Dudley Walk and the Internet

This morning we awoke to a very light dusting of snow which had all but gone by the time we walked to Lidl for a few essentials at 11am.  In the afternoon I went for a local walk doing an anti-clockwise circuit which took me via Dudley Town Centre.

Our mooring at Bumble Hole.  Waiouru In the distance on the right.  I’m thinking of walking to the masts on the skyline.  There appears to be no access from this side of the hill so it will be another circular route.

Today’s walk took me through Warren’s Hill Nature Reserve and past Cobb’s Engine House to reach New Rowley Road.

Looking back.

More information on the history of the park here.  

The route took me into Dudley Town Centre and I was slightly bemused (but not surprised) to see at the other end of the Street the Toby Carvery where we had a Sunday lunch whilst moored at the Dudley Canal Trust.

Dudley Castle.

Over Christmas I replaced the operating system on our Samsung S4 phone and in doing so upgraded it to Android version 7.  I then exchanged the upgraded S4 with the Samsung S1 which we use as the boat phone.  The S4 provides a faster internet speed when configured as a “hotspot” in the boat.  I thought I’d been clever until I noticed five days ago that our monthly “hotspot” data allowance of 12,000MB had almost been used.  Our plan gives us unlimited internet data on the phone but only 12,000MB when configured as a “Hotspot” allowing other devices to wirelessly connect to the internet via the phone.  When I looked at the balance of our hotspot allowance we only had 512MB left to last the 18 days until the new month.  Drastic action was required!

I swapped the phones using the old Samsung S1 as the boat phone and reactivating it as the boat “hotspot”.  Unfortunately this didn’t arrest the problem and later that same day the allowance was down to 429MB.   After rummaging around in the back of the storage cupboard I retrieved the old Zoom portable wifi router.  We used the Zoom and an attached USB dongle for internet access when we first arrived in the UK and prior to me realising the phone could be configured as a “Hotspot”.  What I have done is connect the Samsung S1 to the Zoom with a USB cable.  I also downloaded a small program from the Zoom manufacturer which electronically connects the Zoom router to any Android phone with the now obsolete version 2.3 Android operating system.  The phone is connected to the aerial on the cabin roof (no change there) and the Zoom router is connected to the boat 12V system to keep its battery charged.  The Zoom also charges the phone through the USB cable.  By doing this the Samsung phone is no longer configured as the “Hotspot”.  Instead we connect to the Zoom wireless router.

The new setup is above.  The Zoom router on the left and the Samsung S1 phone on the right.  The two are connected by a USB cable.

Since I did this five days ago the new setup has achieved the desired result with the hotspot allowance remaining frozen at 429MB.

I couldn’t connect the Zoom router to the Samsung S4 and get the higher 4G speed because the phone uses a more modern version of Android (v4.4).  The Zoom will only connect to Android v2.3.

Guilty

It was 1.4°C in the cratch when we went to bed last night so it wasn’t much of a surprise to wake up this morning and find almost everything covered in white

Our first snowfall in 2017.  The wind arrived with the dawn almost blowing the hardy local dog walkers off their feet.  On one occasion a strong gust rattled something on the cabin roof.  Neither of us could see any purpose in venturing out of the toasty warm cabin and elected to spend the day finding inside jobs.  Jan used some left over wool to knit me a beanie and I burned all the 2016 photos to DVD’s.

No physical exercise today and now feeling guilty!

Hawne Basin and On the Buses

With the predicted forecast of a cold front by the end of the week we decided to cruise up to Hawne Basin where we would empty and fill tanks.  Before going into any detail on the cruise we should mention the large Sainsburys at Merry Hill closed permanently on 30 Dec 16.  However the ASDA supermarket us still in the mall and the Aldi is just up the road.  It was a very early start; so early that we turned on the boat headlamp until we reached Blowers Green.  The water pressure here is quite poor and we therefore decided not to stop.  There is a sharp turn on exiting the lock.  Fortunately the wind had picked up and pushed the bow around.  It was probably the easiest turn we’ve done here.

