Upton Park

In the cause of making good use of our National Trust Family membership and allowing D to meet another lad with Tourettes we went to Upton House and Gardens for the afternoon. Upton Park is a largish country house last inhabited by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted, chairman of Shell. We spent a relaxing time walking around the gardens: nobody fell in any of the lakes or streams. We left half our party outside and went for a look inside the house, remodelled by the owner and filled with a large fine art collection with pictures by Stubbs and lots of English and French porcelain. Most striking was the recently restored art deco bathroom; covered inside almost entirely in aluminium foil which looks like the dull side of baking foil. A striking and surprisingly tasteful decorating medium. I didn't think taking as picture in the bathroom - I think I was a little overcome by all the shiny foil.

Bekonscot (With Canals)

Not just a model village. A model village frozen in time in 1929 (the year it was opened).
We spent an intriguing afternoon wandering aroung a model of rural England of the 1930s. It's beautifully done and has it's imitators but I haven't seen a better one.














I'm sorry but I became quite excited by the model canal with its lock, narrowboats, wharf and tunnel.
Lock














Wharf



















Tunnel

Signed, Sealed and Delivered

I delivered the contract to the Mill Wharf Boat Company yesterday. Everything starts at the beginning of June. The shell will be built by Tim Tyler in May and fitting out is due to start at the beginning of June with delivery on 31st December. During my visit to the boat yard I had a quick tour around the boat currently being fitted out - it's due to be completed to be exhibited at the Crick boat show. I also saw Jason's own current project, Columbia; a working boat he's restoring.

Contract

The contract arrived from the boat fitters yesterday. I immediatley sat down and read it through. Then I read it again. Checked the list of extras - all present. The bottom line is one of those numbers that makes you feel a little faint. Still, we won't be spending it all in one go. There are stage payments. When I sign this we are committed. No backing out (not easily anyway).

Delivery date is 31 Dec 2007.

Must book tickets for the Crick boat show at the end of May.

Shell Spec Approved

The specification for the steelwork has been approved and will soon go to the shell builder, Tim Tyler:

Spec for shell 60ft Tim Tyler Trad with :

Backdoors sliding hatch

1 ½ sterntube self lubricating vetus type

Stainless tank 150 gallon

Two sets of side doors as per drawing

Two Houdini hatch steel work as per drawing

Steel bow doors

Twin diesel tanks at rear

Fully watertight weedhatch access through rear deck

Comastic below gunwhales

Descaled steel for cabin,if not leave it in bare steel for us to do

Vetus bow thruster tube

Strangely enough Johnathan Wilson/Tim Tyler don't seem to have their own web site. On the engine front, we've decided to specify a Beta 43 in an acoustic cocoon with a 5kVA travelpower auxiliary generator attached.

Another Livery Half Address

Skinners Hall
8 1/2 Dowgate Lane
London

Image - a whole guild for people who skin things.

Syncopation Spec Check

Today we went for another visit to the boat builder in Blisworth. We took the latest version of the specification and plan for Syncopation.
He'll meet with the shell builder at the end of the week to order the hull for delivery at the end of May!
I've made some very minor changes to the spec - addition of a heater to blow warm air at the steerer from the engine cooling system in winter. This is probably the final version, on which the contract will be based.
We were given some bad news, though. Beta have stopped making the propgen! This engine driven generator was a central part of my gas free narrowboat design. Apparently the demand was not sufficient for this unit. Now we'll have to either reduce the size of the galley hob to a two ring version (not likely swmbo says) or seek an alternative way of generating 7.5kVa from the engine. There is a 7.5kVa travel power unit but Beta aren't keen on it so more research for a power unit is required. We may get away with a 3.5kVa Travelpower unit and use the inverter to "top up" when we have all the cooker rings on. It's pretty unusual to use all the rings on the cooker at once, so it may be enough.

London Livery Addresses

I've noticed a couple of the London Livery Companies have strange addresses:
Here's 68 1/2 Upper Thames Sreet, Vintners' Hall.
Skinners' Hall is 8 1/2 Dowgate Lane. I will have to investigate the rest to find more examples.













