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Peter X

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Everything posted by Peter X

  1. Cloudy but warm here today, might get outside and do some gardening. I'm seeing one of my doctors in the morning, so I can tell them about it to remind them that they've done a good job so far this year of keeping me alive and well. Life is good.
  2. But is any of it dark green? I think I recently posted somewhere on the forum about the total lack of dark green paint in B&Q. Anyway, cricket fans might like dark green, a standard colour to paint a pavilion. In fact, I remember I sat my Oxford entrance exam in 1972 in our school's cricket pavilion, which was that colour (on the outside at least!)
  3. Aaaargh, don't tempt me. That 6 bed semi at Shillingford looks great, but it isn't Croydon. No waterside properties here, no waterway. They closed our canal in 1836 and the river Wandle doesn't cut it. And, while I could contemplate a house upgrade and I'm in the midst of some serious financial planning, my accountant would have kittens if I suggested going for a £1.500,000 house; a complex thing to aim for.
  4. That's a sort of interesting but off topic academic question I think... No doubt tree monkey would be right about the legal responsibility for any fallen tree resting with its landowner, he'll know about that. But who are the navigation authority for Dukes Cut? I've been along it quite often but I'm not sure. My guess is that the lock was built by the Oxford Canal company and later passed via BWB to CRT, and that most of the channel from there to the main river is part of the Thames and therefore comes under EA. After all, there are two weir streams running off from Duke's Cut which each end up going back into the river downstream of King's Lock; EA would manage those.
  5. As I think has been said, anyone who grew up in Manchester is going to be more or less waterproof. Anyone who's lived anywhere in the UK for some years learns how to cope with rain, so even though I'm from the relatively sunny south I manage OK. Having commuted to office jobs in the City etc. on and off for years, I of course possess the stereotype equipment, coats and umbrellas. We had some rain this week here in Croydon, but nothing much. I think I once read that the part of the UK with the lowest average rainfall is the Essex and Kent coast along the Thames estuary, notably Canvey Island. So maybe the weather's even nicer there.
  6. The answer is She, specifically Alanis Morrissette is God. Have you not seen her in the film Dogma? However many Liverpool supporters would disagree with me, for them it's a man, Robbie Fowler.
  7. Oddly, I have hired other types of boat on various occasions over the years, and the last time I did so, it was a punt on the river Nidd in Knaresborough in 1994. Very different!
  8. Mark, in my experience October is a very good month to go boating, the weather is often just right, not too hot or cold or wet. I have a nice trip on the Thames pencilled in for 8-24 October myself. Go on, get to the UK in October if you can, and enjoy yourself. I've never actually hired a narrow boat myself because I crew for other people, but I would guess that most of the hire boat companies could offer you a good deal for that time of year.
  9. It's interesting to me that you said that, because I know that knee problems often limit people's ability to continue canal boating. How? It's well known on the forum that I've made a habit of volunteering myself as crew for people in order to go boating more, and among the people I've helped in this way I can think of two in particular for whom their knees were a problem, and having me on their crew, a fit agile man with enough boating knowledge to do the locks, was very useful for them. So Harold, maybe you'd be mad to give up boating, I advise that you just persuade a friend or relative to go boating with you and teach them how to do the activities for which a good healthy pair of knees is a requirement! The odd thing is, my knees are fine and in general I feel really good and healthy, but I've had a very different and life-threatening illness this year which has made me hesitate to offer myself as crew! However, my doctors have so far worked wonders to keep me alive and well through it, and I do still plan to get out on the water for a trip on the Thames 8th-24th October, subject to what I'm told at a consultation at the hospital scheduled for 8th September. I appear to be recovering very well and expect to be still alive and boating when I'm 100!
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  11. Mark, go for it and enjoy! There are a lot of very well informed folk on this forum, people with expert knowledge of all aspects of inland waterways and others with experience of the sea. In fact it's a great place to seek advice about almost anything, because think of just about any subject and there are people on this forum who are experts on it, and we're all very helpful. I say we because I have my own specialist areas of knowledge and have often pitched in to contribute to related topics. The first thing I ever wrote about on the forum was in 2014 part way through the epic topic about Pillings Lock Marina, as I recall it covering the roles of directors and shareholders in limited companies, what options CRT might have had in chasing a debt the marina owed, and the possible outcomes.
