Leni

Hell's bells that's a fat dog! Cyclists: Last weekend the OH and I were taking a stroll down the towpath, checking out the location of the mooring we've just bought, when a lycra-clad cyclist came up behind us. From a sensiible distance behind, he rang his bell and called out, "Excuse me please" ,and as he passed us, "Thank you" That's all it takes! Dogs: Recently a large dog, off the lead, chased my son's cat down the towpath and right into his boat! When the dog's owner came up my son 'suggested' that maybe she should keep her dog on the lead, if it was likely to chase other animals. She replied, "Oh, don't make such a fuss! He's only doing what comes naturally to dogs!" Half an hour later, my son saw the dog-owner running back up the towpath, panting "Have you seen my dog? He ran off chasing a deer!" His reply was, "Should have put him on the lead when I ****ing told you to!"

This thread makes it very obvious that you will never be able to please everyone, but I'd like to say thank you very much indeed to John, Steve, Alan (and others) for doing what you have done and are continuing to do. When there is a next CRT Council election, I know who I would hope will stand, and for whom I would wholeheartedly vote!

That would be a wonderful idea. However, I wonder if it would work. in recent years BW / CRT have committed to decimate (literally, in the Roman Legion sense of 'killing one in every ten') the towpath moorings since building new marinas, only to find that the marina moorings go unsold while the towpath moorings are becoming so sought-after that they reach the silly prices seen at Batchworth and Springwell recently. It seems people still prefer to live on the cut rather than in a 'floating caravan park', even if it means paying through the nose for nothing but a few mooring rings, if that!

You should have seen the recent bidding 'war' on those moorings! They went from a guide price of around £2,000 to well over £3,000 - some of them in somewhat less than 12 hours! As someone lucky enough to have been able to 'win' one, I am acutely aware that there were many people who needed a mooring every bit as desperately as we did, but who were not able to compete at that level. If the roving mooring permits help them to be able to stay in an area where they need to be, I think they will be a very good thing. I will certainly not feel envious, or that the desperate people who get them - whatever the price - have somehow 'got one over' on me. I was lucky enough (with help from other family members) to be able to bid high enough to buy one of the very expensive tow-path moorings. If others get something cheaper, I will just be very happy for them if this proves to be something which solves their problems.

Our (55ft) boat's stove is in that position at the front, and my son noticed the heat didn't quite reach far enough to warm the bedroom. He has fitted a small fan (out of a computer) in the bulkhead half way down the length of the boat and it seems to be enough to move the warm air to the bedroom now.

I heard that Dylan Thomas called the little Welsh town in 'Under Milk Wood' Llareggub so that if the play was a flop he could point to the name and say it was all just a joke anyway. When the play was a big success he changed the name to Llareggyb, and this is what you will see in all later printed editions of the play. Llamedos was Terry Pratchett's jokey 'take' on Llareggub, and is the name of the little town in his book 'Soul Music'.

One of my sons used to attend a school called Kinloss. The pupils used to call it Far Kinloss.

Ah, sorry, I didn't realise the conditions in a marina mooring were different Yes, I use the word 'won' because there was a bidding 'war', and yes, 'paid through the nose' would be more appropriate!

It's not completely forbidden. I have just 'won' a CRT mooring so I have just been re-reading the 'Mooring Agreement Terms and Conditions' and under General Conditions point 3 it says, "The right to use the mooring is personal to you and you may not assign it to any person. You may allow another person to use the mooring for short periods but only with our permisssion which shall not be unreasonably withheld." (my bold) So now we just need someone to test what is and is not 'unreasonable'

Saw this at Ely on Saturday. It's called The Willow and the guy sells hand made willow sculptures.

I pay my taxes so that anyone can enjoy the services for which they pay, regardless of whether I ever have need of them myself. I do this willingly because I believe their is such a thing as 'Society', whatever a certain 'lady' is frequently (mis)quoted as having said!

When my son bought his first boat he changed the name to a variation on the name of his late grandmother, in her memory. When he sold it, the new owner changed it back to the original name! Our current boat is named after someone else's grandmother, but it's a nice enough name and we were told a nice story about it, so it's staying as it is. You pays your money and you takes your choice! Good luck, and enjoy your boat when yoy find it.

What Sally Ash said in conclusion (albeit somewhat incoherently) was "If the feedback comes that no change is needed, then no change .... why would we want to upset a lot of boaters? We want to get the right balance between all the different people's interests and strike a happy compromise." So I guess all we need to do is to feedback our view that the proposed changes are draconian, unnecessary, and will satisfy no-one, and no changes will happen! <flap, flap, oink, oink>

BBC News cameras have been filming at Rickmansworth this morning. There should be something on the SE local news tonight about the proposed mooring changes.

Congratulations on a good and productive meeting, and many, many thanks to all those involved!

I ordered both of the books on Amazon after reading about them in this thread. My severely dyslexic son, who normally prefers audio books because the difficulty in reading usually spoils his enjoyment of the story, has been absolutely engrossed in them and is loving them so much he has persevered with the reading! He's now on the second book, having lent the first to his wife. Maybe one day they'll find their way back to me. I'm looking forward to reading them myself! Many thanks to the OP for bringing them to my attention!

I disagree with the previous link's definition of shonky! A 'shonky shop' was a shop which sold shoddy or second-hand goods. The word comes from Yiddish, where a 'shonniker' was a peddler.

Excellent news! Thanks very much indeed for coming on here and updating us about the work, and extra special thanks to all the people who are working so hard to get these breaches repaired so quickly!

It is absolutely right that your name is 'Proper Job'! You have my deepest admiration

It certainly is! Many thanks

The problem the OP has is that they are looking for insurance for a 10 year old cat. As both Starry and I have said, we reckon it may be difficult and / or expensive to get insurance for a cat of this age! If anyone has experience of getting a reasonably priced new insurance policy which will cover an old cat, do let me know!

Well, I don't know what others do, but I don't have pet insurance. Instead I put away a sum of money each month in a savings account. I started when I first got my cats as kittens, and I put away what insurance for each of them would have cost me at that time. I reckoned that way if I didn't need the money, I would still have it. With insurance, if I didn't need the money ..... the insurance company would have it! I guess over the years I should have increased the amount, but in fact I've been lucky and haven't needed to take money out often - the biggest amount was when one cat knocked down a heavy glass bowl and landed in the broken glass - on a Sunday evening! That was expensive! However, if any of the cats had a serious problem I doubt if the money I had saved would cover it. I just took a chance and was lucky. But I think you would find it hard (and / or expensive!) to get insurance for a 10 year old cat. Putting the 'insurance money' away each month might be an answer for you.

Sadly, a paid for anything or a mortgaged anything is out of the reach of many young people these days! Our generation was very lucky, but as we (and our parents!) live longer, or have to sell their (our?) homes to pay for care, there's not likely to be any way my kids can save up the deposit to buy a property! They are destined to be paying rent forever