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Why. Just why !!!!!


Rickent

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I accept that nice looking stopping points will also look nice to others.

While some people just go out to the same place every weekend like caravanners do.  I once stopped late afternoon on The Trent at a nice piece of flat bank, towpath side, in the middle of nowhere.

We were all spread around the front deck reading books and supping drinks when three little cruisers each containing an elderly couple puttered along very slowly and stared at us.

 

I assumed we were in their spot so ignored them.  They continued down the way and all tied up satisfactorily.  The three husbands stayed on board, cracked some beers and could be heard talking and laughing.  The three wives ambled back to us muttering to one another. Two looked pleasant enough but the third was obviously (from her stance) one of those "I speaks my mind, I says how it is" sort.

 

Unsurprisingly it was her who fired the first barrage and therefore established the rules of engagement.

Her - "HOW LONG YOU GOING TO BE HERE?"

Me - (Peering over the top of my glasses at her) "Good Afternoon"

Her - "Errr ….. Ummm …. Yeah, but....."

Me - "Was that a question just then?"

Her - "Yes, we wanted to know how long you are going to be here."

Me - "Seventy two feet six and a half inches"

Her - "Eh? …. it's that one of our party has arthritis "

Me - "Awful isn't it? Yet so encouraging that boating is still available to them"

Her - " We park here every weekend."

Me - "Not this one though eh?"

They returned to their boats and could be heard all evening nagging their menfolk. 

 

If I'm tied up and somebody is looking to stop next to me my reaction depends upon whom speaks first.

If it's them, I'll respond by smiling and saying "Yes, it's nice here ……. don't be offended if I now move off if you're stopping, have a good evening"  They invariably take the hint and don't stop.

 

If they make no effort to acknowledge me as they drift in, I greet them with "Hi there! Great to meet you, is this evening your Naked Party too?"

 

They either move on, or join in.

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I had a severely introverted uncle, uncle John.  Uncle John lived the latter of his life in a state of almost complete isolation. He lived in the very top attick room of a big house in Chiswick. A brainy chap, an ex chartered accountant that suddenly decided it wasn't for him, moved to the room in Chiswick and drove London buses until early retirement, it was from that moment that he became a total recluse. He got everthing he needed delivered to him by letting a basket down on a rope from his window and sent the money down also by basket.  He fixed up a totally hidden door bell that only we, close family knew its location. He would open his door to us with the hump wearing an old string vest, old bus drivers trousers with the red stripe down the leg. His spectacles always had an arm missing and were secured on that side with a length of wool and tied off with two round turns and a half hitch to his ear. He once refused to let my mum in, ''his sister'' after she'd travelled many miles across London to see him because she wore high stilletto heal shoes that would make little dents in his Lino, he said she could come in if she took them off which she refused to do and so came home disgruntled.  Eventually the landlord wanted him out but he wouldn't go.  On his landing he constructed a wooden barricade wall the door of which had a huge padlock and hasp on the ouside and huge bolts on the inside.

   Because the bathroom was on the lower landing he used to creep out in the dead of night to use the lav, he wee'd in a bucket during the day time.

Once I took his brother Bill to see him and we were shot at with a starting pistol as he opened his door, we weren't welcome as he was just about to watch a Western on his tiny B/W telly in front of which he would join in the shoot outs with his starting pistol.  He knew about the Diogenese club but couldn't be bothered to go out.   We now call any introverts we meet ''members of the Uncle John Club''.

Edited by bizzard
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13 minutes ago, bizzard said:

He knew about the Diogenese club but couldn't be bothered to go out.  

 

I like your Uncle John. I could get like that easily. 

 

How does one join the Diogenese Club? Write a letter I would imagine. Trouble is, when members come to whiteball or blackball the applicant, how do they know how to vote?

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I like your Uncle John. I could get like that easily. 

 

How does one join the Diogenese Club? Write a letter I would imagine. Trouble is, when members come to whiteball or blackball the applicant, how do they know how to vote?

 

 

I'm not sure that it actually exists. Anyway if you read Conan Doyles, S. Holmes, ''The Adventure of the Greek interpreter'' the information is there.

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19 minutes ago, bizzard said:

I'm not sure that it actually exists. Anyway if you read Conan Doyles, S. Holmes, ''The Adventure of the Greek interpreter'' the information is there.

 

What? Read a WHOLE BOOK?? You're kidding, right?

 

I find it difficult to read a whole thread here.....

 

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These people you complain about are probably the same people who moor outside someone's house, eg Thrupp.  The only time I tied there was to sell coal.

Thrupp[1].jpg

Edited by Chris Williams
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7 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Danish Blue? That's like preferring l*ger to proper bitter!