The cruise to Bumble Hole was uneventful, except for the low sun in the east which was directly in our eyes for the bulk of the trip.  Fortunately no other boats were on the move.  Upon reaching Bumble Hole we discovered all the moorings with bollards occupied.  It was still reasonably early (9.30am) so that might have changed by the time we returned from Hawne Basin.  The cruise down to Hawne Basin was very slow.  The water level in the canal is still down and there is so much rubbish in the bottom of the canal that we did 85% of the canal on tick-over and still got urban jellyfish on the prop.  We were also heading east with the low sun directly into our eyes.  

At Hawne Basin we emptied out the toilet tank (£8) and topped up all three diesel tanks (£178).  Jan also took the opportunity to add to our collection of brass plaques.  It was then a case of retracing our route back to Bumble Hole.  This time we collected something major around the prop whilst inside Gosty Hill Tunnel.  We ‘limped’ through the tunnel barely moving and once out in the open I went down the weed hatch to cut and remove our most recent collection of recycled apparel.  I’m not that keen on using the knife during winter.  My submerged hands are usually so cold that I can’t feel them and I’m slightly concerned I might cut off a finger (or two). 

The mooring situation hadn’t changed at Bumble Hole so we moored on pins just short of the water point.  Actually it’s probably the best mooring should the canal freeze over for any length of time as we can access the water point from the boat.

After we moored I made yet another trip down the weed hatch to remove the latest spawn of urban jellyfish. The water is only going to get colder so better to have one miserable day rather than know I’ll have to do it later.

Towards the end of the afternoon an email arrived advising the replacement 12V DC to DC step up converter had been delivered to Argos in Birmingham.  I had a look at the map and decided the best option was to take the X10 bus into the city. 

This morning we filled the water tank in preparation for the forecast cold front due at 3pm.  I then walked a couple of kilometres to the X10 bus stop just missing the bus.  There is a bus every 20 minutes so it wasn’t much of a wait for the next one to come.  The trip on the bus took 50 minutes and I found it rather interesting looking at the urban environment.  Rows of terraced and semidetached dwellings.  It reminded me just how tightly packed some of England’s citizens live.  Frankly I couldn’t see myself willingly live in one of those tiny boxes.  But then we are currently living inside a 6ft diameter steel tube….!   Ah… but we can move our tube regularly….

I was back at the boat by 2pm having stopped at Lidl on the way back to buy some bread.  Later in the afternoon I replaced the defective DC-DC converter and can again charge the laptop of the boat 12V system.  

The temperature has definitely fallen, but at the moment there isn’t any sign of snow and nor is there much wind.  Not that any of this worries us as we’re now fully prepared.  

Back to Merry Hill

The weather looked cloudy but dry so we decided to cruise the reasonably short distance to Merry Hill where Jan wanted to visit a number of shops in the large InTu Retail Mall.  Of course it decided to rain quite hard during the cruise leaving me rather drenched by the time we reached Merry Hill.  I did try increasing the speed but the canal is rather shallow in places and I ended up catching urban jellyfish (plastic bags) on the prop.

There were only two moored boats when we arrived, one being NB AreandAre with Barry on board.  After a conversation and hot drink with Barry he headed off towards Bumble Hole retracing our route.  However, unlike our trip it looked like he wouldn’t be caught in the rain.

Jan had a rather fruitless trip to the mall discovering none of the shops had what she wanted. 

