Continuous Cruising - Continuous Cruising

Car crushed by hay bales - Deddington A4260

Nearly Deddington

July 23, 2021 Michael Tyler Comments 3 comments

Yes indeed. This was the scene just outside Deddington when I went on my cycle ride yesterday.

A trailer loaded with bails had toppled over and crushed the motorist inside.

An ambulance was in attendance when I arrived and the road had been closed to all traffic.

It didn’t look too serious, but the motorist had obviously received some injuries looking at the state of the vehicle and the emergency. So, serious but not that serious.

Had it have been a cheaper vehicle than the BMW in certain it would have been a lot more so.

Adjourn to pub

Took this as a sign from god to adjourn to the pub where a group of motorists travelling on the A4260 had had the same idea.

Another ambulance and a police car arrived while I was having my Amstel in the beer garden of the Red Lion in the sunshine.

The police got a round of applause when they arrived, they must have felt proud.

During the course of the day I cycled around some of the villages in the Cherwell Valley. It sure was hot! and I had to stop off and get some water, not that I didn’t have some on the bike, but I discovered this ancient water fountain with an inscription over the top, like something out of a fighting fantasy book!

North Aston water fountain — As the birds drink and so lift up their head, so must man sip and think of better drink he may attain to after he is dead.

I’m not sure about the health and safety implications etc. but drink I did, being a bit of a risk taker and all that.

I left feeling refreshed…..

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Spiceball park – Banbury

July 1, 2021 Michael Tyler Comments 2 comments

Moored up in the center of Banbury, right near Spicegirlsballs park, named after the Spicegirls who once lost their balls in the park.

Why they call it Spiceball I’ve not been able to find out, as yet. Suffice to know, I’m moored up in the middle of it and I’ve not seen any spice girls yet, not the famous type, or spice balls for that matter. There’s a bakery behind me. Don’t think there’s much spice going off in there. Smells mostly like baking bread at the moment. For the moment, the spiceball bit remains a mystery.

Life here is different, noisier and more populated than what I’m used to.

When I first moved down. I was aware of the sound of the factory behind me, and wondered how much it would affect my sleep, so I gave it a couple of nights to find out if all the banging and whirring would keep me awake. Suffice to say, it didn’t. Well not too much anyhow….

More balls

Now I’m here on day 3. I like the fact there are more people around, it makes a change from being out in the middle of no-where. I had a ride down the towpath yesterday on my bike in the reasonable weather. The next stop South is a long way off.

There are stops on the way down. But they a) don’t have parking b) they don’t have solar c) they don’t have mobile signal.

Any one of those three makes it a bit of a ‘no-no’. All three together…. It’s like mega-too-much.

So it’s Spiceballs all the way for the moment. Factories or no factories.

In the meantime

Things have been happening around the boat, in one way or another.

For a start, I’ve moved down.

Fine lady bread factory Banbury — Fine Lady Bakery – Banbury

This is the Fine Lady bread factory! Haven’t seen the fine lady yet. Maybe that comes later.

As you can see, it’s right close to the old window…

Flowery narrowboat Kalamazoo — Flowery narrowboat

This is the boat next to mine. Flowery business that it is. Two women came past me in it earlier, Here it stopped just next to the ‘Castle Quay’ shopping arcade which is Banbury central and about a 5 minute walk away from my house.

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Things I’ve seen around Oxfordshire 🧐😲😍

June 17, 2021 Michael Tyler Comments 0 Comment

Yeah bouy.

There’s so much to live for around here, at least that’s what the animals believe, as there seems to be rather a lot of them. Flying insects and birds…… birds on the water, animals that crawl and creep, hop and swim. There are a great diversity of the critters here. There is no doubt….

What I’d put this down to I don’t know. I can only guess that the local wild spaces by way of the country park and the Cotswold AONB has let some of those that would otherwise have perished, survive.

Time spent – time wasted

Seeing as I have so much time on my hands at the moment, I’ve taken some and committed it to a little fishing.

I’ve been a few times, 4 to be exact, with varying results. 2 times I caught these.

They are biggies….. especially the second one.

