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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

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.

“…looking for boaters to share money saving tips” “Don’t buy a boat”

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.

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!

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

Oh, bugger! They made great firelighters....

It's in West London but closed tomorrow due to strike action.

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!

Hungry and vengeful squirrels shave all the fur off their tails and turn in to rats.

Square 4 ?

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.

Maybe it’s a warp? 🤷‍♀️ 😃

So far I have taken to writing a journal - handwriting rather than typing, radical I know . I also have my camera and phone camera. The big issue is my handwriting, apparently it makes doctors handwriting look neat and legible ...

At Llangollen probably not much, they don't seem that bothered. As far as I was aware no-one came round to check I'd got a scrawled ticket in my window. I object to it on principle (the towpath ones, not the marina), but it's just one of the many, many principles I don't care about very much. Only an idiot fights battles they can't win.

Well I never! It's amazing what you can learn if you look into the history of such things. I wonder if Lou Grade was descended from Centi Grade? If so, that might have something to do with the oddities in the BBC weather site units.

On this day in 2002 Wolverhampton Top Lock BCN Main Line at the start of the BCN Marathon Challenge Compare 22Jun2001 22Jun2002 22Nov2003 1Nov2014 4Jun2014 29Aug2019 3May2021

It'd be nice if it's still about in another 50 years, maybe then someone will put it back to "ex hire" condition and "deconvert" it To me overplating would make mo sense on this, it's hardly any more work to just cut a hole the right size and stick a panel in, get rid of the grot for good

So I am out and about on my travels, today it was a short hop from Pastures to Sprotborough hour and something and 4.6kwhs of electric used. I have just turned the drive solar to heating water, up to press no genny needed, I have washed dishes in the dishwasher and washed clothes in the washing machine. If I was doing this conversion again I would go a direct drive water cooled motor and 48 volts batteries along with a 48 volt inverter, I would still use the genny I have though as its the right size for the job. Now my conversion works fine and was a very affordable conversion, the batteries were funded by the sale of my diesel engine and the other parts I had or picked up cheaply secondhand. Tomorrow is another short hop to Doncaster, the 2 to 4 hours a day suits me as I am doing work on the boat in the hours I am moored, it seems even though I am retired I still dont have enough hours in the day to get stuff done

As it’s been closed to the network for a while they may be all believing they need a rebate🤣 This was covered here recently and the need to display current licence appears less than compulsory, the regs appear a bit unclear. Spot Checkers from CRT use electronic means now so it’s probably not as bad as first seems? Enjoy your trip, hoping to be there this year ourselves

The idea that all that's needed is to "do DIY, forage in skips, go on holiday for £9.50" is indeed condescending. Those "tips" are fine for people that are "feeling the pinch" but completely ignore that this level of financial hardship is a tier UP from the misery of real poverty. It's fashionable middle class poverty.

The government have ignored the triple lock which promised to keep pensions in line with inflation, so instead of ten percent increase it allocated three percent. So I am now paying ten pounds a week more for groceries, increased pricing for diesel and coal will add another £10.00. That's quite a lot of money to find, and of course I don't qualify for any handout on my electricity, or anything else, unless you know better? As for savings Aldi have good prices, and Tesco have an Aldi price checked range, other than that, I can't think of any savings I can make without moving out of my comfort zone. Saving money by buying everything from the Savers range is compromising on both mental and physical health, so not a route I want to go down.. Public transport prices are already very high, so I won't be going anywhere, unless emergency, I don't often buy snacks when out and about, so I can't save on that. I understand I can get cash by changing my bank account, but I like to stay under the radar as banks can't cope with nomads. MtB has some idea that local authorities will house those who need housing, they won't. Their best housing stock was sold off years ago, and the remaining old stock needs ongoing maintenance. I once foraged parsnips from a field, but not seen any foraging opportunity this year, elderflowers are available to make lemonade, just add sugar, lemons,, and boiling water, not a great saving. Only boil enough water for the immediate need. Shower when water is warm. Buy butter, not spread as it won't go mouldy.

Liam?

Did this with Goliath and I was at the front poking the bottom with the stick. Its quite a hard bottom and gets shallow quickly if you hit the wrong spot, but its worth doing and if done slowly and carefully should be fine. You wont get far beyond the marina (unless there is a hidden channel), but will be able to turn. The pub was rather good but had an enforced change of management. Please report back.