Jan here…… There was little chance to look in the shops because I was dragged around as if we were doing the Indi 500

I noticed the laptop wasn’t charging when plugged into the boat 12V system.  I’ve previously assembled a DC to DC step up converter which raises the boat 12V to the laptop 19.2V.  The converter appeared to be working as the small red LED was illuminated and I was getting a 12V reading with the multimeter.  My first assumption was there was a fault with the 12V boat socket.  That proved to be incorrect.  Then I realised the converter output was 12V instead of 19V.  Our cheap ( £2.52) Chinese circuit board had failed.  The laptop has been permanently connected to the boat 12V system for several weeks and I therefore shouldn’t be too surprised that a component on the board has failed.  We’ll need a replacement board.  After examining the board I realised the heat sinks might prove useful.

The heat sinks are the two black painted aluminium plates with fins.  They look about the right size to fit on top of a Raspberry Pi cpu.  The Raspberry Pi does get hot and you can buy an aluminium heat sink for the cpu.  But why buy something when you can salvage one.  I filed the solder joints off the base of the printed circuit board and unscrewed the connection to the board to recover two free heatsinks.

Finally I must acknowledge some recent blog comments from readers haven’t been published.  For some reason Blogger thought they were spam.  I hadn’t realised this had occurred because I don’t directly use Blogger.  All the blog posts are written using Open Live Writer and we are supposed to be notified by email if a Reader leaves a comment.   I don’t know why Blogger decided some Reader comments were spam and it now appears I’ll have to regularly check Blogger rather than relying on the email advice system.  

Leaving Birmingham and a Cold Transit

It was time to leave Birmingham but not before two blogger meetings.  We’ve spoken to or seen five bloggers since arriving in Birmingham.  Our mooring was behind Beryl and Dave on NB Sokai.  Maffi and Molly on NB Milly M moored in front of us.  Then Andrew Denny moored NB Granny Buttons opposite.  Finally, there was a knock on the side hatch one evening.  We opened them to discover Paul Balmer of NB Waterway Routes. 

We decided to backtrack and head north on the New Main Line.  We’ve cruised this way a number of times but there is always something interesting to see.  This time we were paying attention to all the entrances to former canal arms or wharfs.  This canal reeks of history.

The Engine Arm crosses above the New Main Line on a particularly ornate aqueduct.  A lattice of five cast-iron arches supports a cast-iron trough.

Designed by Thomas Telford, the aqueduct was built in 1825 as a water feeder from Edgbaston Reservoir.  You might recalI I mentioned in an earlier post that there was a feeder from Titford Pools to Edgbaston Reservoir.

Telford’s work can also be seen at Galton Bridge.  The design is very similar to the Engine Arm Aqueduct.  Except this bridge is much higher and longer.  It was constructed in 1829 and at the time was the highest bridge in the world.  It carried road traffic but is now restricted to pedestrians.

Steward Aqueduct takes the Old Main Line over the New Main Line.  Immediately behind it the more modern M5 Motorway also crosses the canal.

Steward Aqueduct in the distance with the M5 Motorway towering above. 

We turned left onto the Netherton Branch at Dudley Port Junction and entered the 2776m long Netherton Tunnel.  No cloud inside this time, but it was very cold.  Three lights could be seen in the distance coming towards us.  Jan sensibly went inside (why should two of us get cold).  My eyes started to weep with the cold blurring my vision.  The lights at the opposite end of the tunnel slowly got closer.  I couldn’t decide whether they were boats or bicycles.  Eventually I slowed and moved over to the right to allow the oncoming boat passage.  That’s when the first of the bikes passed.

Having realised the lights were from cyclists I was able to speed up.  Eventually we exited the tunnel at the Bumble Hole end to find a damp and overcast day.

No Sunday Roast

Today poor Jan missed out on her Sunday roast lunch.  Aldi had a weekly special that particularly interested me and I was convinced the item would be wanted by every adult male in Birmingham.  They went on sale today so it was a walk to Aldi instead of lunch. 

The walk seemed to be taking a long time and when we reached Aldi I was horrified to see the car park almost full with numerous males heading for the entrance.  Jan took pity on me and gave permission for me to go ahead whilst she collected a trolley.  Like an arrow from a bow I was through the doors and down the aisle ready to elbow and jostle myself into pole position.  I was so lucky and managed to get the last one in stock.  Well actually that’s not true. there were another 25 in the bin so obviously the local males can’t see the value in owning such an attractive item.

