Tom6

Hi Ahah, now i understand the claim. The carpets were replaced 'recently' and are still quite nice, or were a few months ago. Thanks chaps Err i don't know how to mark this solved. Hmmm, now i am wondering if this is like a Gnu&Linux forum at all!! lol Regards from Tom

Hi Someone has told me there is no towpath on the Oxford Canal between Hillmorton and Braunston?? I'm guessing the other one has bells on it? Does anyone know? I think some people are only used to the foibles of car drivers Regards from Tom

lol, this maplin's one can also do 12Volts but not when i'm using it for the laptop, at least not without causing trouble for the lappy

So 120W and with all the trimmings for £20 (on special offer) from Maplins was a fantasticly good deal i just hope mine lasts as long. Customer support at Maplins just isn't what it used to be, ahh <sighs> <shakes head>, those good old days, <sighs>. Actually they were quite fair and i think they only shooed me out the door because it was past closing time, they were quite gentle about it i guess.

Rofls, thanks Mike Good timing, i needed a good laugh

Oh bugger it. I just bought a Maplins 'laptop' adapter with a plug for a car-cigarette lighter. On special offer at £20 and able to push out about 120 Watts at various different output voltages i thought i was getting a real bargain. 120Watts just about covers my laptop and loads of choices of laptop-type plugs helps! What wattage can the Amperor RoadPro dish out?

Amazing, you'd think with a whole canal beside the boat we could all just bathe in there. I was nearly ready to try it a few months ago but then suddenly it all got iced over - which put me off a bit. I've still not dared even dunk my toe in!

The wok idea sounds good to try. This sieve one is good to apparently http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php...mp;#entry372415 The trick is trying to get the dongle's aerial in the focal area and to point the contraption in the right direction. At a morring getting the direction right will be tricky enough but while moving is going to be almost impossible. The dongle's aerial is inside the 'top' of the dongle which is a bit vague so waggling the dongle around slowly is about the only way of finding out. The top is the part furthest away from the wire As a clue tho imagine looking side-on at a wok (or sieve), it looks a bit like a D. The focal area is halfway down the | part of the D but might be a little further out. So dongle and sieve (or wok) should look a bit like this ·D err, assuming that your web-browser has made that first character a "." about halfway up lol. One reason that Canal World is soo clever is that it's almost entirely textual, almost no fancy flashy bits. Even the odd graphics are very light-weight and so it's one of the few remaining websites that can be accessed easily with low signal-strength, limited bandwidth and low battery power and that's not even counting their 'low-fi' version! Very smart

rofls, nice one Mike Be careful about killer rabbits too! I think it's highly significant that no-one has escaped with mere injuries from a rabbit attack. Also no-one has even seen a killer rabbit attack and lived to tell the tale

I think most of us have had a rant They say "it's better out than in". Maybe good to do a quick edit to tidy it a little tho as it got a little unclear. It sounds like your dogs are worth seeing but if i were with another member of my pack on a w-a-l-k then i might turn around and go the other way

Rugs slip on a 'wooden' floor? Fun for skating along tho

If you can rent instead of selling then i definitely recommend doing that - where else would your money sit? Going through a single agency takes all the hassle out as they can deal with chasing rent, filling vacancies, dealing with builders and legal requirements - why bother getting involved with all that? I think you'd be amazed at the lack of furniture require to rent out a place as "fully furnished", which gets slightly more rental income but this needn't be your treasured existing furniture. Renting it out as shared accommodation for students and such gets more rental income but renting the whole house out to a family or group of friends is less distressing if you have any love for the house and like to see it clean and nice. Property prices generally rise faster than money in a bank-account - even assuming the bank doesn't crash lol. The rental income might not be impressive, especially after percentages creamed off to maintain the property and perhaps pay for storage for your treasured possessions. Even so, a healthy regular income with good security for your initial lump sum of capital seems better to me especially with someone else doing all the dirty work for that

A book that hasn't been soggy at a few points in it's life lacks a certain special magic. People are ok, the dog likes them more than me, but working one side of a lock with the other crew on the other and maybe switch over on the other gates (depending on circumstances) feels great. All that rushing water and boat engine noise is a good excuse for avoiding unnecessary chatter. It's easier to appreciate someone's skill and kindness without words needing to be spoken as words only confuse the issue anyway.

