Friday 5 October 2012

Rack and ruin

Honestly, you leave a country for a couple of months and the whole place goes to rack and ruin. Sally Ash joins Canal World Forum, Cart takes over from BW, the IWA take over CART, people on bikes and computers are taking numbers in the middle of nowhere every couple of weeks and there's a man goin' 'round taking names and he decides who to free and who to blame.

The IWA hates liveaboards, Cart hates liveaboards, marina dwellers hate liveaboards, the guy that give me a patrol notice the other day hated liveaboards (I could see it in his eyes), everybody hates liveaboards. I say liveaboards but I use this term to include ccers, cmers, bridge hoppers, overstayers and people who live on their boat. Paradoxically I even include boats that move round the system that no one lives on as they are all indistinguishable to the bigots who hate us and our boats. I've always been a persecuted minority (of one usually) and little has changed.

It would seem that there's a storm brewing. I wonder what Aickman, Rolt et al would have made of it all. Well there's always Nottingham Beer Festival next weekend.

Oh, hello again. Nice to be back (I think). Saw my first blogger the other day when Hadar passed.