A very reasonably priced Tap and Die set.  I haven’t used one in 45 years, but I’m sure it will come in useful.  Of course it won’t be high quality, but then I don’t anticipate using it more than twice annually.  Now all I have to do is show my gratitude to my patient and understanding wife!

On a more boating note.  This was the view out the side hatch at 7am this morning. 

It was actually darker than the photos suggest.  The camera lens does tend to capture a large amount of light. 

New Router

 

WARNING… Nerdie post

As you probably know our wireless internet access on the boat is achieved by utilizing our mobile phone tethering function creating a ‘Hotspot’.  Whilst mobile data (ie, using the mobile phone) isn’t cheap in the UK, it’s much more expensive in Australia.  When we move back into a static address we will need to move to a cable internet connection.  Initially it’s likely to involve using the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) but eventually we’ll get a fibre connection.  All of this is going to require a new router.   I’ve been looking at routers and following my philosophy of staying at least one rung behind the most modern of anything (driven by price) and after extensive research, we’ve purchased a Netgear NightHawk R7000.  This isn’t the latest model but is still very powerful.

This particular router was selected for the following reasons

1. Wireless Data Speed.  It is capable of transmitting at the (current) highest wireless standard of 802.11AC2.
2. Ethernet Ports. Four ports with a rated speed of 600-1300Mbs
3. USB Ports.  Two for attaching devices such as external hard drives and printers, etc
4. Processor – 1GHz dual core. Plenty of computing power to manage the traffic
5. Ability to change the firmware

The problem with most routers is the standard firmware (operating system) is unreliable. Actually, some of the top routers’ firmwares are plagued by vulnerabilities and are limited in their features.  I intend to overcome these vulnerabilities and limitations by replacing the standard Netgear router firmware with an open source (free) firmware version which will eliminate the vulnerabilities and also increases the router’s capabilities. 

One reason for selecting the NightHawk is the availability of alternative firmware.  I have opted to replace the standard Netgear firmware with Tomato.  By doing this I will be able to install VPN (Virtual Private Network) software on the router rather than on individual devices.  This has two advantages.

• It will save money by only needing to purchase one VPN license for the router rather than multiple licenses for each device (laptop, desktop, tablets, etc)
• Our privacy will be protected because everything on our side of the router will be anonymous to the internet.

The network should look something like the diagram below

 

The Midnight Streaker

There was a rather cold looking streaker outside the boat at 2am this morning. 

To explain how this occurred we need to wind the clock back 5 minutes.  We were suddenly woken from our deep slumbers by the rocking of the boat and the sound of breaking ice.  Jan’s first sleepy thought was a boat was on the move.  It took a few moments for our eyelids to unstick and focus on the clock.  2am!  Who moves through ice at that hour. I got up and looked through the front doors.  The canal was frozen over and there was no sign of a boat moving.  The sound of breaking ice being thrust under Waiouru’s stern suggested the boat behind us must be leaving (we are moored stern to stern).   The noise was very loud and I decided to investigate.  On my way to the stern I glanced out the porthole to discover there was a 350mm gap between us and the towpath.  The thrust from the other boat’s propeller must have loosened our stern mooring rope.

Upon reaching the  stern deck I immediately noticed the boat behind hadn’t moved and it’s engine wasn’t running.  Our stern mooring rope was off the bollard and dangling In the canal.  Looking towards the bow I could see one young male slowly walking away and two others running.  Then I realised the bow mooring rope had been slipped off the bollard.

It was rather obvious that these three miscreants had removed our mooring ropes from off the bollards by rocking the boat which had loosened the ropes sufficiently to slip the double loop over the head of the bollard.  We probably wouldn’t have realised they had set the boat free except for the sound of the breaking ice.  

