Narrowboat Alacrity

My favorite slippers are no more………………………….

Jo had bought them for me at Christmas, very expensive and oh so comfortable a Rolls Royce of slippers……………

Having had quite a hard day at work and had eaten more than was probably good for me at dinner, forty winks were in order. Kicking off my slippers I settled down for a doze on the sofa. I can’t have been asleep for more than ten minutes when something woke me, reaching down to put my slippers on I noticed that one was darker than the other…………wet in fact…………. Jo mentioned that she had seen Katie (one of our cats) in the room for a few moments…………normally she puts her head in one slipper and goes to sleep, (Jo says it’s the smell that knocks her out) but what made her pee in one God only knows????

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I found an odd sock after this mornings wash………never mind I’ll just mate it up with the odd one I found last week………………..No I won’t…………..it’s gone missing aswell…….Upon interrogation SWMBO addmitted that she had found an odd sock in my draw and had humanly disposed of it in the bin.

I only ever buy the same black socks (M&S) so I can match up the ineviatable “odd sock” or when one becomes to holey, a new mate can be found  (Its the Yorkshireman in me).

The odd sock saga seems to be an affliction we all suffer, an equal number of socks go in the washer but an unequal number come out. Is the washing machine something other than a washing machine, is it a portal to a parallel universe, with whom we swop socks on alternate weeks, is it possible that we don’t actually lose a sock but gain one………….Do people in parts of the world who don’t use washing machines lose socks?

The UK’s population is around 61 million people and if each loses one sock every time they do laundry the mind boggles………………………..

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I  noticed this morning when doing my usual scan of incoming links (people who have linked their posts to my blog) that the Blog Meister Andrew Denny of Granny Buttons had mentioned in his post “How to start your own website or Blog” that I had learned the self taught hard way.

Remember that Matthew Stibbe is an expert. If you want advice from someone at the self-taught-the hard-way end of things, you might ask John of NB Alacrity. He seems to have taken this same route to getting his blog going including buying the book, so would be a useful second opinion. 

Yes I bought the book, its a good guide but if you use “Wordpress” as your blogging platform their support on the web is second to none, if you are more of a try it and see person who learns hands on like me give it a go.

I found that if you are contemplating your own blog or website the first thing to do is find a domain name.

What you have to remember that it will be the first thing people will see and what seems a good idea at the time may not seem so good in 5 years so “choose wisely” (as the knight said to Indiana Jones).

For us Boaters try looking up nbyourboatname replacing the yourboatname with the name of your boat with no spaces as in nbalacrity you will probably find it available for use.

As Matthew Stibbe suggests use 123 reg to check that your intended name is not in use. Don’t do what I did and register the name and buy a hosting package then find the package doesn’t cover what you want. I tried using the free blog registration from Wordpress.org but found it to limiting in the themes you could use, so I went independent.

I chose  VARiHOST to host my blog on the basic package  they are so helpful and will sort you out in no time, just read what other people say about them. VARiHOST will register and manage your domain name and provide space for your blog and give you your own email addresses for £3.99 a month (no I don’t get anything for this plug I just believe that they offer best value for money).

If you go the independent route you can customise your blog how you want and have total control of what you see on your blog, yes it’s hard work getting it how you want it and yes you may want to throw your PC into the cut but blogging is addictive, fun and all yours, gripe if you want, your blog is your voice on the web……………………………………………………….

If you want any help or advice on starting your own boating blog use the contact page, I will try and help if I can..

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When I looked out of the kitchen window this morning it looked like the garden was covered in white blossom except it wasn’t blossom……………..on closer inspection it was feathers, almost as if someone had emptied a pillow out.

Then I saw it………………….. do you remember the film About a Boy starring Hugh Grant, the scene where the boy had tried to feed a duck with his mum’s homemade bread and killed it, the duck was floating upside down in the lake………….well it wasn’t a duck it was very fat Wood Pigeon floating feet up minus most of it’s feathers in my garden pond.

A quick spanish inquesition followed with my two cats Rosie and Katie both denying all knowledge and blaming the moggie next door.

I must admit they are getting old and lack the killer instinct spending most of their time indoors, but then i’m biased……

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My route to work is 90% country roads and on early sunny mornings like today a total delight to drive, with the changing colours and varied  animal life I feel at peace with the world………………………………………That is until I encounter the A10 where near Cheshunt there are bridge repair works and the carriageway is reduced to one lane.

The one lane is not a problem at 6am, the traffic flows smoothly as drivers anticipate the roadworks………. Except for the few!!!…………..The few that disregard the rules, they don’t seem to mind about other drivers.

They go steaming past at high speed and force themselves into the traffic queue at the point where the the lane disappears………………….Why do they do it?……………..

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Well I’ve been slaving…….(whose he kidding)… over a hot keyboard today trying to set up a better gallery for the blog. The plugin for wordpress was straight forward but altering the coding in the page template for the gallery took some doing for a non savvy person like me.

I will be running the two galleries in tandem for a while just to see which on suits the blog better.

If you look in the lefthand sidebar under the pages tab you will see Test-Gallery click on this and see the new gallery the Slideshow also in the lefthand sidebar is generated from this.

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Well it looked like it was going to be a warm day so I thought that I would try out the new barbecue I bought for the last bank holiday.

Being an engineer the assembly would be a doddle…..I jest not…it was easy…you just had to sort through the copious leaflets and paperwork to find the relevant instructions in English. Well it beats MFI all the parts were present and correct and in five minutes all was assembled but in my excitement I had put the handle on upside down………….

A quick trip to the supermarket saw me return with chicken, sardines and the makings of a salad and marinade not to mention a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio.

Gas connected………..click click ckick CLICK………bugger….it won’t light……………..matches where did I put them………………………..

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Well I just wanted to share with you that NB Alacrity’s blog just had its 1001 visitor at 18:10 today.

 I know that other blogs have had more but it’s special to me.

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The Centers for Disease Control has issued a medical alert about a highly contageous, potentialy dangerous virus that is transmitted oraly, by hand and even electronically. This virus is called Weary Overload Recreational Killer (WORK) If you recieve WORK from your boss, any of your collegues, or anyone else via any means whatsoever- DO NOT TOUCH IT. This virus will wipe out your private life completley. if you should come into contact with WORK you should immediatly leave the premises.

Take two good friends to the nearest supermarket and purchase one or both of the antidotes-Work Isolating Neutraliser Extract (WINE) and Bothersome Employer Elimination Rebooter (BEER). Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been eliminated from your system.

You should immediatly forward this medical alert to five friends. if you do not have five friends, you have been infected and WORK is controlling your life………………..

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Well it’s got to be my fault…………….why you ask…..well what Idiot goes out and buys a new Weber gas barbecue because he has heard the weather is going to be great on Bank Holiday Monday.

I had been looking for a gas barbecue for some weeks now because I hate the mess and all the rigmarole of lighting the charcoal (I’m not a boy scout). By the smell our old next door neighbours used to use copious quantity’s of paraffin to get theirs going.

In all honesty I bought the thing on Thursday after looking at the weather forecast on the web which showed only Sunday as being wet…………………..well they got that wrong…………

As I sit writing this a totally bedraggled Woodpidgeon is sat on the windowsill…..wet….. I would be too if I had believed the Weathermen………………………………

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