America's President Donald Trump has said all through his presidency the MSM was fake news. And every body says it just because MSM are anti Trump. FaceBook have been a supporter of fake news and currently are going all out to support Pedo Biden with lies. At the Senate hearing on election fraud Nevada had 130,000 illegal votes including 15,000 dead people and yet FaceBook are still pedaling the lie "There is no Fraud"
Thursday, 17 December 2020
That Election!
Monday, 7 December 2020
Surprise!
Life has away of making surprises. Last Saturday I received a small package from Roy on NB KATO. I don't think I have met Roy before but he thought of me after reading my post "RUBBISH". Several years ago at Peterbourgh waste disposal Roy found a CD made by Gary From Ledgard Bridge Boats (LBB).

Friday, 4 December 2020
Re: Advertising revenue!
I am so glad we have between us raised just over £71 plus the 40 quid I donate for losing my wallet. I will forward this to Trevi House. Hopefully this will enhance the Christmas.
Monday, 23 November 2020
Rubbish
When you place something in the disposal at a water point It may be useful to someone else, so its a good idea to leave it accessible for others. If it is broken, old, worn it should be in the bins, and likewise if hasn't been taken in two weeks it should go in the bin.
Its been about two weeks now since I put a broken storage box, a tatty grass woven basket, and a broken washing up bowl in the skip since it had not been removed. Every time I go there with my rubbish the said items have been removed and left beside the bins.
Essentially these items are crap. Old, broken, worn! No one wants them. Now add to this a number of old batteries (not allowed) a dozen old oil containers all full (not allowed) piles of books, an old cage generator, Loads of old shoes and bedding all left out of the bins 'in case they can be of use' and what you have is not enough fucking room to get in the storage area to put your rubbish in the bins.
I don't know who is doing this, taking the rubbish out of the bins, but it is bloody annoying. And they need to get a life. The disposal point is for the collection of rubbish for disposal, not for the storage of your crap! STOP IT!
Saturday, 21 November 2020
Thats so cool
We are now up to just over £65. Thank you everyone for your clicks. I am sure Trevi House will be most pleased. If you are interested you can read about them here.
Grotesques
Friday, 20 November 2020
Thank you
It seems my post about the ad has produced a further 10 quid. Thankyou everyone, only another £4.06 to go. I have to send Trevi House £40 after I retrieved my lost wallet (I always give half of the contents). So £60 from the ad will bring that total to £100. If you have been and clicked, it can be done every day if you have more time to spare.
Wednesday, 18 November 2020
How cool!
Those of you that know me are aware that in the last two years I have been involved with Susan Chavagnon. Susan is the the wife of the late Andre Chavagnon owner of restaurants 'Le Sorbonne' 'Rouge Blanc Bleu', 'Le Rendezvous' and 'Ma Cuisine', all in Oxford. He was a Master chef, three star Michelin. One of the two best chefs in Oxford. Andre taught many of the good chefs in Oxford during the 60s and 70s, including Raymond Blanc.
Andre died in August 2017 following a long period of Dementia. He left his wife Susan well cared for. Susan has a Restaurant on the Cowley Road and the flat above, also a house in Roanne France. Its at the bottom of the LOIRE VALLEY. Its not palatial, but it is somewhere to live. Its a two bed bungalow. I think it is the only one on the street. The rest of the houses are 2-3 stories.
However this is not the story I want to tell, read on.
We visit the French house two times a year, except since Covid.
During an early visit one March we stopped of at the canal basin, yes Roanne has canal basin! I had no idea! The basin is only about one mile from Susan's house.
We spoke to an English couple, painting their boat, who were overwintering there. They said we should come to the wine bar on Thursday when all the over wintering boaters get together for a few beers/wines.
Well I was ill the next Thursday so we arrived a week later. It was a typical French wine bar. On entrance we passed a table of the French boaters, a table of German & Dutch boaters, and next was the British boaters.
As we arrived we said hello to the people we met at the basin. A chap stood up and said, "Fuck me, it's Maffi!" Well you may think I would have been stunned having travelled 600 miles, I was, but Susan was beside herself. She just could not believe that after all this traveling we met some one who knew the Maffster! The chap was Roger who used to own NB 'Fizzical Attraction'. I met Roger some years ago in Loughborough and all of a sudden he was here in Roanne. What a coincidence!
