Peter X

If it had been an e-book I would only have given it 2.71

That line does look as if it could well come off the bollard if the dredger drifts astern, perhaps pulled by the flow towards that weir, but at the left of the photo is there another line which is preventing that happening? I didn't know there was a film of Mr Pye, but I read Mervyn Peake's book. I gave it 3.14 out of 5

I think metric sizes for a lot of goods were introduced around the early 1970s. The way I vaguely remember it, both Wilson and Heath were in favour of it. By the time I briefly worked on garage forecourts in the autumn of 1976, I'm sure oil was all in metric size cans; most of what we sold was the small size, 500ml was it? I remember BP brought out VF7 oil at that time and we were told to push sales of it, but your average South London motorist was rather suspicious of it and it didn't sell well. Something about it being a bit thinner than other oils, so only suitable for certain engines? Maybe because a lot of my boating is on the busier canals such as the GU and Oxford, paddles I come across seem to more often suffer from too much grease rather than too little. As Alan Fincher said, there's a lot of variation in how stiff gates and paddles are, and it certainly helps to have someone strong on a crew to deal with the awkward ones. Earlier this year when I was recovering from an operation I had to dodge the heavier work for a while, and came to appreciate this more.

I think this is the best approach, running water if the drink you've spilt is at all acidic. Many are, especially tea and any cola, and pretty much any drink other than plain water has something dissolved in it which will make the water conduct electricity and create a short circuit. Prevention is better than cure; never bring a drink over or near a laptop. For a separate keyboard like I use with my desktop PC, don't worry much, they're cheap to replace if necessary.

Mice have to eat little and often, and will eat pretty much anything that a human will, so all food should be enclosed in metal or glass, or in a fridge/cupboard they can't get into, and all crumbs etc. should be promptly got rid of; they're tiny, they can live off tiny amounts of food. Having done that, offer some food in a mousetrap (I've used chocolate) and they'll go for it. Unless you want the bother of keeping a cat which will probably scare the mouse off, I think a conventional spring trap is actually the most humane way. It makes a mess of the head but it does it very quickly. If you trap a mouse alive, it'll slowly starve to death unless released. There you'll be on your boat in the middle of the night, needing to get dressed and go on a long walk before you let the mouse go, otherwise it might return to you if it can climb your mooring line. I had one of those traps once and the instructions said to release the mouse at least half a mile from the house, they are good at finding their way home.

I just Googled her to check. She's married, so you'll be hearing from her lawyer.

Nightwatch: Would you be happy to live in one of these modern prefabs, and why or why not? They even have their own TV series, My Flat-Pack Home with Amanda Lamb. Everybody loves Amanda Lamb according to Harry Hill; do you?

Wouldn't it have been desirable for the Lincolnite to have taken a photo of the map which included the whole marina, and then made sure it didn't get cropped in the wrong place, as readers might wish to see its connection to the river? Potential moorers and other interested parties might well think that was an important feature. Somehow I can't see the photographer or editor responsible having a great future in journalism; how are they going to get a good photo when they report on something that's moving? I thought Lincolnshire was one of the cheapest areas in England for housing? But I've never visited the county in my life, and I suppose there's some need for new housing everywhere.

You mean you have a bat phone? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNO0ECHTP5A It has some interesting features, but is probably poor at posting on canalworld.

Well, the singer is dead, but the author of Principles of Program Design is not only British, but still alive (aged 82) according to Wikipedia. He sounds like a much more likely candidate to be visible in the mirror of system 4-50, although he can't be too daft as he did write a book that's quite well respected in programming circles.

And which Michael Jackson do you mean? There's a lot of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_(disambiguation) Many years ago I read a book by this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_A._Jackson

The OP might also try looking for a B&B nearby in Osney or Jericho and comparing their prices; I don't know which would be best value.

30C unbearable? It's a good job you live up north, that's a normal summer afternoon down here! But it does get uncomfortable if doing any exercise, so if I'm unloading coal or digging my garden on a day like that I like to do it in the morning or evening if possible.

The article says the plan is to lower the canal by a maximum of 10cm when heavy rain is expected, which I doubt would affect boating much. I suppose the computer may not like people operating locks at such a time and upsetting its calculations, but then if it's about to rain heavily (a fairly frequent state of affairs in Glasgow so I hear, although on my two brief visits it didn't) people might not be wanting to be out boating. Purchasers of those 3000 new homes on the land now allegedly freed from flood risk may wish to check that insurers believe this scheme will cope with the worst that Glasgow's weather can do. But if this scheme provides the Scottish government with a motive to keep the canal maintained that's got to be a good thing.

I hope the same biscuits are not still there, it would be shameful to waste them. You might wish to remove that cobweb from the blue thing to the left of the door too.