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Showing content with the highest reputation on 22/06/22 in all areas

  1. In case anyone is interested... Just over a week after leaving hospital with 7 days of antibiotics I am still not 100%, don't get me wrong I am not ill as such just tired and not quite right, at least I am able to do a the normal day to day stuff as long as I take my time, anyway I've been signed off for another week and hopefully that should see me right. I have been spectacularly unlucky considering how many people live, work and play around canals but it's certainly worth keeping in mind if you get a fever after contact with the water
    16 points
  2. Afraid I can't do the plummy accent, umms, arrhs and classical quotes, but here are some money saving tips from some one in receipt of an income from the government and an acknowledged expert in spending very little of his own cash on a luxury life style. This could make an informative and useful spot on the TV show. Worth the OP asking if he wants to take part? I'm no stranger to being a bit short of the readies at times. Here are my tips for you, the great unwashed, channel 5 watching, lower orders. If you are in a spot of financial bother from assorted divorce and child maintenance expenses, then try and get a government income that includes the use of two homes. One in a prestigious Westminster neighbourhood, the other a country pad in the Chilterns. With fuel and fare prices sky rocketing, getting around can be a huge expense. Instead of using buses, trains and cars, get your chauffeur to drive you to the airport and take a private aeroplane to your destination. Not a penny for you to pay! Clothing can also be expensive. The same suit, worn day in, day out will save dry cleaning costs. Sleep in it too and pyjamas aren't needed either. Accessorise with a hi-vis jacket and hard hat from whatever work place you are visiting for a photo op that day. Any company up in the grim North will be happy to give you these and not expect you to do any hard work in exchange. Barbers cost a fortune, so when the mane is getting a bit shaggy, attack it randomly with the garden shears. Need a well earned holiday, but can't afford even the cheapest package? A billionaire chum will happily give you the run of his private island in the Caribbean. Just ask! Can't afford to replace the ghastly decorations and furnishing left by the previous occupant in one of your free homes? An old couple with appalling middle class John Lewis tastes. The girlfriend wants some expensive wall paper and furniture and the miserly £30,000 grant just won't stretch that far? Simply ask a party donor to pay the balance. A side hustle writing Daily Telegraph columns can bring in a few extra quid to tide you over. Get an advance for a book about Churchill. No need to actually write the book. Worth a try, though you may not succeed. Get the current bit on the side, or spouse a government income too. I've found this a bit tough to arrange so far, though there is an "Ethics Advisor" post on the jobs board at work that I reckon she will be a shoe in for. Damned if I know what "Ethics" are, but I vaguely remember from my Eton and Oxford days it comes from the Greek ἠθικός. One of those new management fads no doubt.
    8 points
  3. “…looking for boaters to share money saving tips” “Don’t buy a boat”
    8 points
  4. Washing tips Only wear the minimal of clothes in the summer months, a pair of shorts at most, better still is to go naked. Put your dirty washing in a supermarket basket and hang it behind the boat when mooring up stern to stern with another boat. The prop wash will do the rest. Washing powder is optional, as is using your own fuel. Paint all your hatches black, and dry your clothes using the heat of the sun by putting your clothes on the hatches.No pegs required. Eating tips. During the winter months use your multifuel stove to boil hot water and place excess in a thermos flask (other brands are available). This way you cut down on your gas usage. You will of course not benefit from the heat generated by lugging a full gas bottle along the towpath every 5 days to change it. Forage for nuts and berries. Stinging nettle soup is also very tasty. Just make sure to add 3 pints of cream and avoid the ones with dogs piss on. Fuel saving tips Buy a sailing dinghy. The days of chugging along in a water filled ditch burning dead dinosaurs is soon to become a thing of the past for the majority, if it is not already. Heating. Make sure you work all the hours god sends. This way, you will benefit from your employer heating you whilst your boat remains cold. As soon as you arrive home jump into bed with a cuddly person or a cat. Cover your boat with a blanket of snow. The insulation properties save big bucks. You may have to move your boat further north to achieve the all round winter cover. Come Autumn when the squirrels are burying nuts, follow them around and dig them up to use as fuel. The guilt trip will last as long as the heat generated does, but the look on their faces when they discover their nuts are gone is priceless. Similarly, moor next to a pine forest and use the pine cones for fuel. The pine needles also make lovely tea. Learn about canning, and pickling, but please, not the squirrels. Boat maintenance tips Never ever take your boat out of the water to paint the bottom. As soon as that oxygen hits the steel, it will be toast. Polishing brass mushrooms is for mugs. Please don't do it. Cruising tips Fein an engine breakdown at every given opportunity, and ask benevolent passers by to pull your boat to the next town. You may have to tell them you have a doctors appointment,or better still,that your cat needs to get to the vets. This way you can do the whole system, though it may take a while. Electricity. Get solar panels, and consume less. Leave your food outside when it's cold and hope the squirrels don't seek revenge. ETA. Make sure you get paid handsomely for sharing your thoughts with rich TV producers. They can afford it, and it might pay for half a bottle of gas. Please make sure you declare it though. It may effect your benefits if you do not.
