Leaderboard

Just met a man at Hartshill down on his luck and walking home from Kensington. Didn’t speak to him much but I gathered he’d gone for work and not got paid. He’s been walking for 17 days and is heading along the canals to Chester and then on into Wales and home. I gave him some food and a fiver. A sorry looking man who seemed harmless but kind of desperate too. Just thought I’d point him out, if by chance you see him you might want to help him on his way. Big green ruck sack on his back and has a Welsh accent. He’s not begging, well he didn’t ask me for anything, I offered.

For anyone interested in how Tree Monkey is doing with his post-BCN disease, he's picking up a bit. Paracetamol is keeping his temperature down, he's still sleepy, but he managed to eat a medicinal sausage this morning. 🐒📈 Current Monkey grumpiness level: Somewhat Peeved Capuchin

On the Leeds and Liverpool: swing bridges from Skipton towards Keighley all done for me by enthusiastic day boaters! The bright sun and dark tree tunnel canopies were magical. Now moored up, all is quiet. A mother swan is fussing on her nest, the cows are relaxed in their pastures. A few croaky crows.

I take another approach. Instead of using the dip stick to measure the distance from the bottom of the tank to the surface of the diesel, I measure from the top of the tank to the surface of the diesel. I look down the filler hole while slowly lowering the stick in. When the stick touches the surface, there is a noticable disturbance of the diesel surface as a meniscus forms around the tip of stick. I then note the point of the dip stick that is at the top of the filler opening. The dip stick is graduated in litres required to fill it to the top, rather than litres from the bottom. I know that 225 litres is needed to fill on the dip stick is an empty tank, having once accidentally run out. The advantage of this approach is that only a tiny bit of diesel ends up on the end of the dip stick, which is much easier to clean off and doesn't leave a rag, or tissue covered in diesel stinking the boat out. My original dip stick was a bit of plastic dowel that happened to be around. When this broke, fortunately not in the tank, I transferred the markings on to a section of 20mm aluminium angle that also happened to be around, using a borrowed set of number/letter punches and filled in the letters with red nail polish to make them stand out. My whole approach, both rigid dip stick and looking at the diesel surface for contact will obviously only work with a straight route in to the diesel tank. Jen

Being a simian, you are aware the thermometer needs to be inserted rectally for an accurate reading?

On this day in 2012. Lemonroyd Lock on the Aire and Calder, with Humber Pride taking oil to the depot just above the lock. My boat giving way to overtaking traffic! Jen

Online petition addressed to the Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Aready signed by 568 people so far today. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/include-off-grid-households-in-government-ps400-energy-bills-support-scheme?fbclid=IwAR2iXRiO0eLLkE8PdFFp7YSxSYRyx1yac2r9lW4wuedGR3q7fA4lxIEDXUY

Hells teeth!