I jumped off the stern onto the frost covered towpath dressed only in my y-fronts to discover the soles of my warm feet sticking to the frost.  It took us five minutes to get Waiouru back onto the mooring and resecure the ropes.  By then I was starting to go blue!  Needless to say, once back in bed Jan was none too keen on me warming the soles of my feet on her.   Of course the chances of the scoundrels returning were rather remote.  However it still took us some time to get back to sleep!    

Catch up

Yes there has been a gap in the posts.  It’s not that we’ve been lazy but rather the laptop has been very busy.  That one legged man on the three wheeled skateboard made far faster progress than advised and our hard drive arrived on the 3rd rather than the 9-11th.  Consequentially the laptop has been grinding away for the last two days shuffling data around between four hard drives.

This morning we awoke to find the canal iced over.  So much for the theory that the ambient temperature in a large urban area would be sufficiently high as to avoid ice.

Around 9.30am Jan heard the sound of breaking ice and looked out the side hatch to see a CRT working boat heading north out of the CBD.  It returned a couple of hours later which led me to suspect the crew had taken the boat to Hockley Port (I was wrong! misjudged the destination)

We walked into the city centre before lunch heading to the Bull Ring Markets first as Jan wanted some wool.  The next stop was WH Smith for her “missing” magazine. 

Perhaps you are like me and can remember your childhood books.  I had the complete set of Noddy and didn’t notice anything unusual in Noddy and Big Ears sharing a bed.  Nor did I see anything untoward with the naughty gollywogs.  My reading progressed on to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five which I preferred over the Secret Seven.  I thought I’d read all the Famous Five books until we walked into WH Smith today.

I definitely don’t remember reading these two!

A canal walk in the afternoon revealed that the CRT boat had gone up Icknield Port Loop in the morning rather than the Soho Loop to Hockley Port.  This appears to be a little used loop and I did wonder why?  However during the walk I noticed more CRT staff exiting from Icknield Loop on the towpath with full plastic bin bags and litter picking tongs.  I assume this was a rubbish cleaning operation.

I continued walking to the Soho Loop and then along the towpath to Hockley Port.  On the way I came upon a male cleaning the towpath of litter by picking up the bags, bottles, etc and throwing it into the canal.  When I queried him as to the sensibility of his actions he looked at me as if I were stupid but at least he stopped until was out of view.  Why do I have the impression a village somewhere in England is missing its idiot!

We’ve moored in Hockley Port on a previous visit to Birmingham.  The area is 90% long term moorings with the 24 hour visitor mooring on the right.  You might be able to see the white tops of the mooring bollards immediately beyond the trees on the right in the next photo.

The CRT services are at the far end of the arm on the right. 

On my return to our mooring I immediately noticed the boat two in front of us (front left in the next photo) had erected a temporary flagpole and was flight a RAF flag.

Yes, it’s the Milly M.  Maffi and Molly have arrived in Birmingham.

Where’s the drone?

The temperature dropped to the forecast 0°C overnight but to our surprise there was no frost on the towpath when we awoke this morning.  It was rather crisp however this was more than compensated by the bright clear blue sky. 
You might recall we mentioned running out of space on our hard drives in a recent post.  I did some online searching on Boxing Day placing an order with Amazon for a third 2TB usb external hard drive.  To my surprise we received an email on the 29th December advising the order had been fulfilled.  The next day (30th) another email arrived stating the order had been despatched.  Since then every time we’ve heard the sound of an overhead aircraft I’ve gone out on the back of the boat looking for Jeremy Clarkson’s delivery drone!  Today we received a delivery update.  The package will arrive sometime between 9 – 11 January.  Obviously Amazon aren’t using a drone to deliver our order.  My guess is it’s being sent from the Orkneys in the hands of a one legged man on a three wheeled skateboard!
With time on our hands I’ve been closely examining the Waterway Routes BCN canal map.  I’m particularly interested in the abandoned and former, canals, arms and wharfs which are recorded on the map.  Once you’ve noted their location on the map they become very obvious when cruising or walking.
There are two short former loading arms/wharfs not far from our current mooring.