The other 2 times I caught nothing, or very little, just sat in the sunshine drank and listened to Youtube music streaming on my bluetooth speaker until it got dark, or I got bored. Whichever came first.

These two grand specimens more than make up for it.

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In and around Cropredy

May 29, 2021 Michael Tyler Comments 2 comments

It’s taken a while to get to this point….

Sailing from Napton to Claydon

After being stuck in Flecknoe for so long with the bad weather, things eventually improved and I managed to move the boat down from the Grand Union canal onto the Oxford canal via Napton Junction.

Once I’d issued my crew with badges, they set about their businesses…

Sailing took from 11am to 7pm, so about 8 hours in total including a little stop-off for lunch.

The weather was mostly fine. Some rain, some sun, sometimes both at the same time, which was better than the forecast, which had pictures of rain clouds?

Managed to take some pictures on the way down.

Here’s a picture of my crew…

From left to right: Kerri, Craig, Aurelia and Finn

For those who haven’t been introduced; Aurelia is Craig’s daughter and Finn is Kerri’s son. Kerri and Craig got married about 5 years ago, and fairly obviously, but in case you missed it, Kerri is my sister!

Lunch

We stopped for lunch in Fenny Compton and had a game of cards called Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza which basically involved everyone thumping each others hands on the table, or pretending to be gorilla, (thump chest), or narwhal’s, (make triangle above head), thumping the table or whatever, (groundhog)…. then thumping each others hands.

I wasn’t very good at pretending to be the animals, otherwise, I did pretty well considering it was the first time I had played! Kids loved it though, although Aurelia seemed to think she was a Narwhal whatever animal came up.

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Bye bye Bosworth

May 8, 2021 Michael Tyler Comments 2 comments

Hello rainy Flecknoe.

Yes my time ran out in Leicestershire. I’ve decided to re-locate down here to Flecknoe. On balance of things, I think that’s the best thing to do.

As with the other jobs that have happened to me in the past, this one went pretty much the same way. Still, not to worry. We have to learn from the experience and move on.

I left Sodexo on good terms, (with most people).

Leicestershire

I did enjoy my time here, and I think in many ways the job working at the test center did me a lot of good.

Before that, I didn’t really realise how depressed and low I had become. My time there made me aware of this, and a couple of other things which it would’ve been impossible to see on my own.

Still, things started to go strange on a social level with certain people and the job itself changed and became a lot more boring.

Bosworth was perhaps my favorite place. The people there were the friendliest I’ve met anywhere on the canal network. Or even anywhere in the UK. Full stop.

All good things must come to an end.

Here’s some pictures from my final days up that way.

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Highs and lows of lockdown year 2020

March 27, 2021 Michael Tyler Comments 1 comment

To comemorate it’s passing, I’m mounting a late vigil here on the blog.

Many people say they won’t miss it.

It started with some large wildfires and bad environmental stuff and worked it’s way up to a global pandemic!

No need to be frustrated though… The solution is here!

Look at it from above….

3 months on and into 2021. I’ve had a look through and gathered what I thought might be some of the best (and worst) parts of my 2020.

The lows

Welcome to the Nasty Nexus

The highs

Covid on the Cut – Grade 3

Photo gallery

Take a brief look at my photo gallery for the year.

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Locked down in Shackerstone

January 21, 2021 Michael Tyler Comments 1 comment

Been here for going on a month now.

Movement is not encouraged on the canal networks at this moment.

Only ‘essential’ travel is permitted. This basically means when your toilet needs emptying, or your water-tank needs filling.

Traffic is down to 0.

Very few boats moving around. 0 this week so far.

Empty narrowboat water-tank — Empty water-tank

This is how my water-tank looked at the end of last week.

That’s about a day’s worth of water in the bottom.

I couldn’t really move because the canal was iced over.

Moving whilst there’s ice isn’t really advisable. Some ppl get shirty when you move past their boats when there’s thick ice. Some ppl get angry even when it’s thin ice. ‘It might damage my boat’.

It’s better to let it thaw out. Plus, thick ice makes it difficult to navigate.

Luckily, when I moved down to get water, a boat had gone on before me and it was just a case of following his trail of broken ice!

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