Booze Cruise #12 - Code crawl to the Ingres Users Association 2010

11/06/2010 by admin.

Monday 7th June 2010

On Tuesday 8th June, the UK Ingres Users Association conference 2010 was taking place at the Holiday Inn, Coram Street, London.  With a number of friends and colleagues (some of whom had attended the code sprint in Slough over the weekend) needing to travel to their respective hotels in London, we decided what better a way to travel than along the Grand Union Canal.

After exchanging a number of emails, we had enough interest to start to plan the cruise.  With Matt Rendell not coming up to the grade of Queen he had been demoted from Lord High Admiral to Purser.  Mark Whalley took the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, Paul Lawes as Admiral and Peter Gale as Vice Admiral.  This then left Matt with the task of identifying other crew member; John Mahony, Pete Lydon, Michael Flower (Ingres), Kim Ginnerup and Roy Simon (Bording Data) and Steve Sheil and Hans Scholten (HVR).  With plenty of ranks to hand out; Captain, Commander, Lieutenant Commander, Lieutenant, Sub Lieutenant, Acting Lieutenant, Midshipman, Cadet, Chief Petty Officer, Petty Officer, Leading Seaman and Able Seaman he had plenty of choice.

The plan was for Mark to leave the office early, cycling back to Packet Boat Marina then move the boat the 4 miles (~1 hour) to Hayes.  Leaving a bit later, the rest of the crew would take the train from Slough to meet Mark at Hayes from where we would continue on the Grand Union, via Bull’s Bridge to Little Venice.  As with a previous cruise, we had intended to pick up take-away from the Mirch Masala from Southall.

Having already stocked the fridge with Holy Water (St. Ella), wine and water with lemon (for the Purser), on Monday lunchtime a number of us set off for the local Asda supermarket to pick up some bits and pieces.  As we were walking out of the Ingres car park, we met with a very good friend and ex-colleague Jean-Luc Hampton who had just arrived from Paris in his immaculate 28-year old BMW 323.  Having previously experienced the culinary excellence of JL, when he again offered to cook for us, the thought of stopping off at the Mirch Masala was very quickly dismissed.

With our French chef now taking the crew numbers up to 12, Jean-Luc set off for Tesco to stock up with ingredients to prepare for what ended up being yet another masterpiece.

So, with plans finalised, time to set sail…

First priority, adjust the ballast..

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Must phone home for directions.

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At well over 6′, there are not many places John could stand in comfort.

“I’m still in the office dear - honest!”.

Conjestion on the Grand Union.

Now this is how you do it - aim the stick thing this way to make the pointy end to go that way.

Pete, there’s no need to squat over the side, there is a toilet on board!

Is that a tree coming our way.?

A said “DUCK”!

It could have been worse, we might have lost our glasses.

The master chef (Jean-Luc) at work.

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What a masterpiece - Lamb Curry.

… with a prawn and scallop starter.

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Please note, this is Matt without his water, ice and lemon!

Pete and John contemplating something.

The Director of Education (Mr Flower) partaking of some Holy Water.

Sommelier Lydon.

Top Beer.

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Tuck in.

Cheers.

Champagne in one hand, Holy Water in the other.

Returning to Packet Boat the following evening.

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Some of the bird I saw en-route.

Dusk.

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… and back “home”.

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Is that all that was left

Posted in Booze Cruise #12, Booze Cruise, Voyages, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Packet Boat to Little Venice on IceBreaker 9.2.0 aka nb Tastoma

29/07/2008 by Mark.Whalley.

For reasons too complex to explain here, I own a 52’ (15.8m) steel narrow boat.  Of course, if you happened to mention you had a 52’ boat in such places as Monte Carlo or Cannes some may be suitably impressed.  But when you mention it is less than 7’ (2.1m) wide, those envious looks start to look elsewhere.

A little bit of history about the British narrow boat

The narrow boat (no, it’s not a barge, a long ship or a long boat) is something which is almost exclusively British.  With the first working narrow boats dating as far back as the 18th century, the narrow boat was originally designed for carrying goods on narrow canals.

Although originally there were over 4000 miles (6500km) of navigable inland waterways in the UK, today we have just over 2500.  A figure which is slowly increasing as people realise what the waterways network can provide – from cycling, walking and running along towpaths to fishing, canoeing and of course boating.

The majority of the waterways network is managed by British Waterways.

In July 2008, having not done much boating since moving the boat (nb Tastoma) from Sawley Marina, Derby to its current location at Packet Boat Marina, Cowley Peachy, Uxbridge (what a great name), I decided it was about time to try and drum up some enthusiasm for the resurrection of the “Booze Cruise”.

What follows are a number of emails that passed between me and my colleagues in Premium Services….