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  13. In my career as a computer analyst/programmer, I hated estimating. Managers always wanted estimates and then complained about whatever estimate I gave them because it wasn't what they wanted to hear, and although I was very competent at what I did, my estimates could only ever be vague and the outcome was likely to be affected by unforeseen events, usually including the managers changing their minds about what was wanted. Canal building was a FAR earlier technology, but the same probably happened. Most of the time when estimates were being discussed I just sat there thinking "Go away and leave me to get on and do the job!"
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  15. David Mack, Well done you and everyone else involved in creating the Croydon Tramlink. it was very popular as soon as it opened as I recall it, and ever since, so Tramlink must have been pleased with their accountants. I lived in Anerley then Beckenham in its early years, then in three different houses in Croydon, and none of these five houses was far from a stop, so I've been a heavy user of Tramlink over the years, including the last few days. Yesterday I went to Addington Village and back, but fortunately the lessons of the crash at Sandilands a few years ago got learnt, so our driver today took the corner properly. I love Tramlink, and the proximity of my house to a tram stop was a factor in choosing it when I bought in 2009. One way for Wimbledon and lots of trains and the District Line, the other way into glorious West Croydon and beyond,, what's not to like? Of course the section I'm on started life as part of the Surrey Iron Railway in 1809, then later became the Wimbledon to West Croydon railway line (I used that once in 1976), so its line already existed when you came on the scene, but the horse drawn trucks had long gone. Tramlink is an example of X's first law of transport in London, which states that if you build and open any new railway/tube line etc. from anywhere to anywhere in London, it will soon fill with passengers. X's second law is that everyone in London is usually in a hurry to get from A to B, so woe betide anyone trying to obstruct or slow down that process, but we do like people who help it.
  16. I feel your pain, as I've lived much of my life quite near the old Croydon Canal, but it's been shut since some wretched people bought it in about 1936 to use the land for a railway. However I have used the railway a lot.
  17. Find one on a big enough scale, build it and you'll have a proper boat! My brother and I had fun building the Airfix kit of the Bismarck in about 1968, but we weren't going to sink HMS Hood with it. Sorry people, I seem to be in silly mode this afternoon. I can only offer my current rather drasctic medication, and the heat down here in the sunny south, as excuses.
  18. As it seems fashionable to be pedantic to Cardboard_Frog, I should mention that no canal boat will be passing by Liverpool, they'll go there and back away again as it's a dead end, unless they're adventurous enough to take a canal boat across the Mersey, but I suppose that's possible and sometimes done. Sorry Paul.
  19. Also remember at Osney to clear whatever else you need to off the roof early enough. Last October I watched in fear from my position steering the butty as one of our crew took down the motor's engine chimney at the last moment, then ducked down himself at the very last moment to protect himself too. I'd got some of my butty roof clearing done before then, but still had to hurry to get my stove chimney down and the water cans safely passed down into the cabin, then duck.. Other Thames bridges mostly have plenty of headroom, there's a list of them somewhere on the EA website I think, and boats tend to fit under motorways rather well. I'm not sure which takes the title of second worst bridge. Some such as Godstow can be tricky but have arrows to point you the right way. If and when I go downstream again past Newbridge (actually a rather old bridge!) I shall probably avoid using the leftmost arch even though the guide book says one should use it; don't ask me how I know this, as someone else on the forum can probably explain the snag!
