A slow boat to Marple

We decided to take a slow run up to Marple, and stopped off for a couple of nights at Disley on the way, this is one of our  favourite spots, with lovely views and no roads or rail lines nearby; it’s very peaceful.

At Marple we filled up with water etc. turned the boat around, and moored in the 24 hour moorings for a couple of hours to enable us to do some much needed shopping before setting off and mooring at the Strines for a night. The next day we headed back to Disley.

We passed through the two lift bridges on our way back down to Furness Vale, (where we plan to moor up over the festive period) these bridges are hydraulic, Eileen tells me that to lift  each one of these is 100 turns of the windlass to lift, and 50 turns to lower, she says that her arms are like knicker elastic by the time she’s done them both, don’t know what she’s complaining about, some women pay a fortune for a workout like that!!!

It’s just as well we moved back when we did because the day after the canal froze solid, and has been ever since.

At the start of the school holidays Lily arrived to spend a few days with us, and just at that time the snow started to fall. The valley looks beautiful, and the sunshine followed the fresh snow, so we were able to go out, build a snow man and basically play.

Jack absolutely loves the snow, and chases the snowballs we throw.

We have plenty of fuel and the water will last for a week or so, although we are starting to take steps to conserve water, i.e. drink wine.

Eileen & Grahame would like to take this opportunity to wish everybody a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year

Christmas twig imported from Norway

This boat tried to move, and got 100yds before giving up

Jack’s no mountain goat

Hi folks Jack here

Look into my eyes, not around the eyes, into my eyes.....Your under!

Just thought I’d do my bit by keeping my page updated; I’ve been in the wars just lately; first I got a small nick in the front of one off my pads, it caused me to limp a bit and it took the two muppets two days to find it; they had done numerous checks on my pads (with a torch) and kept me on lead walking for  days thinking I’d sprained something, as if; they think I’m as decrepit as they are.

Following that the other day Eileen had gone to the stern to talk to Grahame, and of course I followed (it’s my job) he needed to turn sharply to starboard, (thats right for you lap dogs) and Eileen had to shuffle around onto the gunnel, well naturally where Eileen goes, I go, I lost my footing and fell off the boat; as soon as I was clear Grahame put the engine into reverse for a couple of seconds before switching it off (so I wouldn’t get mangled in the prop). I swam to the boat, Grahame got on his hands and knees, bent over the edge of the boat and hauled me out. I landed on the deck immediately in front of his face and shook, “Gotcha!!” he needed a towel to dry himself off.

Then while jumping up this embankment a day or two later I must have caught my hind claw on some barbed wire because it ripped it up and to the side, there was a lot of blood and I believe it looked quite nasty, so I was marched off to what I understand is called a vet, yeah right, I could give him some choice names, anyway he said my claw would have to be pulled out, so while Grahame held me closely to him (and me thinking this was a group hug) this vet man got a plier type device and in one jerk pulled my f*****g claw out; son of a b**ch. he then gave us some crap tasting tablets for me to take for a week, something to do with anti-bionics, but Eileen got some free samples of tasty dog treats, so I get the tablet mixed in with a handful of them.

I can safely say that things are getting a little bitty better, I found out that I can still race round the fields on three legs just as easily as I can on four, however: to keep the sympathy vote going from the two that feed me! I still manage to limp about whilst walking with them, oh poor Jack, it must be sore (ha ha he he fooled em) actually it is bloody sore!!

Looking forward to Christmas and all the leftover turkey and trimmings, here’s hoping I get some, you all have a lovely time now and will post again in 2010.

Love Jack

Love to here from any bitches out there. You can email me at

jack@nbgemini.com

Thank goodness we bought an Ark

I know it’s been a long time since there has been any activity on this blog; the reason is that I was trying out facebook to see if I could use that, however I could not really get my head around teen speak, and to be perfectly frank it’s not the same as writing a blog.

