Christmas Cruising Notes

So this is Christmas

and what have we done

another year older

and still having fun

(Apologies to John Lennon)

Lessons learnt in 2013.

Playing Santa is messy!

Using the boat as a gymnasium can leave toemarks on the ceiling.

Racial harmony is alive and well on the waterways

There will be sloe gin to drink at Christmas

Then there is the record of failure which sadly abounds on our waterways.

The unrecorded, but historic failure of the british to launch a coal truck into space.

Probably the most inaccurate bit of signage ever devised.

1. It's not a British waterways recycling depot

2. The arrow points away from the depot to the opposite bank

3. I just love the jaunty angle of the sign

This is a lovely little story, This is a mile marker on the Macclesfield canal. It's unusual shape is probably because they got a “job lot” from the local monumental mason, or they did actually kill and bury a canal worker at one mile intervals. The real twist is that during WW2 they actually buried the headstones, I mean mile markers, to stop the invading germans from knowing the way to Hall Green, a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere with no military significance.

Then there are the Middle Level Commissioners, the third largest waterway managers in the UK who produced this epic fail. A boater has tried to rectify the sign. A simple “Keep clear of overhanging gate” would have done the job.

Anyway my thanks to all of the ducks, geese, moorhens, herons, owls and other assorted birds, the goats, horses cows llamas, buffalo sheep, foxes and other assorted animals and the boaters and navigation authorities and general public who have kept us entertained throughout 2013.

We wish you you all a wonderful Christmas, and New year.

John & Judy