Here's a list of the London livery companies:
Actuaries, Air Pilots & Air Navigators, Apothecaries (medicine), Arbitrators, Armourers & Brasiers (armour-makers and workers in brass), Bakers, Barbers (also surgeons and dentists), Basketmakers, Blacksmiths, Bowyers (longbow makers), Brewers, Broderers (embroiderers), Builders Merchants, Butchers, Carmen, Carpenters, Chartered Accountants, Chartered Architects, Chartered Secretaries & Administrators, Chartered Surveyors, Clockmakers, Clothworkers, Coachmakers & Coach Harness Makers, Constructors, Cooks, Coopers (barrel makers), Cordwainers (workers in fine leather), Curriers (dressers of tanned leather), Cutlers, Distillers, Drapers, Dyers, Engineers, Environmental Cleaners, Fan Makers, Farmers, Farriers (shoers of horses / veterinary surgeons), Feltmakers (hats), Firefighters, Fishmongers, Fletchers (arrow makers), Founders, Framework Knitters, Fruiterers, Fuellers, Furniture Makers, Gardeners, Girdlers (girdles and belts as clothing), Glass Sellers, Glaziers, Glovers, Gold & Silver Wyre Drawers (gold and silver braid for uniforms), Goldsmiths, Grocers, Gunmakers, Haberdashers, Hackney Carriage Drivers, Horners, Information Technologists, Innholders, Insurers, International Bankers, Ironmongers, Joiners and Ceilers, Launderers, Leathersellers, Lightmongers, Loriners (stirrups and other harness for horses), Makers of Playing Cards, Management Consultants, Marketors, Masons, Master Mariners, Mercers (general merchants), Merchant Taylors (tailors), Musicians, Needlemakers, Painter Stainers, Pattenmakers (makers of wooden clog-style footwear), Paviors (paving, highways), Pewterers, Plaisterers (plasterers), Plumbers, Poulters, Saddlers, Salters, Scientific Instrument Makers, Scriveners (writers of court letters and legal documents), Shipwrights, Skinners, Solicitors, Spectaclemakers, Stationers & Newspaper Makers, Tallowchandlers, Tax Advisers, Tinplate Workers, Tobacco Pipe Makers & Tobacco Blenders, Turners, Tylers & Bricklayers, Upholders (upholsterers), Vintners, Water Conservators, Wax Chandlers, Weavers, Wheelwrights, Woolmen (winders and packers of wool), World Traders.

City companies without livery
Parish Clerks*, Watermen & Lightermen*, Security Professionals.

*Recognised as a City Company but without the grant of livery.

Guilds
Educators, Public Relations Practitioners, Guild of Art Scholars, Dealers & Collectors .

My Lunch Time

I noticed this:

a few days ago but didn't have time to read it so I went back this lunch time to read all of it. Captain Ralph Binney was murdered trying to prevent a violent robbery of a jeweler's shop on Birchin Lane in London in 1944. The surprising thing about it is that there's more information about the man on the web site of the Amiralante Padilla Naval School in Colombia. He helped found that august institution after retiring from the Royal Navy in 1934, returning to the Royal navy in 1939, eventually becoming chief of staff for the Port of London in 1944.

Other things I saw on my walk:
Entrance to Bengal Court
St Michaels church

Waterways Protest at Banbury

I took the boys to Banbury this afternoon. We went in search of the IWA funding cuts protest. Not quite as spectacular as the protest I missed entirely last month. There was a stall on the towpath opposite the Castle Quay shopping centre. I added my name to the petition. There were two narrowboats moored next to the stall. I assume the owners were manning the stall because when we went back that way to play in the waterlogged park before going home boats and stall had disappeared.
There was another stall inside the shopping centre, again manned by IWA members (I assume they were members, they were all wearing badges). I think the general public were slightly bemused by this activity. Most of them have no idea of the funding cuts. I wonder how many of them even know about British Waterways?
I was a little disappointed at the lack of stuff to see - was hoping to see more narrowboats protesting - like the blockade a month or so ago. Never mind: I cheered myself up by visiting the chandlery at Tooley's.
After a visit to the park during which I spent a lot of time trying to keep the boys from getting too muddy and wet we came home with the car roof down, beating the rain home by a couple of minutes!

Duxford

This weekend we went to Duxford. The Imperal War Museum's attic. It consists of six hangars full of aeroplanes. Had we set off earlier we would have had time to see more than just two of them. However, the ones we did see were spectacular. We looked in the new "Airspace" hangar (History of British aviation) and the American collection. Airspace has a prototype concorde you can go inside, a vulcan bomber and many others.
Buccaneer.




















The last Spitfire (Mk 24F)












The only criticism I can offer is that the aeroplanes are so closely packed it's difficult to photograph them. Here, the spitfire is framed above by the port wing of the Vulcan, with the Lancaster behind it.

Half Term Break

Siobhan broke her arm falling off her cousin's trampoline on Sunday. It's a buckle fracture of both the ulna and the radius. This week she is modelling a temporary plaster from Bury Hospital Accident and Emergency department until any swelling has gone down. Next week we take her to our local hospital to change the plaster for a permanent one that she will wear for the next five weeks until the bones have healed. This evening her first tooth fell out (not related to the trampoline-diving incident). So the tooth fairy has to find a pound to exchange for it tonight.

Lovely Snow!

Winter has finally delivered. With five inches (125mm) of snow, travel to work was not possible and I worked from home, having seen the weather reports yesterday and brought my laptop home with me. At lunch time we went out and played in the snow. Ewan was very excited by it. We even did some tobogganing on tea trays. Metal tea trays make surprisingly good vehicles for sliding down-hill. Round ones are more exciting because there's a strong possibility you'll spin round as you descend. I'm hoping the snow will make it too difficult to travel to work tomorrow as well.

