Tiny

I went through the candidates fist. Not every word of course as some 'I am a ... is instant 'no chance'. I picked 5 then the wife read (everything as I miss lots) and agreed my choices. Of course as has been said people can write what they like about themselves - true or false and it's only if you know them well you can really get a handle on what they think. Not only that but saying you feel the current mob should be got rid (as an example) of may/may not get you votes and I have to say if I wrote 500 words about me, then read them cold I probably would not vote for me! I voted online and then went back through the listfinding a 6th to 10th choice. I must admit I made number 10 one of the 5 famous bods as I definately think they are not as bad as some of the others who were a total turn off. Finally I know that they can't do it and be a fair election but I wished there was somewhere where you could see a current exit pole (as it were) to see the trends. I hate the sure things like 'no matter what Robin, Hales and the old crew still carry on and so win' but then CART is a right parsons egg designed by them for them as we all know.

We had no real snow but had really cold but almost frostless nights. Yesterday the milkman, out ever day, said today (Saturday) is the worst for him as a temerature ( not the coldest) made even gravel drives slippery. He could not figure this out. In one Norweigen film they actually announced ice storms when the wet rain fast froze and you had to crawl down the streets. Cars just slide with no control. They had a similar effect in rush hour Birmingham some years back though only the cars slide the pedestrians could still walk - just.

Wonder if the police H&S accessment they do round here before coming includes spiders. On one local one they came then found it was a crocodile on the ladies lawn. Being resouceful they used here bowl of satsumas to bombard it before deciding it was asleep - at which point hubby arrived - he having bought the stone croc as a nice surprise for the wife.

O good grief!

Do we have to register to get a vote or is having a boat licence mean a pack should arrive? My education on this is sadly neglected.

Also RSPCA men and police dragging you off for endangering goldfish. P.S. Telling them to get stuffed tends to make them even more angry as they don't like stuffed animals, birds or fish.

In my younger stronger days I bent the shaft of my Grand Union Windlass into an L on one of the type of Jack Cloughs shown - it being on the Wigan flight. I was so angry I bent the thing straight again on the same paddle. That windlass still bears a kink though given the thickness of metal God know how I done/undone it. But we loved all the old gear - including a profusion of types on the Stratford and the Trent and Mersey. Now most has gone and I even get nostalgic in case they get rid of the last hydraulics - a thing I hated when it replaced got old fashion gear - thank to Bw getting 1000 sets of the stuff. And while you are about it BW bring back the chains for lift bridges which is the next thing you saftyfied with all those gash hydraulics when you started going back to older fashioned paddles on locks under Sir Leslie in the 1990s. Back then there was loads of fasinating stuff around like swing bridges to trap cars on, lift bridges you hung onto the beam on to pull down and lots more - we often wondered if BW replaced them without ever knowing what they were replacing with the boring standard models. As for the 'under the beam long winder' shown as was still in use on some locks (like Hoo Mill) on the T&M. It was fascinating how many chaps used to sit behind the end of the beam watching the ladies working the locks. Talk about plumber inch!

As usual our part of the country (not far from here in the photo ) got a slight covering as it got dark yesterday - which turned icy. But its melted now. Mind you one winter we had feet of snow - according to the Beeb - but one national reporter complained that he (we) had had none. This time there isn't even snow on higher ground round here and the birds water was not frozen this morning for the first time in a week. On the other hand if we get a high north or east wind then it gets cold! On the other hand Shawbury (near Norbury) - the place the training helicopters come from if you wonder - holds a lot of English coldest records as the winds blow in from the Urals.

More than one 70' boat has found the bottom lock at Hurleston OK but sticks in the second lock up The sticking point seems to be about a foot off empty. Snipe was OK but it's butty stuck more than once and then the fun started as the owner had a thing about opening the top paddles to wash the boat out. With his refusal this meant anyone waiting to come up and swap with the butty ended up hanging about for a good few minutes while the crew of the butty plus others tried to bow haul it out. You might think they would learn but we were told it happened most years.

