Arthur Marshall

Thanks all.

I know! There used to be a cracker in Market Drayton too, and a superb one in Polesworth. Both gone. So has the one on the walls at Chester. There's still one in Milton on the Caldon. Llangollen I think is hanging on. The Oxfam bookshops are the best of what's left.

Any ideas as to where to get replacement glass for small portholes? I've got a couple of 8cm ones i want to put in the back doors, but they've come with 4mm glass and they really need 6mm to fit. I can't find anyone on line that'll make me such small pieces apart from one place in America that seems to want £90.

Abe is OK, but it's not the same as riffling through a stack of real books, waiting for serendipity to hit you round the ear. And it's owned by Amazon now, like everything else.

I do most of my boating alone, hardly watch TV as I don't at home either. I take a lot of instruments (trombone, cornet, guitar, fiddle, concertina) and about three hundred books plus an ereader. If I lived on again, I probably would get a satellite tv system but for a couple of six week trips a year plus weeks here and there it's not worth it. What I do miss is the lack of 2nd hand bookshops to replenish my supplies - I used to navigate by them, but most have gone now and charity shops just aren't the same.

Much to the annoyance of a mate of mine, who was going to moor there.

I've got an undated receipt with a name but no address on it. Luckily, no one's asked for it back yet.

I recall some extremely vituperative discussions about this in the past, with some of the lamented departed getting very heated about it,together with the legal basis for mooring fees for EOG. Really don't want to start that again, it's pointless. Anyway, the way the system is falling apart this year, we'll be lucky if we can even move, let alone park anywhere.

Whoever programmed the wotsit to pick the words definitely had a subversive sense if humour.

But a lot of drunken behaviour is on dayboats, so that wouldn't work.

Sorry! It's nigh on impossible up here.

Ah, now I understand, I'd forgotten that thing. Not a great deal of use to me as I've only got a thickphone but I can see its value.

When I zoom in on this, I get a stack of weird references showing up. Don't remember seeing them before. Pic below shows a few, such as "///pardon. newlywed. taking". All very odd... some are very peculiar indeed. Anyone else see these or has my tablet gone eccentric?

My SR2 needed a bit of a rebuild, £2500. Gearbox broke down twice at £1600 a time. Diesel leaking into the oil twice, a few hundred quid a time. A three inch bit of fuel pipe and weird fitting broke, over a ton to get a replacement plus fitting. There's probably more that I've forgotten. I suppose it's what you define as expensive, spread out over 30 years it's not bad, but it does need to be factored in. Plus trying to find anyone local to work on it, which is almost impossible now.

Of course kids run on boat roofs, they always have done and hardly any fall off,you can tell because we'd hear about it if they did. And no one said an entire boatload of drunks locking is a goood idea, but it happens occasionally and very little harm gets done. Real boaters get used to the odd idiot and enjoy the vast majority without getting too wound up about it.

Was a good trip.

Trying to do a major refit, including installing a stove, without a permanent mooring where you can have some form of power supply, would be a nightmare. You need the mooring at least while you sort the boat out, plus the logistics of moving fortnightly while resident elsewhere can also be tricky. Factor a mooring cost into your budget - an end of garden farmers field needn't cost an arm and a leg.

There were short term moorings but I think the Marina ate them. Last time I was there I couldn't find anywhere to stop either.

Nah, it's fine. Just been round the Leicester ring, met loads of nice friendly people, most boaters waved cheerfully and even most fisherplonkers. No drunks, a few kids on roofs, so what? Might be a few more addled brains on the Llangollen next month, but it's all good fun. One's own attitude has a lot to do with it.

I don't think I have ever changed the gearbox oil, worryingly. It may have been done at services, but I doubt it. It'll be due a change now as it's about 1000 hours since a rebuild, so - whats the best way to drain it? Can I just pump it out through the filler hole with a suction pump?

How often should you change the gearbox oil?

The markings on that are like the markings on mine, but the whole thing's flat. Once the oil reaches the bottom mark, it's only about another litre to get it to the top.

And no, it's not cold in winter. Or summer, for that matter. I've just got back into a centrally heated house after six weeks on the boat, and I'm freezing... Some years back, I moved from the boat into a house in the middle of a December ice age and had to have the heating on in the house on max 24 hours a day while I got used to how cold they are comparatively.

It's all private along there, both sides, so they were right I'm afraid. I think it's owned by the Marina. I'm sure there used to be signs. There are plenty of moorings round the corner going south and a few towards Chester, but the latter are noisy because of the road. But if there aren't any signs, I can't see how anyone can complain.

I found both Watford and Foxton a real pleasure. They were short of water, i presume because of Crick, but both sets of lockies were both helpful and unobtrusive. All in all, every one of them I ran into has been great, everyone asking me when I wanted anything done, checking whether I wanted their help in the first place. One (not at Watford or Foxton) had apparently just sustained a barrage of abuse from one hire boater because she refused to operate the lock for them while their six year old was running up and down the side of the boat in flip flops with no life jacket. She'd told them she was perfectly happy for them to run the lock themselves, but she wasn't going to do it till the child was in the boat. I don't think that counts as her being a plonker with an attitude...