BSS and postgres SQL Server

The visit from the BSS geezer went swimmingly. I've got a few small jobs to do at very little extra cost and then give him a call and he'll come down, check it out and write the certificate. At least I'm doing something right. I can then renew my licence before the end of the month when the £150 fine starts getting levied for late licence applications. And I am a little late.

After having installed Linux on my old laptop I am now reading up all I can on the subject. My current volume is about Linux in general and my current chapter is called, ' Processes and Environmental variables'. The last chapter was, 'Streams and sed – The stream Editor'. Riveting stuff I'm sure you'll agree if you use your imagination. Only forty three chapters to go including, 'DNS and Name Resolution', 'smbd – Samba NT Server' and 'postgres SQL Server'. I can hardly contain myself. It must be a man thing.

Stolen boats and BSS

This week has been very uneventful with only one blogger passing (at least only one that I saw). nbDebdale was on their mad dash around the east midlands and every time I read their blog, they are miles from where they were last. Pickles No 2 has only been around the Leicester rings since October. This is a ten day trip for some people.

I've got a BSS geezer coming around on Wednesday for a look at Pickles with the aim of getting it through the MOT. There's no gas on board but I fitted it out from the start and I'm not entirely sure it will come up to specs. We'll see on Wednesday. I must remember to get rid of the petrol generator before he arrives. And all the other illegal things.

I'm on the lookout for the stolen narrowboat Que Sera Sera at the moment as it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that it may be heading this way if the sightings are to be believed. I've been keeping an eye on the Canal World Forum for regular updates on this. There are some really nasty, vindictive, intolerant people on that forum and this may have something to with the reason why I refuse to contribute to it. I wonder if they would be so nasty if they were face to face with their victims. I very much doubt it. Well I wouldn't anyway.

Debbie of MySingleFriend.com fame came for a quiet Sunday lunch and we all went up to the Rose and Castle again. It wasn't quite as good as the last time were were there a week ago but not bad nevertheless. They serve a good pint.

Mooring and Ansty

Well it very much looks like Brinklow Marina's off the radar for the summer. I had several slightly strange telephone conversation with someone who, after putting me through a thorough interrogation, which I had revealed that we were constant cruisers, said that he would get back to me. When he did, it was to say that he had been through the bookings and that there would be no spaces during the summer. Strangely when we were visiting the place, one third to a half of the moorings were empty. They must be expecting a rush in the next three months. Or maybe their moorers were all out cruising at the end of February. Or maybe they just wanted to keep scum like us out of their pristine marina. Who could blame them. Your guess is as good as mine. Although I think mine is better.

We like this mooring in Ansty. There is nothing in the village (except a pub that wants to be a restaurant) but it is very pleasant. There is an area along the canal on the 'No Mooring' area that is opposite a house and has signs every three metres that say 'Strictly No Mooring'. So what's the difference between 'No Mooring' and 'Strictly No Mooring'? Are the occupants of the adjacent house anything to do with this profusion of signage? Your guess is as good as mine. Although I think mine is better.

We had a very palatable meal at the Rose and Castle here at Ansty. A bit more than we are used to paying but well worth it in our opinion.

Linux

I've always wanted to be a geek. I believe that I would have been an ideal candidate for geekyness except that I am neither intelligent enough or dedicated to anything in any way (except Lisa of course) nor do I have any form of autism (a prerequisite for some forms of geekyness). I have dabbled in the past with Linux, a computer operating system, but the last time I tried it, about six years ago, I couldn't get USB to work or an Internet connection nor various other aspects of it so give it up as a bad job.

(Stop reading now if you are either a technophobe or think computers are Microsoft. Your head might explode)

I have tried again with the latest version of one of the distros (distributions) namely Ubuntu Linux (or rather the lightweight version called Xubuntu Linux). This is brilliant. Everything I have tried is plug 'n play including usb, mouse, camera, printer, dongle, kettle (ok, ok, not the kettle). Everything just works. On this old laptop (Compaq Presario 1200XL), I was using Windows ME and it kept locking up, crashing, was slow, was fragile beyond belief with many features that didn't even work anymore. The laptop is now fast, stable, efficient and capable of much more than it was ever capable of under MS Windows. Linux really is ready for the mainstream this time and best of all, it's absolutely free. Since the laptop is now not going to the great laptop graveyard in the sky, I've even ordered a new battery from ebay. When I installed the software, it told me my battery was old and would not hold a charge. I already knew this but was amazed when it mentioned it.

