enigmatic

For minor work recently I've been happy with a short notice T-stud weld from Jim at Red Hill Marina and zip repairs at Cover & Canvas at Venetian. Scott Wragg near Wakefield did a good job diagnosing a minor electrical issue at a remarkably reasonable rate considering there aren't any other marine electricians locally. Wish I could recommend the outfit that did my engine mounts, but after doing a tidy job on that they did manage to leave the alternator rather wobbly on a minor belt change they suggested doing at the same time...

Funnily enough I noticed Brum missing too. Not surprised they didn't bother when I was the only boat on the Curley Wurley in March, but thought they might have seen me when I was round the corner from their offices for a week! Assume the records of organised vollies and bookable stuff are kept separately, as there's no Foxton, Tuel Lane, Keadby or even 5 days in Salthouse on my list This is making me think could have overstayed on 2 day moorings a lot. Haven't been seen on any of them, not even the ones I stayed for a week when allowed in winter.

Interestingly, they've now added a "sightings" tab to your online CRT account (under "My boats") so you can see where you've been seen It's interesting what isn't recorded [transit through Keadby, Foxton and a few other very systematic vollie-operated locks, my Salthouse booking, mooring in front of CRT offices in Brum... or anywhere else in Brum] and I can see how people take the mick on 2 day moorings...

Not sure whether it's Paypoint or my bank making a mess of the website, but apparently I was supposed to ignore the "you may close this window" messsage that appeared after entering my details and wait to be redirected to a new page I had to click "OK" on. Money went in quickly after that Why we can't just opt to receive them through bank details the government agencies have for us, I don't know...

I'm sure the big builders can all do this, but a lot of boatbuilders and outfitters (including the good ones) are cottage industries involving a handful of people whose skill are welding and cabinet making, not 3D computer visualization, so I think they'd need an independent to make the 3D model if they ever wanted to offer it Whether they'd actually be interested is another question. Presume the easiest way to find out would be walking round Crick when they're all in talk to everyone mode and ask There's also these guys who started doing design services only, and ended up doing their own fitouts too https://www.thefitoutpontoon.co.uk

So in conclusion, gay people should integrate properly into modern society by socialising with normal gay people and not hanging around with fringe minorities that are into canal boats?

So So let's see The CRT decides to increase its licence fee by doubling its licence. The government sees this as reason enough to cancel the block grant Casual boaters sell up or move to other waterways, and some people withhold licence payments in protest, so CRT has less money than before. The costs of replacing lock gates every five years, hiring full time staff to maintain it and putting up blue signs remain unchanged. So the canals are actually slightly worse condition but everybody using them pays more Except London based people who live on boats because they're "cheap", thanks to a massive publicity campaign about how to get DWP money, which turns out to be easier than getting social housing in your preferred area, and there are suddenly even more cruisers being basically given away. Maybe those numbers actually go up (!) but not nearly as much as the numbers of people who like to have a boat to take canal breaks on goes down. So the government doesn't actually save as much money as it hopes because the DWP is shelling out for accommodation, including some £5-10k residential mooring fees. Some private sector mooring providers (London and licence-free, and the Peel Group) make much more profit. This is such a bad idea I'm surprised CRT management and the present government haven't already agreed it.

I like that idea. A sort of slow motion pub crawl through all the pub locks in different parts of the country

And you get used to asking and being asked, though I haven't threatened to breast up to a cruiser yet! Think my favourite is the one on the Nene which is both a very short lock landing and a water point. Which inevitably means the only other boat you see all day is stopped there taking up the full length of the only bit that isn't reeds. tbh most of the time I see people moored on lock landings they're inclined to help...