You can see the bricked up entrance to one under the towpath bridge In the above photo.  The land behind the bridge is vacant and the outline in Google Earth suggests it might have been a rectangular basin.  No doubt one of many on the BCN!

Chamberlain & Martin

Gosh wasn’t it noisy last night.  Numerous explosions, the portholes lit up and the sound of wailing sirens.  Later it was the shrieking over-excited revellers passing by on the towpath.  Jan didn’t get much sleep but I snored through all the excitement. Being slightly deaf sometimes has advantages!

Whilst walking around the general area I’ve noticed some interesting old buildings with very similar architectural features.  Much of this is due to Chamberlain and Martin.  The Elementary Education Act of 1870 saw the introduction of universal education in England.  Local authorities were required to make provision for the education of children within their jurisdiction.   The act wasn’t universally popular with influential elements of the population concerned that educating the ‘masses’ would encourage them to ‘think’ and perhaps revolt.  However many industrialist wanted the population to be educated as they believed this would improve the nation’s manufacturing competitiveness. 

Birmingham was obviously an industrial centre and the 1870 Act was strongly supported by the then mayor, Joseph Chamberlain.   Unless they were too poor, parents were required to pay for their children's education.  The city authorities calculated some 40 new schools would be required to met the need.  The contract to design these new schools was awarded to the architectural firm of Chamberlain and Martin whose principals were John Chamberlain and William Martin.  John Chamberlain was not related to the mayor, Joseph Chamberlain.

Chamberlain & Martin preferred to design buildings in a Victorian style from red brick and terracotta.  All those I’ve seen have a central tower with an open spire.  The idea being the tower would create a natural draft (much like a chimney) which would increase the natural circulation of fresh air.   I first noticed this style of building when we last visited Birmingham and I came upon Icknield Street School.

Today I noticed a similar style when I walked to Lidl in Summerfield. 

The building is now the Summerfield Community Centre but after some searching on Google I was able to establish it was built as a school.

A school, designed by John Henry Chamberlain & William Martin for the Birmingham School Board, and built in 1878. The building is of red brick with terracotta and stone dressings and a tiled roof. The northern end of the building is of two and three storeys and the southern end has a single storey, although windows set high in the wall give the impression of an extra floor. The southern section housed the infants' school, with classrooms clustered around three sides of a central hall, and the northern section had the boys' school at ground floor level and the girls' school at first floor level, again with classrooms grouped around a central hall at both level.

On the opposite side of the New Main Line canal is St Patrick’s Catholic Church, also constructed in red brick.

Spring Hill Library beside the large Tesco at Hockley is another example of Chamberlain & Martin’s design.

The route back to Waiouru was along the New Main Line towpath and it provided a different perspective of the brick pier we passed by when entering Birmingham.

    

What intrigues me about this pier is how slender and long it is.  I would have expected it to be thicker and shorter if it was the pier of a former railway bridge.  It also looks to be too long to be part of a road bridge?

I was almost back at Waiouru when a familiar boat went past me.

I couldn’t decide whether it was Andrew at the tiller and decided not to call out.  Jan subsequently informed me it was Andrew so it’s both my hearing and eyesight that’s degrading!

2016

Got to thinking about where we’ve travelled on the boat during 2016.  My memory is somewhat rough, but fortunately we have the blog posts to fall back on.

The year started in Chester, after spending Christmas on the Llangollen Canal.  From there we cruised around to Middlewich and then up Heartbreak Hill to Stoke on Trent.  Around the middle of February our youngest son joined us and we headed back down Heartbreak Hill to Middlewich and then down the Anderton Boat Lift and onto the River Weaver.  Interestingly, February was the only month in which we experienced snow during the year.