My mind was finally made up when I had a phone call from a friend who regularly looked in, and I could tell in the voice that there was an element of disappointment that the blog had not been updated for such a long time. So I have decided to come back to writing the blog; so in order that I know you are out there looking in, would you please give me a small sign by leaving a short comment. This can be done by scrolling down to the bottom of that post where you should find “Leave a comment” just hover over it, click the mouse and say hello.

Steady, aim, chop

Didn't we do well.

Woke up this morning to a wonderful ground frost; this makes a very pleasant change from horizontal rain. There is something very calming about a morning like this; the air is still and the frost gives a wonderful clean look to the country side and most of all, it’s not raining.

MP’s Expenses

This topic is still very much in the limelight and quite rightly so; I think most MP’s thought it would have blown over by now, but this just goes to show how complacent they are with public opinion.

It is quite obvious to most people why this issue it so distasteful and annoying, but most MP’s just don’t get it. They seem to feel that even if they haven’t technically broken the rules, then it’s alright, this in most cases is not the issue.

The whole idea of second homes was to accommodate the need for MP’s to be able to stay in London to attend to their parliamentary duties where commuting was not an option; but somewhere along the line, and at some time, someone saw a means to make some money, from the public purse.

The issue of flipping has been going on for some time, and I for one cannot understand why someone in the department that pays these claims hasn’t said something or brought this to the attention of the party leaders; or were they aware all along of what was going on?

Some of these MP’s have not just made a few quid here and there, but hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Just because it doesn’t break the rules they must still be conscious that it is both immoral and unethical, and this fact alone makes the whole issue even more distasteful; and just illustrates that they are not fit to hold this position of office.

The fact that they went to so much effort to try to avoid these claims from being put into the public domain proves in my opinion that they themselves where in no doubt that what they we doing was very wrong.

If the rules stated that an MP could stand outside a factory gate on payday and demand 10p off every worker, some of them would do it and claim that they weren’t breaking any rules; they’ve just been taking our hard earned money in a much more subtle way.

I hope that this issue remains in the media for a long time, and continues to give some of them sleepless nights. Someone, any one of them needs to be legally brought to book on this; that will make them think twice in the future.

Please feel free to give your comments on this controversial issue, they will be published

Here for the Winter

Well, here we are, we are now at our winter location; between Macclesfield and Whaley Bridge. This incorporates two canals , The Macclesfield and the Peak Forrest Canal, the stretch that we will use is actually called The High Peak.

The scenery up here is magnificent; the canal is on an elevated position nestled into the hillside with views across the valley.

View from the boat over the Goyt valley

On the way up we invested in a solar panel. this has been fitted to the lid of the top box and will not be of much benefit during the winter, but by the time the spring comes I will have mounted it so that it can tilt in all four directions of the compass; At it’s best it can output 8amps that will help to keep the batteries charged on days that we don’t move.

New solar panel

We have now got a new method for connecting to the internet. It’s called a tethered modem; this utilizes the high speed modem inside the mobile phone, and so long as you are not looking for broadband speeds, can work well and save money.

At first I was a bit dissapointed with the 5 mega pixal camera, (the above pictures) however I promise the quality will be better in future; as I have now removed the thin protective film that was on the lens.

The nights are drawing in

We left Alrewas and headed back to Fradley Junction where we would continue on our way North. On the way back to Fradley I spotted this boat and immediately thought of John, sorry John but I had to put it in. I’m keeping my eyes open for a boat called “Ma Bit” or “Dats ma Boat”.

We were soon back at the junction and took our original course. We are now heading for Stoke-on-Trent where we will pass through probably on Wednesday;  following that we will approach Harecastle Tunnel after which we will be turning right onto the Macclesfield Canal.

Well it’s now October, and the nights are really drawing in; we have only just started to light the fire in the evening, it’s cold enough, but when the fire is lit we have to have the front doors open at the moment; The fire is not that controllable, but the wood is free, and the roof is full.

