Silly little man

Dear old @JeremyHunt says the price of medication should be printed on prescriptions so the sick can see how much their medication costs the taxpayer. He seems to forget that the sick are taxpayers. They pay taxes all through their working lives and into retirement so they don’t have to worry about how much the medication will cost.

Some one will have to put this information into a computer for it to end up on the prescriptions. I wouldn’t mind betting Hunt has a company that can do that for a price that will make our eyes water!

These people in Government have to stop thinking that they GIVE us everything, they don’t. It is our money we have paid for the NHS it belongs to us not them.

The only purpose of this sordid little plan would be to show the taxpayer how much the Phama Cos are ripping off the NHS. What an own goal!

Peter Leigh

Peter and his wife, Liz, have been involved in the canals for over 40 years. He now has to give it all up. Why? Because CRT cannot come up with a proper solution to the speeding cyclist problem.

Liz, a wheelchair user, says she will not go on the towpath ever again it’s too dangerous.

Cyclists on the canal have become the one main pariah of boater and pedestrian alike.

24 hours

In the last twenty four hours I have lost Annie, dropped a windlass in to oblivion, and dropped my hand bell in the cut. Let’s hope that is an end to it!

Edit: I found the Hand bell!

Kidnapped

ANNIE has been kidnapped. I went for a walk to Worrmleighton Village yesterday afternoon and returned to see her missing from her place on the chimney.

If anyone sees her or knows of her whereabouts please contact the Serious Crime Squad. Or you could tell me.

There is a just possibility that she fell in the canal.

And another

I am pleased to hear that my favourite drunk has sold her fat boat and pissed off to Spain Hip hip horray!! Someone else the waterways didn’t need.

Guy Martin Tosser!

I don't care how fast he can ride a bike! The last thing the waterways needed was someone on a boat with the intellectual capacity of a pea.

Yesterday moored at Bridge 153 in Cropredy I over heard a hire boater say “Fuck it lets go for it” This was after 3 o’clock in the afternoon and the ‘it’ was Fenny Compton.

The Guy Martin connection came as they sped off under the bridge when, encouraged by the adults on the boat, a young lad 14/16 jumped off the bridge onto the roof of the boat. This, if you saw the series, was something done by members of the crew and labelled ‘extreme boating’, extreme idiocy more like!

Since Timothy West said, “It’s a contact sport”, every Tom Dick and Harry hire boater has learned the phrase and thinks that is the way to go! Enough with the TV programmes. They seem to bring the worst of people onto the canals I told John Sergeant the same thing.

Yesterdays boat jumper passed me tonight at Bridge 131 after taking a gentle curve too fast and crashing into the off side bank. Why was he speeding? Probably because he  come further than he was  told to and is now racing to get back. If he is late back I guarantee he will swear he turned at Cropredy or blame the queues at the locks.

ANJUNA

If you think I am travelling too fast that is your opinion and you are entitled to it however misguided you may be, but if you then get off your boat and follow me along the tow path that is an act of aggression and I will call the police.

As it happens yes my engine may have been going fast, but the the shit around my prop meant my boat wasn’t.To have the temerity to tell me that you can still see my prop turning even when I am in neutral tells me you are an arsehole of some considerable skill. I think you would be better off playing the part of a Cnut rather than that of a boater. Next time you see what you think is a speeding boat take note of the registration number and report it to CRT. You are not any authority on the water and pretending you are shows you up for little man you are. Don't ever chase me aggressively down the canal! One of us will get hurt.

It’s hard!

Being me is not very easy. I am out spoken and often people take offence. I have an opinion on most things and because of this many people take an adversarial interest in what I do. Some boaters are just watching out to see me get it wrong or break the rules.

As you can imagine this puts an enormous pressure on me to ‘get it right’. I am no saint, but you can bet your base plate that at most times I am trying hard to get it right. I never know when someone is watching and taking notes only to tell all on FaceBook.

So give me some slack!

WTF?