We had a good night! Plenty of good French wine and plates of chips thrown in.
Now that doesn't happen very often!
We were going to return in March but C-19 got in the way and again in September, no joy! Yet again we were looking for the NEW Year but its looking iffy. I don't know how the British boaters are getting on out there, but I do hope the French are treating them right.
Tuesday, 17 November 2020
Ugly bastard
You may or may not know what this is. I do only too well. Its the Scabies mite. It is an ugly little fucker. You don't want to meet it. It is not only annoying in that it makes you itch, it also 'bites'. I say bites I'm not sure that is the right word, but if you have ever had a wasp sting you will know what I mean. The pain level is only about half the intensity of a wasp sting. but it happens (in my case) about 40/50 times a day. And I cant even see it, its microscopic!
This is a contagious infestation. I have no idea where it came from!
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Scientific name: Sarcoptes Scabiei var canis |
Saturday, 14 November 2020
Nothing Further To Report
Friday, 13 November 2020
Oh dear, Rambo rides again
An Old Age Pensioner, who had just picked up his lady friend, off the train, heard a scream near the Station. At first he was alarmed but not enough to seek out the screamer. Then another plaintiff scream and he had to go see what was happening.
He walked down near to the station entrance where a young woman and a man were in a heated argument, very one-sided. As the OAP approached the couple the guy said to him, "Stay away and keep out of it, you don't know what's going on here". OAP had seen enough bullying thugs to know exactly what was going on here.
Mr Angry started to yell at the old boy telling him to, "fuck off" and that he "wasn't wanted", and "don't poke your nose in!" The OAP said as cool as he could when he passed the guy, "I don't want to talk to you I just want to talk to her and see if she is OK". Angry man says, "You are going to get hurt if you don't fuck off, just leave". OAP ignored him, walked up to the girl and asked if she was OK. Mr Angry went off on one again. OAP turned and said, "I told you I don't want to talk to you".
She responded, "NO! I don't want him near my car". There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing.
I want my stuff.
No go away.
Give me my stuff.
Get away from me.
Just give me my stuff.
Stay away from my car.
The guy shouting at the top of his voice told the OAP, "This is nothing to do with you. Fuck off and mind your own business or I am going to fuck you up". Sadly he didn't realise he was dealing with one of her majesty's military men and they don't give up. OAP had been threatened before and in an earlier time he may have walked away, but he was not going to back down now.
The guy, about 25-30, wanted to get his stuff out of her car but he was just being an absolute arsehole!
So the OAP says, "Calm down mate. Look why don't you wait here and I'll go with her and get your stuff out of her car and bring it to you". Well, that wasn't good enough.
By now there was a small crowd forming. He walked over to the girl's car, and everybody followed. Still shouting and threatening the OAP he said, "you are going to get hurt if you stay here! Just fuck off. You don't know what's going on. This is none of your business. Get outta my fucking face" The tirade seemed endless. "Calm down Mate. Shouting is getting you nowhere," says the OAP, "I'm staying here until she is safely away, just stop shouting and we can sort this". Wasted breath!
She opened the boot of her car and took out his stuff and put it on the road and that should have been the end of it, but no, now he is complaining because he didn't want one of the bags on the ground and wanted it to go back in the car (probably thinking later he needed her to have the bag so he had an excuse to go back to her house). When the girl said no he opened the back door of the car, still shouting, and got in. OAP asked him to get out of the car, "If you want me out you will have to call the police, to which OAP said, "Fine by me sonny", and dialed 999.
Still shouting and threatening to kill the OAP the yob, realizing OAP had called his bluff got out of the car and left the area. The girl moved her car to another part of the concourse and waited until it was safe to leave. Meanwhile, the police had a rapid response vehicle on its way.
Angry man eventually came back to get his stuff. At this time while OAP was still talking to the police on the phone he was also moving 'said stuff' off the road onto the pavement.
The guy didn't get closer than 25 yards when the siren sounded and he then hot-footed it towards the rail bridge shouting he was going to commit suicide and chuck himself off the bridge. Well, that would have been a good result! No one knows why, but the police rapid response car never turned up. The Station man made a radio call to stop all trains in and out of the station and the station Lady comforted the girl. The girl eventually drove off after someone said Angry man had left the area.
