davem399

It’s shocking.

Gives a new meaning to the phrase “going for a dump”.

Yes, I remember now, as I arranged the insurance for the boat, and you negotiated with the owner of the marina where we were based to stay there for a further year. My memory is a bit wonky at times!

I remember this period when we were able to get a cheaper licence for our OwnerShips boat, thanks to your efforts. If I remember correctly, we had to get a nominated owner to apply for the licence, rather than someone from the OwnerShips office? Our boat is originally an OwnerShips one, now 21 years old and I have been an owner from the start. It suited the group of owners to be managed when OwnerShips collapsed and we went with ABC, who were into management of shared ownership boats at the time. When they pulled out of this, we went with BCBM, which is where we are today. A couple of the things we kept in place when we went to ABC was the OwnerShips syndicate agreement and holiday allocation method. For those unfamiliar with the latter, we have school holiday shares, who get to chose their weeks first in the school holiday periods, then the other owners choose. Each year, the order of choosing weeks changes, as pairs of owners move up two places, and the top pair from the previous year go to the bottom of the list. Hence, with 12 shares, you move up the list over 6 years, giving you more choice of weeks as you move up. We tend to move base every couple of years to cruise a new part of the network, and usually to a hire company base who are geared up to perform quick turnarounds between different owners.

At our local big Tesco, the small trolleys require a pound coin or similar, while you don’t need anything to ‘nick’ a big trolley.

It’s a little ironic that one of the three words is “unsecured”.

I had a Sunbeam Alpine, same body as the Tiger, with a 1725cc engine. Sadly, it suffered with rust, but was good fun while it lasted.

No, Rootes.

And Cif still tastes the same.

I remember sitting in the pub garden of the Blue Lias pub twenty one years ago, when two narrow boats left the lock before the bridge still rafted together for some reason. They clouted the bridge quite severely. So not 14’ it would seem.

And I thought the three Johns were pump out, cassette and composting

Or ( and )?

Just going through the motions Tony?

Ron Seal?

On our shared owners boat, we keep a daily diary, which is useful for other owners to read and spread the word. We include the journey for the day, where we found suitable moorings, shops. pubs etc, as other owners are likely to be cruising the same areas. We also have on board a copy of the ‘end of holiday’ report where we record engine hours (to determine when the next service is due) and any faults and breakdowns, and the subsequent fix.

Didn’t some also come from Ratners?

1/12th, just under 5 feet of a shared boat.

Agreed. As motorists we all pay a load of money to use the roads, but still have to pay tolls at places such as the Dartford Crossing. In my town, in places you have to pay to park on the street.

As the old saying goes:- Give a man a fish, and you can feed him for a day. Give a man a fishing rod, and you can make him miserable for the rest of his life.

It’s the Willeymoor. We had a good meal at the Swan at Marbury, about a 15 minute walk from Marbury lock.

Did those door knobs come from a 1982 MFI wardrobe?

Many years ago, my wife worked in the pensions section of the local DHSS office. It was a common misconception by claimants that they thought they had built up a pension pot from their NI contributions, similar to a private pension scheme.

Why not cut out the middle man and drink it neat?

We’ve got the one account into which our pensions and winter fuel money is paid, and for us, it’s £250 each. The wife had hers a couple of days ago, still waiting for mine. When just the wife qualified she got the lot, and then I qualified, it was the same amount but split 50/50 between us.