    4 points
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  6. Well.... I read the manual for the boat cover to cover and there's lots of information but nothing about windows! Just as I got notification of magnetman's reply I was actually on the phone to Stowe Hill Marine (the builders) and they were incredibly helpful. He pulled the build file and it turns out that they are Channelglaze portholes - so I shall give them a call now. Many thanks for the replies people!
    3 points
  7. The third chapter of the Bank Holiday- We'd really saved the easiest bit until last- the panels to the rear of the panel put in originally. Nice and easy, nice and flat, plenty of things to line them up off. Chop chop... (Because this panel was as far from the stands holding the hull up as possible, not the portapower ram underneath the baseplate to stop it going all floppy) And steel tacked in. Much much faffing around then occurred as I pulled and pushed and levered the fresh steel into place. This involved a lot of nipping in and out the boat to put a tack here and weld an eyelet on there, which the little RTech was mega useful for. While I did that "the apprentice" was given an angle grinder and set to cleaning off areas of the swim so that they could be ultrasonically measured. There's about 4 garden pea sized pits on either side, but the rest measures 5.6mm and above, consequently i'm not going to replace the steel there, just weld up the pits. Result! Which hopefully fills in the blanks leading up to the image posted originally
    3 points
  8. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  9. Oh, bugger! They made great firelighters....
    2 points
  10. It's in West London but closed tomorrow due to strike action.
    2 points
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  12. I think it is Gabby's underlying presumption that boaters live on boats because they are hard up and will be have lots of "money-saving tips" to which normal people are not privy, that grates with her original post. In particular the bit about 'foraging' for and sharing food!
    2 points
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  14. Hungry and vengeful squirrels shave all the fur off their tails and turn in to rats.
    2 points
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  18. Yes but....public service TV went out of fashion about 30 years ago, modern TV is about entertainment, often downmarket "reality" entertainment, and often about making the people taking part look like idiots or self centred fame seaking "unpleasant people" (its a family forum 😀 ) so I personally would steer well clear of this sort of thing. We have in the past been approached about appearing in a TV series, I declined then and would certainly decline now.
    2 points
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  20. Maybe it’s a warp? 🤷‍♀️ 😃
    2 points
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  25. I've been paid £70+ this month from Octopus for my excess power generation loving all the sunshine 🌞
    1 point
  26. You could have always visited the trafford centre whilst waiting... SWMBO never misses the chance when we pass that way, God help me if she ever finds a way of disabling the swing Bridge and we had to spend a lot of time there....
    1 point
  27. I think that anyone who gets bothered about the system used to describe the same thing is completely missing the point. I mostly use metric measurements because that's how I was taught (I was 1 year and 1 day old at metrication) but like many people I'd struggle to tell you my height and weight in metric measurements and I've never literally ordered 568ml of beer.
    1 point
  28. re Hawkesbury Junction, there is also a water point on the right immediately before the lock. There is also one at Stretton Stop, on the left I think, just after the swing bridge. Also one at Ansty, on the left just beyond the bridge after the visitor moorings. And another on the left by The Barley Mow pub just before Newbold tunnel. I have used most, but not all, of the water points on the OP's route but I don't recall any of them being especially slow.
