Black swan event in Cropredy

Black swan event in Cropredy

So here it is.

Black swan - Cropredy
Black swan – Cropredy

Handsome fella isn’t he! The next boater along tried to tell me it was a goose {variety} when I arrived. This came with a heavy smell of bullshit as he also suggested that they flew over Upper Heyford on their migratory path. Upper Heyford is 8 miles away. In nautical navigation terms, 8 miles or so is insignificant…. Smells like bullshit.

But anyhow, it is a black swan. They originate in Australia and don’t fly anywhere. It has been suggested that it was an escaped specimen from an ornamental garden which seems much more likely.

Swan meet-up
Swan meet-up

Here it is, chilling with it’s not so distant relatives.

Windows

An old window from Caldwell Windows.
An old window from Caldwell Windows.

So, I’ve been meaning to replace my single-glaze ‘hopper’ style windows for a while.

These are aluminium framed with a tilting slat at the top which can be opened. The rest of the metal on the boat is polished steel.

The windows were never in fitting with the rest of the boat. After we painted her, they didn’t look so great, whilst the rest of the boat looked really good.

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Mooring at Forge Farm

Mooring at Forge Farm

Forge Farm is an organic farm located at the bottom of the Claydon flight near Cropredy.

I’d stayed in Cropredy for a while, longer than I should, but, I was out of the village and people don’t really notice. That’s the reason that this blog is late. I usually do them when I moved, which was last Sunday, from Varney’s Lock down to Cropredy Marina, for some coal and water, and back up here.

Mooring at Forge Farm (Snow version)
Mooring at Forge Farm
Mooring at Forge Farm (Snow version)
Mooring at Forge Farm Docks

BMC waterpump failure

A few weeks ago, I had a bit of a problem with my cooling system. You may remember, I did a blog about it https://www.michaeltyler.co.uk/adventures-in-banbury/ . The coolant basically ran dry. One of the pumps had become distressed because of the lack of water which made a loud rumbling sound, a bit like thunder, thunder in the engine room. This gave me a bit of a shock at the time. When I opened the cover, a load of steam came out and I could see the coolant had been sprayed all around the engine room.

Waterpump

I’d discovered on my journey to Cropredy marina that the waterpump is none too healthy. The friction caused from it overheating and rubbing against the engine housing has buggered it’s bearings. The spindle moves around on its axis which causes it to make a squeaking sound. It’s not going to last long. It can damage the engine in the meantime, so I had to bite the bullet and buy a new one.

Takes about 40 mins to an hour to fit a waterpump. Drain out all the coolant. Getting the pump out is the easy part. Dealing with the coolant pissing out all over the place, more difficult…

Another job to add to the list.

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Autumn cometh…

Autumn cometh…

And this is as far North as I go. On the Oxford canal during the course of my cruising year, unless I’m taking a trip further afield, the bottom lock on the Claydon flight is as far as I get.

It’s called Varney’s Lock.

There are pre-roman irrigation trenches in the field, some wild geese which honk (and bite people if you get too close). It’s open country-side and there is no noise. Nothing but the sound of nature and the odd passing boat.

Varney's Lock - Oxford Canal
Varney’s Lock – Oxford Canal

The mobile signal has improved significantly since my last stop over some time ago, April 2023 it seems, looking at the previous post in my blog https://www.michaeltyler.co.uk/easter-in-cropredy/

Solar is reasonable. Parking is 2-3 minutes away. I have to put my walking boots on the walk across the field at the moment. The weather has remained inclement and the cows have meant that parts are muddy and not compatible with work footwear. It’s a small sacrifice.

Shroom-quest

I went looking for mushrooms yesterday. Here’s some I found whilst visiting houses in the Witney area. They were in a common grassed area in a residential cul-de-sac. Very quick to cook and release a mushroomy flavour. Buoyed by this freebie, I attempted to scout the fields for more yesterday. The wet weather has meant the streams are pretty full. You can see where they’ve actually been flooding out into the fields by the mounds of wet leaves they’ve deposited, randomly. The effect of the full streams meant it wasn’t possible to get where I wanted to go, around the edge of a wood, because it wasn’t possible to jump the stream. I’ll have to take a footpath up there rather than make my own way over.

Fresh field mushrooms
Fresh field mushrooms

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Here in Cropredy

Here in Cropredy

I’ve finally made it. This is the final northernmost part of my journey on this stretch of the Oxford canal.

