Month: May 2025

A tree is down across the canal. What should we do?

We are back on Narrowboat Thuis this week. We have missed boating these past few weeks. Our son Rob and fiancée Alessa borrowed the boat last week and took it half way round the Four Counties Ring. They took good care of it and finished at Market Drayton. So with some shuffling of cars, we met them there and are now cruising back to the marina in Stone. We need to be back for next Thursday which should have given us plenty of time, but on a Narrowboat, nothing is predictable, and on the first afternoon we saw a warning from Canal and River Trust (CRT) that the canal was closed ahead of us due to a fallen tree.

It was not just any fallen tree. The CRT team had visited it and decided their chainsaws and equipment were not hefty enough for the task. A specialist contractor would be required and that could take a while.

There is no point getting stressed living on a boat, so we moored up by a good pub and prepared to wait it out.

But then we saw a boat coming towards us from the direction of the stoppage and they explained that in fact the tree had fallen in such a way that there was room for a Narrowboat to pass underneath. It might not meet the CRT Health and Safety guidelines but it seemed fine to us, so we set off again and passed happily under the heavy tree before the pesky contractors arrived to close it down.

Life on a Narrowboat is full of adventures. They may not be world changing but each day has surprises and problems to solve. Sometimes it is a physically tiring life, being outside and moving heavy locks. But always it is a mentally tiring life, despite being the coolest most chilled thing we have ever done.

We are glad to be back.

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Going for a walk in Kirkham

Kirkham is the nearest town to our village in Lancashire. The Aldi is our nearest proper supermarket, and Kirkham is where I go for my hearing aids, and for the dentist. For trains it is our nearest station. It is a pretty little market town.

Most of the time I just drive through it, paying little attention. This week I read an article about the town in a magazine, and decided it had to be worth a walk. I am a great believer that the best way to learn about places is to travel slowly, whether on a Narrowboat or on foot.

The first surprise was to see what looked like a bus shelter, just sitting by the road, and housing a weaving loom. It turns out that Kirkham was once a thriving mill town, and this was the last loom ever used, after the last mill closed in 2003. Apparently in the mid nineteenth century Kirkham was the biggest town in the area, several times the size of Blackpool.

Then I discovered the old town square, a huge mural, a fascinating church, even a Tardis.

My walk took me along a footpath called Remembrance Way which was recently put in place, with wild flowers and sculptures, and along an ancient track which once would have headed up to a fort in Roman times.

It just goes to show that there are many interesting things to find almost anywhere, if you just open your eyes. Every day is a school day, and I like school.

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Who would go to a theme park in May?

It was my birthday last Saturday. It was also my nephew’s wedding down in London. We had such a great weekend, shared with our “little” boys and their partners and with the wider family. The sun shone the whole day and Dominic and Louise were clearly having the best time. I do love a good wedding.

But because we were celebrating the wedding, my birthday had to take a bit of a back seat. I was given some fantastic presents and cards, but I waited till I got home on Sunday to open them. I had to buy my own cake (caterpillar of course) and I decided that like the king I would have an extra birthday – on Wednesday. For the past few years I have found that I love a selfish birthday, where I go off on my own and choose my own adventures, this year I went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

It is term time and most children are still at school, so the theme park was not too busy, despite amazing weather. I could get on all the rides with barely any waiting. I rode The Big One, Icon (twice), Revolution, Infusion, the Big Dipper, Avalanche, Steeplechase, Launch Pad, Nickelodeon Streak, Rugrats Lost River, Wallace & Gromit’s Thrill-o-Matic, The Ghost Train and the Chinese Puzzle Maze. The only thing I bottled out of doing was Valhalla, allegedly the best water ride in the world, but one where everyone I saw was getting completely soaked.

