Musical moorers and more.

Back in the Autumn, I gathered together a little band of musicians of a wide range of ability to meet together weekly to make music. I play guitar and bass, and I can sort of sing. There were three other guitarists, and a bassist. While we were away over Christmas, we gained a drummer who bought himself a full set of electronic drums especially for the occasion. And Grace has joined us now, to sing. Bob sings a bit, too.

And it's all going quite well. Most importantly, everyone's enjoying it. We meet every Wednesday evening in the lounge, and play for a couple of hours. Until very recently, we've been playing a bundle of standards from the world of Rock. Hotel California, Comfortably Numb, Whatever You Want, Brown Sugar. Honkey Tonk Women, some of them rather too high for my vocal range, so either amusing or painful, depending upon your mood. We rock, if nothing else! But I personally not that keen on trying to play everything exactly as original, so last week I took them a song I'd written especially for this mega-group. I'm gonna leave tonight, it's called. Jess would like the lyrics. Sort of folksy story. Guy having to leave gal because... well, to be honest, I didn't write that bit in, and I don't have a clue. When I handed the words and music out to them, they said they thought I was handing in my resignation. Smart-arses. It went down pretty well. We'll see how it goes this week, after everyone's had the chance to get used to it. Bob likes Country and Western. Someone has to, I suppose. So I put my tongue firmly in my cheek and wrote Oh, Lordy, what do I do now? They haven't seen it yet. They might tell me what to do now when they have.

We saw Project Almanac yesterday. It got off to a very slow start. I think I fell asleep for some of it. But when they finally got around to doing the serious time-travelling, the film took off. They should have shortened the first part, and concentrated more time on the real action and development of the story. Some very creditable acting from the young stars, but a number of direction weaknesses. Still, it cost us nothing, and it was quite entertaining.

1. "David Raskin is a high-school science nerd who dreams of going to MIT. When he and his friends find his late father's plans for a "temporal displacement device," David can't wait to start tinkering. When they finally get the device to work, the teenagers jump at the opportunity to manipulate time in their favour. But their joy is short-lived when they begin to discover the consequences of their actions."

   
2. For some weeks now, there  has been underway the construction of a slipway from the canal into land next to the marina belonging to the same owners. This is ultimately to be a facility where boaters can have their craft winched up onto a hard-standing where they can have access to the below-waterline area of the boat, for painting or other servicing. 

They seem to be making good progress, though I'm told they're behind schedule. While they've been doing that, CRT workers have dredged this stretch of the GU, and cut back a lot of vegetation from the banks, making the canal wider as well as deeper. The mud they dredged up has been spread alongside the towing-path, as you can see in the photos. I guess the idea is that it should eventually become grassed over, though that would take a long time, I'd think. Particularly since there are obviously idiots around who would love to make their mark upon the world by walking over the mud, leaving deep prints behind.

The workers on the building site have had problems, too. Boats have been coming too fast around the bend from the north, putting workers at risk of injury or worse. There are times when there are men wading chest deep in the canal there. Just a few days ago, one such boater demolished the metal shuttering you can see above. To counter this, they've now put up notices.

I'm hoping that it doesn't mean that we have to paddle past with our hands!