Going any further than Varney’s lock, the next stop up, takes you up a flight of locks called Claydon Flight and into Warwickshire.

Above Claydon Flight

The communications are not good, little windey lanes, bad parking. Added to that, the mooring is poor until you get to Fenny Compton which is the first village in Warwickshire.

I don’t like Fenny Compton. It does have some positives, like a marina and pub. The 14 day mooring is often full, meaning you have to go out into the wilds to moor up. Fenny itself is the last stop before you get to Napton, which is a good 8-10 miles away. In between, there is virtually nothing, just fields and HS2. Lovely cruising country. I’m not cruising, I’m living day-to-day. Doing day-to-day stuff, and for that purposes, it’s pretty, and pretty impractical.

For this reason, I don’t go above Claydon as it’s simply a waste of time.

Suits me fine.

Prolonged stay in Banbury

There was a canal fare. I overstayed a little, just one week so I could hang around and go the fare which was staged over Saturday and Sunday 5/6th.

Mug Shot

Ventured out in Banbury a few times to sample the nightlife entertainments. Went to this bar place called Ugly Face, or Baby Face, or Mug Face. The guy that owned it had started it with his family and grown it organically from a coffee shop into a bar. Always seemed to be people in there which is more than could be said for a lot of the other, brewery sponsored pubs in Banbury. Definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in town.

The weather

Whilst I was in Banbury was absolutely shocking. Where I’m located is up toward the top end as you’re driving out of town. It’s next to what they used to call the old Alcoa factory, a big employer in times gone by.

Mooring up here, you’re out of town and due to the proximity of the nature reserve and the relative quite of the grazing field on the left and the non-developed industrial land of the old Alcoa factory, it’s pretty quite. If I want to walk into town it might take around 20mins.

The Cherwell is also close and there is a small stream that runs through the woods that feeds it. During the rains, I took these pictures.

The stream – Before
Nature reserve - one the right
The stream – After

And here’s one on the exit stream to the reservoir.

Grimsbury reservoir
Grimsbury reservoir – Before
Grimsbury reservoir
Grimsbury reservoir – After

As you can see, the area virtually turned into one big lagoon. And remained that way for some days.

The Cherwell had flooded the area to the South of Spiceball. Lidl carpark was under 4ft of water. Also, the water-point and elsan area.

The Bridge people - Banbury
The Bridge people – Banbury

Remember these people? Under the bridge? All their stuff got flooded. That area under the bridge where you can see them standing was under about 3 foot of water.

I guess all their gear got damaged or ruined. I feel pretty bad for them.

I don’t think I saw them again.

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Adventures in Banbury

Adventures in Banbury

Welcome to Banbury!

When I went down to the car this morning, someone had parked very close behind me. Maybe 4-6 inches away. I moved the car to do my shopping, and parked it up again to unload and noticed the scratch damage on the bumper. This has appeared since I parked it yesterday at about 4pm.

There’s some real scumbags around. For sure.

Banbury’s newest edition

Are these under the bridge people.

The Bridge people - Banbury
The Bridge people – Banbury

They’ve set up camp next to the CRT waterpoint. During the course of the day, they drink and urinate and generally relax or look around in the bins.

I arrived on Sunday. They looked like regular churchgoers.

Had a brief conversation with the one pictured reading, as it happens, a communication from the Police. He read it aloud whilst I was eating my lunch. The other’s had gathered around to hear. Basically, they’d been told to move on, or they would be moved on. He didn’t go into the reasons, just read out that was the upshot and the dates.

When I was putting my glass in the recycling, one of the guys shuffled up and had a piss in the corner right next to me. Like it was a public cubicle. Didn’t even go under the bridge. Had his piss, went back and carried on with his stongbow super-strength.

So yeah, another great selling point to the attractions of Banbury!

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Back in Twyford Wharf

Back in Twyford Wharf

Next to the M40.

Probably about 500m from here. There’s kind of a hillock separating us, but you can still hear it, more or less, depending on the wind.

Went cycling around Banbury which is where I took the photo for this post.

Whilst working there the other day, I saw this?

I didn’t capture the first part on my phone, but the larger spider was making the web when the other smaller one came from a fissure in the wall and attacked it!

Whilst I went to the car to get my phone, it had wrapped it up.

False widow or Steatoda eats it’s friend

I’d not seen that before.

Also, I saw this badger. It was running toward me over the roadbridge and clearly didn’t hear me coming over the sounds of the traffic.

