I'm I the only one that got hit by a sour welcome?

[RLWP]

 

Is 'zero' plural by that logic?

 

MtB

 

Well, zero is an even number, if that helps

 

Richard

[Alan de Enfield]

25 divided by 5 is 14

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bfq5kju627c

Edit - double post

Edited February 17, 2014 by Alan de Enfield

[Water Rat.]

I think she may have tired of the English lessons and cruised off into the sunset to seek out happy people!!

 

Just to add my bit - since I bought my boat I have met some of the nicest people ever. So much so that one of them seems to be now living in my house.........................

[MtB]

I think she may have tired of the English lessons and cruised off into the sunset to seek out happy people!!

 

Just to add my bit - since I bought my boat I have met some of the nicest people ever. So much so that one of them seems to be now living in my house.........................

 

Keep him away form the boat eh!! :D

 

 

MtB

[Ange]

What I didn't say, when completely side tracked by 'Pooh Sticks', is that I really don't recognise this. Yes, there is the odd arse out there, (one less than used to be there when he decided to go back to the church), but on the whole, no, I really don't see this. Perhaps I am blithely going around with my scruffy boat and being cheerful and having fun, and not noticing all the people glowering and glaring at me, but if I am, then at least I'm happy.

 

 

My experience of fellow boaters is overwhelmingly good with the occasional prat. Tends to be the prats you remember. Hope the OP keeps at it both boating and posting on the forum. Ignore the point scorers and the hot air and you'll be fine in both respects.

Sorry, stepping into this after 8 pages - we decided to watch a bit of telly tonight!

 

Welcome to the forum Emilia and I have to say I'm baffled by your experience to date. We've been ccing since 2009 and have encountered the occasional grumpy bugger but on the whole it's been exactly what we expected. Our boat is fairly scruffy, we have mountains of stuff on the roof that lays us open to friendly banter on the forum but in that time we've had a small handful of nasty experiences. Most of the time it's been great, with marine/online moorers chatting to us at locks about our cc experience with only wistfulness and a small amount of envy.

 

On the whole we're Mr & Mrs happy on our boat, but, I must confess it becomes difficult when you live aboard full time. I must confess I have occasionally presented a grumpy face to my fellow canal lovers when I've had a bad day or a bit of bad news.

 

I'm wondering, in the spirit of helping rather than being critical, have you swotted up on canal etiquette? Do you know you should look up the canal a bit to see if there's an oncoming boat before you turn a lock? Do you know the 8am to 8pm rule on running engines/generators? Do you know you should slow down when you pass moored boats?

 

I'm seriously wondering because I can't imagine why else you should have had such a negative experience.

 

Sometimes when the whole world is against you it's you that is doing something wrong.

[Dyertribe]

I know. I can't get a grip on it properly. I actually ordered the book 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' a couple of days ago specifically to learn that distinction!

 

MtB

Dead good book that

[Neil2]

 

Ahh, you will have to walk a mile in their shoes to know the answer to that one

 

Richard

Who was it said don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in their shoes because

 

a) you will be a mile away from them

 

b ) you will have their shoes.

[Dyertribe]

There's a story about a traveller who, asks an old man sitting just outside the city walls, what the inhabitants of that city were like.

The old man replied by asking the traveller what the inhabitants of his home town were like.

The traveller replied that they were a grumpy, unfriendly lot. The old man told the traveller that he would find the people of this city pretty much the same.

 

Later the same day another traveller asked the same question of the old man. Again the old nan enquired of the traveller as to the demeanour of the inhabitants of his home town. This tine the traveller replied that the folk from back home were a friendly, kindly bunch who welcomed strangers into their town.

The old man smiled and told the traveller that he would find this city just as friendly.

 

Now, I wonder how this story might relate to the original question of this thread?

[junior]

Emilia's gone very quiet. Do we think the original post was just to get us to all defend the niceness of each other and all be friends?

 

As is the norm when a new poster comes on and starts a thread that stirs up a hornets nest. Someone more cynical than myself might suggest that Amelia knew exactly what she was doing with her OP.

[nicknorman]

Nope, don't really recognise Emilia's experiences. But it is certainly true that the bad encounters persist long after the good ones are forgotten. I'm just remembering an event from probably 15 years ago, when we were on a trip on our friend's boat (semi-trad). It started absolutely persisting it down with torrential rain, just as we came up behind a shiny boat going rather slowly. I was getting drenched despite "waterproofs" and really wanted to stop for the night, but the section of canal we were on (Shroppie, I think) was narrow and un-moorable. We were stuck behind this guy for about 30 mins (which is only a long time when one is getting drenched!). It was passable, so I came up fairly close behind and tried to suggest that we might pass, but he pointedly ignored me, still doing 2mph. I was still fairly close behind as we came up to a bridge (still vainly hoping to get past, still bucketing down) and his response was to suddenly put his boat into hard reverse whilst it was in the bridge hole, so that I had to do likewise. He looked back and laughed- it was clearly a deliberate act presumably because he felt I was too close. He then opened the throttle and roared off into the distance at at least twice the speed he had previously been going at, and faster that we could reasonably go. Sort of saying "I am in front, I am in charge, and I can go as fast or as slow as I like and you have to lump it". No doubt his bits were rather small. I even remember then name of the boat after 15 years - Maelstrom (hopefully no-one on here!) which is amazing because I usually can't remember the name of the person I met yesterday! We passed him the next morning, at which point he set off and arrived at the lock as we were going through. I just remember he wore incredibly shiny and long nazi-type black leather riding boots. Weird! And needless to say he was determined to tell us how to navigate through the lock.

