Thomas C King
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Posts posted by Thomas C King
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1 hour ago, jddevel said:
Upset someone this morning as I put my generator (Honda) on as they were working on the internet and said they couldn't hear. Told me to turn it off in a most unpleasant manner. I know using a generator is a difficult subject but for some reason yet to be rectified my domestic alternator and solar panel doesn't seem to keep services batteries maintained.
Did they mean they were in a meeting or somesuch? If that's the case then, whilst I get generators are annoying to some, they are talking nonsense. I have meetings just fine whilst people's gennies are on (including ours in winter)
How long were you running it for? Are you charging your batteries with it? If not, then a quick fix to reducing running time would be a battery charger - and you might save on fuel because of inefficiencies.
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24 minutes ago, Slow and Steady said:
Maybe, but from their point of view perhaps those that bluster that it isn't fair that they can't find a mooring easily while on their holidays or that they can't row their boats without looking where they are going and those "slums" should be cleared to make their comparatively privileged lives more convenient are the ones exhibiting entitlement.
This is certainly a common theme on the London boaters facebook group, where 'gentrification' comes up frequently (and I've noticed more people are pro-NBTA than on the other groups, even the K&A one).
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2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
There appears to be a whole generation that seem to consider themselves to be 'entitled'
Entitled to a job they want to do, or, to be paid a living wage for not working.
Entitled to have a house at a price they want to pay & where they want to live.
Entitled to have a boat and only apply the rules they think should apply to them.
Is this a boomer poem?
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6 minutes ago, magnetman said:
Yes but certain people exist higher up the balance scale of piss taking than others and may view what they are doing as not actually taking the piss.
The entitlement issue is getting quite problematic of late. Not quite sure what has happened but there do seem to be more and more people that genuinely believe they can take the piss and it's okay.
I wonder if the housing crisis is causing a demographic shift in boaters, and those new boaters are more likely to be piss-takers. I would guess that previously, most liveaboards were drawn to the lifestyle, boats, or both. I.e., a genuine love of the canals and moving about. Now, we may have more people who are doing it as a cheap way to live, so moving about isn't actually the point of it for them.
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10 hours ago, waterworks said:
Sea level rise is 0.14 inches a year. Stop panicking.
Which is a lot.
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48 minutes ago, blackrose said:
I do everything myself; plumbing, electrics, engine servicing, basic carpentry, metal fabrication, painting, etc. The only things I don't do are welding as I never learned how to do that and although I've taken off cylinder heads I've never had to rebuild an engine, but I'm sure I could learn pretty quickly.
I have a university degrees, masters degree and a PhD. I take your point Tony, but there are plenty of people who are both academic and practical.
I went similarly far into further education but far fewer practical skills than yourself. I am assuming I am younger.
There could be a correlation between people who went further into further education, and people with fewer practical skills. But there is another variable, age; younger people are less likely to have had the time to learn those skills, and are more likely to have gone into further education.
In a decade, we might find that there is a lower correlation between university education and practical skills.
This is all assuming that the stats match this. Lack of practical skills amongst the youth and any correlation with education could be the figment of our imaginations.
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1 minute ago, Ray T said:
Also, I find the age factor creeping up.
Ahah, I was assuming it was increasing numbers of younger boaters without experience or confidence (e.g., from owning a home), rather than ageing boaters. Could be a bit of both.
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I think most likely is a changing demographic. People who simply don't have those skills, or people who don't have the time. I doubt plumbing and carpentry have become more complicated, although I suppose electrics sometimes are (slightly).
2 minutes ago, Rob-M said:I find having the time to do anything more than minor jobs is my problem so would rather pay someone to do a job whilst I am not on the boat, leaving me time to go boating rather than spending it painting or doing other jobs.
It feels like finding someone takes a lot of time as well. Even for a simple job, it took us months to get someone to plumb in a new whale gulper (previous plumbing was a botch). We've been waiting six months to have our wood burner door replaced, even after a reputable tradesperson agreed to do it.
