I'm glad that I wasn't going across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct today, because I think the wind would of blown the boat over the side or almost definitely blown me off the boat! It's been a foul day. The wind and rain has just not let up.

We've turned some nine boats round and seen a further two back in. Poor Fred, Bernard and Simon have been out in it for most of the day.

Lorraine's been in the kitchen, whilst Ange has been looking after the shop. Kim, Charlotte and Denise have been cleaning the boats and tidying the laundry.

We sent Simon out shopping in Stoke this afternoon to keep him out of our hair. lol!

We've today launched a 25% discount off of the brochure price for all weekly breaks booked on our hire fleet commencing during the month of June 2012. We've still got availability, so don't miss out - visit www.norburyhire.co.uk. Watch this space for Summer holiday discounts...

That's everything from me today.

Regards,

David.

Nearly there!

We are nearly there, after months of hard work on setting up our on line booking system, which was finally set up at the end of March,but we are nearly there with the online payment side of things, the on line booking system is great as it gives our customers the chance to search our bookings and see them in an up to date format, this enables them to see what there is available 24 hours a day, we applied to have an on line payment system months ago, now you would think that with today's technology it could be done over night however it has taken about three months to get it sorted, I have today been jumping through the last few hoops that have been presented to me and there is one more hurdle to jump over and that is it, we will be able to take payments on line for the hire of ALL of our boats!

Lets not bother talking about today as to be honest it has been a total waste of time in terms of what has gone on here, it was raining as soon as I opened the curtains this morning and as I am typing the blog it is still persisting it down, lets hope tomorrow brings a little better weather

Regards
Simon

Drained

No not the canal, me, I feel somewhat drained today, I suspect because of a late escape yesterday, an early morning today, non stop in Norbury since the shop opened this morning until late this afternoon, so I am going to try and get away on time tonight, and put my feet up!

Its been another busy one as mentioned earlier, Lorraine has looked after the Tearoom all day leaving myself and Angela to look after the customers in the shop, on the wharf and on the phone, we haven't seen as many people on the wharf today as we did yesterday, I thought it might be busier as the middle of the week in Norbury is about half way around the four counties ring, maybe folk are travelling a bit slower because of the weather, the lads undocked a boat today and then docked another one for blacking, Bernard then went on to a private boat to de- winterise it and get all of its systems up and running prior to its first cruise of the year this coming Saturday, Simon finished off the steel work on a private boat that he has been working on, he then attended a break down on one of the hire boats, Matt has been stripping a boat that is now in the wet dock for a full repaint and Fred has been pressure washing, pumping boats out and generally making a nuisance of himself just for a change!

That's it from me for today.
Simon

It all started off lovely

Well it all started off with a bang first thing, the sun was shining and what a lovely morning it was, boats waiting on the wharf for services as we arrived at work, and it didn't stop all day, one after another after another, the shop and tea room has been busy all day which has kept Denise and Charlotte busy while my self and Angela has looked after the rest of the place and the steady stream of customers after boat hire and chandlery, it was all lovely right up until 4.30 when a customer came in and said, "hi we have come to collect our boat" I looked at Ange with a worried look, she looked at me with a blank expression and we both said, what boat? the customer then said "Monarch" we checked and sure enough there in front of us on the computer was the details, Now Angela normally writes out the weeks hires on a sheet for everyone to see, however this week she let someone else do it, I wont mention any ones name but they omitted the details of this particular boat which is why we were in the dark, any way amongst all of this the day boats all arrived back, yep all three of them and then we had a call from one of our other boats to say that they had broken down in Wolverhampton, and then to top it all it started raining, It never rains but it pours!

It all ended fine, Mick atteneded the breakdown which was a throttle cable, Angela, Denise and Simon got the boat ready, Simon showed the customers out and they were more than happy, four nice chaps who have never been on a boat before, what a manic end to the day!

That's it from me for today, I am off for a beer on the way home.
Simon

Typical bank holiday weather

Well you can tell it's a Bank Holiday weekend, because it's raining! After a manic day yesterday, it has seemed amazingly quiet today, but it's nice to catch up on some outstanding jobs.

