Is the weather improving?

We sold William of Ockham on New Years eve after Simon uploaded the blog - just goes to show that it's worth while being opening over Christmas/New Year.

It has been one of those days today... I really don't know where the day has gone, although there isn't really much to report.

Paul's finished a few jobs off that have been outstanding and Mick's been busy with the wiring on Ember. Jay and Mandy have been kept busy in the shop and tea room.

Boats have started moving at long last! Summer Wine has headed south and a boat has come up from Gnosall. Thea and Lion have departed from the basin today.

Is the weather improving, or is it lulling us into a false sense of security?

We should hopefully be back to normal tomorrow, so keep an eye on the blog for some interesting updates! I'll try and get some pictures.

Happy new year from me and catch you all tomorrow!

Regards,

David

Good Bye 2010

That's it, Just about to shut the door for the last time this year! What a year it has been, I think that for a lot of people the Demise of Ownerships has been quite a prominent event in the boating world this last year, if affected us and we did lose a lot of money as did many others when Alan Mathews empire came crashing down when he sadly died, Its all pretty much behind us all now and we can look forward to the new challenges that the boating season of 2011 will bring us.

So until next year, I will bid you a Happy New Year!

Regards Simon, David and the Team at Norbury

What happened to the day?

Just sitting here typing this and thinking, what happened to Thursday, we haven't stopped all day, it has been like a day in the summer but without the weather, customers everywhere, we have sold out of the Large Eco fans, seven in two days! that's not bad going, we used to only sell half a dozen a year but i think they have featured on the TV recently, we have started selling them in our eBay shop as well but that doesn't account for the amount that we are selling through the shop. Still no boats moving, i think that people are coming down to their boats as we are selling lots of water pumps and associated plumbing spares as i predicted!

I tried breaking the ice this morning but i didn't manage much, it must be over a foot thick down the arm down to the dry dock, we wont be docking any boats just yet, i will try again tomorrow.

I must go as i am already running late.

Simon

Just another day

Well that's Christmas over for another year, I did return to work yesterday but nothing really to write about so I gave it a miss, not really much to write about today either but I do know that there are some people out there who read the blog everyday just to see what we are up to so I thought I better put something!

Still no boats passing but the thick ice may have something to do with that, I spent a few hours yesterday breaking the ice in the basin so that we could move some boats on to the wharf to pump them out, We still have boats being collected so they have to be got ready, regardless of the weather! The ice seemed thicker than it was, its amazing what a couple of days of freezing temperatures does, it has started to thaw now and all the snow has finally gone, we can now see the extent of the damage caused by the hard freeze, so far we have damage to the wharf edge by the water in the brick work freezing, frozen pipes and lifted tarmac, we haven't even started to look at all the boats yet.

Its been quite busy here, diesel sales, coal sales and gas are through the roof at the moment and as we are the only chandlers open in the area we are having a great run on pumps etc, I would say long may it continue but I don't want to see this sort of weather again unless i go to lap land!

Simon

I hope that everyone had a good Christmas. We had 22 friends and family over for dinner on Christmas Day. With not having room to seat everyone on the boats we extending into the Tea room. Everyone did something to help and it all came together spectacularly well.

Here's a picture of the table, unfortunately it doesn't show everyone present.



We were left with quite alot of food yesterday so we decided to do a buffet for anyone that turned up and wanted to join us. I think there were twelve in the end and Sue did a sterling job at making a large Bubble and Squeak. This was followed by by a boating quiz and Trivial Pursuit. We tidied the place up ready for this morning and we were all tucked up in our relevant homes by about 10.30pm.

We are operating on skeleton staff again today. So there's not much to report on that front!

The temperature increased noticeably last night. It had been -5°C here all day, but when we went home last night it was above freezing. Unbelievably the canal has started to thaw, although there are still huge icebergs, but they are now floating, rather than being frozen in one big mass!

We are hoping to dock a boat on Wednesday, so we will hope that this thaw continues - but how long for? I've heard weather reports that say that we are going to have another load of snow and then it's going to freeze again, but we will have to wait and see.

That's everything to report from me today! Over to Simon tomorrow.

Regards,

David

It must have been cold

It must have been really cold last night as me and David went to break the ice toady, it took half an hour to release the day boat from its icy grip and once we managed to make some head way the ice was stopping us dead, considering i had broken the ice yesterday, its like an ice soup now, layers of ice on top of more ice, its a foot thick in places now, well we managed it which enabled us to move Sovereign Lady off the wharf and put it somewhere more accessible for the new holiday makers today, they will not be going anywhere though which is a shame as it is their first holiday on a boat, they usually go abroad for Crimbo, i bet they wish they had of carried on as normal!

Its been quite a busy day, last minute shopping while out at the bank, we have completed on another boat that was for sale, agreed the sale of another boat, Paul has commissioned the heating system that he has fitted and it is now working just fine, we have had a boat go out and a motor home go out, Mick has been doing gas appliance servicing and issuing landlords certificate and Fred has been pumping boats out, watering them up and delivering more coal

Well its Crimbo eve tomorrow, i wont be posting anything now until Wednesday next week, we are open for business albeit reduced hours and a skeleton staff so there probably wont be much to report, so i hope you all have a very merry Christmas and i will post next week.

Kind regards Simon

Fooled you

I know you think that I am a numpty but i typed "longest day" deliberately just to see how many people read the blog and see how many people noticed the mistake!(thats my excuse and im sticking to it!) thanks Adam and others who have pointed out the mistake, so for those of you who didn't notice, yesterday was the shortest day!

We had another snow fall last but at least the ice seems a little softer today,I went to see how Sovereign Lady was getting on with the ice braking on its return to the yard, I parked at High bridge(the one with the telegraph pole in it) and promptly fell on my arse and slid all the way to the bottom! Soverign Lady was doing a sterling job of breaking the ice and is now safely moored on the wharf awaiting its services prior to the new holiday makers coming tomorrow.

Paul is doing an excellent job and is nearly finished on the central heating installation, Mick is installing a new thermal store, that is a central heating water jacket on an Alde boiler, Bernard is doing a winter service on one of our hire boats and Fred is tidying up the stores as he cant do any blacking because of the ice, have been out breaking ice again and now I'm thawing my feet by the heater.

Only a couple of days left until Christmas, I hope you all have your shopping done, coal and logs in store and are ready for Christmas.

Regards Simon