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10 hours ago, blackrose said:
if you're going to do stupid activities and take your clothes off in public then perhaps one should expect some sort of reaction and not necessarily positive.
I don't see this as any different from going for a swim (in a place good for swimming, not wherever that was). Never got any abuse swimming in the upper Thames.
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Is this in support of the NHS or gay people? This is why we can't be using iconography willy-nilly, it gets confusing.
As an aside, whilst I support LGBTQ+ rights, I find this kind of branding cynical. When a business, e.g., H&M, uses it, what are they saying? That they make a meaningful contribution to the movement? If yes, then fine use it. But they don't, and CRT doesn't do anything special either as far as I know.
Or is it to say "we welcome LGBTQ+ people"? Because that should, in a modern society, be the default position.
If anything, the use of human rights movements for commercial purposes is, in my view, harming them.
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1 hour ago, LadyG said:
I just find it odd that people think being off centre is the most important feature of their personna.
Years ago I was looking for a flatshare in Rotterdam. The potential flatmate asked if I was religious, I said no. Turns out she was gay and didn't want to be stabbed in the night by a fanatic. I think it's a genuine concern for gay people, and there have been a number of high-profile murders and assaults. It's not always about identity.
I remember Huami in Whilton, I think we left around the same time. It's a lovely boat, and it looks like you've covered far more of the network than we have. Hope you find someone.
edit: As an aside, I don't fully understand why you can't accommodate a woman. Are you worried they'll lack sufficient privacy (or that you will)? If you feel comfortable, I'd consider rethinking that and let them decide whether it's their cup of tea or not.
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11 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:
I don't think our government system is the root cause of mental illness
Policies or system? If you mean policies, then I can't see how you can separate those policies that affect wealth (or lack of) and mental health. Even a simple example, gambling addiction - we know that poverty affects cortisol levels, and raised cortisol causes people to make short-term and often irrational decisions in the face of long-term consequences.
In response to Athy, and for politics and this thread. I don't know how you can post anything about NBTA without it being political, isn't NBTA a political group? It seems to be to me. I'm not saying we should allow politics in this part of the forum, but there seems to be a grey area where canal life and politics coincide. Maybe just live and let live in those cases, but keep non-canal politics out of here for the sanity of some people.
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6 minutes ago, Slow and Steady said:
Actually I'm in two minds about counselling anyway - it didn't exist in any meaningful way 40-50 years ago - you had to just get on with it, which is really what the ultimate aim of counselling is!
I don't think the past should guide today's medicine! Many seem unable to "get on with it", so ignoring costs I don't know why you wouldn't use evidence-based counseling if you could. Obviously, if you can fix it yourself then you don't need it, but then I'd question whether there is a mental disorder in the first place.
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1 hour ago, Slow and Steady said:
Unqualified GPs prescribing brain warping drugs because the wait for a councillor is 6 months or more.
The other side of it is that, even if the NHS could afford counseling for everyone that needs it, there aren't enough counselors with capacity. I've recently been looking for private counseling and many simply had no capacity.
The cost, as you've already pointed out, is higher as well. But not only higher, so high that I would guess there is no scenario where this country could afford it for everyone who needed it. That is based on private and accredited counseling seeming (from my searches) to start at £60 per session, often £120 for someone with more experience.
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Often see these devices in van life vlogs, particularly build-out ones. Typically, the manufacturer gives them to the vlogger for free.
Looking at it, it's cheaper per Wh, than our lithium setup (i.e., the Victron lithium + BMS etc.), which to be fair isn't the cheapest. Is the chemistry the same, or is it something else?
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Facebook is designed to waste time, not to find information quickly. The absolute best software for finding information, in my opinion, is the StackExchange system (which isn't freely available). Forums like this coupled with Google are also decent.
