Do you want ChYpPS with that?

By the start of April, my curiosity had gotten the better of me and I fired off another email to the council about my position on the mooring list, only to be told that it remains unchanged (24th). All is not lost, however, as they did say: "we are about to offer quite a few licences now the renewals for current licence holders have been completed, so it would worth checking again next month."

So it has taken about a month for the validation of renewals, and now possibly a further month to finalise the allocation of the vacated licences. If memory serves, Amy & James got a heads-up about the chance of being offered a licence a few weeks before finally getting one, so it's not looking good for me this time around. Ho-hum.

I'll give it another week or two before pestering the council again.

Digging through my photos the other day, I found the original photo I used as the main banner for this blog:

Note: To achieve the soft-focus, I deliberately left the camera lens greasy. :-)

It was April last year, and I just happened to be wandering past Jesus Lock while it was being operated (a rare event) so I started snapping away. The boat going through is ChYpPS (Children and Young people’s Participation Scheme) Community Play Boat. Funded by a Lottery grant, she cost £130,000 and her maiden launch had been two months earlier. Local kids were involved with decisions regarding layout and design, and, according to the council, "[the boat] will give children opportunities for urban adventure play, which is all about taking risks in a safe and supervised environment." - didn't we used to call it 'having fun'?

Gongoozlers look on as the bottom gates are opened.

Trusty First Mate.

Plenty of room on board this 57' x 10' widebeam narrowboat.

Friendly skipper - had a laugh and a joke with onlookers.

What a glorious day to be out on the water!

Edited to add: On reflection, I suspect the younger gongoozlers in the above photos were actually ChYpPS passengers that had been dropped off before the lock. The red balloons should have been the giveaway!