Incongruous hole

Not just another run of the mill techno cover, no.
This one was a genuine registered quality product.

Kindling

Sadly, Totnes comprehensive's selection of Russian literature consisted of Gorky, Gorky and more Gorky. Seemingly endless tales of peasants, poverty and potatoes; which put me right off Russian authors for many years. Until I read Dostoyevsky's semiautobiographical novel "The Gambler", which I enjoyed very much. Recently, I caught a film adaptation with Michael Gambon, and it piqued my interest enough to check out some of his other novels. So, I got myself "The Idiot", and "Devils".

But anyway, sorry for the digression... this isn't a post about my taste in literature. It's about the price of e-books. I got the books from Waterstones, for £1.99 each (postage free). Big chunky things made of real paper. Great. But to download e-books of the same titles would have cost me £4+

I don't get it? All of the other titles I looked at, by many different authors (ancient, historical and contemporary), were also more expensive for their digital versions. Is it just greed? Publishers cashing in, on a new technology? I'd have thought the cost of producing a digital book would be next to nothing. Especially, seeing as I download it, there is no postage, and no trees were harmed in it's manufacture. I understand why the author, or their "estate" would require royalties, equivalent to sales of the paper version. But why more than the paper version?

Never been tempted to buy myself a kindle, anyway. The £100 it costs, could buy a shelf full of paper books.. and then I'd be robbed for new titles?. Errr... No thankyou. When I was last in London, I saw lots of commuters and people on the tube with Kindles. It doesn't look as comfortable as reading a book. I don't understand it's popularity. Is it a "city thing". ?

Amazon Kindle Wiki

Pinkies

Rather than suffer Magic FM's limited playlist again, I took off downstream with the aim of letting Sumo dive in for a swim. Cookham lock was manned today, because I guess, it was guaranteed to be very busy on the river with the sun out. When I got down to Cliveden, a GRP cruiser was sat in my favourite spot, sipping on their G&T's. Or maybe it was Pimms. I couldn't tell from across the river. But, they did have their pinkies up, and their deckchairs out. So I had to ram the bank further on downstream. Which went fine.

There was plenty of water underneath us, a sturdy tree to tie up on, and I didn't even have to get the plank out for Sumo to get off. Peachy bit of parking. The boat-to-tranquility ratio had obviously decreased, but the sun was out, the birds were singing, and it was fabulous down there.

Enjoyed a delightful pootle back to Bourne End at just over tickover. Nobody but me on the river. Rounding Cookham Bend, I was rewarded by the sight of "Mr Golden Quay"
buggering off from our mooring. I guess he'd been told to vacate, if he saw our boat coming back. haha... Which put the cherry on top of the day.

Scorchio

"Oh, to be in England, now that April's there."
~ Robert Browning


It's been getting progressively hotter this week, and today was too nice a day to just sit alongside listening to Matty's radio all day. Most of the traffic on the river has been big Aegean style cruisers. 4/5 of which have grumpy people at their helm. There was no lock keeper at Cookham Lock, going both ways. Though I did share it with another narrowboat (NB 'Jeremy Fischer' ?) going downstream. Unfortunately, he tied a knot in his mooring line, and his boat hung up, when the water was being let out. Thankfully, he noticed it in time, and stopped the flow before any damage was done. When more water was let back in, his boat refloated, and it took the pressure off, so he could untie himself. Close one.

Spent the afternoon trundling around the woods with Sumo. The islands are already stuffed with small boats, but nobody was tied up on the Cliveden bank, so we had the place to ourselves again.

Fags

"Tobacco, divine, rare superexcellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all panaceas, potable gold and philosopher's stones, a sovereign remedy to all diseases." ~ Robert Burton (1621).

From :- The Anatomy of Melancholy

Bad Luck

Estoban (Mv 'Gutsy') got turned back at the thames barrier for not having..

1. Two propellors.
2. VHF Radio.
3. A Crew.

Peter (Wb 'Big Baloo') was lucky or unlucky, depending on the viewpoint. His bowthrusters packed up at Marlow (the first lock), and he fell in at Sonning (the last lock). He was in the water for 30 minutes before somebody came out to help him. It must have been a terrifying ordeal, because his engine was still in gear, and it was sucking his legs in towards the prop. Thankfully, he managed to grab a mooring line as he was falling, and held onto that. Though it must have been a truly awful experience for him, I'm relieved that he didn't bang his head on the lock wall; because if he'd been unconscious, there could very well have been a fatality. He's safely berthed up at Reading marina now, which is something to be grateful for.

All of the marina dwellers miss you, Peter.
It's a different place without you.
Everyone is glad you're OK.

Both Estoban & Peter reported seeing only two lock keepers for their entire journey. Which gives some credence to the rumours that they are working to rule because of the pay and conditions. Hopefully, when we set off (on April 15th) the locks will be fully staffed.

And, "set off", we must. Because the marina has increased it's prices. It's now £43.50 per meter per month. As dogma is 17m, it would cost us £8.8K a year to stay on here. And that doesn't include electricity! Doubtless, they'd do us a deal, but we don't feel very comfortable with making a multimillionaire even richer. The naked greed is a shame. But, I suppose that is how a person gets to be a multimillionaire in the first place. You have to wonder if any narrowboats will be able to afford to stay here now. But I guess the big boss doesn't care, because he can squeeze three small plastic boats into the same space we occupy.

Now that our boat is fully operational, I guess it's time for us to get out there and use it.

Sumo is Seven

Well impressed with his stuffed cuddly and birthday B-O-N-E.

One of his female admirers popped by to say hello..

I think he had a good day.