Power to the people

Sometimes being a CRT volunteer is a bit like being back at work.  It’s all emails and frustration and nothing actually gets done.  I’ve just spent a number of hours communicating with other rangers about various annoyances. I feel I may have stirred up a tiny weeny revolt on the shop floor, and it might do the trick. I’ll say no more – just having a busy day with it. 

On the other hand, I found a read of the latest CRT boaters update interesting, including a revealing piece on exactly how many boats on the K&A are and are not moving – an issue raised by the recent go slow TV film which many of us watched.  There is also a link to the London Boating Bulletin which amongst other things refers to the recent Duck lanes publicity.  Now that is something I do know about because I was told of the plans before they happened.  Some people have muttered about how daft it was, but in reality it cost zilch and it was only a temporary marking put there by some volunteers in order to attract the attention of the news media to the national launch of the Share the Space campaign which aims to get towpath users to slow down and have consideration for others using the space.  It certainly did the trick of getting in the news, both nationally and internationally.  You should begin to see posters ( not showing ducks) and events in other parts of the country from now on urging cyclists in particular to take more care. And we wouldn’t argue with that would we?

We didn't buy a boat yesterday.  Well we might have, cos we went to view a nice looking BCN style tug for sale.  Lovely boat and a good Lister engine, but you know how it is with tug decks. They do force a number of compromises, especially in the accommodation and storage field.  In this case it was one compromise too many. Doh.