JennyMorgan

The Authority has gained something of a reputation for picking and choosing which regulations and bylaws that it enforces. In theory, as I read this bylaw, the Authority is duty bound to feel the collar of those running generators at moorings. My Lidl cheapo kicks out 82d which means that I don't use it at shared moorings. Agreed that some boats have very effective sound insulation but an engine is an engine! If running my noisy little beast is an offence then so it has to be for other people's, even quiet ones!

Ohhhhhhh, I shall take particular pleasure pointing that particular byelaw out to annoying offenders Just a thought, seems that I can leave my sails up, annoyingly flapping in the wind, do I feel a plan coming on? Does this mean that those big hybrid cruisers are effectively barred from 24 hour moorings, at least if they intend to cook or replenish their batteries?

I was recently speaking to a BT engineer who explained to me that the 'fibre' cabinets can each service 400 customers, 100 for BT, 100 for EE, 100 for Talk-Talk and 100 for every one else. In my case I'm told that it will be another two years before I stand a chance of getting fibre, no matter who I go with. Impressive, innit?!

I know that I haven't. Have long regarded it as one of the least tempting moorings on the Broads. Is the pub there any good?

Hemsby might do it cheaper!

For how much longer, I wonder. Who is best? I'm with Talk-Talk who really are not that bad, but their customer service is a real problem, it's quick but unless you understand Mumbai English then it can be worse than useless. Like you I have been asking around but I really do wonder if anyone is really that much better than another company, after all they all use the same infrastructure.

http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/715731/Broad-Sheet-Feb-2016.pdf Often referred to by rhond dwellers as Broad Squit, really can't think why.

Jill, I have yet to hear any positives about Plusnet. No experience of them myself though. http://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband/providers/plusnet/reviews/

Where there is a will there is a way!

Nice bum!

Mark, a well reasoned post, plus a worthwhile spot to visit. Good, secure alongside moorings. A chance to visit the nature reserve at Berney. Folk can get there by train if they can't make it by boat, a lot to recommend it. Jenny Morgan moored there a year or two back.

Is that black humour?

Okay for the hill dwellers amongst us to pursue sheep though.

New one on me is that Jill. Probably before my time I married Joan, I love Lucy, Billy Bunter & The Flowerpot Men being more my era.

More on the BIG freeze, including an amazing picture of the ice at Gt Yarmouth: http://www.edp24.co.uk/features/photo_gallery_a_new_year_dawns_but_the_big_freeze_tightens_its_grip_1_1755318

That winter was memorable! We were out on the ice from dawn to sunset, skating and even partying, ending the day grouped round a fire on the ice. My brother even drove his car to Beccles, along the river. The thrill, for me, was being on a sled, towed behind a car at some speed up, Oulton Broad. The climax being a tight turn by the driver and the sled circling on it's tow line, heaven only knows what speeds we achieved! My brother managed to hit a mooring buoy, that was dramatic! One of the tow cars was actually a Mini Van, its back doors open so we could watch the sled, Great, until the driver did a handbrake turn, the little van spun and the snow on the ice lifted and filled the van! I was the passenger and the snow was round by legs and on my lap. A wonderful time to be young. My dad had a restaurant and the serving trays made wonderful sleds! ,

Q, lovely stuff! I well remember the much treasured frozen cream lollipops from the top of the milk bottles. Funny how schools remained open whatever the weather back then.

There are just so many of us old blokes with a story to tell, and a keyboard to knock it out on. Reckon that there are far more interesting stories out there, I really don't think that my ramblings would attract the attention of any sensible publisher. However, thanks for the compliment. Maurice, was a time when I was wholly supportive of the Authority. Re forebears. always wished that I had recorded my Granny Colby's story. She had a good story to tell but for me the value would have been in her Suffolk/Lowestoft dialect, not just her accent but also her vocabulary. For example I well remember her asking me to bike down to the chemist and buy her a 'hudkin'. I didn't know what one was and nor did the chemist. Granny always reminded me of Grandma Giles in the way she dressed and gesticulated with her walking stick. Blass bor, she were hully indignunt, waggling her old stick at me. The chemist just had to be a foreigner! My mum put me right, Granny C wanted a finger stall. Back I peddled and that caused some indignation when I returned, it was noticed that the hudkin was made by Durex. Ohhh moi lor, how could the chemist supply a packet to a youngster with that word upon it! I hadn't got a clue what the furore was about, just knew that unhelpfully dad thought it funny whilst Granny C & Mrs W didn't. I felt quite sorry for the chemist, a doddy fella, because I knew he was in for it!

I well remember on one Christmas Eve being driven by my father out to Ellough Airfield near Beccles. It must have been late 40's, perhaps early 50's and back then the barracks sheds and nissen huts were filled with 'squatters'. The airfield had ended the war as a German POW camp and there were numerous, redundant wood and corrugated iron buildings. The best a grateful country could do for men returning home from war to be reunited with their families. Dad was taking left overs from his bakery and short dated goods from his shop for some of the squatters. Like Roger I came from a privileged background although I was never awash with presents we always managed a turkey at Christmas, indeed I must have taken it for granted. I well remember one of the squatter boys gleefully and proudly bragging to me, the rich kid in his dad's car, because his dad had snared some pigeons for their Christmas dinner. His dad was a hero, mine wasn't, not easy for the little kid that I then was to grasp. That was only about sixty five or so years ago.

In it you'll also see bits of some of the sheds at Whispering Reeds.

She's high and dry, aground up Thorpe Road, some distance from the river!

Favour time please. If you can pass this link on to all the younger rock and rollers in your family then that would be great. One of my daughters is playing on keyboards and if it gets enough downloads or sales then perhaps she'll be able to keep her old man in the manner to which he dreams! Rack up the volume!

Marsh, the evidence is there, if you care to look, and quite honestly I really can't be bothered. However, where in this thread have I mentioned the ratio or quantity of staff leaving? I will quote ' However it is a fact that a number of excellent people have left the Authority since Prof. Aitkin Clarke, the previous CEO, left the Authority.' No mention of quantity nor ratio, either high or low. Mind you, if my experience of the planning department is anything to go by then the ratio probably is rather high. Yes, the ship is still afloat, but I don't see it as the most popular or trusted entity that it once was, more is the shame.

We must work to the same time table, Vaughan. Mines a ploughman's and a glass of red! I well know the saying and I suspect that the last sentence above is pretty close to the mark. My gut feeling is that the phrase 'enough is enough' has been on the minds of a number of those departing rats as they headed for the hawse pipe. Here's to the good rats that failed to be realigned, I hope that they did find better futures elsewhere

Firstly Trudi is no rat and secondly the Authority is not sinking, just that the captain is a tad off course. No doubt that he has lost and is loosing some darn good crew members though. Wise words that highlight what has long been the problem. Alignment is not to everyone's taste but from Chairwoman to Char Lady that is so obviously the requirement. Perhaps not such a bad thing in a workforce but when it also applies to the committees and Authority membership then something is seriously awry.