Athy

I just found it on the internet. They appear to be in a full lock and not moving, which is O.K. If the lock has started emptying, not O.K., at least for the bloke - his wife looks as if she will survive him.

You'd think that, with his level of education, he'd be able to spell "forgo".

It's a reference to American troops in Britain in World War 2. They could get items which were unobtainable here such as silk stockings, chocolate etc. The more impressionable sort of English girls liked this, as the Yanks were generous with such goods. An expression used, somewhat sniffily, about the U.S. forces in Britain was "overpaid, oversexed and over here".

From what I can see in the photo, your back cabin deserves nothing less! This, of course, when you'll discover that the model offered for sale by Brinklow is half an inch bigger all round than the previous one and has all the 'oles in different places.....

I can hazard a guess at what you said to them and I bet it wasn't 'Hail!'

I thought they were made in Derby, but I've been wrong before.

That looks like the one to go for - sold by a very reputable company, and it'll boil the kettle for your morning cuppa too, unlike some small stoves.

Whether Fox's would welcome the traffic I can't say, but it's a well-equipped marina with good facilities (excellent mechanics/fitters who, inter alia, build their hire boats from the ground up), we have had work done on two boats there and have absolutely no complaints. Because they have a hire fleet I assume they have experienced change=over staff. Slipway, covered paint dock, covered boatbuilding shed, diesel, chandlery, launderette, large supermarket 1 mile. No cafe, but you can't have it all.

Personally I use old newspaper and bits of wood for kindling. Using a book would be much dearer, as well as being disrespectful to the book.

Tricky, this English language, isn't it? You're quite right, except, is the suet casing around a steak and kidney pudding really a form of pastry? (Edit: Wiki says that it is. You live and learn).

I think I saw that fleetingly on last night's T.V. news, in between footage of people swimming very fast. I'm very pleased. I hope, as a former Festiniog Railway worker, that the various little railways which once served the slate quarries will be included.

Is that the Weedon military depot? We had a walk round it once.

Lubbly! It's particularly instructive to hear such people as Leslie Morton and Robert Aickman actually speaking, as usually one sees just still photos of them. This film adds an extra dimension to them.

I like the "go-faster" fenders.

We've admired 'Hector' more than once, it's very appealing craft and looks ideal for one person. If Armada is the boatyard near Newbold tunnel, we did find an older member of their staff curmudgeonly to the point of rudeness a couple of years ago, but of course you'd only encounter him when picking up the boat and when returning it.

It's an interesting and valid point, and one which I wouldn't have spotted as I don't know much about gearboxes. But I noted the engine choice and thought "Ahh, I'm sure that many boats of that size have a Beta 42 or 43, obviously he hasn't skimped on the price of the engine, so he probably hasn't cut corners with other fittings". ....though a relevant one.

Regarding the "new versus second-hand" question, it appears that the seller bought the shell four years ago and has subsequently spent four years fitting it out. As the fit-out has only just been completed, it could be considered to be a new boat. The fact that he has done all the fitting-out work himself may also explain the price, as he has not had to pay people to do the work for him and thus his outlay has been reduced. The boat does not look exciting but it does look complete. I have never lived aboard a boat, but I assume that if you buy one to live on (Jetzi does not mention whether this is his purpose or not) you don't want to be excited, you want to be comfortable, which the full specification should facilitate. It has a few odd features, such as the back-to-front layout, but some people prefer that, likewise the centrally-placed bed. The first question which I would ask the seller is, "You've spent four years lovingly fitting your boat out; why do you want to sell it?"

I did notice that, yes. I hope Brownlee managed to hop on to his bike O.K.

I was thinking along similar lines: it must be really wrecked inside for the estate agents not to risk showing any internal views.

Same to you.

As I have never had an inappropriate one, I'm puzzled by this comment. But I'm pleased that you like steam trains.