 

 

I vaguely remember Danish Blue, it came  in wedges, wrapped in gold coloured  foil, not seen it for years. Pungent.

Edited by LadyG
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13 hours ago, Rickent said:

Let me just clarify something, I am aware that anybody can moor anywhere they like. I do not expect to monopolise the best mooring spots, I am not anti social and I do have a life, one I am very happy with BUT when I moor up I try to moor well away from other boats if at all possible. Maybe everybody is not as considerate as I am. 

If you don't like your neighbours you can always up sticks and move on.

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9 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

If you don't like your neighbours you can always up sticks and move on.

 

Trite, silly and missing the point by a country mile. 

 

The OP is seeking to understand why people do it. I'm sure he is bright enough to figure out he has this option.

 

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13 hours ago, tree monkey said:

Well that escalated quickly didn't it, I must admit I thought your post was slightly flippant and didn't deserve the more shouty responses.

Anyway I'm off for a bit of homemade ginger cake, made with real gingers

 

Did the copper headed ones moor too close to you?

 

 

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9 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

What? Read a WHOLE BOOK?? You're kidding, right?

 

I find it difficult to read a whole thread here.....

 

There are threads on here which make "war and peace" seem like a short story.

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The OP asks for a 'proper' answer to the situation posed and indicates that only a few of the posts have tried to do that, preferring instead to contemplate their own insecurities that come to the surface when someone moors close by, just when you had hoped for loneliness. (Leave aside a debate on the difference between being able to choose loneliness and those who have it as an enforced permanent condition) In the interests of disclosure: our first reaction in such situations is invariably negative but it soon passes! Having a degree of hearing loss means, for me, that most annoyances can be ignored by removing hearing aids!

 

A few posts have posited reasons (like security) and here is another: many boaters on unfamiliar waters will use published guides to plan ahead where they hope to moor overnight and, on some canals, there can be a paucity of places marked. Sometimes we approach a planned mooring in some trepidation, knowing that if it is full then we have a lengthy and uncertain unplanned extension to the day. What most guides fail to mention (and it is not an exact science anyway) is just how many spaces there are at one of the marked moorings or even what the depth is like. Some new boaters may also be unduly influenced by the often strongly worded cries (here and elsewhere) for boats to moor closely on busy mooring spots. (Share a Ring) It is possible that some have done so in the belief that this is the right thing to do. It is always worth remembering when criticising the behaviours of other boaters, that changing them may have unintended consequences!

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15 hours ago, Boater Sam said:

Because it is a lovely quiet spot, you are not the only one that  moores there.

!0 yards away? Lucky they could have been really inconsiderate and moored right next to you.

Get a life, live with the other occupiers of this planet, they have all the same rights and desires as you have.

What makes you so damn special do you think?

Been on a boat long then?

 

Are you well?

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12 minutes ago, eid said:

 

Are you well?

He sounds, or rather reads, perfectly well.

 

If a boat moors near yours in the wild, this could be interpreted as a compliment. You have shown good taste and judgement in choosing this attractive spot, and they are showing that they appreciate your good taste.

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1 minute ago, Boater Sam said:

Yes thank you, very well. The medical last Tuesday confirmed it, quote " You are a very fit man" Good of you to ask regarding my well being, do I know you?

 

 

Glad to hear it!

 

?

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9 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

What? Read a WHOLE BOOK?? You're kidding, right?

 

I find it difficult to read a whole thread here.....

 

They are all short stories with the exception of ''The hound of the Baskervilles'' and ''A study in scarlet'' is quite long.  You need to read them or you could have Colonel Moran after you with his tremendousely powerful air gun.

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9 hours ago, Chris Williams said:

These people you complain about are probably the same people who moor outside someone's house, eg Thrupp.  The only time I tied there was to sell coal.

Thrupp[1].jpg

If you buy a house without a front garden then surely you will expect boats to moor there if the canal is a few feet away and the pub directly behind your house?

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A boat pulled in and moored close behind us.... they said it was because they had tried to moor a number of times, but because it was shallow, they couldn't get in close enough.

Their logic was that as our boat was tight to the bank it was likely to be deep enough for them as well. 

Another time, a boat pulled in, used our mooring pin temporarily until they hammered their's in. Then unloaded a noisy smelly generator. Hopped back on board to watch TV (noisy as well.)

 

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34 minutes ago, bizzard said:

They are all short stories with the exception of ''The hound of the Baskervilles'' and ''A study in scarlet'' is quite long.  You need to read them or you could have Colonel Moran after you with his tremendousely powerful air gun.

There’s also The Sign of the Four and the last one, The Valley of Fear, mostly set in the Pennsylvania mining community, with not a lot of actual Holmes.

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