Top Thirty, 2009 Week 30

A little later than usual, here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking as it stood at 2250 on Monday 20th July 2009. (I've been busy).

1 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 JustCanals.com - Forums (=)

4 Granny Buttons (=)

5 UKCanals Network (+1)

6 Retirement with No Problem (-1)

7 Canal Photos (+3)

8 CanalPlanAC (-1)

9 Jannock Website (-1)

10 nb Epiphany (+1)

11 Narrowboat Gypsy Rover (-2)

12 Waterway Routes (+1)

13 Narrowboat Bones (+4)

14 nb Lucky Duck +2)

15 Warwickshire Fly Boat Company (=)

16 Narrowboat Caxton (+2)

17 Water Explorer (+2)

18 nb Warrior (-4)

19 Derwent6 (-7)

20 Khayamanzi (+7)

21 Narrowboat Debdale (=)

22 Seyella's Journey (+2)

23 Zulu Warrior (-3)

24 Takey Tezey Tales (+2)

25 nb Kestrel (-2)

26 Lazy Days (-4)

27 UK Waterways Ranking Site (+3)

28 boats and cruising (-3)

29 Herbie (=)

30 nb Piston Broke (-)

The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous week; (-) denotes new entry or re-entry; (=) denotes no change.

Halfie is at number 38 out of 75 entries.

Dress disaster!

Aaargh! Somehow tea managed to get spilled on the wedding dress! It doesn't matter now how it happened (we weren't in the house at the time), but Jan is now trying a dry cleaning wipe on it to see if the stain can be removed. I'm staying out of the way as much as possible. The stain is at the end of the train. Ally was as upset as the tea. Update from Jan: the dry cleaning wipe doesn't seem to have helped. We'll have to take it to a (proper) dry cleaner's tomorrow.

Speech writing and chocolate

Two days before the wedding (our daughter's) and I'm writing the speech. I can't say too much about it as I don't know who might be reading this. Tiredness has set in, though, so I think I'll continue in the morning.

This afternoon we were house hunting on Ally and Ben's behalf in Birmingham, crossing canals as we did so. One area of research was Yardley Wood (Stratford-upon-Avon Canal); and we crossed into Bournville (Worcester and Birmingham Canal), where the ironwork of gateways by the station is painted in Cadbury blue.

Blue is what the air will be if I don't come up with a good bit of verbiage on Saturday so that's all for now.

A proud daughter

Here is our daughter (BSc). Her graduation ceremony was on Monday at Royal Holloway, University of London. The next big event is in three days time when she and Ben get married. Proud parents? You bet!

Normal waterways-type posts will resume in a little while.

It's all happening this week

There's a lot of momentous stuff happening this week, none of it involving boats*. Our daughter is graduating from Royal Holloway, University of London tomorrow; and five days later she's getting married! Their photographer has already taken some photos; I hope he won't mind if I post one here. Especially as I've linked to his website.

No, I don't know why half the picture is black and white.

*Actually, some of it might involve boats: we're going to Birmingham to help them find some accommodation. Now, if we could just find a canalside property...

Top Thirty, 2009 week 29

This week's snapshot of Tony Blews's top thirty UK waterways websites was taken today at 2315. Getting late, I know.

1 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 JustCanals.com - Forums (=)

4 Granny Buttons (=)

5 Retirement with No Problem (+1)

6 UKCanals Network (+1)

7 CanalPlanAC (-2)

8 Jannock Website (+1)

9 Narrowboat Gypsy Rover (+1)

10 Canal Photos (-2)

11 nb Epiphany (=)

12 Derwent6 (+3)

13 Waterway Routes (=)

14 nb Warrior (+6)

15 Warwickshire Fly Boat Company (-1)

16 nb Lucky Duck (=)

17 Narrowboat Bones (-5)

18 Narrowboat Caxton (-1)

19 Water Explorer (+2)

20 Zulu Warrior (+6)

21 Narrowboat Debdale (-2)

22 Lazy Days (+5)

23 nb Kestrel (-5)

24 Seyella's Journey (-1)

25 boats and cruising (-)

26 Takey Tezey Tales (-)

27 Khayamanzi (-5)

28 Working Boat Hadar (-4)

29 Herbie (-)

30 UK Waterways Ranking Site (-5)

The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous week; (-) denotes new entry or re-entry.

Halfie is at number 44 out of 74 entries. Not bad, considering I made only one real post last week!

What happens when you don't blog for a week

What happens when you don't blog for a week is that

1. you feel slightly guilty about it

2. your ranking slips 13 places

3. you have more time for other things

If I need to justify my comparative silence I'll blame general malaise. And I tend to agree with Andrew Denny's guidelines for good blogging. I usually get no further than his point 1:

Have something you want to say. Don't just sit down and think "right, I need to do a blog today, what shall I write?"

Top Thirty, 2009 week 28

This week's snapshot of Tony Blews's top thirty UK waterways websites was taken today at 2145.

1 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 JustCanals.com - Forums (=)

4 Granny Buttons (=)

5 CanalPlanAC (=)

6 Retirement with No Problem (=)

7 UKCanals Network (=)

8 Canal Photos (=)

9 Jannock Website (=)

10 Narrowboat Gypsy Rover (+1)

11 nb Epiphany (-1)

12 Narrowboat Bones (+1)

13 Waterway Routes (-1)

14 Warwickshire Fly Boat Company (+2)

15 Derwent6 (-1)

16 nb Lucky Duck (-1)

17 Narrowboat Caxton (+1)

18 nb Kestrel (-1)

19 Narrowboat Debdale (+5)

20 nb Warrior (=)

21 Water Explorer (-2)

22 Khayamanzi (+3)

23 Seyella's Journey (-1)

24 Working Boat Hadar (-1)

25 UK Waterways Ranking Site (-4)

26 Zulu Warrior (-)

27 Lazy Days (+2)

28 Tony Clayton's Canal Photographs (-)

29 NB Windsong (-)

30 NBNorthernPride (=)

The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous week; (-) denotes new entry or re-entry.

Halfie is at number 51 out of 74 entries.