cable sheathing is totally brittle........and if it did the wire should still be insulated. While we are on about insulation foam and at the risk of being verbose (as normal), it might be useful to throw in a few more thoughts. Polystyrene is a plastic, so melts into a low viscosity liquid (as runny as water) if heated to over 200°C. This explains why Alan saw his foam disappear in areas that had been welded. In a fire, PS foam will collapse and melt and run down to the floor. This to me is a big fire risk and although some PS foam was sold as fire retardant (by adding fire retardant additives), it will still burn and be a source of fuel in a fire (in a similar way to the PE foam in the Grenfil fire disaster). Don't weld if you have PS foam behind it. At best it will melt the foam and at worst could start a fire in itself. On the other hand, polyurethane foam ie the yellow stuff that I think is being described here as 'sprayfoam' is a thermoset and is crosslinked so cannot melt. It will be far better in the event of a fire. Yes it will burn a bit but not as much as PS foam. It should be ok if you weld near it. Having said all that, by the time the insulation started to burn in a fire in a narrowboat, I would suspect the boat is well alight, has been burning for a while and the occupants have got off (2 or 3 bacon tested smoke alarms). There is usually so much wood on board that the insulation is not going to make that much difference. If I was re-insulating a boat now, I would look at rockwool or mineral fibres and stuff it into all nooks and crannies. (….thats a non expert view).