Hi All,

Following a number of successful evening and one weekend “Booze Cruises” whilst I was a contractor at RWE npower when the DBA Team (comprising Ingres, orakle, Mi-SQL, SeaQuel Server, DeeBeeTwo and M$ Excess) would join me on my narrow boat for an evening cruise along the canals of the West Midlands (usually ending up at a pub / restaurant), I thought it might be time to resurrect the tradition.

Before I start any planning, I thought I would first gauge the interest (if any) amongst the Premium Services Team.

If you are interested, could you let me know your preference for: evening/weekend, which day(s) are good/bad etc.

Cheers
Mark

PS For those that are interested, one of the previous Booze Cruises can be viewed here and our recent trip to Little Venice: (apologies for the poor sound, image quality etc).

This was then followed by a flurry of responses.  Some of which I have copied below…

“Happy to be crew if it does not limit drinking.”

“Drinking is compulsory – and of course being crew, someone else has to get your drinks and take away the empties.”

“{A colleague} can vouch for my credentials and Stella drinking capabilities”

“Would that be the holy water (St. Ella) – to whom I worship as frequently as my liver will allow me”

 

“San Ella as they say in France, is indeed an imbibing gift from the gods to which I honour as often as possible. {A colleague} has been introducing me to the Oasis of Windsor and shown me where I can obtain safe fluids to take on board to quench such thirsts.”

 

 

“The difficultly is that I’m mainly based outta Ker-nutsford “aka Barclays, Radbroke Hall” and live in the land of the Liver-pool (N.B. I’m not a scouser, so all items not locked down are safe) which makes anything but a weekend extremely difficult. This is unless of course I can schedule some suitable meeting in Sluff to coincide with an evening event….urmmmm” (no guessing where this might have come from!)

“I’m pretty flexible with weekends as I’ve already had a week off and won’t be doing anything else until November and my next holiday.”

“I have had an idea over the weekend.  I know that {A colleague}  has been planning a Team Building  day out for some time now.  Rather than paying a lot of money for some fancy hotel why not use the narrow boat for the day?”

So, with enough numbers to make the trip viable, I decide to take the “Booze Cruise” (now renamed “non-Teetotal Cruise”) to the next stage…

Hi All,

Apologies for taking so long to plan a trip and for the change of name from ‘Booze Cruise’ to ‘non-Teetotal Cruise’. Wouter has suggested that we try and plan it for when Michael Lochead is in the UK – the 29th / 30th July.

With sunset around 21:00, although boating is possible at night, I would not want to be blamed for wiping out the whole of Premium Services, so I suggest we should plan for a 21:00 cut-off.

At 4 lock-miles per hour, we are not going to get very far – especially if we set off from Packet Boat Marina.

I have therefore come up with what I hope is an ingenious solution.

I will move the boat to a bridge near Hayes and Harlington train station, a mere stone’s throw away.  This will cut over an hour off an otherwise quite uninteresting stretch of canal.  By catching the 16:15 or 16:26 train from Slough, we could all be on-board and ready to set off by 17:00.

We would then have a maximum of 4 hours cruising.

Using CanalPlanAC, I have worked out that we could get to either Little Venice (5 minutes walk from Paddington Station) or Brentford (close to Brentford station).

The Little Venice route is about 13 miles long and has no locks.  I have recently done this route with my better half (Bev), but the lack of locks makes it a bit less fun.  Its main advantage being next to Paddington means a 16 minute train journey for those needing to get back to their cars in Slough.  The Brentford route is much shorter at 5 miles, but has an impressive 10 locks – plenty for you to do (rather than just drink Tea!).  The biggest problem with Brentford is returning to Slough – by public transport it takes between 1-1½ hours.

As most of the evening will be spent travelling, I would suggest we pick up an M&S Buffet and plenty of Tea (other suggestions also welcome!).  For those not in a rush to return to Slough (or elsewhere) I am sure there might be a hostelry – serving Tea of course.

I will be remaining on board overnight and probably return the boat to Packet Boat Marina the following morning.  If anyone is interested, I can provide accommodation for one (or more if you are very good friends!).

Regards
Mark

There was then a further flow of incoming mail, some concerning the change of name, others requesting their choice of blend of Tea whilst most included their vote for Little Venice…

Maybe we should open up a competition for other names for the Cruise.  We could even wait until winter then as we break through the frozen canal we could call it “Project Icebreaker!”

Earl Grey for me please

If I am invited…. my vote would be for Brentford Gauging Lock.

 

Actually, even if I’m not invited, it still gets my vote.

Is the director (Mr Flower) also joining us?

We have the DirectorS: Wouter and Michael and the Sr. Vice President, WW Support Service (Mr Lochead) – a veritable crowd!

So it is a ‘high society’ event!

Absolutely, it’s black dresses or evening gowns – and that’s just the men

Great idea, thanks guys, I haven’t checked with Don, but I expect he’ll be interested in joining us.