 

Anyway, the point of all that is that one remembers those details after 15 years but in the interim, we have encountered 1000's of friendly boaters whom I have forgotten about (and let's face it, even this guy was not exactly the devil incarnate, just someone who was a bit insecure).

Edited February 17, 2014 by nicknorman

[Athy]

No. None = not one which is singular.

Hope I got this right but Athy will correct if necessary :-)

ETA was far too slow

Not necessary. None is singular, ergo "none of us is correct" is, er, correct. Edited February 18, 2014 by Athy

[nicknorman]

 

The masses as opposed to the grammar police...

It is of course "none is" aka "not one is", and some of us have standards that are not determined by wot the masses dun.

 

'None of us are correct' flows much better..

So does diahorrea, but that is no reason to advocate it.

[boathunter]

Back to the subject, if in any part of my life I'm approached by someone being over-friendly for no reason with an inane grin spread over their face, I'm cautious. An obvious example is the "you're my best mate you are" drunk in the pub, one return of conversation and you can be trapped all evening by a nutter. Had the same camping "come and join us" followed by accusations of slur and insult for politely declining. Er, actually I didn't come camping to sit with a bunch of drunks I've never met and I'm quite happy where I am, doing what I came here to do - relax with my friends. And I'm old enough to say so. Some people won't take no for an answer and the stakes have to be raised to rudeness eventually because they refuse to take the hint.

 

Perhaps the OP is overdoing her friendly smiling waving greetings and people are naturally making their escape having had similar experiences to me. I doubt anyone has never been in this situation.

 

Being on a boat doesn't mean everyone else on boats is your new best mate, I doubt. I don't have a boat, but have some experience of people and I can't see that what they're standing or sitting on makes any difference. The one thing you can be assured of is you'll have a common topic of conversation in order to make friends, but that isn't enough to assume everyone with a boat will be your friend anymore than that anyone with a car will be your friend because they have a car.

 

Just my tuppence. I'm quite friendly and jolly really, but I won't be forced to be so by someone who gets the hump when I don't immediately respond in kind.

[MtB]

 

It is of course "none is" aka "not one is", and some of us have standards that are not determined by wot the masses dun.

 

 

So does diahorrea, but that is no reason to advocate it.

 

Diarrhoea!

 

 

MtB

[Ange]

...

Edited February 18, 2014 by Ange

[nicknorman]

Diarrhoea!

 

MtB

It's all the same shit to me!

 

 

 

Anyway, I wasn't sure so put it into Google and came up with this so decided to press on regardless:

http://uk.ask.com/question/how-do-you-spell-diahorrea

But I suspect it is not right and (you B******* you made me get out of bed to check) the Collins Concise dictionary agrees with you. Some days one just can't win! Life was much easier when I was on your ignore list.

[nb Innisfree]

 

Ahh, you will have to walk a mile in their shoes to know the answer to that one

 

Richard

Then you can say what you like about them because they will be a mile away and you will have their shoes.

[luctor et emergo]

seems me was right...

 

(Cant be bottomed edit. )

Edited February 18, 2014 by luctor et emergo

[Chop!]

OK, back on topic. The OP has yet to answer the question that has been posed by more than one of us.

"On which canal / river / marina / lake / hardstanding did these heinous acts of grumpiness occur?"

 

Are you, Emilia, going to lead us all by example and lose your surly ways first?

 

Safe and HAPPY boating

[oasis]

Only started getting hello's when I raised both a GB and an Oz flag on the boat, but then that was before The Ashes.

[NB Lola]

A superb way to get content for writing a piece on modern British canal living

[luctor et emergo]

I agree there are many angry forumers. Also many nice ones too. But why would any be angry?

It seems that Emily is not allowed on the computer after bed time.

[Guest]

It's all the same shit to me!

 

 

 

Anyway, I wasn't sure so put it into Google and came up with this so decided to press on regardless:

http://uk.ask.com/question/how-do-you-spell-diahorrea

But I suspect it is not right and (you B******* you made me get out of bed to check) the Collins Concise dictionary agrees with you. Some days one just can't win! Life was much easier when I was on your ignore list.

 

Ahh the D word........

 

I am ashamed to admit I was never ever able to spell that word during my career even back when I was working on the wards or during my training when I would be required to write it pretty often, it always always caught me out, and I can't explain why.

[RLWP]

Only humans get it - animals get the squits.

 

Richard

Edited February 18, 2014 by RLWP

[nicknorman]

Ahh the D word........

 

I am ashamed to admit I was never ever able to spell that word during my career even back when I was working on the wards or during my training when I would be required to write it pretty often, it always always caught me out, and I can't explain why.

Ah well, not quite in the words of Eric Morecambe, I had all the right letters but not necessarily in the right order.