Everything then calmed down. Everybody said thank you to each other for the support, the girl had left saying nothing and the Rail staff took Angry man's bags to the station. Everybody went home!
The Moral of this story is quite simple. I am not Rambo. I have got to stop poking my nose in where it isn't wanted. I think it was the fact that I kept calm that he was somewhat disarmed by that, that I didn't get hurt. One day a Mr Angry is gonna fuck me up bad and at 70 I don't think I will survive.
Oh well, Onwards and upwards!
Epilogue: Angry Man was recently released from prison. He was locked up because he had assaulted this girlfriend whilst high on drugs. She said the first week home was fine then he started with the drugs again and it all went south from there. She had, had enough and was throwing him out. She was pregnant! During their relationship, he had isolated her from her family, a typical scenario for a bullying moron with low self-esteem. What a fucking twat!
Thursday, 12 November 2020
Hypocrite
Service with a smile
I don't want to moan, but you know I'm going to. Has customer service gone down the shit chute? Recently I was in a well known shopping emporium owned by a Mr Smith at a Rail station. I bought my self a can of coke for the journey.
The whole encounter took just a minute or two. During this time I said 'hello' and 'thank you'. The girl behind the counter never spoke a word! After she handed me my change I said, " Excuse me but we have just made a transaction here and you have not spoken one word".
Her response was, "No and I'm not going to".
I like going into restaurants and I always tip well for good service. The more known I become the better the service I get. I have noticed that in restaurants where a 12% service charge is added to the bill the service is not always up to standard. And anyway when did tipping/service charge rise from 10%, that kind crept up on us a few years ago. Catering is one of a few businesses where you are sold the goods for a stated price and then the overheads are added to the bottom of the bill after the goods have been consumed albeit by tipping or fixed service charge,. Why is that? Why is it that certain service industries work different to the rest?
I remember as a kid, when out shopping with mummy, if the service in a shop was poor she would never go back there again and I mean never! Of course 60 odd years ago that would have happened very rarely.
What has happened? Why did it all change? What has happened in our society that makes it OK for some Service staff to think that service isn't important? Are we right to expect good service?
Tuesday, 10 November 2020
FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS
Sunday, 8 November 2020
Friday, 6 November 2020
Advertising!
You will notice as you view this page that there is a small advert on the left of the page. I have no idea from one day to another what this ad will be, but I do know it will be there. It seems you don't! That one ad generates money which I give to a charity. In order to raise money you guys have to click on the ad. That's all just click on the ad. In about the last five years clicking has 'earned' £45.75. OK so the charity has benefitted by £45.75, well no! The advertiser only pays out when the figure reaches £60. So I need another £14.25 in order to donate to charity. Now I am not allowed to tell you this but you could click when you come here. Don't say I said!
Hoorah!
Black Lives Matter protester faces JAIL after trying to BURN Union Jack on Cenotaph in London

Astrophel Sang, 19, was filmed flicking a lighter in a bid to torch the flag, unaware it is flame-proof.
Westminster JPs heard he had been hostile and aggressive and enjoyed the attention as a crowd egged him on at the London war memorial.
Sang told cops in June: “I didn’t rip it. I tried to set fire to it.”
Protesters defaced Winston Churchill’s statue the same day.
Sang, of Birmingham, admitted attempted arson, was bailed and will be sentenced later.
His girlfriend claimed he didn’t know it was the Cenotaph.

His lawyer added: “He wants to apologise.”
Thursday, 5 November 2020
The Presidential Election
What I see is a corrupt Democratic push to oust a president that is not of the ruling class. The whole point of a democracy is the politicians work for us not rule us! Yes Trump is a fecking clown, but even so he has done more for America in 4 years than the Pedophile Joe Biden has done in 47 years. I don't see what the problem is!
Joe Biden the well known pedophile has done more to fuck Black Americans than any politician in modern history. More Black Americans are in prison because of Biden's corrupt legislation than ever before, yet the fuckers keep voting for him! Are they stupid?
Wednesday, 4 November 2020
Who?
