Fenders

Sunny and reasonably warm today. Glorious fluffy cloud formations enhanced by the sun, as are the pylons. Makes you want to join an appreciation society? Contain your excitement and Google it today. I owe the gin-palace owners an apology. It occurred to me after writing yesterdays blog these tupperware contraptions are actually launches and, of course, they would never be seen on a canal, being too wide, too tall,too fragile and too up-market. Sea-going radar is useless on canals. Also nothing as horrific as old tyres would be used to protect tupperware sides, even against barges. Gin palaces tend to have state-of-the-art fenders in colours matching/complementing the tupperware or elaborate and expensive plaited rope versions. Gin palaces and narrowboats tend only to meet in locks on major rivers, such as the Thames. Gigantic river locks still cause considerable anxiety to gin-palace first-officers as the large and fast waterflow gives ample opportunity for close encounters. Whilst on a naughtical theme, our naval insurance company has still to provide full payment for our written-off Toyota. Yet another letter of complaint due. Today we swopped registration numbers from one car to the other, thus memories of our beloved Yaris will remain for many more years, as will our unique personal number. The local DVLA office and staff were not as intimidating as expected whilst all the paperwork (lots and lots of it) was in order. Our son and washing have returned to Manchester until the clean clothes supply fails yet again.