Morning
Welcome to the Khayamanzi Weblog owned by Andy Edwards. Read the exploits of life afloat and my travels around the British inland waterways of Great Britain aboard my floating home Khayamanzi - a 55 foot narrowboat and with 'first mate' Simba - my border collie cross German Shepherd! *People wishing to see developments of Little Foxwood Model Railway can find the links on the right below my recommended websites.
I will assume that you have one of these amazing little gadgets, if not then switch off now and go and buy one! The do work and circulate the hot air from the stove, (that traditionally rises and sits ont he ceiling,) and push the hot air down the length of the boat to the back. In my experience, those who say they don't work haven't read the instruction regarding siting the unit and have placed it in front of the chimney which does not produce the best efficiency.
Aeroplane jump!
A good day today. Set off this morning at around 9.30 from Norton Junction and headed through Braunston Tunnel towards the locks. Paired up with NB Ryebank a shared ownership boat to transcend the locks. The couple on the boat were both deputy heads so much 'school talk' was the order of the flight!
20 miles and 6 locks today - Phew!!
Well, my new cratch canopy was installed today by A J Canopies and very smart it is too! true to their word, 2 fitters arrived this afternoon and fitted it. I have to say, I am extremely impressed with the quality and fit of it and would recommend them to anyone. From the start, they went out of their way to fit in with my time scale and the final cover will last many years to come I'm sure. Unfortunately since getting home I have been too busy to take any pictures of it but will post some as soon as I get the chance.
Just for a giggle, I checked out the Canalworld forums. The first post I read says, and I quote:
The charter referred to says, and I quote again with parts in brackets added by me,
There then follows 6 posts all agreeing, slamming BW and even advocating a mass protest of opening all swing bridges during rush hour to get us poor boaters noticed!
I guess the post was added by a floating housing estate dweller who clearly doesn't understand the history, heritage, business or future of boating.
With a level of intelligence and support such as that, as someone once said, 'We (boaters) are stuffed.'!!
Why blog?It's an interesting question. I always thought bloggers simply wanted to share personal and specific aspects of their intriquing lives with the wider world via an impersonal medium. It seems that with the increasing popularity of blogging and the fact that bloggers appear to be marked solely on their ability to write and report in a style equal to that of best selling broadsheets, there is an emerging trend being developed of several tiers of bloggers!
OK - a hasty update on life from the perspective of a Wednesday evening! Yesterday was hectic to say the least! Playground duty during the teaching day ensured no break whatsoever between 7.45am and 3.30pm, Eco-Schools meeting between 3.30 and 4.30pm, a hasty catch up with marking, planning and assessment before a governor's meeting from 7.00 to 10.15pm finally arriving home from school at 10.45pm to collapse in a chair for about 20mins before bed - don't even ask where dinner fitted in!
Today started as a strange day and got stranger as it went on! It was one of those days I have been torn limb from limb in about 12 different directions and have now switched off the phone, battoned down the hatches and am determined to finish at least one job without being pulled somewhere else, and the job in question is the most important of all - that of dinner cooking!!
Spent this morning helping my neighbour, Norman, taking his new boat down for a pump out and diesel. Lacking in confidence, he simply wanted me on hand to guide although he did fine and didn't need me at all. A Rose hire boat moored at a bridge hole on a blind bend and happily fishing off the front bow caused an interesting moment as we met a day boat coming through the other way being helmed by a kid! The adults made no attempt to take control as the kid lost it big time and the bow veered across in front of us forcing us to collide and pushing us into the side of the 'moored' Rose boat. The rest of the day was spent planting dafodills and enjoying the relative warmth of an early October day.
Ditch crawling - a phrase I have heard on numerous occasions to describe canal boating. I know it is used as a phrase of endearment but somehow it grates on me! It seems to epitamise the dis-respect for the history and heritage of the past and the hard lives of the old working boat men. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't correct anyone who uses it and at the end of the day, I guess I'm just as guilty in using 'derrogitary' phrases to describe cabin cruises and other such boating related areas but I just don't like being referred to as a 'ditch crawler'!!
Mike Stevens was a much loved waterway personality who can be credited with many waterway achievements. It is with a very heavy heart that I recieved an email from Will Chapman to say that Mike passed away yesterday. Mike was the web manager for the Save Our Waterways campaign and contributed to the Narrowboat World news site. As a blogger himself, Mike was instrumental in many waterways campaign ranging from restoration to museums. I had the pleasure of meeting Mike on a few occasions at SOW meetings and protests. Mike was also involved in education in one way or another all his working life and his last post before 'retirement' was with the Association of Teachers and Lecturers - one of the leading teaching unions.
No, not the latest on a playground brawl from my day at school - more embarrasingly from adults who jolly well ought to know better! I find that the more patience I have with little people, the proportianally less I have with adults who seem more immature than the kids!
Jon,
May I please respectfully request that you unsubscribe me from this
forum.
Since receiving the death threats from this forum some time
back over expressing my views on unlicenced vessels, I have significantly
lessened my contribution and monitored the threads without participating. It has
been interesting and extremely clear that the type of 'boaters' now dominating
this forum are those with little or no interest in the boating package and would
rather spend their time bashing BW or expressing extreme views that do little
but betray their motives for boating as a cheap floating house. I am, quite
frankly, astounded by the number of people who openly admit and support such
ideas as bridge hopping, owning unlicenced boats and finding 'loop-holes' in the
law. This is not a community I wish to be a part of and having spoken to many
genuine touring boaters, the opinion is shared that this forum is fast loosing
its way as a boating forum due to the fact that almost every post ends in
slating opinions to a personal level or openly advocating flouting BW or
national laws. It is a shame, as Canalworld.net used to be considered as such a
useful and friendly forum for boaters but the latest post in the Living afloat
section, together with the subsequent follow-ups are indicative of the type of
boater now residing here. Charles123 will also soon be off, as will, and are,
the many other level headed and law abiding boaters who simply want to share
interests and ideas. I feel there is soon the market place for a splinter forum
with stricter guidelines to be used only by people passionate about boating and
the canals of England rather then the many bridge hoppers and ex-travellers that
now lead the discussions here.
Thank you for the years of interest and help your site has
provided but I now find its usefelness or interest extremely limited. I will
continue to 'watch' the forum with interest, (tinged with a little sadness of
the obvious demise of the canals as a recreational heritage,) but don't ever
want the temptation of getting 'sucked in' to silly debates.
Kind regards,
Andy Edwards
http://www.khayamanzi.com/
Sent
04/06/07I received the following reply:
Andy, I am not following. I did receive your PM a while back (which I did
acknowledge on the day but you obviously didn't get it). Unfortunately I do not
delete accounts/unsubscibe members as this leaves holes in topics where posts
have been removed. This is set out in the forum rules and guidelines.To which
thread are you referring in this message? Please provide a link. Many thanks, Jon