I have identified a current trend with the liveaboards on the Ashby Canal (if a sample of two can be a trend in a population of 'howmany' liveaboards). Young people seem to be buying boats and living on them in this part of the world. I've even seen them with their hoods up.
By young, I mean in their twenties (I always considered that the canals were the preserve of the over fifties (only a year to go in my case)). I'm not sure where they are getting the money from (probably theft) but it is a buyers market. A cheap form of housing or a love of the canals? Who can tell. But it is very possible for the former to become the latter, with time.
I met a guy the other day whom I first met when we first moved aboard Pickles No 2 and at that time he had just been divorced, was on his uppers and living in an old Dawncraft as he could not afford any other form of housing. But in the last two years, he has got his life together, bought a 'proper' steel narrowboat' got himself a decent job and a love of the canals (not just a cheap form of housing) along with many friends amonst the boating community and would never live in a house again. You see, it's not just the middle class marina dwellers who have a 'love of the canals' (as they spend several weekends a year on them).
I don't wish to influence anyone (god forbid) in the forthcoming election, but the Torys intend to sell the BW property portfolio, if reading between the lines of the latest Towpath Telegraph is anything to go by (which it's probably not). It obviously depends which lines you wish to read between. I don't choose my lines lightly but as a fundamentalist liberal (no, not a 'Liberal') I'm good at choosing between 'my' lines (or sitting on the fence).
Hell, vote BMP. You know it makes sense.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
A love of the canals
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4 comments:
I imagine that life is slower on a narrowboat than in a house in a busy city - even if you are working furiously towards finishing that bow or boat! Do you think life is slower? Do you have less to think about? You know, you may have found the answer to a long life; a narrowboat.
Life is most certainly slower and simplier. We lived in central Nottingham before moving to the country, then onto the boat. No drug dealers nor prostitutes around here. Well non that I know off (that's what I tell Lisa)
There's nothing furious about my work pattern. Lisa will vouch for that. The important things are the important things eg water, toilets, food stowage without freezers etc. It wouldn't suit everyone.
And how is bow making working out on a boat? I think the one thing that's really stopping me is trying to work out what sort of employment to undertake. As a self-employed IT engineer, I wonder what prospects are open to me on the water. I don't think baking will cut it on the cut, either. Once I've worked this out I'll be there... or there...
The bow making is very good and works well, The workshop is smaller but that's not a problem. The prices I can get on ebay have gone down in the last couple of months.
IT on the boat a a tad rudimentary although it works well enough for me. I don't suppose you could get the bandwidth to do proper remote work done. Still it is one of those jobs where it may be possible to work from the boat. The engineer bit implies that you need to be on location to do the engineering.
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