I don't know about you but, if I have only met you once or twice I am not likely to recognize you without your boat and if I recognize your boat as far as I am concerned you are the person I know on that boat. I bring this up because I find my self sometimes talking to boat owners who I have never met before but I know the boat. I open a conversation and remind the boater, who I am sure I know, that I am Maffi. This information is often met with a blank stare as I haven't been keeping up with the blogs I am unaware that many of my friends and acquaintances have sold up! A resent encounter with NB 'Parisien Star' ended this way. The guy had absolutely no idea who I was and I was left on the bankside feeling a bit like Scott-no-mates. Ho-hum!
Tuesday, 3 November 2020
Grammar
No not Grandma, but Grammar. I found this blog today and it is right up my street. Grammar Grandma. If you have any interest in using English correctly you may like to take a visit.
I love the English language and using it correctly. I am not an expert by a long chalk but, I do enjoy finding out. Having said that there are some mistakes I make on purpose. 'Licence' (noun) & 'License' (verb). I always use Licence even if License is the correct word e.g.
Correct: CRT license me to keep my boat on the canals. They issue me a licence to put in my window.
My take: CRT licence me to keep my boat on the canals. They issue me a licence to put in my window.
'Licence' does not exist in American English, 'license' is both noun and verb.
Anyway pop along to Grammar Grandma if you have any interest in grammar. It is written in very simple English so people like me can understand.
Monday, 2 November 2020
The trouble with @FaceBook.....
..... is it is not connected to reality. People have opinions and that is their right. There are times when people over step the bounds of propriety and rightly should be taken to task, (notice I didn't say 'punished'), It is not for @FaceBook to punish people. They are not a court of law. To argue that it is their site and they make the rules is pointless! It is not their site, they may have originally set it up, but they sold it to the advertisers. In doing that they gave it to the users to whom the adverts are pointed.
Thursday, 29 October 2020
Rubbish!
I think we all try to do our best when it comes to our litter. Even so there are a group of people, boaters and pedestrian alike who don't really care for either the canals or their general environment.
Mothers with their children who are too busy on their phone to notice the kids dropping litter. The local yobs dumping their Kebab wrappers. The town boozers who just leave their empty cans all over the place.
Then there is the new craze of magnet fishing. People dragging crap out of the canal on the pretext of keeping the canal clean only to leave the towpath covered in useless rusty artifacts that even the scrappy doesn't want. "Someone is coming along later to collect it!" No they're not! They are only interested in the 'prize'. A gun maybe? Or as happened jus a few weeks ago, in Banbury, a live grenade!
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Some 'magnet' fishers have now taken to grappling hooks |
A favourite of mine is prop-crap. It seems that everyone these days when they stop to take the plastic bags and shit off their propeller they just dump it on the path.
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Only a small amount but back in the water it will |
Is it just some kind of weird cult that holds the roof to be a sacred place and not to be sullied with the crapsam and jetsam of the water. Or maybe they have a snot bubble blocking their thought process. I dunno what it is, anyone?
Tuesday, 27 October 2020
Giblets
I am moored once gain at Tooley's on an official private mooring, I pay to moor here! As we have seen a few posts ago I have had to line the side of my boat with tyres to stop the 'Giblets' from damaging my boat.

To arrive from under the glass walkway (in the pic above) and come to rest against Moi is just bad form. I might have to start charging a mooring fee, £5 should be enough.
In all fairness I don't seem to get hit as much as when Kilsby wasn't there and I was alongside the wharf directly, giving the Giblets another 8 feet of space, but then I didn't have all the tyres for protection so I would have noticed it more especially as even the slightest bump showed up on the freshly painted gunnels!
So the point of this story is "Jenny B" and Mr Grumpy. Mr Grumpy was waiting for the workmen to open the bridge. Instead of mooring on the tow path (the right thing to do) he decided to come to rest against me and then went inside his boat. When the bridge opened he was nowhere to be seen! Eventually he came out. He was lined up with the bridge, so when they opened it he should have been able drive straight through, but for some reason he steered, left hand tiller, into the wall and had to take another crack at it. Reversing back he started the have a go at me, I was by this time on the back deck, I love watching these Giblets. I said nothing!
He saw me watching and offered, "The wind caught me".
"Well you should have tied up on the other side and the wind wouldn't have been a problem."
And then it came, "Well you shouldn't be moored there".
"Oh", says I, "Like I didn't see that coming. You have 16 feet of space and I am to blame because you can't drive a boat?"
"I am getting pissed of with people like you on the canal," he said.
