Monday, May 02, 2011

News and Weather

As a loyal Radio 4 listener, I now follow their example and present the weather report in advance of the news, as opposed to the TV idea of doing it afterwards.

Phew it's hot.  Just right for drying paint, except that I like to paint outdoors and the breeze keeps blowing bits off our big lime tree all over the wet paint, so I've had to retreat inside to continue with the roof box.

This fine weather is all very well, but we're all starting to get nervous about water shortages.  I don't know how much longer some of the shallower canals can keep going.  I sincerely hope that we don't get trapped in the marina when we want to go cruising.   I believe that in the Leicester Arm the bottom is fairly near the top at the best of times.

This weekend we're off sailing in Norfolk, so I'm confidently expecting a worsening in the weather in East Anglia at least.

Now a bit of news.  First a headline item.

Reliable sources (?) tell me that the Slough Arm is booked in for dredging in 2013 !!!  Apparently it was announced at the IWA Canal Cavalcade at Little Venice over the weekend.  Well that is good news, even though we won't be taking Herbie there for a while.

Yesterday we took Grace to spend a day at the cavalcade.  Not a lot really goes on there, but it's a good place for boaters to meet up with old friends and to look at a lot of nice boats.  We caught up with Robin and Laura on their very newly repainted Miss Matty.  The painters at Baxters at Yardley Gobion look to have done a very good job.  A lot better than I could do anyway.  Then walking along the bank, a kind man pointed out that my shoelace was undone.  Looking behind I instantly recognised it was Vic of No Problem fame, so we introduced ourselves to him and Sue and had a brief chat before wandering over to see Simon and Carrie aboard Tortoise in Brownings Pool.  Tortoise is one of the smallest boats there and has the benefit of being allocated a prime spot   and we sat around watching the end of the boat handling competition and eating crisp and hummous while S&C did a very good job of keeping Grace amused.  Simon should get a job on CBBC as he seems to have  few inhibitions about acting daft!

3 comments:

Adam said...

Are you a loyal enough R4 listener to tune in to News Briefing at 5.30am? If you'd listened on Saturday morning, you would have heard that I used my influence (ie, I was producing the programme), to mention the Canalway Cavalcade in the Lookahead!

Neil Corbett said...

5.30 am? You jest Adam.

N

Anonymous said...

It was really nice to meet up again, and thank you for bringing Grace - she's such a sweetheart. A pity you couldn't stay longer and watch the illuminated boats nearly squash Tortoise!
Carrie