Don't use new ones - one bloke on the T&M had them nicked while he was shopping.

The shelf is actually a slab which often extends under the towpath making getting pins far in difficult. The underwater shelf is often just under the boat even if you are floating so passing boats will drop you far enough to grate in places. The shelf itself does have some small gaps and there are marked moorings with rings in many of them but roughly runs from north of Gnosall to Barbridge. The size of wheel varies with a wheel designed for the shroppie (made of plastic) about a foot across being OK in most places - though boats may still ground as detailed above.

For our honeymoon in december we chose to go to a chalet on Hayling island. We had a 3kw electric fire on a long lead that we moved round, the materesses from 3 beds on the one we used and a tin bath which I tried. My wife cooked her first Sunday roast and I asked her to stick it back in the oven for another hour please. From then on I have done the cooking and she does the cleaning and the washing up. The tin bath - twix fire and open oven on full was rather cold - never again. Now after over 40 years of trials we put very hot water in the bath and leave for 30minutes to warm the bath material before we adjust temperature which seems to work given the room is warmed with a wall heater and heated towel radiator. My scars are not from the bath but are the tradition ones you get from taking stuff out of the Rayburn's oven - these being the standard badge of a person who works with one of these ever hot things.

We used ours for years until the whole thing just gave up the ghost. We swopped to a kettle and teapot which is OK as we don't have to get up. This morning we only woke at 9am which is OK as we are not rushing anywhere so then we make tea and biscuits and get up later.

More recently (after the years of Aikman and Hutchens) the IWA have been more and more in with BW to the point of sometimes being a spokesman for their veiw and stopping their still hot headed members from rocking the boat - which lack of rocking tends to work to BWs advantage. 'And the Devil took him up to a high place and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said 'All this will I give you if you worship me.''

It used to annoy us when we hired but one day we found a set floating in the canal so used them for a few years. It's amazing what does float away and all the good rope that gets dumped too. Now we have our own boat and a lot of fenders which means no banging - but fender types come and go so if you find one you like buy them while you can!

I can't see that the IWA represents boaters. Years back they started saying they represented all canal users and since then often take an almost anti boater (BW spokesman) stance. No votes for them - NABO yes. As for supporting boaters yes to some on this site but most boaters (the committee sort) out there often display a marked lack of knowledge about anything but the few miles of cut near them and even then have some very strange ideas. So it comes down to hoping they represent you and don't just go along with the flow.

A paraffin shop - it brings a memory of 'going round the oil man' which was a shop which was an iron monger but stunk of paraffin - either pink (ring hunter 1234) or esso blue. Which I don't know but that paraffin powered the heater that was always alight in the upstairs hall - the only source of heat up there in winter. I always assosiate the smell of that heater and the blue glow of its flame with warmth. One wonders if having that and coal fires indoors smoking away is the reason few kids had asthma back then as living in all the fumes meant they were more immune to such things. Now I would be choking on the fumes and wondering why the house was so cold - guess I have gone soft... In those days my uncle Charlie smoked himself to getting enough coupons for a service of Sheffield steel, monogramed cutlery - which we use every day. Meanwhile everyone (including the oil man) gave green shield stamps and that got us one set of china - still in use on the boat, the other set (a wedding present) being used at home. One bit we have modernised though is the system used for power cuts - which tend to happen a few times each year. We have the paraffin lamps, torches, a battery strip light and so on but when the lights went out last week (due to the fuses blowing a half mile off with a bang loud enough for us to hear through the double glazing) we simply reached down to the TV table shelf, put on the head torches and switched on the LED camping lanterns then hung them up, then carried on reading the paper (as the head torch gives a better light than the room lights). The electric people said 3 hours but power was back in 40 minutes.

In my neck of the woods both the Middlewich companies have a slightly tarnished reputation because of the desire for speed of their hirers. As for the Middlewich boats ones I know of one firm who has had trouble with them arriving for pumpouts and not obeying the marina rules to wait outside for a staff member to bring them in through the narrow, and easily damaged, entrance.

Now that's what I call social inclusion and jobs for the elderly!