grendel

Now I haven't posted in this thread a while, but that doesn't mean I have been idle, in fact I have been varnishing, and that's about as interesting as watching varnish dry. At last I have got to the point of adding fittings back, first was the new masthead light, a led one, I clipped the cable down the mast, carefully adding pieces under the clips to cushion the cables, looked at the red and black wires showing and didn't like it, ok time to raid through my brass bits, I had some tube, a bit chunky and would require new clips, then my eyes alighted on some 1/4" brass channel, this was fine in width, but looked too deep, so on the mill it went and the two flanges were cut down by 1mm, then cutouts were made for where it enters the mast at the top, and where it passed over the brass bracket holding the wings in place. The clips were modified to fit round the new section, and then it was all fitted, much better.

There is no fuel shortage. Just BP announced they could not get it to a small number of garages due to HGV driver shortage is all. Yet the media attention this has been given has blown it out of all proportion, and yes some garages have run out due to high demand, but they will have deliveries booked in , and once everyone has a full tank then things will return to a more normal level.

yes, its a problem with most modern slimline tv, s in that they dont have enough room for decent speakers, even the sound bars you can mount above the tv although slightly better are slimline, and a good speaker needs a decent depth of cone to give good sound.

you mean this one?

The lack of factual accuracy in the media is why I dont buy newspapers and dont watch news programs, at best I react to news posted on social media by going and fact checking the content, then refuting the claims that are patently false. It seems i am having to do this more and more due to people reposting absolute twaddle without first fact checking the source. particularly I have seen the same news events publicised on both sides of the brexit camp as evidence why we should have / should not have left the EU, and both sides spun the actual fact to suit their viewpoint. unfortunately until the british news start actually reporting facts accurately I see no reason to follow them any more.

sometimes it makes even the EDP reporting seem factual and accurate.

gosh thats a rare sight to see, a newspaper that isnt spreading alarm and panic, well done the Rugby Advertiser

sorry, just checked and its 15 reactions per day

I think it is a rolling count, once 24 hours has passed since a reaction, one becomes available again.

Actually the quote I saw said gas prices had gone up. what the true situation was that mid August we had three full days without using coal generation, one of the two remaining coal fired power stations in the country then after 3 days of really nice weather in august, then fired its boilers back up and was generating 2% of the national consumption (about 1 GW) this may partly have been due to a fire at the UK end of a cross channel electricity supply line that took out 1 GW of our import capacity. in the news though, this start up after 3 days not running was headlined as Gas shortage forces government to bring coal fired power stations out of retirement, in reality they had been shut down for 3 whole days due to low demand, and then bought back on line. Coal fired power stations are slowly being phased out of the grid, but the 2 remaining are there to fill the gaps so to speak, they are slowly being decommissioned, with full shutdown planned for 2025. but the real interest is how the news headlines made it sound so much worse than reality, much in the same manner they have done to cause panic buying of fuel. we only have around 4.2 Gw of capacity left as coal, all the rest has already been decommissioned. and we are not even using the full output available Today we are currently running a coal free day 0% of energy from coal or oil https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

I cant remember without delving into the forum settings, but I believe it may be around 10 a day or similar, I will check later

I dont think its the working from home altogether, in my company the majority of us worked from home, but our call centres (after the obligatory re spacing of all the desks), were manned we had backup centres in case an outbreak of Covid hit an office (we actually did have one office shut for two weeks when they had someone with a case of Covid) but the important fact was that every department that needed to work in an office worked in an office (as a Utility supply company we were classed as essential, everyone was issued with a covering letter, just in case they needed to go to the office). now things are returning to normal, we have mostly returned to working in the office with recognition of the effectiveness of working from home recognised and now allowed for, each role being allocated a number of days per week they can work from home, this keeps the offices manned at covid responsible levels (ie reduced numbers daily), some staff with greater travel requirements are being allowed to continue working from home too. Suffice to say that if a company goes about things the right way, then working from home can be achieved, but there has to be a core of staff who are willing to work from the office to make that work, and there has to be balance.

my local asda fuel station shut while i was inside shopping this morning, to my mind the media reporting should be called into question, as it is undoubtedly the media hype that has caused this, in the same way the toilet roll shortage was created, the media need to be held accountable, and before they cry freedom of the press it is the freedom to report fact, not create widespread panic.

I would be quite happy for certain protesters to glue themselves to the bottom of the river to stop traffic

when they manage to get electric posts installed at all the moorings like hardley cross, then i will start believing it, first they have to get someone willing to supply electricity to such remote sites, then they have to find the money to enable them to pay for it. by my estimate Hardley cross will easily cost 6 figures. money that will never be recouped during the asset lifespan.

the only good thing is unlike toilet rolls, you can only fill your tank (and a few cans at best) so the panic will be short lived as once the tanks are full, they cant stock up on more without using some of their precious horde.

I would imagine such a scenario might be possible if travelling at high speed on one engine, but at broads speeds? apart from the drag. but thats just my thoughts, if anyone has any hard information on this I am interested in being educated.

Noah

I know O2 has coverage in Potter, as for 3, I am trying out a new mifi unit and have a 3 2 year data sim to try out so I can at least try and remember to check the signal strength at HW boatyard early October when we are there on lads week ( i will be comparing the 3 and O2 sims around the broads as we travel on lads week, though I now have my O2 sim in a mifi unit with external antenna to see if that helps)

Thanks everyone, isnt that the one that says no hire boats? (not that it makes any difference when I am on water rail)

ok so they want us to convert to the more expensive bottles with the click lock fittings? do these still comply with the BSS? or does that just state approved connector?

@C.Ricko I know roughly where you are, is it down the same dyke as boulters marine, but not sure where down that area you are, I do know the absolute easiest fuel in horning is at the yard next door to the new inn, as its right on the river, any chance you could pin a map to show us where your fuel dock is plese? Thanks

gosh darn, you have me going way off topic now, so lets drag it back, do we think that it is the shortage of drivers that is causing Calors inability to retrieve their empties from the storage cages around the country, or is it their policy of only retrieving empties when they replace them with full?

comparing any q2 results with q4 results will inevitably show a negative as the Q4 figures are always bolstered by the pre christmas purchasing and sales, its a bit like comparing apples to oranges, they are both fruit, and round, but there the similarity ends.

I suppose I must step in and remind people at this juncture against straying into the realms of politics in this discussion, as with a lot of political subjects its all too easy to disagree on the reasons behind the problem, but then things tend to degrade from that point, when people get too involved, as long as we can just agree its a problem and discuss options to alleviate or get round it then we will be fine, once we start discussing the politics behind it, then I am afraid the moderators will have to step in, and up until now we have been managing tolerably well to avoid this. Thanks