Chertsey

Also fresh is a bit different from matured.

That was the one at Woking, a great improvement on the one at Droitwich in 2012, which required a ladder as well, and necessitated the invention of the Patent Droitwich Funnel, which can be seen in use in the photo (it's a traffic cone with the end cut off). Bearing in mind that this was a historic boat gathering, and many historic boaters prefer the more traditional type of Elsan that doesn't have an emptying spout! Best ever elsan point was at Penton Hook, apparently there was even hot water for rinsing out!

So it could be a lot better next time then Some facilities are easier to use than others...

I am sure PB will not mind me telling the wider world what he once told me, that as a child he used to follow the tanker round his village as it emptied the septic tanks, and decided that was what he wanted to do when he grew up. I have never let him forget this, and consequently, have never emptied a toilet.

I'd be looking for it to last longer than two years though - and Warrior's certainly did. Although Chertsey's been six years now, oops, how did that creep up on me?!

I tend to put Warrior's blacking's durablity down to the fact that it was out of the water for months after being done. That was five coats onto shotblasted bare metal mind.

David Blagrove, no less, in The Quiet Waters By, says that the Woolwich design (sorry Alan) has never been surpassed!

And the original Narrowboat series, when they did Dover up. Keith was a consultant on that and did a lot of the work (the good stuff!) and also made a few appearances in the final programme. The best bet to stay in was when he told them the cabin was all wrong and would have to come off and be redone.

Also the bow is more likely to get scraped than the cabinside.

Social Sciences (primary interest Politics but I've had to spread the net a bit wider); Sheffield (University of).

Hear hear!

Yes, they don't ask for those details. Also, BW/CRT (who did know Bakewell was a butty) always accepted it so they clearly never checked the small print either.

Professional interest!

May I ask where you are doing this Masters?

I think this is perhaps a little bit of a wind up and maybe it's the work of the OP's grand daughter or similar. In which case it is of course priceless.

Whether or not you like abstract impressionism (or any other kind of art) is a matter of taste, but that doesn't mean there isn't good abstract impressionism and bad abstract impressionism (or any other kind of art). Same goes for style of boat as opposed to quality of build.

Yes, when I posted that way back I was referring to permanent problems. Though I must say that contrary to Alan's experience we never noticed any problems with cupboards etc on Warrior or Andante when they were out of the water. Though Andante was only little and Warrior is a *very* solidly built boat. I still would not worry about craning though provided you're using someone skilled and experienced.

Do you eat strawberries all year round too? It's great that we can mitigate the worst effects of winter with heating, but wanting to dress the same all year round is going a bit far!

Someone at the Greyhound last weekend said you can't moor in Coventry basin any more. If that's right, where can you tie up to go into Cov? As for charging for the cathedral, you can't blame them really, it must cost a hell of a lot in upkeep. They don't charge iirc if you are going in for bona fide praying purposes. Having gone before they started charging I would say it was well worth six quid of anyone's money, it's one of the most stunning and moving places I've ever visited.

Once we were through the bottom lock we were left to get on with it. Might have been a bit different from usual because of the festival. Also the people on the ground weren't officious at all, really friendly and enthusiastic. And I do have a very low oficiousness threshold.

We were coming up *behind* two boats that left all the top gates open on the Basingstoke. Their excuse was 'we thought it was the Narrow Boat Trust behind us'. Beat that.

Or go beyond and then back.

Coupled with a suspicion of/tendency to denigrate experts?

'Parallel to each other and virtually alongside' sounds like the perfect passing manoeuvre.