grendel

I would just look on ebay for an old working reel to reel for as cheap as you can get, it will probably be cheaper than getting it done professionally

at the end of the day, if its too much bother to go to to put on a lifejacket, then its down to personal choice, in my opinion, if you have an easy option to wear one, then it will be worn more often than having to spend an age getting it just right - then it becomes an active decision to wear one. If its easy then it will become a matter of habit.

I see myself as a saviour to vegetarians, I eat the bacon, pigs eat vegetables so I am eliminating a major predator on the vegetables the vegetarians eat.

Regulo, I accept that, if I was on a flappy thing with a boom that could knock me overboard and senseless, then i would reconsider my options, otherwise, I will take my chances, while I have had many knocks to the head in my likfe, none yet have rendered me unconcious, so I will live with the consequences of my choice, we all make decisions and take chances, whether it be crossing the road, driving the car, or cruising in a boat, as long as we have weighed the consequences, then we must be prepared to live with them.

my personal choice is a manual inflate lifejacket, I then have a choice to inflate or not, I am a strong swimmer (though not as fit as I was) and on the occasion I did find myself in the water this year, I did not feel it necessary to inflate the life jacket I was wearing, extracting myself from the water wasnt easy and an inflated lifejacket would have made that less easy, I was glad I had it on as I could always have inflated it should the need have arisen, but its a case of you make your own informed choices and then live with any consequences. worse case in my particular circumstances would have been inflate the lifejacket and float down to Marthams slipway which was only a short way downstream.

but wearing a poppy as a mark of remembrance, does not necessarily mean supporting the british legion, yesterday i saw a couple celebrating remembrance wearing crocheted poppies, the poppy is a mark of respect to remembrance no matter where or how it was obtained, while one would like to think a donation has been made to the legion, it is the display of the poppy that matters as a mark of respect. Bling it may be, but it still a gesture of respect and remembrance, at least the effort has been made.

i am not against pride in my country so much as against all the hate and emnity generated in its name, the hate is what those ancestors and older generations fought against, so using nationalism to generate hate, to me is against the values they fought and died to uphold.

looking stunning

sorry - yes threads wander all over the place, but usually return back to their original topic, my apologies for hijacking your thread

yes getting Barry re-united with his name was a bit of a struggle, re-uniting all the posts was a bit past even our skills.

the one thing that i took back from visiting the war graveyards in france and belgium was how well kept they are throughout the year, grass kept short and everything so neat and tidy.

the big problem is that to take advantage of these cheap offers you have to be able to book holiday off work at short notice (or be retired) I already have 2 weeks of my next years holiday booked (as well as the boats) to ensure that I can get the weeks I want (both with the boatyard and at work)

A bottle of San Miguel?

I was more talking about buying food in the weekend before christmas, only to find the use by date on the turkeys was the 24th, when I dont have time to shop during the week (not that I could eat a whole turkey anyway so I usually get a turkey breast joint and a beef joint )

perhaps their majesties are just not interested in motorsport (Phillip hardly has a great track record with motorised Transport, and HM probably had enough oily bits during her time during the war).

my thoughts when shopping for the christmas food and finding everything dated 24th December - unprintable

Jay, I have just one thing to say about this

I thought it was a mooring that 'did' beer

I nearly had one last night, - not in Norfolk, but pulling on from a slip road onto the A127, and there was a gap in the headlights so i pulled over, narrowly missing the car that was happily driving in the dark with no headlights on, last seen still with no headlights on heading for the M25 northbound (thank goodness I was headed for southbound)

and there was me thinking it was all the fault of the drivers that couldnt be bothered to pay attention to the roads and drove too fast.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7967380 looks like you can get something like it at Argos https://www.amazon.co.uk/Warmies-Extra-Bottle-Nordic-Snowflake/dp/B01M984OCW or Amazon

I will let you know when this southern softie requires a hot water bottle, it will probably be after I stop wearing shorts for the year, maybe 32nd December, of course come 1st january it will be once again deemed warm enough for shorts.

oh, taps are no problem, i have taps and dies all the way down to 12BA, as well as a full set of whitworth from 1" down, and a full set of metric, so thats not a problem.

progressing the toe rails

no - looking for an equivalent thread to 9BA for connecting meccano spring drive bands