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Sent last week on the Caldon. Met some egregious people. The people who helped my wife (and me!) with a stiff paddle on the staircase. Horrible. The people who found us a table in their pub despite it being clearly rammed to the gills with prebooked tables. Awful. The people who warned us of a hidden underwater obstacle at Cheddleton Flint mill. Vile. The dozen or so CRT volunteers doing a fabulous job clearing the towpath. Terrible people. Dreadful canal as well. All the locks working (bar the one stiff paddle), everything well maintained. I trust that fits in with the style of posting people like to read on here. I'd hate anyone to imagine we had a good time on a nice canal with some lovely people.

Some total idiot came past my mooring today on tickover, then slowed even further to have a chat. Just can't understand some people.

You can have the best cables in the world and still suffer poor charging performance if there is fluff in the USB C port of the device, thus preventing the plug from being fully pushed in. I find it’s a particular problem on my phone that I always carry around in my pocket. It pays to get a plastic toothpick (or similar non conductive material) and give it a scrape out. I do this every 6 months and you’d be amazed at the amount of compressed fluff I remove.

Out of date extinguishers are specifically permitted by the BSS

Would the next step up from the dog box be a horse box?

Don't call it a potter's cabin lol, you'll upset the nerds. It's a forecabin. It's where they bunged extra children back in the old days.

Remind me where dogs shit...

Calling all GUCCCo, FMC, Severn & Canal boats.particularly those built in 1935 as next year the Batchworth Boat Rally would like to see them all gathering at Batchworth in Rickmansworth to celebrate their 90 years. We are holding the second Batchworth Boat Rally GUC South at Lock 81 - 82 as this year was a huge success. The rally will take place on 17/18th May, two weeks after the cavalcade at Little Venice. If you wish to attend by boat (Of any age) Please put the date in your calendar for next year and drop us an email then we will make sure to include you on the mailing list when bookings open in January. batchworthboatrally@gmail.com Ive posted this event on the events page so you will always be able to find it 🙂

Actually there are more than two reports but you are essentially correct. CRT twice claimed that only one report existed (the one on its website) Faced with evidence that this was not the case they then claimed that two reports existed, a draft and a final report (with the final report published on CRT's website). Asked to provide evidence that DJS Research had produced this final report (or agreed to it), the draft/final story changed to CRT admitting that the report published on its website was produced by CRT and was not the last of several reports that DJS had provided it with. ... which is why I did not believe CRT telling me (twice) that only one version of the consultation report existed ... The Charity Commission has extensive powers but I don't think these include putting people in prison. Certainly, they have the power to remove trustees and reverse the boards decision.

Rubbish. You obviously have no idea what you are posting about and know nothing of London. It's my home and I blooming love it here. You name it, the best of it is available within a 40 minute bike ride. Including beer. Yes, breweries do introduce new stuff in London, for obvious reasons. There's loads of really great pubs here selling and championing well decent beers. And, just like every other place I've been in the UK, plenty of crap pubs selling bottled sewage to tourists and the gormless. I think Manchester and the Northeast take the gold medal for bottled fizzy lager drinking per head, and I think the statistics on UK lager drinking will back me up. In fact the region tops the list for budget spirits, super strength lagers, Bucky, and liver disease. It goes with the overall orange tan, leopard skin, too-tight trouser tropical shirt in January look. Problem is that rates and leases are so high that the prices are likewise in London. Which is indeed steadily strangling pubs as they can only survive on food, and often they can't do that well because they have not got the staff.

I agree, I must be blind, not to see that.

I'm not sure that's the way it was. That makes it look like us thin leisure bods actively wanted to persecute the others - but it was just, given the options, and bearing in mind both how much more home moorers pay and how most CCers abuse the system, that was the fairest of the choices given. I read the thing so long ago that I can't remember much about it, and tbh, care less. I just wish Allan would stop costing CRT a fortune with his letters and information requests, all of which are a total waste of everyone's time and money and achieve absolutely nothing except possibly making him feel important.

In the end it was the burner unit and the fan that needed replacing. Burner was an obvious one once we opened it up and then smoke was still coming from the until so we then replaced the fan. Up and running again just in time for the cold.

I'd only heard that in the context of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis, where there are slubberdegullions on squeaky feet - I'd assumed they had made it up!

I recommend https://www.anker.com/uk/products/a8856?variant=41967763357860&utm_source=google&utm_medium=pmax&utm_campaign=uk_anker_charger_conversion_pmax_allproducts_purchase_ost&utm_content=allproducts&utm_term={17994401969}_{}_{}&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqNCm1frxiAMVAIlQBh1byQRhEAQYASABEgJ4rPD_BwE

You would't care to convince those visiting our garden not to continue to do the decidedly un-clean things they currently do?

I wonder why not cats. Cats are quiet and clean. Dogs are dirty and noisy.

Sadly my dog is very old and a girl dog, but otherwise I really like the idea of training them to p*** on fishermen. 😀

This raises a few points for me. 1. It is the dog owners responsibility to consider where they can exercise the dog before they get it. 2. I live in a rural area and often see people exercising dogs in fields I know they have no permission to be in, if they were my fields I would be rather annoyed. 3. There are a number of people like me who don't enjoy a dog charging towards them with an owner yards behind "shouting its OK he/she is friendly. Friendly or not I don't want the dog's attention often followed up by jumping up. Yes I know these don't apply to responsible sensible dog owners but in my experience such owners are rapidly becoming the minority.

This is quite perplexing. I've heard of the same thing happening at other pubs but it's hard to understand why leases are not like other commercial leases which have a fixed rent subject to review to market rate on specified dates agreed in advance, say every five years, or three years. Why would anyone other than someone totally wet-behind-the-ears sign a lease with a PubCo where they can adjust the rent to whatever they like, whenever they like with no way of appealing it?

Yes definitely. We were 2nd in the queue at Colwich Lock when that beam snapped last year. CRT arrived an hour later armed with one of those braces, and had the lock open again an hour after that. That's a couple of hours to sort what at one time would have been a major stoppage. Apparently most of their workforce carry a set of these nowadays so they can get a lock up and running again quickly. Not ideal when a quick fix becomes a long term one like this, but without the funds what can they do? Some people forget that it's not just the reduction in the government grant that's hitting CRT's finances but the astronomical cost of the Toddbrook Reservoir work which is currently heading towards £40m since it happened 5 years ago. All of this has had to come out of CRT's general maintenance budget for the rest of the system. Following the near disaster of Toddbrook they've also incurred additional costs at their other 100+ reservoirs in making sure they are up to scratch, all of which has also impacted on their general maintenance programme.