By the beginning of March we were on the Bridgewater Canal.  This time we managed to complete the Runcorn Arm before moving on to Wigan.  In April I did something I’d always wanted to do, walking part of Hadrian’s Wall.  Time was also spent in Scotland and touring Ireland. The middle of the month saw us completing the Liverpool Link and having an interesting time looking around the city.  We then retraced our route to reach Manchester and went up the Rochdale Canal for our booked passage through Standedge Tunnel on 6 May.  That would be one of our more memorable experiences!

The remainder of May saw us cruising down the Huddersfield, Calder & Hebble, Aire & Calder and finally the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation to arrive in Sheffield.

By the end of the first week of June we were at Keadby ready to head upstream on the River Trent.  We spent almost two weeks on the Chesterfield Canal which was both lovely and peaceful.  Then we continued on to Torksey, leaving the Trent to visit Lincoln.  The end of June saw us at Newark.  A replacement flue for the diesel stove was purchased at Shadlow and by early July we were back on skinny canals. 

Our youngest son left us at Burton on Trent whilst we continued on to Fradley Junction.  This provided an opportunity to visit the National Arboretum.  We continued down the Coventry and Oxford Canals to reach Rugby at the end of the month where I was able to top up my medication and have the annual dental check.

In August we reversed direction, heading back north to complete the Ashby Canal before returning to Rugby where Jan stayed with Waiouru whilst I visited Belgium, Luxembourg and France.  By the beginning of September we had reached Warwick stopping in the Saltisford Arm for a couple of days resting before tackling the Hatton Flight.  We continued north to Kingswood Junction and then turned south down the South Stratford Canal to visit Stratford upon Avon.

After purchasing a one week River Avon licence we headed down the river to Tewkesbury and then onto the River Severn, which at the time was running rather fast.  The rest of the month saw us visit Gloucester and Sharpness before heading back up the Severn visiting Worcester and Stourport.  By the end of the month we had moved up the Staffs & Worcs and onto the Shroppie.

We completed the Four Counties Ring during the month continuing south at Great Haywood arriving back in Fradley on the 26th.  We’d only been here four months earlier!  By the end of the month we were in Tamworth and seriously thinking about where on the network we would spend winter.  The decision was the greater Birmingham area where we hadn’t previously cruised the Perry Barr section of the Tame Valley Canal or the Walsall Canal.  We won’t be doing the latter unless we follow a group of other boaters who are prepared to cut a channel for us through the shallow sections.

It’s been an interesting and enjoyable year.

We wish all our readers a Happy New Year and thank you for coming on the journey!

Water

After yesterday’s frost it was much milder this morning.  However more cold weather Is forecast so we decided to top up the water tank. We reversed Waiouru back to the services at Cambrian Wharf.  This must be one of the slowest taps on the network.  The tank was half full and it still took 90 minutes to fill.

Two CRT employees arrived with empty rubbish bins.  We promptly started to fill them!  I then suggested they go and find something more interesting to do.  That’s when they informed me there was a “water issue” and I should have noticed the water level was down five inches. This is a very big pound which means a five inch drop is a huge volume of water.  They then told me the pumps were “out of action” and they were off to find some water.  Apparently the problem has been created by unseasonal lack of rain (or snow?).  We offered to assist by leaving the tap running upon our departure.

A lovely blue sky but by early afternoon the top of the BT Tower had disappeared behind low cloud.

With New Year just around the corner I decided to check on this year’s resolution.  Lose 10kg…. only 15kg to go.  It’s going to be tight!

Slip sliding away

We left the stove going on the lowest possible setting last night knowing the temperature was going to fall to zero.  When we awoke this morning it was 18°c inside the cabin which is more than can be said for the outside temperature.  The surface of the towpath was covered with a heavy white frost making it rather treacherous.  Pedestrians were very gingerly making their way to work carefully walking along the edge of the path closest to the vegetation.

