Slough Arm Bridge 2A

I headed down the arm - by bike - to check progress on bridge repair, although that doesn't seem the best word - they'll be removing the bridge span, which may or may mot be replaced at a later date. Sadly access is a little difficult - the towpath is blocked under the M25 by a huge great hoarding blocking the view, although the foreman told me the fences & signs are having to be replaced on an almost daily basis.

The work is being done by Greenfords, subcontracted from May Gurney, contracted by C&RT - as ever, two lots of profit to be skimmed off from that, then. So far all the important services - the mains & fibre optic cables which C&RT are being paid to carry - have been moved to the handy adjacent pipe bridge. The canal is completely blocked by gravel, to give a stable surface for the work to be continued. The bridge had dropped a metre, apparently.

The good news is that they expect to have finished by the published date of mid June.

It's started...

We hadn't wandered along the Brentford moorings for a while; the new flats are at least set back a little, but there's a nice new sales centre - undoubtedly destined to become a bar, or at least they hope it will.

To avoid any unsightly boats mooring outside, of course, there's a new floating deck outside it. Isis/C&RT (an inceasing dubious relationship, now that one is a charity) will insist it's for canoeoists, I'm sure, but that's at least two boat's worth of mooring gone there. I also fail to understand what needs an extra opontoon that can't be launched from the existing bank.

As far as I can tell, Brentford isn't included in the 14 day to 48 hr conversion proposals, but it can only be a matter of time - just a few complaints from people in their new posh flats will lead to changes, I'm sure...

Some things never change

'On her Silver Jubilee' by Leon Rosselson. I hope he won't mind. ;-)

Right, we're off to see some boats. ;-)

Who'd live in a house like this?

(image copyright rightmove/keatons, undoubtedly)

A 7' wide house, for sale in Hackney for £275,000.

Following the link and looking at the floor plan, you might get a tiny bit more space than a boat, but not much more (and less light, I'm guessing), and for four times the price of a boat, with none of the advantages. Why?

In other news, the occasional BBC royal street party thingy idents in between programmes were at least partially shot just by The Fox in Hanwell, while Tortoise was there recently, although not actually in shot - not that any of the canal was.

Is there really such a thing as 'pay as you go'?

My first mobile broadband thingy was a 'Three' model; fater the initial data allowance was used (took several months, I recall), any subsequent topup lasted a month, whether used or not. That's equivalent to buying four tins of beans, after a month you've only used two so they take them back off you; not really on.

I then - a couple of years ago, I think - found a Vodafone one (yes, pay full tax in the UK, you b*stards) that claimed unlimited data; I managed to get one before it was discontinued. The initial data allowance - think it was 1Gb, must check - lasted me those two years; most websites fucntion fine with images off, and it saves a hell of a lot of daya, when it's being counted. I was down to my last pound's worth, and a mere half an hour phone call later I was able to add more credit. £15, for 1Gb of data. That will only last 3 months, then it is taken away again; back to the beans again. So why call it pay as you go? It seems to be pretty universal, too - I haven't researched it much for a while, but I don't know of any company that will offer genuine pay as you go mobile internet.

Of course phone companies are all about money (and keeping it rather that paying it in tax), and customers like me are their worst possible nightmare. I can't imagine ofcom are interested, but it's a typically capitalist the-customer-always-loses scam. yes, I'm playing the game too, just doesn't seem fair.

Meanwhile - in even less exciting news (for the sake of adding a picture), these are back in a pound shop near you;

I know, I know. But it is useful; it'll charge a newish Nokia phone, iPod/iPhone, anything with a mini-USB (lots of things, not just phones) and also micro-USB (Blackberries, Samsung phones, I think, also kindles) from a USB socket; either in a computer, or from a car cig lighter USB power supply, also hadily on the same shelves (or a mains one, if you have one). You may never need it, but might come in useful too.

arg - new blogger; yes, I get so see that a random post about furniture made from pallet wood got 2,272 views, but why do I have to go back to adding html paragraph tags just to format my post. Otherwise it looks like the rantings of a madman. Ah, erm...

Too much water & not enough boats

Tortoise is at the bottom of the Hanwell flight at the moment, just where the Brent enters the canal - otherwise known as 'The Fox'. With all the recent local rain the water level has risen around a foot since yesterday; a neighbouring boater reckons they'll have opened the sluices on the Welsh Harp reservoir, although whether that is fact or conjecture I'm not sure. The flow is pretty impressive, certainly a couple of miles an hour, certainly the coots struggled against it. A lot of rubbish/twigs/logs has floated past today - most are piled up by the first wier, above Osterley lock.

Meanwhile Brentford visitor moorings are as empty as I've seen them; in fact one boat has come down today so they were emptier earlier. The visitor moorings are turned over to winter moorings until the end of March, so most of them have now wandered on. ;-)

My second favourite boat called Blackbird

Seen on a recent flying visit to the K&A; lovely. That would be my workshop under there, could be opened up in summer...

Boatspotting

The nice thing about living in Brentford (and being able to bring your own boat down here for a few days, to faff about) is that you see the odd bit of traffic that comes through. Hence I chatted to the crew of 'I Frances', first at the gauging lock and later in various of Brentford's hostelries...

Having been brought over from Bristol by it's new owner, it's a striking looking boat, lots of nice woodwork. It gets more striking when you find out it was built in Canada and sailed across the Atlantic to Ireland, then the UK (link to pdf). Here's the new owner's record of works, and for light relief the collected troglodytes of cwf cast their undoubtedly expert eyes over the feat.

In completely other news, on ebay, the present for someone who has everything; an apparently full size canal boat bow. Currently £1.99 with three days to go, buyer collects...

Wecome to Victorian Britain

In a spectacular move even Jo Moore (of 'good day to bury bad news' fame) would be proud of, the government we didn't vote for got the NHS bill passed through the day before a controversial budget through, neatly deflecting prolonged flak - well, for a while, until any of us or our family are ill. Then we'll remember. Then we'll remember all too well.

In less important circles, I've reach the point where there's too much bloggable stuff to know where to start, and no camera card reader to hand, which doesn't help...

The title? expect workhouses and ricketts back any day now. Just wait...

And the winners are...

... well, it's not independent boaters, that's for sure.

Results here (and candidate info still here).

So, we have 2 1/2 IWA people and one RBOA, I think it's fair to say?

A cynic would suggest it's a neat stitchup by someone in an upper floor office; by denying the IWA and RBOA seats on the council by default (list of 'nominated respresentatives' also here - WRG seems to be the only big directly canal association allowed to play), the IWA get an even bigger voice on the council, RBOA get their say (and so they should) and 'private boaters' get eff all. Diddly squat. As we expected, then.

I should make it clear I have nothing against the IWA, RBOA or anyone else. It's this travesty of 'representation'. Perhaps it was never going to work. It'll be like the NHS, about to be ripped apart by people with accounts at Harley St. In a couple of years, when we look back at when we didn't have to pay for a broken arm to be treated - or our licences weren't doubled overnight, say - they'll tell us we chose this, that we were complicit.

Actually, I'm far angrier about what they're doing to the NHS - that affects far, far more people in a much more important way. But it's all the same. We're f*cked.

Edit: see also Peter Underwood's post on the results suggesting all four represent the IWA. What's the point? I genuinely don't understand why they did this.