Totally agree and this is why the trickle of journalists and TV producers posting here tend to get a rough ride. They are generally starting out with a preconceived idea and looking for supporting material, not material which contradicts or disproves their preconception. The OP fits this description very well, prima facie.

Money saving tip; Get rid of the TV

I particularly liked the way Patrick - a moderator - joined the thread to offer his answer just after another poster had sounded off about forum guidelines. I recognise why there is such a rule but I feel it's right that this forum should assist the handful of members who spend time and effort researching and committing canal history to print for what is probably limited financial return. I suspect it's the desire to learn and see such information recorded that is the motivation. I knew it was the Trent & Mersey but I didn't know the location of the picture or the history of double and treble riser locks. I look forward to 29 more "Where I Am"s. Thanks, Ray.

Labradorist too! You can see how stressed it made me. 🤣

I tried my spherical-type Pela last year, but the tube was too narrow and got blocked with crud. I got a cheap 12v vacuum pump from eBay, a 25 litre plastic container, a curved length of 3/8” copper pipe, and some clear hose, and that was reasonably successful apart from the container’s tendency to collapse alarmingly under vacuum - I’ve not found a suitably robust replacement, so I’ve just bought a larger (and cheaper) a Pela-alike clone which has a 10mm inlet tube.

Thanks. Here it is, hopefully

The British steel industry hasn't had major change in it's capacity for about 20 years during which time it has retained the ability to produce around 40% or so of the UK demand for primary products (such as the plates and sections from which narrowboats are made). Until Brexit around the same amount was imported from the EU, with the remaining 20% or so from outside the EU of which Russia was the largest supplier and China still a small but growing amount. Brexit and the war in Ukraine will indeed have had an effect on the market price but the notion that British steel has managed to produce the world's finest product while enduring a long slow and what will ultimately be terminal decline with decades of industrial unrest, closure threats and little investment in new facilities is highly unlikely. China on the other hand has a lot of modern steelmaking facilities and allies a rigour for methodical process with Western expertise. That's why the 'British' steel industry is owned by Asian companies. I've posted elsewhere on this forum about steelmaking processes. There is no steel produced in the world that does not use scrap in some part of the process, and some processes use it as the sole feed material. It's not possible to melt the feed material to 2000+ celsius, blast it with oxygen and still retain the rust that went into the steelmaking vessel. The resulting products all meet the same global standard and are assured by the same body to enable steel to be a globally traded commodity. The only boats we can probably safely say are built with Chinese steel - unless you are a boatbuilder and can post the certificates of conformity - are those imported by East West. I'm not aware they have any particular problems. And in any case there has long been vast quantities of Chinese steel imported to the UK in finished products. The other certainty is that all mild steel will rust if not fully protected. Modern steel is chemically and mechanically far superior to older steel, it's just in a narrowboat those properties are barely tested, hence the narrowboat world only seems able to comment on the 'quality' of steel in terms of corrosion. That's something a metallurgist or engineer would never think about for a mild steel, they'd just paint it, specify stainless, or as happens in some cases, just live with it.

On this day in 2016 Soulbury GU South Compare 17Sep1980 17Oct1984 4Jun1995/4Jun2017 13Aug2005 12Oct2008 10Jul2015 4Jun2017 5Oct2018

Thank you for asking. I'm 100% better than I was over Monday to Thursday but I still feel completely run down, as a bonus I'm being let out today with a batch of horse pills and strict instructions to not let it get that bad again and come back to hospital if I deteriorate.

Today, Stonehouse high Street. meanwhile a mile away the new railway bridge is officially opened, and renamed “The Ocean Jubilee bridge” this week. Stroudwater navigation https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/20159770.ocean-bridge-officially-opened-new-name/

On this day in 2011 On The Count Of Three ... F-O-R-W-A-R-D ... Ansty Embankment OxfordCanal Compare 15Nov2005 28Sep2006 11Aug2010 24May2011 21Sep2018 4Sep2019

I think the reaction of a proportion of boaters to Amelia and Tyrone's 'plight' is more like "What took CRT so long?" rather than sympathy and support. The boaters playing by the rules and taking an expensive mooring when they need to stay in one area are mightily hacked off with CMing piss takers, I suspect.