Maybe this is why Microsoft have now got all those ads ('I'm a PC') running on the telly. Scared that people may wise up and not actually buy their overpriced products. I'm now proud to say that I am a Linux user and I don't even need to be a geek.

More bloggers, water points and pubs

Ten Bob Note with Ernie and Archie aboard were just behind us at Newbold. More bloggers. We spoke on Saturday morning and again in the evening. I'd never seen a picture of Ernie as he does all the photography for his blog but Archie takes no part in this activity. There's always lots of pictures of Archie though.

Ernie mentions on this blog the new water point at Newbold but misses out the most important aspect of it's location. It is adjacent to one of those stile type things that are supposed to keep motorbikes off the towpath. The use of this tap ensures that there is a constant puddle around this stile because of the way the stile funnels pedestrians through. This area will perpetually be muddy as there is also no drainage. The usual muddy thinking at BW. It looks like the location has been changed before as there is another channel dug through the Barley Mow property (I'd be having words with BW if they did the filling in of the trench to that standard on my property) through the hedge that was in an even worse location just after the bridge 'ole. I vaguely remember reading on another blog about this work. The box is made of plastic and one good kick will have it smashed.

We were in The Boat pub on Thursday night. The Boat is the little known pub beside the popular Barley Mow at Newbold. We decided to give it a try as it's newly opened and the Barley Mow tends to be much busier than we normally enjoy. Anyway it's always good to try a new pub. Someone I was talking to had a bad experience with the Barley Mow on the Friday night as it was full of drunken local yobs. Maybe it's become a victim of it's own success. Anyway, The Boat was a very pleasant experience and they're currently being inspected in order to do food in the future. One to watch.

Talking of pubs, we visited the Raglan Arms in Rugby which is local CAMRA's Pub of the Year. Brilliant pint and good atmosphere only slightly spoiled by the large video screen and the rugby match (in Rugby). It's just a shame it's not by the canal.

Today I moved the boat down to Ansty when Lisa went to work. A pleasant day that started very cold. As I was approaching Bricklow Marina (more later) I eyed a boat that I recognised. It was Ralph who I know from our time on the Ashby Canal who plays the accordian. His winter mooring was up over the weekend and he was heading up to Market Harborough for a jolly. By the time we get on the Ashby he'll be back there again (maybe). Ralph's got a life and doesn't blog nor even use the interweb from his boat so he'll never read this.

We had visited Brinkl0w Marina over the weekend with a view to mooring there when we have to put Pickles into a marina over the summer. It's very different to Hinckley where we were last summer (and Lisa wasn't altogether happy) but Lisa says that she would be quite content at Brinklow and liked the feel of the place so we'll find out if we can get a mooring. We walked passed Andy Edwards' (from nbKhayamanzi) model train trailer which seemed like the centre of all activity at the marina. You know what these train spotters are like, so we didn't poke our nose in.

I also passed Brian and Diana (I'm writing this as if I know them. I've never met them before) on nbHansar who are also bloggers. Well I presume it was them. It could just as easily have been another couple who had stolen their boat since Hansar's last blog entry. I shouted that I think I read their blog and they said that they read mine. Who'd have thought it. Narrowboat bloggers reading each others blogs and feeding each others egos.

Painted Pickles

We're still here at Newbold and last night we went for fish and chips at the Barley Mow. I would say that the peas were like the ball bearings from a Russian T72 tank but at £3.50 you can't really complain (although the Russian tank commander might). It would have cost £5.00 at the local chippy and they don't serve beer.

The paintwork has settled down nicely and looks better than when it was just finished. I've been asked if I will place an up to date picture on the header of the boat which I think is a good idea. I'll do that when I can get a side on view. The rest of the week has been taken up with Lisa working and me making bows.

Pickles painted

Other bloggers have been and gone and we'll catch up with them soon I expect. I've also realized that the less I eat, the less I have to empty the toilet cassette. Funny that.

A big long cucumber

Here we are in Newbold. I left this morning for the short run and since the weather was adequate for painting (despite the strong winds) I decided to complete the other side. But the towpath was on the left hand side all the way from Hillmorton to Newbold and this meant that I would have to wind to finish the other side. Just after Rugby I winded the boat and settled myself down for an afternoon of green hands. It took longer than I thought as it was colder than when the other side was done, the paint was thicker and Lisa was not helping to paint around the windows and the fiddly bits. The dodgyest part was rewinding (is that a word?) to face the right direction again without scratching the soft paint on the trees.

