AllanW

Hiya Dan90 (do you have a brother Joe? ) - and welcome to the forum! I think the stove lettering is actually NORLOND rather than NORFOND btw I'm no expert, but it appears that what you have is known as a box stove, and probably dates from the early 1900's. There's not much on the net about these stoves - and certainly nothing marked Norlond Belle. However this might be of interest. Belle Portable Stove on Ebay (currently £50 for those that want one as opposed to £450 on the salvage site!) I'd be interested in hearing how you get on with the research... Good luck Allan

It's been tried before...

Abuse is criminal behaviour Gather evidence and witnesses if possible, and report them to the police - they'll be waiting for them back at the hire base. Wouldn't get involved personally with a group of louts. Allan

Thanks for posting that Gary... I hadn't actually READ this through before. It made interesting reading I appreciate that you will have a different perspective on this, but it seems to me that the contract is heavily weighted in favour of the builder? For example there is the possibility of penalties being applied to the purchaser for late payment of a stage - but no such penalties for late delivery (which seems to be a widespread problem from some of the posts here) I'm also interested in knowing how the "materials and equipment purchased for construction" are identified? Apparently they become the property of the purchaser even before the second and subsequent stage payments are made? (Section 11.1) So do the builders place an order (for example) for an engine stating "engine purchased for NB xxx"? And how would this work in cases of the builder going insolvent? Would the administrators (again for example) say - "that engine has been purhased for that particular NB"? Just wondering... Allan

Thought it might be worth starting a place to post pics of CW members boats spotted around the cut * See also the sister thread "Photos of you boat, Show off your craft." Gralyn @ Harcastle Tunnel - July 2007 Quiddich near Tixall - July 2007 Keeping Up @ Stratford - September 2006 Anyone else want to play eye-spy? Allan

Signed...

I was in the same boat (no pun intended!) with the IR back in the 90's I was made redundant from my job in TV and film production (Thanks Maggie Thatcher - SPIT!!!), and went freelance. The Inland Revenue would not give me a definative answer as to what constituted self employment... The bottom line is that IR wouldn't treat me as self employed - National Insurance wouldn't treat me as employed - and the benefits folks wouldn't treat me as unemployed for the weeks I wasn't working! Now at the time I was VAT registered and was hiring equipment on which I could pass on the VAT costs to my 'employers' who were also VAT registered. But, the IR claimed that I was being 'employed' on a daily basis and therefore schedule E. I was being hired for a daily rate which included equipment - and the IR made it IMPOSSIBLE for me to split the hire element from my work element. IMHO the IR are the biggest buck passing organisiation I ever dealt with. I gave up - and have still never seen an IR definition of Self Employment That's it anyway - last post for a week or so... Four Counties start today! Allan

Thanks Philip It was actually a few of your pictures in one of your posts that swung it from the Cheshire ring to the Four Counties for this trip, though I have to say I'm looking forward to Audlem too... I'll hopefully be posting a few of my own pics in a couple of weeks - the only question is what colour is the sky going to be in them? Allan

Yup that's the one... The two of us had steak followed by eaton mess and it certainly wasn't cheap - but I'd argue it *was* good value. I begrudge paying a fiver for a poor meal - but I have no problem with a tenner or even fifteen for something exceptional. The car park was full of Harleys on the day we were there, but the only biker trouble was getting the crew back on the boat! If she'd had one good offer I'd have been working the rest of the Lapworth flight by myself methinks Allan

Hi Graham - might just do that... Btw - Stratford is a wonderful run - especially if you haven't done it before. Be sure to stop at the Boot on the Lapworth flight - probably the best pub food I've ever had! And the Blue Bell cider house is worth a stop too. All the best Allan

If anyone here is on the Four Counties this next week look out for Wedgewood and say 'Hi' or better still, come and 'ave a beer if ya see us moored up Starting Sat 14th from Heritage - clockwise Allan

Signature added... Have you tried posting this on the usenet waterways forum too? Allan

That's interesting Eugene... Most boaters I know have nothing but praise for the wonderfully helpful and (usually) very friendly 'hands on' staff who look after us as we wander around the cut, or for that mater, even those that answer the phones. From 'this side of the fence' it often appears that it's the BW management thats doing all the bashing! Job cuts, maintenace cuts, in fact cuts in everything except the vegitation! I understand there's financial reasons behind all this (which we don't need to go into) but I really don't think it's the canal users that are bashing the staff... Maybe that's not what you meant, but it's how it sounded Allan

Waterscrape currently says: "Stoppage: Woodseaves Cutting - Canal open, towpath remains closed" Allan

I offer my most humble apologies for that winrar link... Like Gary, I have used WinRAR sucesfully for many years, but since I've not needed to download another copy for a very long time, thinking I'd to be helpful I did a Google and that was the link I came up with Please use the link Gary provided!!! Drinks on me methinks... Allan

Ah so you're Ronnie and run a Dairy in your spare time? LOL (That's probably incomprehensible to non TP fans!)

Hope you made time to stop at the Boot in Lapworth on the way around - my all time favourite for pub food! I know what you mean about the Graffiti around Stratford, the council and BW have gone to great lengths to make the basin so very attractive it's a pity they don't invest a bit of time and money on the final mile of the canal... Allan

Steve The .rar format is just a compressed file (of a .pdf document in this case) You just need a simple 'uncompressor' - Winrar is available as a free download here: http://www.winrar.com - PLEASE SEE THE BELOW POST BEFORE DOWNLOADING FROM THIS SITE - Jon The file is not dodgy at all... Allan