Have you heard?

A couple of bits of interesting news have reached my shell like ears.

The first is that the EA have lost a court case against boaters in a couple of marinas on the Thames, to the effect that the judge says that the EA has no right to charge them a licence fee as long as they stay in the marina. That sets the cat amongst the pigeons, at least it would if it set a precedent for CRT. There must be lots of boats that never venture out, and I suspect there would be a lot more if it was licence free to stay put.

Actually, thinking about it, the EA does more for boats in marinas than CRT do because they do a lot more to control water levels. Hmmm watch this space. It would be funny wouldn't it if all those boats moored on the towpath suddenly headed into marinas.

The other bit of news floating around is about the poor landlady on the Shroppie who has lost a lot of business because ecanalmaps has her pub down as CLOSED. It's the Anchor at High Offley. It's very many years since we were there but I remember it as a nice pub, so do pop in if you pass. They are open for business.

Herbie lies resting at Iver while we potter about at home. I have started painting another Buckby can, but it's only in undercoat right now so you don't need a photo yet.

Off topic culture warning. People only interests in boats can stop reading here.

Yesterday we went to the cinema see a recording of the National Theatre's Hamlet with Cumberditch Bendyback or whatever he's called. I like a lot of Shakespeare plays but I have always found Hamlet hard work. Not long ago we went to see Maxine Peake doing it and much as I like her, it didn't work for me. This NT version however was miles and miles better - in fact, BRILLIANT!!

I was a bit alarmed at first when I saw that Polonius was played by the bloke who plays the bishop in Father Ted, but he was plenty good enough to let me forget that. Sherlock Holmes himself was of course wonderful too. Some of those long speeches are hard to follow if the actor doesn't do it right, but he made it easy. Perhaps the biggest ghasps of the night (or the afternoon actually) came from the fantastic set changes and lighting effects. Quite quite brilliant. Eleven out of ten. Go see it if you have a chance.

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