The snow shows how much heat we lose through our supposedly high-tech roof. It was constructed as a so-called "warm roof": all the insulation is just below the tiles unlike the traditional British roof, where the insulation is laid over and between the joists on the ceiling of the upstairs rooms. This means that our loft space is as warm as the rest of the house. I've always had misgivings about the roof because the top four feet always melts the frost quite quickly. It also melts the snow and the whole lot had slumped into the gutters by late afternoon, unlike our neighbours. We must be losing a fair bit of heat through the top of the roof. But then, we also have the flue from the wood-burning stove passing through the loft space and that dumps a lot of heat in there. I suppose it has to go somewhere. I don't feel too bad about it though, because most of that heat was generated from carbon-neutral logs.

The Monument

We went up The Monument. This is the column built to commemorate the Great Fire of London. It is 202 feet high (61.5m) and is the tallest isolated stone column in the world. I read that on the Monument web site. I've no idea what that means. I've seen taller stone columns (the Washington monument, for instance), but presumably they don't count because they're not isolated. It must be some technical term because the Washington monument in Washington is in the middle of a field in the centre of Washington DC. That's isolated from other buildings as far as I can see. So, I can only assume that it fits the criteria because it's shaped like a classical column and it's by itself. The Washington monument must be an obelisk.






Anyway The Monument is well worth a visit, with spectacular views from the top once you've climbed the 311 spiral stairs.

Cabinet War Rooms

Wow! Winston Churchill's bunker. When the war ended, the Cabinet War Rooms were just locked up and left. Some of the rooms were emptied but most of the 33,000 square foot (3100 square metre) complex remained exactly as it was for 60 years. We saw the room where the cabinet frequently met during the war, where members of the government slept, even Churchill's personal dining room and the room where the first transatlantic hotline phone was set up
I couldn't help thinking that if we'd lost the war, this would be a bit like Hitler's bunker is now: ruins. As it is, it survived intact and with much of the contents untouched until the War Museum began reopening it. The parts that were stripped have been refurnished using photographs taken shortly before that happened. It's just an amazing experience wandering around and thinking that it's just as it was 70 years ago. The picture shows D looking at the cabinet meeting room as he listens to the audio commentary.

Shooting

I went on a shoot with my nephew Nick and my sister's partner, Brian. I had a great day. It was a beaters' day at Pulshayes estate. Nick and Brian frequently work as beaters and go on the odd shoot. Every so often, the estate owners who run shoots will have a day of shooting for the beaters as a sort of thank you. I was invited, as we were staying with my sister for the weekend. I've never been to a shoot before, so it was a novel experience and I really enjoyed it. Nick and I shared a gun. The shoot was divided into two parties and each took it in turns to drive and to shoot. So we all had a go at driving the birds to the other party. There were about forty of us all together and between us we fired some 400 shots and brought down about 50 birds: mostly pheasants and a few ducks. Here they are at the end of the shoot:















While I'm not about to take it up as a hobby, I'd go again, given the chance. I actually managed to hit a pheasant with my first shot. The atmosphere was great as well: a real feel of the community in the country.

New Interior

The interior has been reshuffled to add an airing cupboard. I've put it in the bunk room for the simple reason that bottom half will hold the calorifier and that's best placed as close to the two main users of hot water - the bathroom and the kitchen - as posible. This translates to placing it between them. Placing the calorifier in the stern cabin the pipe run to the galley would have meant that we'd waste more water whenever we drew a sink of hot water for washing up.

Here's the new interior. The bunk room has grown by 2 feet while the saloon has shrunk by the same amount.

Narrowboat

I suddenly thought yesterday that there's no airing cupboard on the plan of the narrowboat (insert name here). So I've taken two feet from the saloon - back to 13 feet again - and made some airing cupboard and wardrobe space in the bunk room. The lower half will hold the calorifier and the top half will be for drying wet gear. Only five months until the shell build begins. I need to have as many of the appliances available by the beginning of the fit-out - beginning of June - so that accurate measurements are available for the final plan.

Christmas Parade

Buckingham had it's Christmas Parade on 9th December. Not as many floats as last year I think, but plenty of enthusiasm!

nearly better

My ankle has almost healed. I can walk without a limp. I can put socks on without wincing. However I'll leave off the running for another week.

This week is a bit strange; we've done the school Christmas plays and now we're just waiting for the event itself to materialise. Everybody is going on holiday at work, so things are getting quieter but my activity level is getting higher as I take on more tasks to compensate for the absent. Lucky for me I'm off work on holidaynext week myself so it all stops as far as I'm concerned, on Friday.

The C3 Pluriel is still a wonder. Lovely to drive and sometimes I even have the roof down - just because I can. This requires the heater to be at full blast on maximum to keep the frostbite at bay, though. I'm really looking forward to the warmer months.