adam1uk

I hear that tomorrow, narrowboats are to be named as an official British icon. 21 new icons are being named, bringing the total number to 74. The new ones also include Westminster Abbey, English weather, and Sergeant Pepper. They're all listed on a website, www.icons.org.uk Timothy West is quoted in support of narrowboats: "Sailing the canals is a great way to see - and at 4mph, to stretch - the countryside"

Kate Boats in Warwick hire over Christmas and New Year, and even have a special web page with the details. http://www.kateboats.co.uk/christmas.htm

This is just the nature of magazine articles. Ones about building a boat tend to concentrate on the building of a boat; ones about a particular canal concentrate on that canal; and ones comparing the cost of a student flat with a student boat concentrate on comparing the cost of a student flat with a student boat. And it's just as well, otherwise all magazine articles would be very similar. Have to say I too am not sure the sums are quite right. But I suspect we have someone who wanted a boat, and saw this as a good way to justify getting one.

There's a group of boats (which look pretty permanent) at the juction of the Wey and Basingstoke canal. You can see them from the train, and they're right underneath the elevated section of the M25. Maybe being below the road they're a bit protected from the noise, but even so it doesn't look like the most attractive place to live. One canal that's very close to the sea (in fact it leads to it) is my local one, the Chichester Canal. Unfortunately there are a few problems: 1. The sea end is full out houseboats, which are (generally) both ugly and expensive. 2. There are no moorings, as far as I know, on the city end. 3. There's a big section between the two above with no water. 4. It doesn't link the the network. But apart from that, it's ideal!

We've always been advised not to stay in that area, and one hire firm even banned boats from stopping at Bourneville (although those moorings look a bit more secure now). If you're in Birmingham, there are so many excellent CCTV covered moorings near Gas Street, by the Sea Life Centre and NIA, or Cambrian Wharf, that you're much better staying right in the city centre. It depends which way you're going, but we found the ones near Gas Street very noisy because of the clubs, so this year opted to stop outside a residential block between Old Turn Jct and the Oozells Loop.

I hope you're going to enter that picture in the Photo of the Month competition!

Shadow ministers can sign, in fact they use EDMs all the time. It's members of the government whose job prevents them from criticising the government.

And he was sacked in June 2003. http://www.epolitix.com/EN/MPWebsites/Mich...61AB9B4344B.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3038828.stm

Michael Meacher hasn't been a front bencher since 2003, when he was sacked by Tony Blair.

Well it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks, it's a matter of what suits you and your needs. Hire boats with different sterns, or go to boat shows and clamber all over them, to see which you like. Having hired, I know that cruiser sterns are good socially, but you're completely exposed to the weather. They also (IMHO) don't look quite right. Having been on lots of boats at shows, I found that trads could be extraordinarily difficult to get in and out of. It's different if you've got a really traditional boat with an engine on display, but when the engine's under the floor, you end up with a little room that you have to bend double to get in to. And you have to do the contortionist act every time you want to get in or out of the boat at the stern. So, for me, a semi trad seems the idea option: room for more than one person, some protection in the rain, and easy to get in and out of the boat. But don't take my word for it, find out for yourself.

Nice to know you had typical AmericanAirlines cabin crew. I've never had a cheerful one on AA! Looking forward to part two, and the real action!

But many supermarkets could do more to stop their trolleys ending up in the canal. My local Tesco (which is nowhere near a canal) has recently replaced all its trolleys, and all the new ones are fitted with a device which locks if anyone tries to take a trolley further than the perimeter of the car park. It certainly seems to have dramatically reduced the number of trolleys seen on neighbouring roads.

They're owned by ASK.

BBC Breakfast is doing the story today. They're in Brindley Place in Brum, and talking to the Chief Exec of BW.

Sherman has other meanings too, as Urban Dictionary will tell you.

Sherman tank, septic tank = Yank. Rhyming slang.

It's not really about chosing canals to close. It's more a matter of whether BW would have the money to fix a big problem. For example, if there was another breach like the last one on the Rochdale, would BW be able to afford to repair it, or would it have to close the canal instead? So the thinking is that the ones most in danger would be ones with lots of embankments, tunnels, aqueducts etc -- ie things that fail and are expensive to repair.

Are you sure you didn't engineer the dog in the canal incident and the wait at Foxton, just to slow them down? Must say that I'm enjoying this blow by blow account of someone else's holiday, particularly having done the route recently. We had to wait only about half an hour to go down Foxton in May, but the lock keeper said that at peak times six hours isn't unusual. And of course it's longer if someone decides to flood the middle pound!

Maybe they're planning to go round twice! Actually, when we did the Leicester Ring in May (going the opposite way round), we thought it was a bit short for two weeks. So at Fradley we stayed on the T&M, and extended the circuit by going to Tixal, up the Wolverhampton 21 and into Birmingham that way. We'd got quite ahead of schedule because we wanted to get off the Soar because the rain meant the levels were rising, but we'd also had a couple of very short days too, when we tried to try out. Even so, our extended route filled a fortnight perfectly.

That's great. Market Harborough, Foxton, and the Welford Arm were some of my favourite bits of the Leicester trip. I'm sure they'll enjoy the next couple of days.

It must be a Leicester Ring thing. We spent more time wet than dry when we did it in May, albeit going the other way around. I thought it was amazing how quickly the levels on the Soar went up and down: a couple of hours of rain and the level was well up the guages on the locks; a few dry hours and it was back down again. Hope you're having a good time despite the weather. It's meant to be better over the weekend.

I dread to think what your idea of a precise cruising time might be!