We passed this boat today, with all these soft toys around, so I had to take a photo.

The National Memorial Arboretum

As we came up to Fradley Junction we would normally have turned left, however we planned to turn right and travel the couple of miles to Alrewas in Staffordshire.  The plan was to visit the Arboretum. Alrewas is a lovely little village, with some good moorings so we stayed for 2 nights. There is a link below to the web site for the Arboretum.

www.thenma.org.uk/

Carry on up North

One of the genuine working boats on the canal

Gosty Hill is one of the working boats that cruise up and down the canal. They tend not to come too far North as they have a deep draft, (3 1/2ft). We filled up with diesel and bought a gas bottle. Most of the boaters will eagerly use them as they are cheaper than marinas, and if we don’t use them, we will lose them.

Don’t really know what happened here but it was a fairly new car; he shouldn’t park there because he doesn’t have a British Waterways license.

Dipping the headlights

As you travel along the canals you come across what look like junk yards, and they can be quite entertaining to look at. This yard was littered with dressed up mannequins that can look quite realistic from a distance.

Steady boys, it's only a mannequin

As we continued our journey North, at Hawkesbury Junction (where the Coventry Canal meets the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal) we got chatting to the couple moored next to us, Peter and Pam on NB Seventh Heaven. Like us, they were planning to go to the local pub for a meal, so we all went together and had a very pleasant evening, We exchanged telephone numbers and email, and promised to keep in touch and possibly meet up again next year.

Update at Last

Well, what can I say? What excuse can I use that I haven’t used before? There isn’t one, I have been lazy, hows that? So I’m going to have to think back to what happened after my last post.

I’m always being asked “how big is the waterways network; So I’ve added this link that will show you “The Inland Waterways of England” I’m trying to make this a permanent link on the top of the page so that it’s always there.

http://www.jim-shead.com/waterways/mwp.php?wpage=Inland-Waterways-of-England.htm

Foxton was our next port of call. This weekend there was some sort of Bank Holiday fete and Eileen and I (Lily didn’t want to hold it) got to hold a Barn Owl

There is a flight of 10 locks here and it does attract a lot of tourists. Charlotte, Tim and Lily were onboard with us and as we entered the bottom Lock to go up. We knew there was a BBC camera crew on the bridge, (sorry I didn’t take a photo) so the women had been warned. as we entered the lock Charlotte appeared on deck at the stern with me, and I can tell you I thought she was going on a Saturday night out. We did it seems appear on some programme, but we didn’t see it, and we don’t know what it was called. Some one later that morning told us that he had seen us on the news that morning because he recognized the boat. So Eileen and I are now looking for a “Fly on the wall” TV contract, just like Katie and Peter.

We continued South until we met the “Grand Union Canal” at Norton Junction. Here we turned West and headed for Braunston.

Don't burst now

Braunston Junction

From Baunston we were now officially heading North. We found this lovely mooring adjacent to the Golf course at Rugby; Once they had finished playing, around dusk, Jack and I were able to play frisbee on the fairway.

Mooring next to Rugby golf course

View over the hedge

I'm saying nothing.......Respect!!

The River Soar

The River Soar is very picturesque, with very little flow. It meanders slowly down past Loughborough towards Leicester and down to the Grand Union Canal.

We will be passing Debdale Marina almost 1 year after we picked the boat up there, so I will be writing more about that at the time.

We headed towards Loughborough for Thursday, as this is market day, so Eileen had a good wander around the town. I stayed on the boat and repaired the wiring to the horn, and made good the end of the bow and stern ropes with a back splice.

Loughborough mooring

We left Loughborough and headed back out into the country side where we found a very quiet spot with plenty of towpath to walk the dog, and a huge blackberry bush right next to the boat, i’ll be looking forward to some more fruit crumble!!

Countryside mooring

Kids in canoes

Nice riverside garden