Paul

I understood it as more, on a spring ebb the upstream side can be two to three inches higher than the water under the bridge. There are times you can physically see the difference. I'm wondering how long it will be before someone suggests they ought to use boats "suitable" for the broads

Sorry Peter but that is so out of date, my new boat is just undergoing final fit out.

Norwich? In the country .......?

+1 to that. Johnny Heward's about the best there is when it comes to moving boats. He'll charge you the right price, he will not rip you off but neither will he cut corners to give you a cheap quote.

Yes, when having made a fish pie and realised we had no potatoes. Very nice it was. Also at Jersey Royals time I occasionally use a herb crumb topping and serve with early crop Jerseys and green beans.

Thanks for that, but I don't really do FB, I don't even do NBN facebook. I have had a quick look and it doesn't seem to be somewhere you can ask, chat and discuss, more a string of adverts from BRM. Good if you want to know what's new to the market etc but not somewhere you'd discuss Hornby or Bachman, Plywood or OSB etc...

I know we have one or two good people here with an interest in model railways, I wonder if anyone can suggest a decent forum that a relative newbie such as I might sign up to? I have tried a couple, one of which I'm getting no response to my sign up request, the other doesn't accept my email address as it's on ymail. We are setting a layout up for Jamie in the spare bedroom, but having never progressed beyond a little tank loco on the dining room table when I was a kid I want to poll advice and opinion from one or two "experts". Thanks

You'd be surprised how many locals do, or at least used to use the Locks, certainly when Colin was there. There was without fail a decent number in the bar every evening both drinking and eating, even in late autumn when we used to visit. This is very sad news indeed, but not surprising. Sadly I, and certain others here questioned the direction of the Locks when it was "renovated" and have been proven to be right, though of course nobody could foresee this global pandemic but I agree with JM, the damage was done long before the world ever heard of COVID-19. I only visited once after Colin left, in the summer of 2019, a beautiful hot Saturday, the moorings were full, car park was full, every table in the garden was occupied, lots of people eating but far, far too many plates were going back to the kitchen half eaten That speaks volumes and word gets around. It is another example of an inappropriate business model being imposed on a premises and location for which they were wildly unsuited. You have to use the location to your advantage. You will never mould it to your needs. I'm afraid the Locks, rather like the Berney Arms is never going to be a goldmine, it's going to be a hard slog just to break even and earn a living. A labour of love rather than a get rich quick enterprise but it could be profitable. Sadly nowadays people want the get rich quick option, numbers drive today's business models, rather than rationale and common sense. Equally sadly this is not the only well loved pub in our household to have gone the same way in recent times. One of our favourite locals here was "themed" about a year and a half ago, it didn't go down well. The pool table and dart board went, the dominoes too. We started playing cards one Sunday evening as we had for a decade or more and were asked to leave. We did. Sadly, so did everyone else. It closed in March, even before lock down and less than a year after £80k was spent refurbishing it. The new tenants paid no heed to where there custom came from, and tried to appeal to a market which simply didn't exist, at least in that location.

Where's the fun in that, what you typed first time is what you really mean, publish and be dammed!

My info at the time was that a third party expressed an interest and Colin was "eased out". It's heresay but from someone usually well informed on things in the area.

I think we will have to disagree on that one. In it's pomp the Wood's End was one of the best. I'm afraid it is another example of how to destroy a pub. The character has been surgically removed, the management is arrogant and that permeates through the staff.

