Humble Pie to British Waterways and bloggers meet at Weedon

Close to Weedon to Nether Heyford, Grand Union Canal, 3 miles 0 locks

I had a reply from British Waterways, and they were actually on a mission to repair locks… Had I heard what that chap had said yesterday then maybe I would have known!

“Hello Sue. Thank you for your e-mail. I would like to take this opportunity to answer your question.

I fully understand your views if indeed they had gone by boat down the flight just to pick up a generator, however that was not the case.

At the weekend Lock 11’s top gate was badly damaged by a boater, action was require to carry out a repair on the gate working from a work flat within the lock chamber. The BW crew were instructed to boat down to Lock 12 to pick up a contractor and his equipment which included a generator. They then boated up to Lock 11 and the navigation was closed to passing traffic to allow the work to be carried out. This was done successfully and the contractor and his equipment was return to Lock 12 before the BW crew returned to Norton Junction.

As to the action of the BW staff dropping paddles etc, I am leaving the office presently to confront them about this, and can assure you that this is not going to be tolerated.

Kind regards

Kevin Hamblin”

I had humble pie for tea!

Three things have broken in the last 24 hours, first my phone just stopped working.. they keypad just would not respond to anything I pressed, so I took the sim out to put in my favourite camera phone that I had spare and was struggling to open the battery cover.. I did eventually only to find that the battery had blown and looked very dodgey indeed although it had been working just fine for taking pics.. new battery needed before I could use that one..

So that is one dud phone, I dud battery, and next today my main camera just gave up the ghost, I got a couple of snaps then that broke.. no idea what has gone wrong with it, but for sure it had been playing me up a bit for quite a while.. so no decent camera phone till I get a battery and no camera!.. I’ll use one of my older phones for pics until stuff can be replaced!

Here comes Narrowboat Herbie..

Aboard are Neil and his friend Rick.. Unfortunately Neil’s wife Kath was not aboard today.  I have been following their travels on the River Nene and all points east.. I knew they had come back yesterday to Gayton and was hoping that they turned right at the junction.. Nice to have met you both.. and in the same place..

Narrowboat Seyella.. we had met Geoff yesterday as he hunted us down along the towpath to our mooring.  But it was nice to stop for a cuppa aboard Seyella and more catching up with Geoff and Mags.. they are off up north for a while now..

And with Moore2Life also on the towpath that is a big blogger meet at Weedon today!

We passed Stowe Hill Marine today and it looked a bit deserted.. I had phoned earlier checking on diesel prices and they told me they had no diesel for sale.. today their little office looked empty and was padlocked up.. anyone know why?

We will wait for diesel until we get to Alvechurch Marina who have the cheapest pump price around here at 60p.. even beating Fred Tarry’s here at Nether Heyford.  Post to pick up in the morning plus my freezer is empty.. there is a good butcher in the village.