Dudes! I finally posted about my holiday!

Posted by Mister JTA on May 8th, 2007 | 10 comments

The Avon Ring Narroboat Holiday Page:
The full write-up of the holiday now exits. It’s huge. At 18, 695 words, it is, I think, the longest thing I’ve ever written, and it’s probably taken me close on 24 hours of actual writing time. I blame this entirely on my starting to write it and then thinking “Heh, I wonder if I can try and do a Jerome K. Jerome style of writing?” That, and my thinking “I really want to try to get down everything that happened so I don’t forget it.”

You don’t have to read it all, I realise that’s pretty damn vast. But it’s there if you want it; go click the link.

Have fun!

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Comments

  1. On May 08, 2007 Scaman Dan says:

    Wow; that is a lot of stuff. Will read at some point.

    Testypage?

  2. On May 08, 2007 The Pacifist says:

    Yikes.

    Photos?

  3. On May 08, 2007 Mister JTA says:

    Pacifist: Posting tomorrow, now I have stamps.

    Scatman: Er, yeah. Created the main page and called it that 1st time to see how it looked. Couldn’t be bothered to change the slug.

  4. On May 08, 2007 scleip says:

    holy moly me!

  5. On May 09, 2007 Kit says:

    Fantastic writeup there. I have spent a bit of time around canals and narrowboats, but never spent the time you have! I would love to though – reading that :)

    Thanks for the time you spent in writing that. It was a great read.

  6. On May 09, 2007 Matt In The Hat says:

    Phew! That was a heck of a lot! I’m really cool for having read it all!

    Yeah, a few bits certainly rang true. Losing your land legs is a really difficult experience to convey; sure, you can say that you feel queasy and that the world feels like it’s moving but that doesn’t quite convey how odd it feels and how you long to be back on the boat where everything stays still (in your mind).

    I read about Tewkesbury abbey. I could just imagine the congregants stood between the *abbey* and some horrible men with halberds and implacably insisting to them that it’s a parish church, a big parish church I’ll grant you but a parish church none the less.

    If you head over to any canal message board and told them that you’ve done a holiday and enjoyed it they’ll start giving you websites and ‘phone numbers of boat builders; you seem to have the boating bug. The offer is still open to spend time on the Lord Bensham this summer. We’re doing some work in June but July and August should be relatively free.

    Glad you had fun.

  7. On May 09, 2007 Scaman Dan says:

    Finally finished reading the whole story. You write well, and it was great to see how much fun you had – I’ve not been on a barge for almost twenty years… it sounds as if you had an easier time with the locks than my folks did around some of the same canals!

    Anyway; thanks for the big write-up. The “chapter” breaks were appreciated (as time constraints required that I read it in several sittings), but pagination would have been even better (WordPress will do if for you, if you ask it politely), and would have made it more practical for me to read from my phone, too.

    Anyway – glad you had a great time: looking forwards to the photos appearing online.

  8. On July 17, 2007 Ang Climpson says:

    I read it all and could relate to the places you mentioned having done the Avon Ring a few years ago now. Have been on hire boats for 20 years and have just done 2 weeks on boat from Worcester (not Black Prince) but not Avon Ring as not able to get on rivers.

    Glad to know that many things that have happened to you I can identify with!!!

  9. On January 06, 2009 Chris Jones says:

    Lovely read, well done.

    It’s great the way the reader can’t tell exactly at what point (because, of course, there is not one point) where you switch from “this is a nightmare, I’ll never get this right – how could I have fallen for the adverts?…” to “I might not get it right every time but I seem to have grasped what it’s all about and it kind of feels natural…”

    And you are spot on getting across how unexpectedly unexpected (if you see what I mean) it is when someone rudely takes the boat off you at the end of the trip.

    And cars do go too fast, and people do stop waving when you come into view…

    This was a couple of years ago. Have you been afloat again ?

    If so, have you now started feeling your house is unnecessarily big…..

    I really really enjoyed reading your tale. Thanks

    Chris, Sheffield (Only reached the PART-ownership stage , yet)

  10. On January 07, 2009 Mister JTA says:

    Thank-you! That’s very kind!

    We’ve not been back since – a combination of not enough time and not enough money, unfortunately, although we have picked up the habit of loitering along towpaths when the opportunity presents itself (and we’re still in the habit of talking about ‘when we have a boat,’ athough that’s still a long way off, I fear!)

    The other thing I’ve discovered is a sort of automatic fondness for the places we went through; I’ve only ever been to Tewksbury that once in my life, but when it flooded the other year I was really sad about it (whereas Shrewsbury, twenty miles from where I grew up, and which I visit several times a year, flooded worse than it ever has before, and I didn’t mind a bit).

    You’ve made me feel all nostalgic, and rather sad that I’m not still there, but I’m very glad you liked it! Thank-you. And good luck!