Have I missed something here. This man is spending our money to fight us in court because he doesn't want to tell us how he, as our employee, has fucked up. Is that the gist of it?

Just so…….

……the 1495 spammers and various cowards understand this blog does not accept anonymous comments. Anonymous comments and spam go in the trash where they belong. Spam away I don’t care!

Technorati Tags: Spam,Trash,Anonymous,cowards

John Sergeant at Thrupp

John Came to Thrupp while Bones and I were stripping her roof one evening ready for painting. I stopped to welcome him and introduced myself asking if I could be of any help. He was looking for somewhere to moor for the night so they could start the mornings filming with him taking the boat through the Lift Bridge. We sort of agreed to turn a blind eye if he moored on the water point providing he was on the move by eight o’clock. He is a real boater he didn’t turn up until gone nine.

With the good ship Bones

Setting off!

I was asked if they could used the footage taken of me and her working. The Milly M was on the front near the cottages sporting both the head of Ressusi Annie and my RAF Ensign so that may well make an appearance.

Technorati Tags: Bones,John Sergeant,Thrupp

The Middle East

It matters not what you think about the situation in Israel/Gaza, those people are incapable of understanding the inhumanity of their situation. A mans life is worth nothing, a child’s life is worth even less. Make no mistake about it if Palestinians had sophisticated weaponry they would be raining death and destruction down on Israel in unparalleled attacks.

The solution can only come from one of two places Israel/Gaza or Iran!

It has been proven that talking does not work. Whatever each side says they will not stick to it. If normal medicine fails to bring about a cure then the cancer must be irradiated.

I fear Iran will almost certainly drop their nuke, when they get one, right in the middle of Israel. We in the west, of course, will retaliate by frying Mecca.

There can be no other response to such a major attack on an American friend.

Flying the Flag

On Reflection

I saw Paula this evening and she mentioned that I haven’t blogged since Sunday. Now I have!

On Reflection

Bargee!

A Bargee/Bargeman is defined as:-

noun,

1. one of the crew of a barge.

2. a person who owns, manages, or captains a barge.

A barge is defined as:-

noun

1. a capacious, flat-bottomed vessel, usually intended to be pushed or towed, for transporting freight or passengers; lighter.

If you are a bargee you usually own, manage, or captain a vessel carrying freight or passengers. There are narrow boats (approx 7 feet wide)  there are barges (14 feet or more) and in between there are wide beams 8, 10, 12 feet or so. The difference between a proper narrow boat or barge and a modern day narrow boat is about 25 tons of freight. Same applies to a barge. Barges are piloted by a bargee as are narrow boats.

Now being a bargee or a crew member, usually family, you had a very hard life. I have the greatest of respect for such people and because I have respect for them I would not have the temerity to call myself a Bargee. Neither, I think, should anyone else. On a modern narrow boat with all the trimmings of modernity we cannot hope to get a real appreciation of how hard the Bargees life was. There are very few real Bargees left on the water. People who could load a boat with timber/cocoa/coal etc and sheet it up. Then take the cargo to its destination in the minimum amount of time. In days gone by a fully crewed pair could take a load from Brentford to Brum in about 60 hours hot bedding all the way.

Whilst you may not agree with that I simply cannot find it in my heart to respect any one who calls them self a bargee, because they live in comparative luxury on a modern boat. They simply cannot comprehend  just how hard it was. You can feck CAB CRT and any organisation who thinks we are bargees, we are not itinerants and should not be roped in with Romanies/gypsies/travellers etc. because mostly we are just ordinary landies who happen to like it on the water.

We are boaters! Plain and simple! We will never know what it feels like to have to stay at the helm  day after day to deliver your cargo or go hungry. When the tiller begins to feel too heavy we just pull over and moor up. We can put the kettle on, put our feet up and not worry about tomorrow.

Nine years I have been at this and I will never have the skills or experiences the real bargees had and, to be honest, I am not sure I would want them, not for the price they paid.