 

Oh and I think Don prefers English Breakfast over Earl Grey….

 

And so it was, with the assembled crew and passengers on board, we set off from Hayes and Harlington station along the Grand Union canal, turning left at Bull’s Bridge towards Little Venice and Paddington.

We didn’t lose anyone overboard and most of the ballast was consumed (mainly drunk).

Arriving at Little Venice we did a 180 turn (winding) before mooring up along the towpath where I was going to stay for the night.

To ensure I wasn’t left with too much ballast, we had a few more glasses of Holy Water before disembarking and heading towards Paddington train station and returning to their respective homes.

Mark Whalley
Captain

Posted in Booze Cruise #7, Booze Cruise | No Comments »

Booze Cruise #5 - Titford Pumphouse to Merryhill via Dudley Port and Netherton Tunnel

17/08/2006 by Mark.Whalley.

17 August 2006

Having not taken my colleagues out for a Booze Cruise for a while, we decided to try and repeat what had always been considered to be the most enjoyable - namely the very first one - where we spent the afternoon traveling from the Titford Pumphouse to Merryhill via Tipton and the Netherton Tunnel.

As with our first trip to Merryhill, we would set off from the Pumphouse in the early afternoon with a number of volunteers who had chosen to take the afternoon off work. However, unlike our previous run, as can be seen we set off in heavy rain and thunder!

 

Oldbury Top Lock - Mike F, Andy F, Terry G and Jay P

 

Oldbury 2nd Lock - Andy F and Mike F

 

After completing the six Oldbury locks, we turned left onto the Birmingham Canal (Old Line) winding our way to Tipton Junction and then right at Factory Junction before entering the first of the three Factory Locks at Tipton Green.

Mike F - not looking too happy at having to work all these locks!

 

Jay P - also wondering why he also drew the short straw.

 

I wonder if this could be the reason why? Terry G, who loves work. He could sit and watch others do it all day!

 

Mike F - striding forwards

 

Jay P and Andy F at the bottom of three Factory Locks

 

Oh look, it’s that Mr German giving the orders again!

 

OK lads, as the boat passes the lock gates, we’ll all trip Mr G up with the rope!

 

Tastoma in lock

 

Within a couple of minutes we arrive at the Ryland Aquaduct with the train line to the left and the A461 passing below. Being about 10 minutes early, we waited in what had now turned out to be a really sunny and warm afternoon for the rest of the ‘Team’ to arrive.

 

Waiting on the Ryland Aquaduct

 

With the rest of the team on board, we continued along the Birmingham Level Main Line before turning right onto the Netherton Tunnel Branch and into the 3,027 yard Netherton Tunnel.

 

Entrance to Netherton Tunnel

 

That exit looks a long way away!

 

Tunnel wall

 

And eventually the exit

 

Exiting the Netherton Tunnel and continuing on the Dudley No 1 canal..

 

Mike B protecting his wife from the undergrowth (apologies, I cannot remember her name)

 

 

 

At Blowers Green Bridge, a sharp left turn and into the 12ft 0in Blowers Green Bridge (the deepest on the BCN).

 

Mike B and Stu M closing the upper lock gate

 

Mike F, Jay P, Martin C and Mike B working paddles on Blower’s Green Bottom Lock (Dudley & Lye Waste bridge

 

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Eventually arriving at the Waterfront. But not before we have a major thunderstorm with rain droplets imploding on the canal!

 

Rainbow after the thunderstorm at the Waterfront

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Booze Cruise | No Comments »

nb Tastoma - The Itinerary

09/09/2004 by Mark.Whalley.

nb Tastoma

Unlike most cruise liners tugs, nb Titanic Tastoma does not have a Tannoy system, so I’ve decided to give you the blurb on paper! With only a smattering of Welsh, French and German, I’ll stick as best I can to English.

The itinerary

As I understand it, I will be taking the boat from its current mooring in Oldbury (Titford Pumphouse on Tat Bank) to meet you guys (and gall) at Dudley Port at about 17:00.

With 52’ of boat and a canal that is not so wide, I have no choice but to find a suitable turning point. To do so, I will have moved approaching 200,000 gallons of water (9 locks), travelled along Tat Bank, Titford canal, the Birmingham canal (Wolverhampton Level) doing a U-turn at Factory Junction to return along the Birmingham Level Main Line (M5 only without so much traffic) to meet you at the Ryland Aquaduct. At a maximum speed of 4 ‘lock-miles’ per hour, that’ll take most of the afternoon (let’s hope the sun is shining!).

