Cheshire cat

According to last night's news this ship became unstable because someone lit a fire to attract attention after their engine failed. Once the fire got out of control they moved away from it resulting in the instability. A sad end to a very long journey.

There was enough room for 500 people AND a fire until it got out of hand. You'd have to be seriously lost to windsurf from East Germany to Norway. What's wrong with Sweden or Denmark?

The Rochdale 9 does not freeze up on account of the large volume of water coming through from the hills. However, I do remember having great difficulty getting from the bottom lock on the Ashton to the top lock of the Rochdale 9 because of the apartments shielding the ice from the sun. The ice was very thick and it took a good deal of shunting backwards and forwards to break enough ice to change direction. Having typed all of that I'v just remembered you won't be going up the Ahton because you are in a widebeam. The Bridgewater does become impassable but that is more likely to be in late January early February IF it is going to happen. I remember two or three winters ago a narrowboat being caught in the ice at Broadheath for at least three weeks. I can't remember the Castlefield area becoming frozen for any length of time.

White spirit but it will leave a stain if it is cloth. If it is PVC it may not.

We had a lucky break on Sunday then. Called in at the Shroppie Fly and was dismayed to see it oh so quiet. Feel a lot better knowing why. There was no food available of course but they were selling the beer off cheap too! Although the smoking ban did have an effect at the time I think it's effect now is far less than we would like to think. I deliver adult training sessions and as a result have to tell people where they are allowed to smoke. I would estimate that fewer than 15% of my course attendees smoke. There are many reasons for the decline, drink driving adherence, smoking bans, lack of manual work are all contributory. I think another significant factor is the internet. People, particularly youngsters don't go to the pub to interact socially. They can do it online on facebook, and they do it incessantly whilst either watching one of the zillion TV channels available to them or downloading a film from netflicks. The pub is losing the battle with the internet. I'm surprised no one in Government has worked out how to put a tax on it yet.

To be fair, the lady at the top lock does normally keep an eye out for passers by but clearly can't do that all the time. I'm surprised she had ten pounds worth of stuff out to be honest. The lady at Adderley locks also uses an honesty box. Quite a treck from anywhere else though.

When it gets really cold in the winter the algae disappears from the water and I have noticed that you can see the bottom if nothing has passed down the canal for a couple of days. The bottom of the Bridgewater in South Manchester is littered with old bikes. Luckily it is quite deep so you are unlikely to get one around your propeller.

Target of 100,000 supporters. I wonder how many they currently have

Our cat did that one of her kittens we decided to keep. She used to loiter by the catflap and every time he tried to come back in he took a battering.

The big question is why has it died. I have never seen a pair of swans have just one offspring so presumably this was the last of a clutch. Very sad.

It looks quite nice. They obviously took the aerial shots on a sunny day! Oh and as I'm sure Dean will testify. The train tracks are tram tracks as well and the trams run at six minute intervals from 0600 to midnight and even longer at weekends. It's quite a noisy mooring all things considered.

They wouldn't have got lost. There's a choice of two wharfs on the right, one on the left or straight ahead for Preston Brook. Or possibly you could point them at the abandoned locks on to the River Irwell. After tackling the Nine they'd probably think it was more of the same. At least on the Bridgewater they would be able to do a decent speed if they were behind schedule.

A couple of years ago we went up the Cauldon. The landlord of the Hollybush was having a really bad time of it. It was Easter Bank Holiday weekend. On the way up we called in and they'd run out of gas so couldn't cook anything. It's only just occurred to me that perhaps I could have loaned him a bottle of gas. On the way back a family did a runner without paying for their meals. The air was rather blue. It was cash or card upfront after that.

In its early stages before there was any hint that the poll was being hijacked it was consistently running 2 for 1 in favour of fining over stayers.