Wolverhampton

A seriously weird and sad place.  I moored overnight on the 24hr moorings below the ring road that you can't actually leave.  Nice and safe.  Locks are lovely and easy to use, paddles can be wound up and down one handed but every single one has the anti vandal lock on which gives you some idea of the locale.

Not one person offered to help with gates.

Few returned my smiles and hellos.

Nearly all had a tinny in their hands from 10am in the morning - including mums and dads (or grandparents - difficult to tell these days) pushing pushchairs.  Further down the flight of 21 some got a little upmarket and had a glass bottle of beer/lager.

Under one bridge a lad lurking in the shadows smoking pot.

At tail of one lock what I thought was a hoody so was getting a little concerned but it turned out to be a girl doing some school work.  You just can't tell what a person is going to be like and what they wear is no indication.

But I had no real problems until lock 20.  Cute black lad of about 10 with a football.  We exchanged hellos, was this my boat, yes, was I on my own - I lied and said no my boyfriend was on the boat.  Can I say hello? No he is in bed with a migraine.  Imagine my horror when the lad stepped onto the boat and shouted hello through the hatch at which point I abandoned the paddles and ran up the towpath brandishing my windlass and shouting 'get off my fxxxxxg boat' he leapt off and ran away. I could have caught him as I was so fired up but as I passed the boat I realised the scrote had put the boat in reverse gear (hard) so I jumped on before it got too far away and put it in forward before it got to the end of the line.  The line was long because that was how I had left it so it never went taut.

I'm afraid that if I had caught up with him I probably would have broken his arm with the windlass because I was so angry.  At the very least he would have been thrown in the canal.  I don't often lose my temper but when it goes it goes.  You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

I am still thinking it is a shame that he didn't slip getting off the boat and hit his head (and or get mangled in the propeller) it would have been entirely his own fault.

For the rest of that lock and lock 21 I was hoping he would come back so I could deal with him.  Took me two hours before I had calmed down.  But as you can tell I am still angry.  I have turned into a fascist.  Wolverhampton should be raised to the ground ...