With you on board we will be continuing along the Main Line (towards Birmingham), turning right onto the Netherton Tunnel branch before entering the 3,027 yard Netherton Tunnel. After exiting the tunnel we will continue along the Dudley No. 2 canal taking a sharp turn at Blowers Green Bridge onto Dudley No. 1 canal. Here we will tackle our one (and only) lock on the journey – the deepest on the BCN (Birmingham Canal Navigation). Shortly afterwards (in boating terms that’s probably 20 minutes), and before we get to the Nine Locks bridge (for which there are only 8 locks!) we will arrive at our destination – the Waterfront at Merryhil.
 

How to find me

I believe you are all availing of the local Taxi firm to get to Dudley Port. Although most Taxi drivers will not know the Ryland Aquaduct, they should have at least heard of Dudley Port train station. The Aquaduct and train bridge are alongside each other crossing the A461 between the Burnt Tree roundabout and Great Bridge. Before turning into the road leading to the station and car park, get out of the taxi under the two blue bridges (the first is marked ‘Ryland Aquaduct’, the second I think is marked ‘Dudley Port’). Cross the road (to be the opposite side to the station) and up the 38 steps (yes sad that I am, I counted them this morning!) leading up to the Ryland Aquaduct - taking a deep breath at the bottom steps as this has clearly been used as a ‘public inconvenience’. At the top of the steps you will find the Birmingham Main Line. As there are likely to be thousands of boats on the Main Line at that time of day (rush hour), I will try to park moor along the bank side. If I cannot find a space, I will double park until either you arrive or I get moved along!

How to contact me

My mobile is 07702 36 26 26. However, I do not have a hands free kit, so will not be able to answer when ‘driving’ Before I disappear (lunchtimeish) could I please have a couple of your numbers?
 

Safety on board

As I don’t want to be accused of wiping out the whole npower DBA Team, and I’m not sure my Public Liability Insurance would cover me anyway, I thought I’d point out a few (possibly obvious things) for those who have not been on a narrow boat before! The boat may be relatively large (or at least long), but I have never taken more than 10 people on board at one time. So getting up to 20 on will, to say the least, be interesting! With 35 tonnes of boat adding 20 x adults should not present too much of a problem. However, I would ask that you board slowly and carefully making sure you don’t all stand on one side! I suggest we keep boarding until you are either all on board or the water starts to lap around your feet! Last night, with a combination of removing ballast and other ‘heavy’ items, I managed to gain at least 6” out of the water. I did try to reduce the ballast even further by drinking all the beer, but had to give up after 10 pints!

When on board, sit, stand or lie wherever you can find a space. If you do end up on the roof, watch out for the low bridges – especially if you are facing backwards!

The tunnel, all 3,027 yards is unlit, and although quite wide (two boats can pass each other), and straight, is not very easy to steer. As a result, we may occasionally touch the sides. Therefore, may I suggest not dangling your arms (or any other part of your anatomy) over the side, for fear of losing something! On the plus side, should anyone fall overboard in the tunnel, there are towpaths along both sides (unlike some tunnels that have none!).

The only other potential hazard (IMHO) is the one and only lock. The lock is quite narrow (and obviously deep). Again, no dangling things over the side! With only one plaster and my First Aid skills being a little rusty, I don’t fancy sewing back anyone’s fingers, arms etc.

If anyone would prefer to not stay on board when going through the lock, please let me know before hand and I’ll drop you off before entering the lock. If anyone has handled a lock before, again, please let me know, as an extra pair of hands makes it a bit safer (and easier).

When in the lock chamber, water can sometimes seep from the lock sides – if you are not inside the boat, watch for the water running down your back! Also, as the walls are usually pretty grimy, be careful not to touch the sides – especially if kitted out in your finest evening ware!

As I do not have a radar detector, if anyone spots a speed camera, please let me know. Likewise if those at the front bow spot any Black Country hippos, give me a yell, as I try to avoid them if I can. In the event that we do pick up a spare shopping trolley, bicycle, carpet, rope, tyre or other jetsam, I may have to stop the boat to remove it. This usually does not take long, but you have been warned!

Knowing how thirsty you may become, and with the tight itinerary we have to keep, AuvergneITC (my ltd company) has dug into its pockets and supplied some beers, wines and spirits nibbles. As I have enough to do keeping the boat afloat in a straight line, I trust you will all help yourselves.

The only downside with drinking all the booze, is that I only have one toilet – a Thetford cassette. It does not take a degree in astro physics (or indeed mathematics) to work out that the volume of liquid supplied will not all fit into the cassette. There are no public conveniences along the route (AFAIK), and I believe we will have (at least) one young lady on board, you would therefore have to ‘hold on’ ‘till we get to the Waterfront!

And finally, in the unlikely event that we have to abandon ship, I operate the following rules. Women and children will be evacuated first, followed by the male passengers. The female crew will then disembark followed by the male crew. Only when everyone else has been evacuated will the Captain leave the ship boat. So, when I run past you all, running and screaming, you may presume the rank of Captain!

 

Bon voyage

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Booze Cruise #1 | No Comments »