Pickles is now living up to it's name and looking decidedly green. Not so much like a pickle but more like a cucumber really. Quite a long cucumber. At least this will encourage me to get on with the panels, coach lines and sign writing to make it less vegetable like. But at least it fits in a little better with other moored boats and people seem to be more friendly as it looks less like a scronk boat and people seem less afraid of it and it's occupants.

Just as I was setting off for Newbold, I spied two people whom I recognised. Derek and Dot from nb Gypsy Rover (fellow bloggers with a much more popular blog than me judging by their figures) were walking to Halfords in Rugby and hailed me. I hadn't seem them since we were starting the initial fitout this time last year and Derek give me a hand with stripping the spray foam and the wiring and Dot made the brews. nb Valorie (also with a more popular blog than me. I'm beginning to feel inferior now) with Les on board is also here and we've been crossing paths since Braunston.

I'll get a picture or two of the cucumber blogged tomorrow for your perusal.

Painting and van

We have been at Hillmorton this week. The top lock was a little muddy so we moved down to the bottom on Tuesday. The signal is not good but hopefully it will be better at Newbold when we move tomorrow. The journey from Braunston was completed with both of us at the tiller (although only one of us was in total control of the boat) as Lisa had the week off.

My little van is now moving again. We got a letter from Charnwood County Council asking if our car had been abandoned in Barrow upon Soar (where we abandoned it) so we rang and said that we hadn't. He told us that it was all legally parked and documented but that a local resident had complained about it being where it was and he was just wondering if it had been abandoned. It had in fact broken down at the end of November and we had parked it up returning occasionally to try it. The man from the AA came out and sorted it so hopefully I'll get a second hand fusebox, fit it and fix the leak that frizzled it in the first place. It can't be that hard to replace a fusebox on a van as there's only half a million wires going into it. I'm willing to have a go as I've done all my electrics on this boat you know.

We have now painted one side of Pickles no 2 (well what else would you do with the first good weekend of the year). It's a little dodgy (but better then this photo implys) but it looks a lot better than it did this morning. It will need another coat to finish it off but that will have to wait until the better weather.

I'll try to improve my blogging intervals this week.

Plebs and Valentines

I met Les from nb Valorie the other day as I was walking Sam and he had just arrived from being iced in for eleven days at Norton Junction. The last time I saw Les was around the Rugby area. We passed shouting who we were and he just looked a us confusingly. Not really a huge surprise as there is no sign writing on Pickles and we were expecting everyone whose blog we read to know us. Strangely he remembered this meeting as he mentioned it to me.

nb Hadar was also at Braunston but I never like knocking people up especially when the weather is so cold. You never know if they've just settled down and got the cabin warm and you're disturbing them. We'll see Jo and Keith next time.

The outlaws are up for their free pensioners Sunday lunch this weekend. They didn't turn up the other weekend as there was a little bit of snow around apparently.

We are moving to Hilmorton on Monday if we can convince Ken of the outlaws to do a car shuffle for us. As long as there's no snow around. Lisa and I rarely get the chance to move the boat together as at present we only have the one car and I'm certainly not using plebeian public transport.

Lisa and I did the usual Valentines thing this morning by exchanging overpriced cards in red envelopes and reading them aloud to each other in a loud, monotonous, boring voice. Well we would have if except Lisa hadn't forgotten my card. Incredible. If it had been the other way around there would have been a lot more of a vocal reaction than a grunt of acknowledgement from me that she was leaving for Daventry to instantly to rectify things.

Tickety boo

Reading through the narrowboat blogs, it seems that many others are iced in, flooded out, running out of water, finding local villages without facilities or in need of medical aid and dentists. In our little world all is well. When we needed water on Sunday we reversed 100 metres back along the unfrozen cut, when we needed supplies we jumped in the car parked thirty metres away on the bridge above out heads and drive to the shop in Braunston one mile away. We have no medical or dental problems and everything is tickety boo.

Pretty boring really. Just the way we like it.

I'm sick of snow scenes. Here's some more.

Sam with snow boots

Another day off for Lisa. These teachers don't do any work do they? On a news report the other day, someone from Coventry Chamber of Commerce was saying that schools should remain open no matter what and that teachers should get their walking boots on and walk to school then read stories to the kids that made it in. What a brilliant idea. It just shows how much the business community knows about education although they love to denigrate teachers and criticise the education system for the standard taught in schools (and so do many of you). Fourteen year olds would respond wonderfully to this kind of 'education'.Duck trails

I have been asked to report on the state of play with the Old Plough and can state categorically that absolutely nothing has changed and this can mean nothing but good. We had a boozy afternoon in there, a meal to boot and a more pleasing experience it would be difficult to have. It's the advantage of Lisa having caught up with all her work on the previous snow day.