Note: I am properly moored on a private mooring and 'I' am the reason he cant drive his boat.
His next obstacle after this 16 foot space, and the 10 foot wide bridge hole, is an 8 foot wide lock and he made a fuck up of that!
So now and for evermore I will be the evil genie in the story that he makes up that he will tell to anyone that will listen, and my crime? I was moored up minding my own business! If you should come across him please, please point him to this page.
PS Hire boat just came through, absolute text book driving. Moored on the tow path side brought the boat to a halt using the Center line and waited quietly for the bridge to open.
PPS 14:10 Jenny B came past, passing in the opposite direction. Said he wanted to apologize, and signaled me over, I was standing on the wharf under a shelter out of the rain. For one I wasn't going to get wet, for another I don't trust angry Giblets.
Monday, 26 October 2020
Banburyshire!



Wednesday, 21 October 2020
Banbury Lift Bridge
A chap passed me today. Commercial boat. 70 foot. Hiab type crane in the front, CRT label on the cabin we are talking about an experienced professional boater. He moored, and went to the bridge. To raise it the instructions are very clear. C/W to raise, this because I made sure that it was clear. I painted it! But yet he still wound the mechanism ac/w at least 6 times before he bothered to read the instructions.
This ignorance is why the bridge keeps on breaking. Engineers were out at the weekend to fix the bridge.
If you are coming to Banbury the bridge mechanism is C/W to raise and AC/W to lower. Please pay attention!
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Mooring In Banbury
So here I am moored back in Banbury for the winter. Lets hope I don't end up staying through next summer, again!
Slightly different arrangement this year. Do you remember Kilsbsy I reported on at the beginning of the year? Well this time it is on the wharf and I am moored outside it.


Sunday, 4 October 2020
Angry Farmers and Jaspers
For my second holiday this year we once again put France to one side even though we had tickets and have our own house out there. Instead we decided to go down the Thames to Brentford and back. I have done the Thames many times, but Susan has only covered Oxford to Lechlade and Oxford to Sonning. I bought a two week ticket and we set off in early September and returning in the latter half of the month. Susan had a great time. Lots of boats in September so moorings were at a premium.
One particular farmer, the guy who robs Henley, called at about 10.30 demanding his money. He didn't seem to understand that he had a duty of care with regards the mooring and it doesn't matter if there are 40 signs about, if the sign where I am moored is obscured and I cant see it then it is his responsibility to make it visible and not my job to hunt around for another, I'M ON FUCKING HOLIDAY! Of course if I had paid online, as the sign said I should, I would not have been able to bend his ear about his lack of customer service and failure to adhere to the HS Act!
High light of the trip was hammering in a pin through a wasps nest. Them Jaspers were not very happy I can tell you. We both sustained at least a dozen hits. I got 4 in about a minute at the top of my arse crack, 5 on my face and several other spread around. Susan unfortunately got a couple on the back of her hand which swelled up and a few across her bikini line and around her boobies. She was also not very happy!
Moral; If the sign says NO MOORING it means NO FECKING MOORING
Sunday, 27 September 2020
Wood Knowledge
Poplar gives a bitter smoke and fills your eyes will make you choke;
Elm-wood burns like churchyard mold, even the very flames are cold;
The Irish, we are told, have said, "hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread",
Apple-wood will scent the room and pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom;
But ash-wood wet and ash-wood dry, a King may warm his slippers by.
Monday, 7 September 2020
HOORAH!
Thursday, 3 September 2020
And so the winter comes
Number 5
Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Value for money!
In that 14 years I have never had to lift them out, they weigh more than a large bag of coal. I have never risked possible back injury, you guys of course have, and many times! And as you know with lifting them out you also have to lift them back in.
Another good thing is, I know many people who switch their inverter off at night 'to save the batteries', I never have. And I dont have solar!
EDIT: The batteries arrived today, Thursday! So when I set about changing them I was surprised to see that there were 5 not 4 leisure batteries installed in the boat. Consequently I have amended some of the figures above.
Important news if you live on a boat...
Thursday, 9 July 2020
Blogger!
Friday, 12 June 2020
Relief
Wednesday, 29 April 2020
Martin Thorne

Martin was a true Oxfordshire gentleman. RIP Martin my friend.