Mick was called out to a breakdown at Market Drayton this morning after we had shown the three dayboats out. That left Bernard and I out in the rain swapping the boats on the dry dock. The couple's boat that we floated off this morning are regular customers and they are just delightful. They live on their boat all year round and visit us every other year to have their boat docked and blacked. We've received all sorts of gifts, but the fresh scones topped with butter and fresh strawberries were my favourite...

We've now got Nebulae on the dry dock. She has lived here for the past four years and will shortly be moving to the Lancaster canal as that will be closer to her owner's home with the hope that she will return to Norbury in the next year or two.

Nebulae was built as a butty for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company in 1935 by Harland and Wolff at Woolwich in London. She was used as one of the trainees boats during the Second World War. She was motorised by Balliol Fowden of Braunston in the 1980s. The conversion was quite cleverly undertaken meaning that she retains her traditional butty boat appearance although she is capable of propelling herself along by means of a cocooned Perkins diesel engine which drives a hydraulic motor, which in turn drives a conventional propeller. At the same time an undercloth conversion was fitted which she still carries today. Here's a couple of pictures of her.

The picture below shows where her original underwater swim was removed to facilitate the addition of a smaller and narrow swim to allow room for a propeller. Her original Elum (rudder) has also had some minor modifications. The under water part was reduced in size as it was found that it was impossible to steer at speed.

That's about it from me today.

Until tomorrow.

Regards, David.

Rare sight

Its Saturday and as it is such a busy day I thought that I would come to work and lend a hand, much to the disgust of some of the staff, they prefer it when I am off, I wonder why! Its probably the busiest day of the year for us today, every boat that we posses is out this weekend, we have 12 hire boats out today, the cottage and all of the day boats, one boat to go on Monday and that's it, everything out, we have extra staff in today to cope with the extra demand, 17 of us in all, so it does seem like a busy place indeed regardless of all of the customers, and there are lots of them too.

Yesterday was busy day, we had another Ex BWB work flat delivered by low loader yesterday , that was craned in to the water amidst a Queue of boats waiting to get on to the wharf for services, it gave the tearoom customers a spectacle to watch as it was swung high in the air and in to the water, just after that had been launched the gas delivery turned up and shortly after that we had a delivery of the new tea room wooden benches and seats, ten of them stacked high on lorry, so as you can see it was a very busy day yesterday, hence the lack of blog from either me or David, thanks to Angela for stepping in.

As I said earlier we are having a busy turnaround day with lots of folks around, well blow me down we have fame at long last on the wharf, we have a star going out on one of our boats, not quite the Harrison Ford as seen on the Llangollen canal a few years back but none the less still a famous person and an English one at that, Dave Spikey, comedy writer, comedian, entertainer and actor with a long list of programmes that he has been in, the one I remember the best is Phoenix nights and the one he is probably best know for, he is out on one of our boats, I wont mention which one as I am sure he wants a nice quiet week away, he has already been caught by some of our other customers and asked for autographs etc, I asked if it was ok to get a Photo, and appropriately we took it next to Phoenix, so just for anyone who doesn't know who I mean, he is on the left!

That's it from me for today
Simon

no blog again

well i don't know what the lads are up to these days.......we are all busy but we should make time to write the blog, we have many followers.

it has been a very busy day here today. we have had 1 day boat go out this morning with hirers dressed as pirates and it was also a birthday surprise, what a surprise it was too.....very happy.

we have also had 3 shared boats turn round today and phantasy return to us.

we have had phantasy, opal 2, pippin and aqua marine go out today and we have a real busy day tomorrow with 12 boats going out on hire, i will be hoarse by 5pm ............hopefully it will be busy everywhere.

denise and charlotte have been out cleaning, lorraine has been pinging beds (making them look welcoming), straightening towels and basically making the boats look welcoming and kim has been looking after the tea room.

simon went out shopping late and returned late...........lol, loads of stock to put away in the morning as if we are not busy enough.........don't worry simon it will get done.............eventually.

speak soon, ange.