Braunston turn

Well I may as well join the throng and post some photos a snowy canal boat scenes. Here's some photos of our early morning walk around Braunston. One is of the traffic chaos on the bridge above where we are. If only to justify why Lisa (teacher) did not go into work. I would say that the people who were in the traffic chaos were a little idiotic to even leave home but they would probably say that they were the ones that were conscientious and not work shy, unlike teachers.

Traffic mayham

Pickles at Braunston

Braunston marina

Braunston turn in the snow

Gosty Hill & NOBED

Gosty Hill passed today and I took advantage by buying my diesel for the month and a couple more bags of coal (just to support canal businesses as I didn't really need it). Obviously I'll only been using all the fuel for heating purposes as this is the only way that that Iain & Alison sell it.

Lisa was on a course today but she told me that on Monday this week, when the snow was lying on the ground, that someone at her school had written on the snow in large letters the word 'NOBED'. With a full classroom Lisa was repeating the word, "no bed, no bed why would someone write no bed in the snow." One of her pupils kindly pointed out what it really said, 'knob head'. After all those years of teaching they can still catch her out.

After having been on the Grand Union (Leicester Line) for several months it's a bit like Picaadilly Circus round here with a constant amount of canal traffic. It was unusual to see any traffic at all for days round that way but round here its very different.

I note that the pub, Admiral Nelson, by lock three on the Braunston flight, has closed it's doors to customers siting lack of bums on seats. I have never been in this establishment and have no idea whether it was a good pub or a bad one (and now I am never going to know). It's always a shame when historic pubs close and with the changes in drinking habits, increased taxes and the current economic climate this kind of thing is increasingly prevalent. Use 'em or lose 'em.

Sniping

Lisa was off today due to the early morning conditions. In fact she got all her backlog of marking done and the other work that she needed to do but had been putting off. I wondered around Braunston peering in all the workshops, dry docks and offices being nosy. I visited Midland Swindlers for bits 'n bobs to plumb in the Belfast sink, skin fittings and paint for the sides of Pickles. She will no longer look like a scronk boat.

I also got hold of the months coal allocation. I've just got to get the fuel now but since Braunston Marina does not allow self declaration I refuse to get it there so will probably have to wait until we move on to the next location.

I've been accused of sniping by Lisa today but we seem to have different opinions as the definition of sniping. Lisa is, as usual, wrong but she is unwilling to accept my obviously correct definition. It was me, after all, who got an 'A' on my English GCSE when Lisa merely got a 'B' on our Access course 15 years ago before we went to uni. So that gives me the right to define all definable language related thingys on this boat. Contributions of other definitions of 'sniping' from any other bloggers will be ignored by me, as will anyone not taking my side.

Braunston

Well you'd have known we were at Braunston if you'd read the last blog (that was actually written at Crick but published at Braunston. Oh, don't get all confused again. It's pretty simple really).

How come every time we decide to move, the weather is appalling (rhetorical question; no question mark). Today it started freezing and ended up snowing. I put it down to inflexibility on my part as, when I decide to move, there is little that will stop me including inclement weather, natural disasters, acts of God (what exactly is an 'act of God'?) or canal based terrorist activity. With the snow coverage, the lock sides were lethal (well, I am prone to journalistic exaggeration. Possibly a little slippery) and I did fall over, but only the once. I took it easy and did the Watford flight in an hour and a quarter. I only saw two other boats and some contractors vessels on the move. Most people are much more sensible than me.

Is Braunston Tunnel the blackest tunnel on the system? It ate the illumination from my tunnel light unlike any other tunnel I have been through. Well that's my excuse for zigzagging around in the darkness, bouncing off the walls.

We are at the end of the line here at Braunston just past Midland Swindlers and under the main road. The place is packed (I exaggerate again. It could be described as packed during the Historic boat thingy in the summer but not at the beginning of February). But we were warned that there were a few here when I read another blog which said so but I can't remember which blog I'd read it on. Lisa rang earlier in the day to say that school had been closed and she was looking for her home. I told her she would have to wait for another two hours for it to materialize as I still had Braunston Tunnel to zigzag and the lethal sided locks to complete. Lisa is very much hoping that the school will be open tomorrow so she can get on with all that marking. At least I think that's what she said.