  20. Some general observations about this topic, based on having been up and down the Thames a lot in recent years on narrow boats, mostly as crew on the NBT's pair carrying 30 or 40 tonnes of coal... On the Thames you can encounter anything, I've even seen little sailing dinghies, so should always keep your wits about you and maintain a good look out when steering. You don't want to be running over some unfortunate swimmer, canoeist or rower(s), the latter coming in variable quantities of people;1,2,4 or 8 plus a cox. Some of the canoeists and rowers can come at you rather recklessly (but the fours and eights are usually well trained), so be ready to give them a good blast on your horn to warn them to move aside. I think the bigger your boat, the louder and deeper the horn should be to communicate the danger! Fortunately most of them are good at dodging out of the way, but watch them and be ready to use the horn again. Expect the unexpected, e.g. a big boat carrying lots of passengers suddenly appearing around the next bend, those need lots of room to get by you and will want to use the deeper water in the centre. Usually those have captains who know what they're doing. There are always a lot of GRP boats of all sizes about, especially on summer weekends, some of which are on day hire and might be driven by someone who has little understanding of what they're doing. The bigger wedding cake ones mostly have rich/posh owners or hirers, and sometimes staff aboard to crew the boat/palace for them and serve up the drinks and nibbles. Always follow instructions from the lock keepers if present ,and if in doubt ask their advice. Generally they will decide who goes in the lock in what order and where, and will push the buttons. If they are not present, just talk politely to all other boaters present and agree amongst yourselves! Sometimes I've turned up at a lock which is not staffed and just marshalled the traffic myself to reduce the queue. We certainly don't want our heavy pair of coal boats to end up squashing some little GRP boat (too much paperwork) so we take great care. The usual rule for licences is that you buy one from the first lock you come to where someone is on duty, e.g. Shepperton if you come out of the Wey and go up river. A licence can be various different lengths of time, and the cost goes up according to your boat's area, defined as length x beam. See the EA website for prices. You get two stickers, to show in a window on each side of your boat, with an expiry date on them. Different rules apply to commercial vessels such as the NBT. Or below Teddington on the tidal river, that's run by the PLA. And on the Wey, that belongs to the National Trust. Mooring can indeed be a bit of a free for all, often free if you know a good place to sneak in and tie to a tree or two rather unofficially. It's good to learn the possible places and what the land owners do, and to understand the "Thames Visitor Mooring" scheme (see other topics) Finally, use your guide book and know what's ahead. Beware of all the odd islands, and the weir streams. And the shallows on the inside of some bends, look out for the green and red buoys and know what they mean. Swimmers often use an orange buoy tied to them, which helps keep them alive. And remember to duck when going under Osney Bridge at Oxford. I'm really looking forward to my two weeks out on the river in October!
  21. There should be a good chance that someone from the forum will step forward to volunteer to crew for you. I used to do this sort of thing quite often and enjoyed it, and probably will again in future, but this year I've held back due to a serious health problem. My doctors think I could die within a few months, but so far they've done a good job of keeping me alive, and on my latest medication I feel great. I'm probably too busy to do much in late August and your move is way up north anyway, but I haven't let that put me off in the past; I was on the Rochdale with a forum member that Christmas a few years ago when it had a bad flood , the River Calder overflowing into the canal a bit west of Hebden Bridge, just upstream of where we were. Pretty scary! And in October I've got a nice trip lined up to look forward to, two weeks on the rivers Thames and Wey and down into west London crewing for the Narrow Boat Trust delivering coal etc. as I did in 2019. I've crewed a lot for the NBT since I joined in 2016 and retired to do more boating, it's great fun. I've told my doctor and physio that I'm fit for heaving the bags about and intend to do the trip and live to be 100. We need extra crew for that trip if anyone fancies it; see the NBT website for contact details about membership; we're all volunteers on that, including an experienced captain.
  22. A paddle board eh?! Having done a fair bit of punting at Oxford long ago, and in fact I briefly punted in Cambridge in 1974 and Knaresborough in 1994, I've sometimes wondered whether anyone's done the BCN Challenge by punt. Could be fun, but safety would have to be carefully planned, and a camping punt would be needed really. Also get yourselves an Oxford graduate on the crew, Cambridge don't do punting properly.
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  25. Clearly the bolts exist, they're building a new junction onto it this year and they've got to make sure it holds together: https://www.essexhighways.org/highway-schemes-and-developments/highway-schemes/m11-junction-7a.aspx Maybe the bolts are made in Harlow, after all they say this new junction is: "supporting business growth in the area" Hardly ever been on the M11 myself, I'm from south of the river guv.
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