The Wet Web
Helen Gazeley tunes into the vloggers’ view of life under lockdown.
WITH all the dire descriptions of the virus at its worst and grim reports on the news of necessary hospital treatments for the worst-affected patients, hearing from people who have almost certainly had the virus and come through it is reassuring and therapeutic and a few of the waterways fraternity have been sharing their experiences.
Fran and Rich, in their Floating our Boat vlog, report that Rich had symptoms back in March (youtu.be/CSqmugzmltI). Rich suffers from mild asthma and had one particularly rough night but, generally, they found hot drinks and keeping a pan of water boiling to moisten the air helped.
Diana, on Narrow Dreams with Neil and Sam, also describes her Covid-19 experience (youtu. be/0U5ikOF8sSE). Neil had a high temperature, headache and fatigue for just a couple of days. Sam was vomiting all night – a more recently recognised symptom. Diana has underlying health issues and had it worst. It’s taken a bit of time to feel better, but she thought the video would make it a little less frightening. “It’s not pleasant, not pleasant at all, but we’ve come through it and I think that’s the sort of thing we need to be hearing, really, rather than all the horror stories on the news.”
She invites people who have had symptoms to comment below the video with their experience.
For others, however, the current lockdown has been much more pleasant. Robbie Cumming, who generally lives and works from nb Naughty Lass, is currently in lockdown with his girlfriend, Alice, in Todmorden, exploring the Rochdale Canal (youtu.be/Y7QaFe_-D2k). He’s feeling very lucky. “It feels like I’m on holiday,” he says. “Living and working alone, I find such a challenge. It’s why I love going to pubs. There’s beautiful scenery, but without that social element…”
It’s also a break from the hard work that was demanded by his first series of Canal Boat Diaries on BBC4, which he filmed and, for much of the time, edited himself. The effort in producing quality videos shouldn’t be under-rated. “It takes an hour per minute of footage,” he says.
Robbie, a guitarist with 24 years’ experience, records his own music using the GarageBand app and this, along with his skills as a graphic designer, give his own videos a very enjoyable personal character. Although he now receives much of his income from YouTube, his advice on vlogging is to ask yourself why you want to do it. “If you do it for money, you’ll never be happy. It should be a compulsion–you’d do it anyway.” He’ll be releasing a series on how to make your own videos with minimal equipment.
Good news is that, after a hiatus caused by the coronavirus measures, he’ll start filming the second series of Canal Boat Diaries as soon as lockdown lifts.
Alan Denman, with his wife Aleysha, was converted to narrowboating about three years ago after living in South West London. “It came to me that I was going to have to work till I dropped. With a narrowboat I could aim to be financially free, own my own home and live in London.” A professional scriptwriter and film producer, his entertaining YouTube channel’s recent videos include his lockdown project of installing a roof-deck for Aleysha’s birthday, in order to avoid buying her a chihuahua (youtu.be/UyUv5w5k-OU). “I’m having great fun with the Boating Free vlogs,” says Alan. “They exude a kind of free-yourself message.”
With many of us taking time in lockdown to reassess our way of living, Alan provides inspiration as someone who has entered a life he never anticipated. He is, however, a firm advocate of ‘follow your bliss’ – “my advice to anyone, if you have a dream, if there’s something you really want to do, really stepping out of your comfort zone”. If you yearn to do something, but don’t know what, then his website suggests ways of finding out what your dream might be (www. alandenman.com).