Tiny

If you are connected to an electric supply the delonghi babino 500watt oil radiator heater gives out an amazing amount of heat for its size. On a low setting it warms our bedroom - which due to a sloping roof lack insultaion - and keeps this 13'x13'x8' room nicely warm on a low setting being on about half the time. And, apart from a tiny on/off click it is silent.

As I understand it this committee will meet twice a year and only be able to suggest rather than order - is this true? If it is the committee is a paper tiger no matter who is on it.

Going back to the original missive it is nice of Tony Hales to acknowledge that boaters have a wealth of knowledge that the new trust wants to tap. With his BW hat on he and the rest of them were amazing uninterested in boater knowledge as they - with very little such knowledge - all knew much better than us - or so they told MPs when we queried their decisions. And actually they still do - just write to your MP about a contensious issue and see if Robin phones up for your informed opinion...

Our neck of the woods is almost feudal in its squire/peasent approach. But the strange thing is that all the people are incomers in the last 150years. (Apart from a number of locals who all seem related and seem to have no history that is written.) Yet we live in the house of x or y or where the doctor used to live - no one knows houses by names and we don't have numbers. We have lived here longer than anyone else since WW2 but we have no idea if anyone thinks of it as ours. It takes about 3 generations to become known and a lot more than that to find a nitch as anyone coming in a becoming a know local churchman (say) has little chance against the established few. Still having said that its that few that support year on year - often unnoticed by the ones who stay a few years and expect a church to be there. Every year one of the few provides a site for the church fete and they top the money up to outdo the previous year as these funds must be found as the CofE is like a burger franchise - fail to pay what they demand and you get shut down - trust me it happens. What they demand in this area seems to be massive - nearly 10 thousand for a church with a parish of 400 and 3 times that for a 1200 parish nearby. As for the vicar either he works free or one who is paid gets a lot of churches and so is more an administrator than a 'there for you' vicar. And while vicars and most of their congregation come and go the few - rooted to the area - are there year on year. They are often not liked by all and they don't even turn up if its inconvenient but without them the chances of keeping the church open would be small. It's the same with most things round here. For example, unlike other places, when our school was threatened with closure for very dubious reasons there was no old guard and the parents seemed to expect the school head and a few of the govenors to do the job of saving it. Some of those bright new parent govenors then resigned leaving the few oldies to do there best with no real backup other than the odd whine about it not being allowed by the many who supported the school being open in word but not in deed. The result was other schools stayed open ours is closing - with the old guard at other schools actually helping the process at ours to save their schools - which again you can't blame. Still this is how things work in our part of the country.

Take a standard shroppie narrow lock with top gate paddle, water entires to the lock designed no throwforward (like that coming uphill on Heartbreak). Have two ground paddles top and bottom. Put skinny gates on it so it does not attack boats as many fat shroppies top gates with their sharped edged metal do. Chuck in a crossing bridge at the bottom (like those on the T&M) and a long exit narrow section at the top to wait in while closing the top gate (like Tardibigge). At the bottom end angle the weir stream down rather than across the canal and give the lock a long entry narrow with steps both sides to boat level so people can get on and off easily. Have 4 ladders - two each end in the lock and one bollard on the offside for use in the locks with a metal edge for the rope to slide along rather than grinding on a rough stone one. Have at least 8 bollards top and 8 bottom for mooring and waiting for the lock to be prepared before entry. Make the lock approx 7 feet deep. Get the owners of the lock (CART, BW, EA) to keep all parts in full working order greased with waterproof silicon grease as necessary and easy to use. Make the pounds between the locks wide enough and long enough for boats to pass easily.

Shame the board, appointed by ministers can't be disappointed by them and be told no bonuses.

Talking of coincidences this morning on 11-11-11 at 10-10 I bought £26.26 of fuel for the car.

Living in the WElsh Marches we often get incomrehensible talk in the town supermarkets. The Welsh often don't understand the Welsh from elsewhere as we get different regions in. But then the local English accents vary so much that often you have to listen hard to realise they are talking English. And now we also get Eastern Euro accents in there gabbling away - as for us we speak slow as some complain they can't understand our accent. Incidently round here you have to check which language any dog you buy has been trained in - yelling English at a Welsh sheepdog doesn't work as more than one farmer from other parts has found.

AS I was no good at French (having told the nasty rude lady who taught us this for years) she refused to let me sit it at O level and I was not allowed to do latin so did woodwork and art. At woodwork the master (Mr Driver but call me screwy) said I was honest but so bad that he made my test piece for me, gave me/him 60% and advised me to give it up for ever. The art mistress - a real arty love my arty pupils type - gave my painting 20% reduced to 15 - which I felt unfair as I look at it framed on the wall in the lounge - it being a pretty accurate painting of central park NY - complete with her 20/15 graffitti scawled on the wall of the park and the skyscrapers along the back draw using a ruler but in perfect perspective.

Last time we went through the locks - which won a £50,000 prize for some lady artitect who told the keeper off for pointing out the lack of a raise push the gate stone as such stones would spoil the symmetry. (She also used a pretty but btittle brick that shattered easily as it looked nice.) Anyway going through a couple of years back we noted the lack of grease, graffiti and rubbish in the water and, in broken bottle form on the land but to add insult to injury (with the lock keeper long gone) a Bw crew were hard at work getting the grass out of the cracks! When we asked about grease, rubbish, graffitti they turned real funny as it was not their job and until money was found by the local council it wouldn't be as BW on't do that stuff round here. By the way what on Earth is a certain avatar dragon doing behind the newspaper?

Sounds like Kenny Everett in the bowler hat and suspenders to me.

Watch out - tigers eating poles may incur an EU fine. I like the tigger - as long as it doesn't start moving in an annoying (to me) fashion like that fly.

I gain the impression that it depends on the local area and especially the local bloke on the ground. In many areas owned then under Northwich boats never got moved while in just a couple they regularly are. We have also noticed that when a rally is due suddenly most of the local regulars disappear as though the area is ethnically clensed.

My MP is long past his 'useful to constituants' sell buy date and has his head so far up his leaders fundiment that all you get is gov speak. Its a shame as he is proud owner of a very canal constituency but the boating lot lost him years ago when he was willing to support them and they ignored his approaches as they wanted 'to be equally fair to all parties'. He (who at that time was approachable and talked to me) was really pissed off by this and never joined an canals group. After 5 years an MP he went over to the dark side as in 'I don't listen - I tell you as I am an MP'. Sending him a letter now gets a standard reply from a wench who was the most useless waste of space as a local borough councillor we ever had - she now being one of his assistants and on the future MP ladder - or she thinks so. So no point in writing.

If, when moored, we see boats crawling towards us in the wind we yell for them to give it some welly - which only works sometimes as some are to expert to take advice. We figure the wind makes more wash than the boats. Mind you in the pound you were in there is no room to give it welly and its amazing how many wind against the boat approaching lock 13 or 14 forcing them to crawl.

Thanks for the info. I chap I knew had a Saturday job cleaning horse drawn barges when he was a kid. As he lived in Berko these must have been the ones.