But then, Facebook isn't just about the software, but also the social network itself. I check it regularly for canal stuff to see which tea leaves are near our mooring, and also to read the occasional argument about hirers etc.
No useful answer to the OP, sorry.
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Is it always irregular when going astern? I find it really changes depending on wind and current. Sometimes easy, othertimes not.
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On 06/05/2022 at 10:35, David Mack said:
On the GU most bottom gates leak more due to the mitre posts being worn at gunwale level by narrow boats using only one gate.
On canals with single-gate locks, do they have the same problem? Wondering why CaRT volunteers tell people to use two gates. Do single-gate locks need a lot more repair?
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On 19/04/2022 at 17:33, haza said:
well to be honest i am no whizz with tecno but thanks for the info
Techno is pretty straightforward, being characterized by a rhythm in 4/4 time.
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8 minutes ago, PD1964 said:
You’ll find when you spent a few years on the canals that full time boat owners are just as inept and spend more time on lock landings and water points not moving then weekly holiday hirers. I thought you might of noticed this on the K&A
Already aware of this. And I agree, the regular "problem boaters" are a far bigger annoyance, and the biggest threat imo to boating (as they may cause an overreaction from society in general).
Example, there is an ongoing dispute near Saltford. Homeowners complaining about boaters, in one case a homeowner unmoored a boat that they didn't want in front of their house (they were given ASBOs). Here, I think some homeowners are being a**seholes. HOWEVER, when we moored there it was obvious that some boaters (shed-boats, specifically) were overstaying and being a general nuisance with engine running etc. Would the homeowners be a**seholes to all boaters, were it not for the few generally difficult boaters? Not sure, but the difficult minority seem to be harming the rule-obeying majority (if it is a majority, not sure anymore).
In Brentford now, we'll see if it's a similar trend round here as we head up the GU.
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On hirers. Some are a bit inept, but I am also seeing some who are overly-apologetic because people have a go at them for little-to-nothing. An example: some folks on the K&A turning at a non-winding point, but where there was plenty of space (more than many official winding points). Someone yelled at them. They weren't in the way.
Even before that incident, I spoke to them and they were saying they were not trying to upset anyone when coming close to our boat (I was neither upset nor worried).
In other cases, some are pretty annoying, like those mooring at water points or lock landings. But the majority are fine.
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1 hour ago, PD1964 said:
like what I’m seeing with the new breed of the older middle class boaters, who have just bought a new £200k plus boat and set up a YouTube/Instagram channel to tell the world about their new fabulous life onboard.
Never realised that you don't like certain YouTubers
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That makes sense. The signs say "no mooring" in big print, and "except for the first 24 hours" in very small print below. The second bit is a right conferred so that navigation is feasible, I assume. If that's a correct assumption, are most landowners who say "no mooring" (with no exceptions) on the Thames actually obliged to "allow" 24 hours? E.g., the royal estate at Windsor lol.
It's a bit worrying if the 24-hour moorings are abolished, can councils do that legally? I'd be dead if we'd done Reading to Teddington in a day, it took us 17 hours.
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We moved down from Reading to Brentford over the weekend. When in Kingston(-upon-Thames) we noticed that there were some boats on the short-term moorings that look like they never move (though I might be mistaken). Example below. I know the Duke's cut in Oxford doesn't have mooring limits enforced by CRT or EA, I was just wondering if this is a wider trend? No intention of taking the piss ourselves, obviously.
'Well being' is it worthwhile?
in General Boating
Posted · Edited by Thomas C King
Aside from CaRT my issue with "well being" and "wellness" in general is that it takes a lot more than a walk in nature to feel "well", when I think they're talking about mental health. Specific to CaRT: in so far as the outdoors can help mental health, and health in general with vitamin D and exercise, water and canals are neither necessary nor sufficient for "wellness".
If the objective is the best outdoor space possible, it'd be more efficient to plow the money into making our parks as best and frequent as possible. Of course, that wouldn't make the canals navigable, which should be the purpose.