Today we have 2 tunnels and 2 aqueducts, there are only 2 locks on this last bit of the Llangollen canal.

Nice long days cruising, now moored on Llangolen canal, rain for only about an hour today something tells me that tomorrow will be a little more wet.

We spent the last hour giving locking and handling instruction to several Alvechurch hire boats, seems they all were sent out with zero instruction.

Tried to send a picture message and it failed but it does at least let you retry, it did finally send this morning so it might have been load on O2 or they were not ready for the update.

Can now subscribe to caldav calendars this is the first useful feature and means I now know who is on-call when I need them. Landscape keyboard in mail and messages will be great with my fat fingers, no landscape keyboard in the settings app . Still can not have a sig for mail per account, come on Apple that would have been useful. Spotlight is good can now find that elusive email just as easy as on my desktops.

So far its not that much of an upgrade for me but I guess i will find more of the 100+ new features over the next few days.

The Shroppie Fly © Copyright Roger Kidd

Went to the food festival at Greenfeilds today to see if there was anything new or different this time, some olives stuffed with jalepeno peppers and some chilli jam. There were a few less stalls than the last time, most of the regulars were there no fish stall and only 1 new stall that i could tell selling pickles and preserves. That was just before lunch so decided to get a pub lunch. We almost went to the Junction Inn at Norbury Junction but Elianne said she wanted to go to the Shroppie Fly at Audlem, it is a regular weekend lunch place for us and has been part of our canal holidays for the last two years and will be again this year. Food was up to the usual high standard but a little slow coming out, but that is to be expected on a sunny sunday afternoon. Nice pint of Timothy Taylors Landlord to wash the roast pork down.

Then off for the obligatory walk on the towpath, had a chat with a couple on an Ownerships boat, nice idea but still dont think that a share in a boat will give us the freedom we want. Elianne managed to get a ride on a boat back up through lock 14 and that put a big smile on her face.

Elianne and Mia on the fore deck of Shadowfax

Well boat is now booked for this years holiday. Shadowfax from Chas Hardern Boats on the Shropshire Union canal at Beeston. We are going to do the 4 counties ring again this year posibly anticlockwise (not decided yet) and include the Llangolen canal as I want to go over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. We went to see the boat at the yard last night, almost the same layout as Beeston Castle from last year but this boat feels much less cramped, little things like the galley has shallower worktops and cupboards making the walkway just a few inches wider. The bog also looks to be in a better position but will have to report back on that after use . Most importantly this boat is a semi-trad so I will have somewhere to put my tea^wbeer.

I posted this from the iPhone app originally as I will probably have better coverage on the phone than on wifi. Only issues with the app were not being able to adjust the position of the pictures and no way to add the links. Still its better than no connectivity and pictures taken with the phone will have GPS location on them to help with iPhoto places.

WARNING!!!
This machine is subject to breakdowns during periods of critical need.

A special circuit in the machine called “critical detector” senses the
operator’s emotional state in terms of how desperate he/she is to use the
machine. The “critical detector” then creates a malfunction proportional
to the desperation of the operator. Threatening the machine with violence
only aggravates the situation. Likewise, attempts to use another machine
may cause it to malfunction. They belong to the same union. Keep cool
and say nice things to the machine. Nothing else seems to work.

See also: flog(1), tm(1)

Anyway here is that snowman(snowdog)