Short week

I like having an extra day at the end of my holiday as it makes the next week go quickly, well this week has really flown by, its ten to five and nearly time to head off home, no rest for the wicked though as I will be up early in the morning to take Beks off to collect another boat that is coming in to be put on to brokerage.

The day started off very damp indeed, I awoke this morning to pouring rain, I have been suitably informed that it was in fact raining all night long but as the day wore on the weather did change and in between the showers we did have some lovely sun, I had to go out today and at one point I thought that I had been transported back in time to last week as the sun was streamng through the windscreen and I almost put the air con on it was that warm, short lived though as soon as I returned to Norbury then the rain came back, Its dry now as I speak and the sun is shining so it will be a nice drive home.

It hasn't been over busy today as we have only had three shared boats to turnaround and one motor home, they all got completed without issue, the motor home was collected this afternoon for its mammoth drive over to Poland, the hirers are taking it over there to watch and support their daughter who competes in cross country push bike racing of all things, Bernard has been busying him self with the fleet boats and sorting out a brokerage boat that is being docked for survey on Sunday, Graham has finished the new rear door and hatch, what a cracking job he has made of it, I would think that the owners will be pleased, he then went and finished off tidying up the cabin re fit job that he has been, Fred has been up to his usual tricks around the yard, pumping boats out and blacking, and that's about it for another week.

So over to David to keep you entertained until my return next week, I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Simon

IWe knew it was gonna happen!

When i was sat last week in temperatures well in the 20's, drinking bourbon on the rocks listening to the weather forecasters I would have thought that they were slightly deranged in their forecast for the coming week, well they were spot on as they said by the end of this week the weather was going to go the other way and by God it has, Winter has arrived folks! I am sat in the office now in the quiet looking out across the yard and the rain is pelting down, the Sky's are black and it looks like it will be raining all night long, I had a customer in late on this afternoon who reported that it was snowing when he left Scotland this morning, you never know it may well snow here this weekend!

Now for some good news, there is only seventy nine days left until Christmas, and then we will be looking forward to the new boating season, roll on Spring!

It been a busy day of sorts, we had a day boat out first thing this morning which Graham expertly saw out, he then carried on with the new door and hatch that he has been working on all week, that kept him nice and quiet, Bernard has been up to all sort of stuff, tightening up stern tubes, fitting Aqua drives, fitting anodes, moving boats, Matt has been painting and Fred has been moaning, I don't know whats been up with him today, I will be re naming him Mr Grumpy if he carries on like this, he cant blame it on his lack of smoking as he has started again, he has been quite busy today though, he has blacked a boat, moved several boats around, done a couple of pump outs, served some diesel, done some weeding, locked up and gone home,talking of going home that's what I'm doing right now as the rain has stopped for a minute, there is a little bit of sun so I'm off.
Simon

What a contrast!

I awoke this morning to a grey cold, damp, typical autumn morning, what a contrast to last week! When you consider that this time last week I was sat on the back of my boat in glorious sunshine, sat there wearing shorts and a T shirt and now look, I am sat in the office, sweat shirt on and I have only taken my coat off about an hour ago! It has been immensely windy here at Norbury today as well as a bit nippy and grey , moody and cloudy, I have just had a day boater come back in and comment "its like winter out there" There will be some fire lighting when I get home.

Its been a busy day here today, two day boats out first thing which Graham saw off this morning, Bernard came in a bit earlier t remove the tensioner wheels off the digger, then he helped Freddie dock a boat for survey, he then went on to a private boat to sort out its water system, Fred did a couple of jobs around the yard while waiting for the surveyor to finish the job in the dock and then he and Bernard went and undocked that boat and put another one on for blacking which Fred duly pressure washed off, the day boats returned without issue and Bernard engineered them ready for tomorrow, Carolyn has been kept busy in the Tea room all day while David has been up to is eyeballs in checking hire boat prices for next year and finalising the 2012 hire boat brochure that I have made some changes to, I too have been busy all day which is nice as it has made the day fly by!

That's it from me for today

180 miles and what a difference

I have been away for the last week down on the South coast and the weather was amazing to say the least we had temperatures over 30 degrees at times, now I have come back to Staffordshire which is 180 miles away it has gone much colder, now is that because we are so much further North and we suffer from lower temperatures or has it gone colder down in the South as well? What ever the reason I know what I prefer, I awoke this morning to a lovely sunny morning, chilly, plenty of dew and mist hanging in the air, it was a lovely and fresh morning.

I have had a busy day as you can imagine, catching up with last weeks goings on, although David is off today so I have had to rely on an email from him keeping me up to speed, Angela has been busy with the 'end of month' stuff, Cheryl has been quite busy down in the tea room, I have kept Fred busy with lots of different jobs around the place, blacking, painting a gas locker to mention a few, Bernard has been on a private boat with a water supply problem, fitting anodes and removing the tensioner wheels of the mini digger that Steve has been using on the moorings, The digger has done well as I have owned it for two years ans it was old and worn when I bought it so I reckon it has lasted well, it will probably just about finish the moorings off before it finally gives up the ghost, I hope it does! Matt has cracked on today and is now making good progress with the paint job, so that looks like it is back on track.