After her recent fall Jan decided she wasn’t going to venture away from the boat until it had all melted.  That never happened which meant I made a solo walk to the large Tesco at Hockley for a few essentials.  The rest of the day was spent inside the cabin.

We have now filled two 2TB hard drives with video data.  We started recording TV data in 2003.  A small proportion of it is the DVD’s we’ve purchased, however the majority is recorded TV programs.  Back in Oz I built a MythTV box which had four TV capture cards.  I also configured an electronic program guide (EPG) which was linked to the MythTV box.  This setup enabled us to record a significant number of programs.  Jan likes drama and mystery whilst I prefer documentaries.  The MythTV box had the ability to automatically  identify and cut out ads from the recordings before compressing them to a smaller size.  The project was started when we decided we were going to build a narrowboat and I thought live TV reception might be an issue.  That assumption proved to be invalid, instead we have continued to record programs on the boat.  Not having the MythTV box means I’ve had to identify and cut out the ads manually before compressing the files.  With both hard drives now almost full I’ve had to start searching on line for a third drive.  The drives are more expensive in the UK and it took me some time to find a suitable supplier.  The price is still higher than Oz, but needs must. 

The forecast is for another cold night but hopefully a warmer day tomorrow.

Hark hark the dogs do bark & Where’s the Pied Piper?

One change we have noticed since we were last in Birmingham is the significant increase in beggars with the majority of them being young adults.  Is it the time of year?  I suppose I should feel compassionate but I’ve also noticed a number of signs up advertising temporary work over the festive season.  I struggle with compassion when someone prefers to sit and beg rather than work.

Jan was buying her weekly magazines in Tesco and the lady at the till told her that “we” (Tesco or UK?) supply all the “German” sausages being sold from the numerous food stalls in the Birmingham Christmas Market.  She then mention that she starts work before dawn and was horrified by the large number of rats around the food stalls.  It takes several weeks for rats to breed so I doubt there has been a significant increase in the rat population.  It’s probably more likely that the food stalls have attracted them from other locations.

On a more pleasant note we’ve enjoyed having our youngest son stay with us over Christmas and the boat now seems much quieter since his departure.  We had a good walk around the CBD today stopping in  “Spoons” for a cooked lunch.  Jan has been using her new coffee machine.  with only one coffee drinker on board the stock of coffee capsules should last a month. 

Unusual Christmas

It’s normal for us to have an unusual Christmas lunch.  One year it was jam sandwiches on the side of the road half way between Sydney and Adelaide.  Another year we had tomato sandwiches.  A BBQ in the nearby park another time.  Yesterday it was a Chinese takeaway!

Later in the day our son and I went to the Birmingham IMAX cinema and watched the latest Star Wars film in 3D.

Today Jan got to play with her Christmas Present.  It’s a coffee machine.

 

It takes coffee capsules and also has a removable milk container.  I hate coffee so I can’t write much more about the workings of the machine.  What I can tell you is the combined output of the two alternators on the Beta 43 boat engine produced enough electricity to power the machine without drawing anything from the domestic battery bank.

I’ve kept myself amused by changing the firmware on the Samsung Galaxy S4 boat phone.  Samsung have ceased providing updates for this model phone.  My plan was to upgrade the firmware from Android 4 to Android 6 using a custom ROM (firmware).  This would have three advantages.

1. Install a more modern version of the Android operating system.
2. The custom ROM allowed me to exclude much of the “bloatware” Samsung places on the phone.
3. Using a custom ROM and alternative APN setting is supposed to improve internet tethering.

After some fiddling I managed to install the custom ROM.  However I decided not to install the Google GApps which means the phone now doesn’t have access to applications like Chrome, GMail, Google Maps, etc.  But it’s the boat phone so none of these applications are currently essential and by doing this I’ve removed more “bloat” from the phone hopefully making it faster.

Merry Christmas to our Readers

We don’t appear to be having a white Christmas this year!