A lock full of water is a bit more than a bathfull. By taking a bath and emptying it into the canal it could be argued that you're helping by topping up the canal a bit. Err, you don't use soap, bubble bath, shower gel do you? I guess a small amount might not hurt too much but a lot might harm the wildlife. The K&A is a bit weird in asking for each lock to be filled and emptied at each use, normally only half of that water is wasted. I like doubling up with boats, it's really nice working with another crew to see what i can learn from them to get the boats through faster. A couple of months ago we had a couple of really hot weeks and i was about ready to brave swimming in the canal but the next time i got to the boat the water was all iced over, so i didn't

I guess i could sulk in the cabin rather than bouncing out to wave and say hi The title of the thread is "... only egrets", is an egret a baby eagle?

People. At home i live in a shared house in a small co-operative community with shared gardens at front and back. It's in the middle of a reasonably busy town on a fashionable street which is famously mentioned in tourist guide books and is the main route for push-bikes and walkers going into the town centre. Consequently i hardly ever see anyone for maybe 2 weeks at a time. 'Getting away from it all' for a week or so on my dad's boat there's constantly people all around on the towpath and cruising by on boats. It's constant, people all around all the bloody time!

Electrics is a huge issue and is largely about minimising usage. My point was to make things flexible from the start by having a decently thick cable/wires running the length of the boat, a decent one for 12Volts and another for 240Volts. This would allow for things (laptops, tele, radio, side-lights etc) to get moved around later - after you had lived in the boat for a while. If it was thick enough to really handle the current it might make it easier to add solar panels and such into the system to run stuff and top-up the batteries. Electricity and water mix shockingly well though so take care with the realities of what i'm suggesting! Electric sparks and gas are an explosive combination too so again there's a worry!

A true 94% efficiency sounds unlikely, it's gotta be something like an alcohol measure of 'proof'. The electromagnetic coil inside an inverter even in theoretical terms will generate a lot of heat. Typically normal house light bulbs are 40% efficient i think - really we should call them heat bulbs rather than light bulbs. Very modern inverters have got to be a lot more efficient than older ones even if it's just because they are new, let alone advances in technology. 20Watt for a whole evenings lights is pretty impressive

I wouldn't mind a 12Volt tele - i think the point we had in common was that 240Volt items rapidly become a bane because of the huge % the inverters typically cream off. I've now found a 12Volt adapter for the laptop which is a huge boon. Laptops usually run on 19.5Volts - typical for the computer world to be so non-standard and awkward. While on the boat i don't use the laptop much but i find it so useful for keeping in touch and getting maps and stuff that i really find it difficult to even think of doing without. A bit like when i got down to 2 cigs a day but couldn't give up completely and my baccy would get stale. There has been some suggestion of getting a netbook for general use and keeping the old lappy for when i need a bit more than a quick surf and emailing. Also the lappy now has a decent hard-drive so it'd be good for longer-term storage and the netbook for popping down the free wiifi pub. Now the plan is to get all our cds onto the lappy and copy a few to other players only as and when wanted, that should clear a good armful of shelf space Lol about hats ) I've not seen anything that's a bit like a hat but not a hat, except perhaps a cat

It depends on my mood at the time. When it does go wrong i usually hope to bump into the person again sometime when i'm in a better mood. Usually it's all good but occasionally feels like a 'bane'. The answer is usually to chuckle at my own bad attitude afterwards

Other boat owners/users, why are so many of them so dratted helpful and friendly!!? I said "Hi" not "I want to be engaged in hours of interesting dialogue"! and yet other times, of course, people seem quite moody and 'off' - what's that about, what did i say wrong to offend? Why can't people just be like i wish i was?

Was it in this thread that someone suggested that older boats have sections of floor that can be lifted up to get access to the bottom of the boat, useful mainly as inspection hatches and for pumpng out if water has got in? Apparently these can be good but might be difficult to access. Also was saying that modern boats don't like you to be able to easily deal with water flooding into the bottom, the first sign of trouble would be noticing the boat having a much deeper draft ;(

Mobile phones are quite handy. Especially because you can see who the call is from and then go find them without bothering to actually answer the phone (which would cost them money and feel dumb)

Blimey, that's pretty impressive! Thanks for the advice Sue & Piglet

An easier way to fit 12 sockets. Houses have a "ring mains" which means you can basically just knock a small hole in the plaster and add a new mains socket (it's a little more complex but not much). I wish the main 12Volt line running all down one side of the boat could happily carry more amps or greater Watts so that i could just add a new junction point and add a 12Volt socket to replace where i was running something off 240Volt. I still need the 240Volt there but wouldn't need to have the inverter on so much if i could sort this one easily