skpt

brilliant

how about june tabor. i have to admit to owning an ivor biggun album. the only song vaguely ok to play in front of children and the servants is one about breaking wind-whistling in my y-fronts and many more gems such as that.

it's not only boats where people invade your privacy. we have a house in wales and we often eat outside in the front garden to enjoy the sea view and have had people coming to look at our meal and asking if there is a menu! and i won't mention the time they were filming 2 doors away and we had half the world in the garden looking at the action.

try the east anglia film archive. it has footage of ouse,nene,cam etc in the 1950s

perhaps they could use the water cascading into the sea that i can see from my garden in wales. when there has been rain it has 2 friends. my mother used to pump up drinking water from pumps in the road. now you can hear this water just disappear into the sea 100 yards away.

i note that you intend to use your boat in the french waterways in the off season. be aware that the northern canals tend to freeze up and water levels become a problem. many people of all nationalities tend to overwinter in marinas on the soane. you are going to find it very hard to find a suitable vessel for your ambitions and within budget but best of luck. personally i'd buy one for your parties and one small one to cruise possibly trailable.

if you want a good analysis of all the weather forecasts available on the web check out Simon Keeling's www.weatherweb.net. It's going to stay cold until mid feb but not much rain and a chance of snow this sun/mon.

we have always the expression- is it the social hour yet?

on this occasion it was more a cover than an original song but still fab

there is a good sign by the new staircase lock on the droitwych canal. i thought it explained the operation very well and handy for the new marina.

agree about the speedwell but maybe not robust enough for my bit of cardigan bay but ok for the hamble.perfect for all the canals especially the ones not connected to the network.

am well aware of limitations with a trailable boat.may have to limit ourselves to widebeam canals and get a bigger 4x4!

i need to have coastal/estuary capabilities so cruiser.trailable as well.still looking.

you could do it with a suitable shetland say a 570. a bit cramped.

i had a call like this yesterday this time it was Broadband advice or something.after playing along with him for a bit he sussed i knew it was a scam and put the phone down.strangely i had been having problems with broadband and google chrome crashing a couple of times recently. last year it was someone from "microsoft" who rang but this time the problems i was having were for my welsh house computer. the caller claimed all the error reports i had been sending in had initiated the call so it seemed he knew something. sadly for him i said the computer was not near the phone but 200 miles away and he lost interest. at the time i was pretty certain it was a scam but still don't think it was coincidence although i'm sure their script prompts you to believe it.

thanks for that. first time i drank at the ferryboat i thought it had a riverside patio until i was told the river was in flood!

this is the first topic to have made me laugh out loud. keep up the good work.

i think the old canal from oxford to swindon goes under the a34 just south of abingdon. i just happened to note a straight blue line on the sat nav and using google earth later it would appear to be in water and seemed to be in the right place. there are laybys around so you could park up and scramble down the embankment and do the deed in the culvert!

llangollen seconded.it has everything:easy moorings,pubs,the viaducts,a few locks,ellesmere for supplies,poss trip to the monty and very rural.