Two more days on ice, but a thaw in prospect

11th & 12th January

It will not have escaped most of my UK readers that yesterday was the first day on which Chris Evans presented the Radio 2 breakfast show now that Terry Wogan has moved on to less strenuous commitments. We started listening at around half seven and endured about an hour of it, which choice of words will indicate our reaction to his style.

We had been determined to give him a hearing despite our reservations. In the event it was about as bad as we feared, the low point probably being the telephone interview with the man who has just entered the Guinness Book of Records for the shortest time to blow up and burst a hot water bottle. It’s not just the whole dumbed down format, but the frenetic, hyped up presentation style which makes such an appalling contrast, not just with Wogan, but with the whole tone of the rest of the station’s output. He is just so SHOUTY.

It’s particularly the case that at that time of the morning we look for a calm, soothing introduction to the day, rather than a style of entertainment which is reminiscent of Radio 1 in the nineties. Evans does of course have his supporters, and I’m sure they are very pleased with having two and a half hours of him in the morning. The thing is, there is no lack of other stations on which you can get this frenetic “zoo radio”, but those of us who prefer not to have our nerves wound up to screaming pitch now have nowhere else to go.

There’s nothing for it, we shall be listening to Radio Four for the next few months. Actually, I think Sheila may be right when she suggests that Evans is a tethered goat on this occasion; no presenter with an ego smaller than Broadcasting House would believe that he or she could follow Wogan and maintain audience figures. We’d be not at all surprised if Evans comes off in about six months time and is replaced by one of the other established Radio Two jocks such as Richard Allinson or Alex Lester.

Gosh, I’m glad I’ve got that off my chest.

Apart from that, yesterday was quite uneventful. The weather is slowly improving and we ventured out to dispose of our recycling. We also had a chat with Luisa Bryceland; she and Iain are off for a few weeks holiday shortly, and they’ve asked us to look after a couple of boats which will be coming onto the moorings once the ice clears.

Wd also spoke to Paul Mudie at boat brokers ABNB; we plan to place Sanity with them as soon as they can get the brochure prepared.

In the evening, we started a thread running on both the Canals List and the Braidbar Owner’s Group about the time it will take to boat from Oxford to Reading in June next year.

We plan to take Sanity Again down the Oxford Canal, then visit the Kennet and Avon before returning to Beale Park in August to work at the IWA National Festival. As a workers' boat, we get one special rate Thames licence to cover our trip to Beale, our time there and the trip off the Thames again, but seemingly we can't leave the Thames without surrendering it.

That means we'll have to buy a short term licence for the Oxford to Reading segment, either a set of one day licences or a single 15 day. The arithmetic is such that 3 one dayers will be cheaper than a 15 day, but 4 won't.

The consensus view is that it can be done in one long day and certainly in two. I think we shall probably do a first day from Thrupp to about half way and then finish off on the second by mooring in the arm by Reading Gaol.

This morning, we did another shopping trip to Poynton. By dividing our forces on arrival we managed to get it all done in time to take the next bus back up the hill. For a while, it looked as if inefficiency in the management of Morrisons checkouts meant we weren’t going to make it, but in the event we did it with a few minutes to spare.

After lunch, we went over to the boatyard to beg showers and to run a washload. An internet order from Julian Graves had arrived for us, so we were able to give Peter a belated birthday present of two bags of liquorice. (He’s very fond of liquorice.)

We’re looking forward to another quiet night, and indeed to a quiet day tomorrow. It looks as if it’s going to be a slow and erratic thaw, so it’s probably going to be a couple of weeks before we’re able to move the boat again.