    1 point
  29. Clear bin bags so you can see there isn't a bomb in the bin. As for water points: Top of Calcutt locks - although you probably won't have any requirement for it so close to base Braunston Turn services??? - opposite the junction but it can be busy Below Hillmorton locks - definitely water there and at a place and time you'll perhaps need some but probably quite a high throughput of boats. Brownsover on the offside?? Might be boats moored there Hawkesbury's taps are past the narrows toward Bedworth and you'd have to reverse one way or take a short trip up to the old Newdigate colliery arm and turn there. There must be others. There is a water point at Braunston by the toll house at the marina arm. Strictly speaking it's not on your route but you could head there, turn at the arm and find somewhere to moor.
    1 point
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  31. Indeed, the MOD uses clear bin bags exclusively across its entire estate, presumably for the same reason.
    1 point
  32. 1 point
  33. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
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  35. Today in 2017 a smart Peniche on the upper Saone heading south
    1 point
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  37. I didn't mean there, I meant on the Ashton from Piccadilly up where several bridges had resident trolls when I went past... 😉
    1 point
  38. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  39. A few years ago (before this latest series on TV) a friend of my Sister In law applied to go on a programme about 'Filthy House' as they were paying 'good money' to each householder chosen. She kept Parrots and was readily accepted. They had a plan ! She had to move out of her house for a week whilst the crew set up for the shoot - this involved spreading Parrot poop, parrot food and bottom of the bird cage grit' and shredded newspaper all over the house. For filming she was told to have all the Parrots loose and flying all around the house. The final effect when it appeared on TV was remarkable - "Dirty, dirty woman, who could live like that " etc etc. She got the house decorated from top to bottom and several £1000 for 'her inconvenience'. Don't believe all you see on't telly, these 'factual interest' programmes are not always what they seem.
    1 point
  40. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  41. I do love a bit of high brow television……..🙄
    1 point
  42. Same place as mine I can take line fore and aft without fouling, most of the time when we are out we just use that one and ignore the T-stud.
    1 point
  43. From what I have gleaned, in working boat days when boaters worked for a company rather than No 1’s, the water cans were often the personal property of the boating families. As they often changed boats it would not be sensible to have a boats name on the can.
    1 point
  44. I didn't have a problem with the Pela getting blocked with crud this time but I have on a previous boat. A bicycle derailleur cable available from Wilko's for £1 is a good tool to unblock it.
    1 point
  45. The ropes are tight but the boat doesn't lean. The angle is not always as long as that but we position the boat as well as possible between rings etc and I tightly tie the front. Iain then ties the stern tight. Tonight because if the angles the stern rope is tied to the dolly furthest away from the tow path but it is usually tied between the two mooring dollies on the same side. As I said before we never move an inch. A big plus for me is that I can reach the extra mooring thing easily from the bank ( for tying up ) or the well deck ( for casting off ). The extra cleats are I think welded on and don't look obtrusive I love them. Haggis
    1 point
  46. Luckily my husband didn't need to get cross watching me work the locks. He worked the locks whilst I held the tiller.
    1 point
  47. Monkey came home!!!! 😊💖
    1 point
  48. They can't do this for "boats without a home mooring" without a change to primary legislation (the 1995 Act) According to the late Nigel Moore CRT could do this for boats with a home mooring any time they wanted to, as there is no 14 day clause covering such boats.
    1 point
  49. It’s hard to feel sorry for folk who’ve signed up to CC and move in accordance with the laws/bylaws, then admit they’ve been doing the opposite for quite some time and are upset now the party is over. “Amelia and Tyrone have lived on a boat travelling the London waterways for seven years. Together with their two-year-old son, they spend up to 6 months a year staying in one place to the next along the stretch of the River Lea from Tottenham to Stratford where the ‘no mooring’ signs have gone up. They are currently expecting their second child and worry that they may have to leave the water, and perhaps London, altogether. “This area is our home. My son attends a nursery here and we’re registered with doctors, dentists, and my midwife appointments are in Homerton Hospital. We have built a life within this area and not being able to moor here truly feels as if we are being forced out,” Amelia says. “The stress of receiving abrupt emails, notices and knocks at the door, about where we are moored, in areas we have allowed to be for years previous, is causing us a great deal of stress at a time when, as a young and growing family, we already have a lot going on. No consideration is being given for people who have set up their lives, careers and families in these areas.””
    1 point
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