So if the kids are at school, who goes to Blackpool Pleasure Beach in mid May? The answer seems to be three categories. There are parents with pre-school children, coming to try out the little rides. There are groups of school kids, where a teacher has somehow persuaded the head that it is a good educational experience to go to a theme park. And there are thrill seekers like myself, taking advantage of the lack of queues. In particular there was a group of Belgian roller coaster fans, who travel the world trying out the rides.

What a great week and what a great way to celebrate my birthday. I topped off the day with a visit to Notarianni’s, a famous Blackpool ice cream parlour, where I picked a sundae made with strawberries, vanilla ice cream and chocolate and pistachio sauces. Yum yum.

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What do my podcasts say about me?

Over the years there has been a lot written about what our choice of music says about us. If you like Wagner does that make you an aggressive Teutonic? If you prefer Strauss does that make you weak willed and airy fairy? Does a taste for the Beatles mean you are out of date? Does liking Taylor Swift mean you an empowered feminist or a young teenager? Many of us claim to have eclectic music taste because we think we like such wide ranging genres. The reality is that if someone else looks at our music collection they can see a definite style, that reflects who we are and where we have come from.

I have a feeling that our taste in podcasts says even more about us. Here are some of mine.

I was an early adopter of podcasts. They arrived as an option in iTunes in June 2005 and I immediately started downloading them to my iPod so that I could listen on walks with the dogs. Many of the early ones were just repeats of radios programmes and I subscribed (not followed in those days) to several Radio 4 programmes, some of which you can still see above. I think “Last Word” was one of the first made available. I also remember the exciting day when after several years of waiting, the BBC added “The Archers” to its podcast list.

It was pretty easy in those early days because there were not that many podcasts available, so I had time to listen to all the ones I liked. In recent years, the number of podcasts has just exploded. I am now a complete old fogey because I write a blog instead of hosting a podcast. Why do so many people do podcasts? I am sure the top podcasts make a lot of money, but for many I suspect it is just an ego thing, or maybe, like this blog, it is a satisfying way of sharing what you are thinking with a few friends. What it does mean is that there is huge choice.

You can see above that my selection covers politics, drama, history, current affairs, film, comedy, science. What is the common thread? I think that all the podcasts I choose are entertaining, not too difficult to listen to, not too long. Back when I was working, I used to listen to business podcasts, but they have now gone. I am surprised I do not listen to a narrowboat podcast. Perhaps I am just bored of all the boat vloggers.

And what does my choice says about me? Maybe that I have eclectic taste. Or not.

I would welcome feedback this week. What do you think about my choice of podcasts, and what do you prefer yourself?

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What does my narrowboat dream mean?

I had the weirdest dream last night. Normally I can’t remember dreams but this one was so vivid it is still in my mind. What does it mean?

We were travelling around the canals with a white hire boat as a partner. I was helping someone drive the hire boat and I lost concentration. The hire boat crashed out off the end of the canal and into a shopping centre. Meanwhile Alex Horne from Taskmaster was on our boat with Mandy. This situation was clearly so ridiculous that I realised it must be a dream but when I pinched myself I did not wake up so I concluded it must be reality. Then families from the shopping centre started swarming all over the boat and I couldn’t get them off.

What does it all mean?

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that we are coming to the end of our first long trip out on the boat this year. The last month in the East Midlands has been a wonderful adventure and we have many more experiences to come this year. But this weekend we go back to a house for a few weeks, with things to do including a wedding to attend, a girls weekend for Mandy, and jobs around the house,

Perhaps the shopping centre represents us mooring up for a while. Perhaps the families represent us seeing our families. Perhaps not waking up from a dream represents our ongoing retirement narrowboat dream.

But what on earth was Alex Horne doing?

I asked ChatGPT who said “Alex Horne, a creative and slightly oddball character, might represent a whimsical or unexpected influence—maybe even a part of yourself that enjoys the absurd. Mandy’s presence shows she’s part of your emotional foundation and daily life. Perhaps this suggests you’re trying to balance your grounded world with something more chaotic or silly.”

Or maybe it is just that the new series of Taskmaster has started!

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