Zulu gets a mention in March Towpath Talk

Towpath Talk, the monthly free canal newspaper, has kindly given me a mention in the March Edition, issue 54.

Helen Gazeley writes “Wet Web” which this month focuses on canal bloggers, and several quotatins from yours truly and even a photo of a very cold snowy looking Zulu can be found on page 52 and 53.

When she asked me for my thoughts on blogging it struck me that blogging is one of the things I should have invented, way back in 1993 when I first used to have a personal website on which I rambled on about something or other, and people could comment by email.  Whilst it had a little bit of static content, regarding Cavendish Bridge – my old home next to Shardlow, the majority was “Mikes Fridge”, which opened up to reveal what I was thinking today.  My web log.  I was blogging but we didn’t have a word for it!    We watched the likes of blogger.com being launched in the late 1990’s, oblivious to the potential and fell off the chair when we realised how much the likes of Google were prepared to pay to catch up. Missed the boat I guess but nevertheless satisfying to know I was in at the very beginning.

In those early days of the internet a friend and I even wrote one of the very first HTML editors on the market, which we published as shareware.  We often used to joke about our “unique features” appearing in our competitor’s products, such as Hot Dog, Coffee Cup, Homesite way before Dreamweaver, wondering if we could have become the market leader and even become rich.  After all, we got reviewed in magazines more favourably than the mighty Microsoft’s earliest attempts at Frontpage, but that wasn’t necessarily a guarantee of instant fame.  Definitely another case of missing the boat, if there ever was one.

Digressing slightly, but in those days dial-up internet involved calling a modem on a London phone number and the resulting phone bill was hundreds of pounds a month, while downloading was a major operation of trial and error for hour after hour.  How things have changed.

So with two boats missed, I have lived on one ever since and once again am blogging whatever comes into my head.  As my life revolves around boats and computers, it is usually about one or other of these subjects. 

Unlike the early website which has now completely disappeared, one of the strongest benefits of blogging is that it continues to grow daily and much content will survive ad infinitum, forming the most incredible snapshot of life from the user’s point of view.  Imagine if we had the same from 100 years ago!  Having recently updated my list of other canal bloggers I have almost 200, some 40 of whom are updating several times a week!

So if you have followed a link here from Towpath Talk, I would love you to bookmark it for later, as you never know what you may find here next! 

Thanks for looking.

Hatton Locks

I have recently been praising the power of blogging as a means of on the spot reporting, and thanks to another blogger I can rest easy that Zulu is still safely moored at Kingswood Junction having seen her photographed by John on Epiphany on Monday morning.  “On the left, a fellow bloggers boat” -  that’s Zulu!

British Waterways have now confirmed that the over-running stoppage at Braunston Tunnel will be completed by 11th March and so there is now nothing stopping us from making some good progress.  So Hatton locks will soon be behind us and with a bit of luck this weekend I will be able to reach somewhere in the Braunston area, or possibly Long Itchington.  Within one boat’s length of our current mooring I will finally be on the Grand Union Canal, but there is still a long way to go!

Meanwhile I did say that there is one flight I don’t like doing single handed - yes Hatton!  After 3 months of narrow locks, Hatton locks are going to seem even more enormous and as there’s 21 of them all in a row, it is a lot safer and much more efficient to have another pair of hands.

So for the second time in this journey I am offering an endless supply of coffee, bacon rolls and something stronger if required in exchange for some enthusiastic lock wheeling.  Whether you fancy a day’s exercise, would like to know more about the canals or just love doing locks for the sake of it, please dont be shy in coming forward to volunteer your services!   It will probably be Saturday 6th morning if anyone really is interested.  I would appreciate the help!