That's it from me today.
Simon

i have had davids permission to write this blog honest

hi all, i haven't been at norbury today as i have been on a day off so i have no idea what's been going on, so i'll tell you about my day. i do like to have a lie in on my day off but not today, i had to be up usual time as someone was coming to service my central heating boiler at 8.30 :(
he turned up at 1.30 and then proceeded to have his lunch first. dylan was not happy knowing that there was someone lurking outside on his property, he drove me round the bend, he ate that many biscuits to keep him quiet but it didn't work cos he still barked with the biscuits in his mouth, lol, bad lad dyl.
i popped down to the shop while this guy was there and he said this would be fine as long as the dog couldn't get to him, grrrrrrrrrr. wouldn't hurt a fly.
when i eventually got rid of this guy i went to play golf, yaaaaaaaaaaay, get practising peter, there's a fiver on it.
it was absolutley glorious but so windy, we teed off on the first hole and didn't even need to push our trolleys down the fairway, the wind took them (mine is electric tho, he he).
i hit the flippin flag on the par 4 4th again with my 3rd shot and no it didn't go in again.
what a good game we were having, got to the 8th hole and the sun went in and it went dark, no way could we have played 18 holes and this was only 6 o'clock :(
mark's callout phone went off as were walking up the 9th, fire alarms going off, that has now put paid to anymore golf tonight, off to work he goes.
i cleaned the house from top to bottom waiting for the central heating guy to turn up this morning and we have had an indian takeaway for tea tonight and dylan is now walking round the kitchen with a huge poppodum in his mouth looking for his usual place to eat it which is on the settee, no way dyl, bad lad.
that's it from me, hopefully speak again soon, ange.

Happy Birthday.

It’s Ange’s birthday today. Although she tried to hide it from us, we remembered! Happy Birthday Ange and have a great evening.

I know there is a first for everything, but today we have had four boats out for the day… Yes, four! We have had a number of enquiries due to the fantastic weather that we have been experiencing. As we had one of the holiday boats available and the hirers were experienced I agreed to let it out for the day. They have all headed north, so the Wharf at Goldstone must have been busy at lunchtime!

Fred and Bernard docked a boat last night which was surveyed this morning, and since then Julian and Mick have docked another boat which Julian has duly pressure washed ready for the first coats of blacking to be applied tomorrow.

Lorraine has been in the tea room again with a bit of extra help from Cheryl over the lunchtime rush.

Mick has been finishing off a few jobs before he jets off on holiday. He is off to Italy for the week.

That’s all from me today, Simon should be back tomorrow but he is going to be skiving for the day – doing jobs away from the office, so you will have to put up with me again until Tuesday…

Best regards,

David

Pricing poorer boaters off the waterways?

Another guest blog from Peter Underwood today...

Next April will see boat licences rise by an inflation busting 6.4 per cent.

Diesel prices are steadily climbing again and the EU is trying to insist that boats use only full-price white diesel.

Like every other person in this country, boaters are seeing their incomes and savings squeezed by what increasingly looks like a double-dip recession.

Many people are worried about the future of our waterways as the Government seems to be determined to leave the new charity with a £40m black hole in its funding.

Despite all that there are more boats on our waterways than there were in their working heyday – perhaps because it is somewhere to escape the stress and horror stories of an economy where the only language is of cuts and redundancies with little hope of growth.

Tony Hales, BW Chairman who is also heading up the transitional body – no change anywhere then?

While well-heeled boaters may be able to shrug off the economic impact of higher charges for almost everything, there are many thousands of us on fixed incomes, often pensions, or with other severe financial constraints.

We are not a juicy fruit to be squeezed by British Waterways or the government and we will not be able to continue to produce the extra cash they demand as if there were no financial hardship.

A British Waterways director admitted to me three years ago that they were reaching the point of diminishing returns with licence fee increases as they were close to driving poorer people off the canals.

I suggest the worsening economic picture now means they are well past that point. It may not mean that boats are driven off the canals but it is already resulting in fewer people being willing to pay the high fees charged by new marinas and there are now claimed to be 3,000 empty spaces in those marinas.

Why? Because boaters have opted for something cheaper as many of them can’t afford £3-5,000 a year to tie up their boat, and that’s outside London.

I suspect there will also be fewer paying their licence fees and more trying to work the system by buying ‘river-only’ licences and using them elsewhere or opting to stay on cheaper Environment Agency waters or simply not having a licence.

I predict the number of boats using the canals without a proper licence is about to soar – and with it the cost of BW or the new charity trying to catch offenders and bring them to book.

For the rest of us it will mean more unlicenced – and therefore uninsured – boats on the water and a bigger burden on those who obey the rules, albeit with gritted teeth.

Those are the same teeth that BW chooses to kick every time they get greedy with their licence fees whilst paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds to their top directors like Robin Evans and his friends.

If I thought the new charity had a hope in hell of changing that I might even begin to support it.