Weekend Socialising

It’s been a weekend of sociable afternoons; yesterday we spent a happy couple of hours (or so) with Stephen and Jayne on Dolce and then today we were just setting off for a walk round the marina when we met fellow lodge owners Tony and Margaret doing the same.

We ambled right round with them until we got to the Willow Tree, where they had planned to stop for a cup of tea. It was looking very busy, however, so the obvious thing to do was to take them back to Sanity Again for refreshments.

A slightly more sober session ensued than the day before, but equally enjoyable. They’d not had much time on board a boat before and so we had plenty to talk about. We also got onto the topic of different approaches to computing; they’ve just acquired an iPad and were thinking about changing their laptop. We had a good old natter about the alternatives; Tony’s been used to Windows XP, but that’s not going to be supported by Microsoft after next April, and a new machine would have Windows 8 on it.

I think Tony is concluding that if he has to get used to a very different operating system, he may as well take the chance of converting to a Mac and was very interested to look at our Mini and MacBook.

The weather’s made it a day of two halves today; very pleasant though cold this morning but damp and raw this afternoon. It looks like we’ll have rain overnight, so the cold snap’s been of very short duration. It couldn’t be more different from last year’s arctic conditions.

Mysteries of the Universe #362; why do Canal Boat and Waterways World insist on publishing in the same week every month? It would surely be better all round if one came out in the first fortnight and the other in the second. There must be folk who only buy one or the other each month because there’s so much overlap of news items between the two.

In addition, it encourages you to compare the offerings if you do get both. For example, this month, CB had a really interesting review of a short, quite modern but very trad looking boat, Henry H, whereas WW looked at the latest production from Wincham Wharf. This was a 9 foot wide boat, so midway between the typical wide beam and a narrowboat.

Mind you, the review contains the remarkable statement “ … the boat aims to combine the interior space of a wide-beam with the handling characteristics and slimmer dimensions of a narrowboat, enabling it to tackle narrow canals as well as rivers.”

/hmm

Er, sorry Mark, if it’s more than seven foot wide, it’s not going to pass a narrow lock. Indeed, since Croxton Aqueduct is eight feet wide, it won’t even make it as far as Middlewich…

/floor