YouTube player

Moved

Only a parish, which is the requirement by the CRT.

In the meadows, there is no parish. I guess here in Twyford, there are a few houses and a little bit of industry.

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List of dead bankers 2024 – conspiracy update

List of dead bankers 2024 – conspiracy update

**Update August 2024

It’s been 4 years and the bankers are back with a bang. Or, more of a gurgle and the sound of crunching metal. 2 ai startups executives and one banking president killed under suspicious circumstances. We’ll look at the circumstances.

**Update January 2020
Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha, banker to Africa’s richest woman is found dead at his south Lisbon holiday home.

**Update August/September/November 2019

A few high profile ‘suicides‘ to add to the list.

**Update March/April 2018

Changed the dates and included some more up-to-date references for the banker deaths. New deaths added.

**Update October 2017

There was a number of deaths in 2017, most of them I picked up second hand. As I’ve said before, I try to stick to the main players.
I’ve added the deaths for this year to the list.

**Update October 2016

Yep. The list keeps growing. Just focusing on major players, or cases where ‘foul-play’ may be involved. I’ve done a little research into the causes of all these bankers dying, which can be found at the bottom of the article.

Having had to spend too much time on youtube recently, has led to the accumulation of the latest and most credible conspiracy theories.

Perhaps the most interesting, is the demise of the common-or-garden ‘master of the universe’. Banker, as they were once known.

They’ve been having problems with mortality recently.

And there’s a very long list of them.

“Everyone is expendable”

 I remember this guy telling me a story about the Porton Down scientists in the 70’s, and how they all went missing or died, after conducting a lot of ‘hush hush’ experiments.

I was perhaps 26 at the time. Youngster.

Also, David Kelly, our ‘Walter Mitty’ style friend the nuclear inspector who blew the whistle on the ‘dodgy dossier’, and, ironically said he’d end up dead in the woods.

3 weeks later he was found dead in the woods…..

These bankers are no different.

Banker dies on railings

If any one of them decides to have an attack of conscience, the whole NWO and shitty gravy train could come off the rails.

China’s economy is the final dollop of shit heading toward the fan.

Today they announced that they were experiencing the slowest level of growth in 25 years

So here’s the list.

(Photo By Dennis Gill 07926643703 Suicide Marylebone guy falls or jumps from building and lands on metal rails takes fire service over 3 hours to cut the dead body off the metal railings leaving residents very upset as it took them over one hour to cover the seen Body on fence for over one hour for all to see up setting for locals this all happened on Montagu Square at the corner of Montagu Place leaving residents very distressed)

List of dead bankers 2024

Jonathan Bloomer
Jonathan Bloomer
Stephen Chamberlain
Stephen Chamberlain
Mike Lynch
Mike Lynch

87. August 19th, 2024 – Jonathan Bloomer, Stephen Chamberlain, Mike Lynch: Morgan Stanley International bank chairman, Vice President Autonomy, Chief executive Autonomy.
You don’t get any more high profile.
You don’t get any more suspicious.

Informative video

Stephen Chamberlain and Mike Lynch developed an ai learning model with the ability to read and analyse web content. Be they images, text or videos in the same way a human might, but at the speed of ai. (IDOL – Intelligent Data Operating Layer).
The software was bought by HP (Hewlett Packard) for $11.7 billion in October 2011. In November 2012, Hewlett-Packard announced that it was taking an $8.8 billion accounting charge after claiming “serious accounting improprieties”. Mike Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain faced a Serious Fraud Office investigation and a number of other court cases in the United States and England.
Lynch and his colleagues were finally acquitted in June. The trip on his yacht Bayesian with his US Attorney and friend, Jonathan Bloomer amongst others, was to celebrate.
The yacht sunk under suspicious circumstances on 18th August off the coast of Sicily. ‘I’ve never seen a vessel this size go down so quickly’ – Karsten Borner (69), who attempted to rescue crew members on the night of the sinking.
Stephen Chamberlain was killed in a separate incident whilst out jogging near his home in Cambridgeshire.
Verdict: Boat sinking – Still under investigation. Bike accident – Still under investigation.
Source.

Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha

86. January 21st, 2020 – Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha: Private Banking Director, EuroBic.
1st Banker death of the year and in keeping with the mysterious sets of circumstances that surround the other banker deaths on this list.
Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha was banker for daughter of the president of Angola and Africa’s richest woman, (Forbes estimates her wealth at $2.1 billion), Isabel dos Santos. Ms. dos Santos’s father was president of Angola for 38 years until September 2017. When his successor, João Lourenço gained office, he launched a corruption drive.
Prosecutors in Angola were alleging that Ms. dos Santos carried out transactions with government-owned companies that resulted in a $1.14 billion loss for the state. On 19th January, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), gained 700,000 documents linking Ms. Dos Santos to preferential business dealing of the government in land, oil, diamond and telecoms deals over the period of her father’s tenure.
Earlier this month, Mr. Ribeiro da Cunha was found bleeding from several knife wounds to his wrists and stomach by a household employee in one of his holiday homes on the coast south of Lisbon.
Earlier this month, Nuno Ribeiro da Cunha, 45 years old was discovered in what police describe as a ‘suicide’, consistent with hanging.
Mr. Ribeiro da Cunha was a suspect in the wide ranging investigation into the deals of Ms. Dos Santos.
The national director of Portugal’s judicial police force, Luís Neve, said on Tuesday, “everything suggests that no third party was involved” in the banker’s death.
Verdict: Suicide.
Source.

Thomas Bowers

85. November 29th, 2019 – Thomas Bowers: Former Deutsche Bank employee and Head of US Wealth-Management.
Bowers ‘line managed’ wealth management and private banking through a number of less senior private bankers and ‘wealth managers’, one of them being a Rosemary Vrablic.
Vrablic managed the portfolios of a number of clients, one of them being a Mr. Donald Trump.
Through the auspices of Mr. Bowers, Deutsche Bank provided lines of credit to Trump on the basis of using him as a ‘loss leader’ in order to attract other High Risk/High Return clients.
From 2010-2015, Deutsche/Trump relationship soared, culminating in a loan to Jared Kushner, who had previously been banned from doing deals directly with Deutsche due to his father being a convicted felon.
The FBI were investigating Thomas Bowers as being the ‘Gatekeeper’ to documents detailing Deutsche Bank’s High Risk/High Return strategy at that time.
Bowers was found dead with neck injuries consistent with hanging.
Verdict: Suicide.
Source.

Aivar Rehe

84. September 25th, 2019 – Aivar Rehe: Former CEO of Danske Bank, Estonia, was found dead in his own back yard on Wednesday 25th September.
The Danish bank is being investigated in Estonia, the US, Denmark, the UK and France for handling $230bn that flowed through its Estonian branch on behalf of non-residents from Russia and other former Soviet states between 2007 and 2015.
In keeping with the similar deaths on this list, police were opaque – “The body has no signs of violence, neither does anything point to an accident,” police said, declining to provide further details out of courtesy to Mr Rehe’s family. There will be no investigation into his death, they added.
Another one for the list.
Verdict: Suicide.
Source.

Jeffery Epstein

83. August 10th, 2019 – Jeffery Epstein: Limited Partner at Bear Sterns and Liquid Funding Ltd. Convicted pedophile. Jeffery Epstein was jailed and facing charges of pedophilia and child trafficking.
Placed on suicide watch on the 25th July after being discovered with markings around his neck. By the 9th August, suicide watch had been removed, (by the DOJ), and Epstein was found with neck trauma, ‘consistent with hanging’, in his cell by prison officers.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of Epstein was his high profile connections. Previous businesses were in financial fixing for those of $1Bn worth or more. His early introduction to Bear Sterns where he started his career had been through a high profile introduction from one of his pupil’s fathers at the school where he then worked.
Jeffery Epstein with his ‘black book’ represented one of the greatest existential threats to the international elite. His actions, and his connections to the rich and famous are well know.
His trial was a chain of domino’s waiting to fall.
Funny that he should find himself dead.
Verdict: Suicide.
Source.

Adrian Hill - Dead Banker

82. August 8th, 2019 – Adrian Hill: Former head of HFC Bank, First Direct and M&S Bank; and one of the key players in bringing sub-prime mortgages to the UK lending market.
Mr. Hill was under investigation by the FCA, most notably for overcharging credit-card customers on late payment fees and the legitimacy of his ‘Let-to-Buy‘ business.
Apparently, he had taking to talking to himself under his breath, buying expensive pictures and suffering night-terrors after sending FCA managers a picture of himself with a hunting rifle and the caption – “I’m going to intellectually slay you” and likening them to the Stazi.
Found dead in covered pool. Coroner verdict. Suicide.
Source.

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