Jamboat

Isabelle, a lot of narrowboats are painted “non professionally” some do it in a covered dry dock & some outdoors, some look pretty good, some look a bit iffy - depends on if you want a shiny expensive job which you leave to the professional people or happy with a paint job that you do yourself & it keeps the weather out. plenty of diy help on you tube.

A gem of a programme, thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have registered with the Boots online repeat prescription service, once you have registered they get the medication details from your surgery & you have a choice to have the medication sent to your home, a post offfice or you can nominate any Boots Pharmacy so you can collect it. They send a reminder email when it’s time to reorder, simply tick what you need on the website & it’s done. I did use pharmacy2U for a while but they messed up a couple of times so I switched to Boots, it’s worked up to now............. On the couple of occasions I’ve needed urgent medical treatment I’ve been fortunate to be handy for walk in centres.

Absolutely & we, being retired, are in the lucky position of not usually needing to cruise in the rain unless we really have to Mines a semi trad..........I was informed by the wife that this boat was going to be a semi trad as we hadn't had one before and I am doing as I am told. Love the cat we had one like that living a board years ago with us. Do you grow tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse? That’s Sid, loves the boating life, Haven’t grown anything as yet........

We have one, fitted 5/6 years ago when Wilson’s of Kinver were still trading, we rarely cruise with it up ( exceptions River Weaver, Bridgewater & Thames, but then only if it’s chucking it down) It takes a couple of minutes to take down or put up, wouldn’t be without it, somewhere to air laundry if weather is iffy, great when coming in from the wet with the dog, very much like a porch on a house. We do live aboard & find the extra space useful, wouldn’t be without it. They are not the most aesthetic of things but our boat is a fairly bog standard ordinary modern affair so no great shakes in the beauty department though if we had a lovely old trad I doubt I would desecrate it with a pram hood

& you've never changed your mind about anything ! Give the guy a break, he's trying to figure out the best way to get his disabled partner on the water & he's new to this..........

I can still see the link to Facebook.......

Is there any need for you to be quite so unpleasant.........

Nearly choked on my museli !

After killing 2 electric toothbrushes through our Sterling 1800 msw inverter I bought the Philips Sonicare diamond, has a 12v & USB charger, not cheap but neither is gum disease ! Eta I found that despite my best efforts a manual toothbrush did not keep gum disease at bay & lost several teeth so after having an expensive bridge made now use electric- no more problems - so not just laziness...

Check out 'Go Binge' on 3, sounds to good to be true but if it works I'll be getting it added to my plan when current contract runs out

Very often when the fuel boats are near moored boats they will sound a horn or bell plus they are usually older working boats so a tooting horn accompanied by a thumpity thump engine will often let you know they are approaching.

Afaik New Islington Marina closes 1st of August so you should be fine up to then & there is always Piccadilly Village which is safe.

I'm hopeless at copying & posting links on my iPad but Dean, a member on here & who moors at New Islington started a thread a couple of weeks ago re the closure, evidently closing for 12 months to drain & do some works, the moorers have been given notice If you do a search for New Islington Marina you should be able to find the thread.

As far as I'm aware New Islington doesn't close until August so services should be available but you can't access it from the Ashton, well not by boat anyway. The next water afaik is Stretford Marina.

We had 2 stick on ones for about 5 years, they had been well stuck down but last year we noticed some rust spots around the edge so decided to take them off & what a mess underneath, lots of rust so after sorting the roof out we have gone for 4 x 100w of panels with tilting frames from on board solar, also upgraded our controller & we now have a much better system. I don't mind the look of them as I just think of all the power they are giving us

Oh sorry, I didn't know that, sounds a bit mean ! Anyway good luck with your boat viewings

There is Festival Marina in Stoke itself, it's at the bottom of the hill at Festival Retail park next to the Toby Carvery.

According to Peel who own the Bridgewater you can only moor 24 hours anywhere on the canal & I don't know if Sonny, their enforcement guy, is still working for them but he is/was very keen by all accounts. I love the Bridgewater canal, once you get past the long boring bit through Stretford & Sale it's beautiful. Stockton Heath is good for shopping, & there are some lovely rural mooring spots before you get to Preston Brook, where I doubt Sonny patrols

I know of one on the Barbridge CR&T site that will be coming up in June as a friend of mine is giving it up, his is 57' so plenty long enough.

We have a maplin 600w msw inverter, cost £50, runsTV, humax box, fridge freezer, twin tub washer & charges tablets & phones no problem. We do have an 1800w sterling msw but it's really only used if I feel the need to use my hair dryer

We had this when moored at Stockton Heath a couple of years ago just passed the recycling place, a very grumpy local We moored up by the aqueduct next time, not to give in to him but who needs the grief......

We have a fender, bought from Argos a few years ago, it's adjustable & does a good job but don't think Argos sell them anymore. We also put a cheap mat in front of the fire to protect the carpet during winter so no tears if it does get scorched from a stray coal.

Also that in the details on apollo duck it mentions that the multi fuel burner cannot be used on mooring so you would probably need to rely on electric heating.