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Good Afternoon, I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to write. You've really made "canal enthusiast" smile! He has been really chatty since receiving your post and it's fantastic to see. Best wishes and (is it too early?) a very Merry Christmas to you all. Alison x

Good morning, I hope this is the right place to post this. I work in a residential home, and one of the residents here has a big interest in narrow boats and canal life. He used to work doing carpentry on long boats in Alvechurch Marina. Would anyone be interested in sending a letter or a card please? Everyone here is very lonely and I am trying to find things which interest them, so I hope you don't mind me asking. Due to data protection I can't pass out his details, but the address is Phoenix House 2 Swallows Meadow Shirley Solihull West Midlands B90 4PQ and you could address them to "Canal Enthusiast" maybe? And I will make sure they get to him. Thank you for reading x

................. or rather a foreign script.

OldGoat: Help, I'm confused! So this Napton boat you hired came with a cross bed, which when extended had its own food supply and a radiator to keep the food warm? Wouldn't you just heat the food in the galley and consume it there? But I can see the attraction of having warm food available during the night...

Point of order, mi'lud: Norman Wisdom was 5'2" - he wasn't a big anything! (He was a star though)

I picked mine up, new, at a boat jumble for about £40 a good 10 years ago. It came with a normal float switch and a small Whale pump. I took the pump out and used an external Gulper controlled by the float switch. That used gum up with hair, soap etc. Replaced it with a solid state switch which was worse. (it still had a float to sense water level) Now reverted to a bog standard float switch which I routinely clean. My set up has a 2 way switch in circuit , Auto/Manual, as a fall back. The sump also serves the hand basin so is essential.

I know -- I wonder how many times it had already been used? It had probably been put together by somebody in the PR department in Japan, it's even harder to spot a typo in a second language. P.S. logos... ?

I've been aware of it for some time but avoided it because like you I thought it would be no good. So.... eCoal is the best stuff we have ever used, its on a par with Homefire Ovals but without the smell and with less ash. Its a reconstituted 50:50 mixture of proper Welsh coal and olive stones. Burns well and stays in overnight nicely. I am currently paying £10 per 25kg because the local coalyard purchased a lot a couple of years ago and we are the only people buying it from him. Its almost gone and he's not keen to get any more for just one customer. Looking at the www £14 per 25kg is about typical, but £12 if you can buy 40 bags (free delivery). .................Dave

The Albanians loved him. Fact.

There’s no births allowed for quite a while:

Same. I did take advantage of the first lockdown to spend the entire period in the lovely rural bit just south of Stone, moving up Aston Lock every fortnight for water and shopping, but I've been aboard and otherwise living like a liveaboard since the pandemic arrived.