A suitable boat is what makes you happy, there are those that would tell you it must have sails, some will tell you it must be made of wood. Others will tell you that it must go under all the bridges. Do you know what, it's all bovine effluent. There is too much misery about, especially in this pandemic era. If it makes you smile then enjoy, and if someone wants to tell you it's not suitable then <<insert comic raspberry sound bite here>>

I think it's worth getting a sense check on some battery claims here. I'm forever seeing claims that we'll soon have new batteries that will save the world. Charge in seconds, last forever etc but It ain't gonna happen. Usable battery technology has not advanced in decades. The "newest" current tech is Li-ion, developed in the 1970s and first commercially produced by Sony nearly thirty years ago. Despite the search and the promise of various technologies like disrupted carbon and graphine nothing much has changed since. What Samsung are currently working on are solid state batteries and far from being a new idea these are the oldest type of battery there is, the first ones being developed by Faraday in the 1830s. SS batteries as their name suggests are completely solid, they use no liquid or gel electrolyte like Li-ion or lead acids do and can hold higher levels of charge but suffer with a number of drawbacks, not least their propensity to explode when being charged and their limited lifespan. Neither commodities suited to electric vehicles. Samsung are trying to circumvent this by using silver-carbon coatings on the electrodes to prevent the formation of dendrites which cause the problems. They are not the only people working on this tech, other organisations are looking at various different "nano" coatings such as Boron and Tungsten to increase stability. If successful they will make solid state batteries safer to use and more durable but they will not change the world. There is a fatal flaw in this statement, the claimed energy density is up to 900wh per litre, not per kilo. The energy density of current sulphate solid state batteries is 280 - 410 w/h per kg and the work being done to stabilise them will not improve this. An improvement on current tech, but not world changing and this new technology will carry a hefty price supplement, already a problem even with current batteries. Whatever happens with battery technology the battery will continue to be the achilles heel of rechargeable EV's be they road or water borne for years to come. Even if you improve their capacity, charging times, durability etc the planet simply does not have the resources to produce all the batteries a global move to EVs would require and no country on earth can ever hope to produce enough electricity to charge them without a massive increase in the number of nuclear power stations. Building a nuclear power station doesn't happen overnight. It's taking fifteen years to build the new reactor at Hinkley Point C and costing so much that the UK cannot afford to pay for it, it is being funded by the French and the Chinese, and as a result will cost UK consumers an additional £50 billion during it's lifetime. Say goodbye to free charging stations. And before you start believing that completion of this plant, in 2025 will give us capacity to charge EVs then think again, it is only going to replace the capacity being lost by the closure of fossil fuel power stations. 3 more like it would be needed to charge EVs. Battery powered rechargeable vehicles will never be an answer.

Splendid

The ongoing debate over my cracked windscreen seemed to have resolved itself yesterday when I got an email from a certain glass company to say I could now book an appointment for screen replacement. With my MOT now only a month away it came as quite a relief, and even more so when having clicked the link the first appointment for a home replacement was today. I already had Severn Trent coming to replace the water meter, Sky to fix the broadband, and EHCP meeting at school this morning but I wasn't going to miss the chance so booked it anyway. Elaine would stay at home to sort the various tradesmen of any arrived before my meeting at school finished. I booked the appointment, printed it and awaited the promised email confirmation. The email duly came, however it was not the confirmation promised, but a message saying we're almost booked, someone would call to confirm things. The call duly came, but not to confirm anything, other than that they couldn't do it today, and they can't do it on a home visit. Because of the gradient tint and various sensors fitted within the screen it has to be ordered from Mercedes and requires specialist multi technician fitting so has to be done at their depot. In fairness to the glass company concerned they have bent over backwards to i) find the correct screen from Mercedes using my VIN number and create an extra appointment so it can be done on Monday as soon as the new screen arrives. They are aware of the back story and have done everything they can to avoid further delay, which is most noble as the delays so far are down to the insurer rather than them.

I sometimes see these videos pop up on my You tube feed and think thank god I'm not sad enough to stand there videoing everything waiting for some poor unfortunate to cock up.

What a load of tosh. Has somebody suddenly invented an EV that can notch 600 miles on a charge, or recharge in five minutes and I missed it?

I know Charnwood water well, I've played cricket on the ground across the A6, next to the crematorium many times. Sadly this is what the modern world is coming to, too much liability and blame culture nobody dare allow anything, just in case.

and when all that is done they'll both need retiling

A local village here in Leicestershire called Shackerstone used to hold a family festival every year on this first weekend in September. It's not ancient, it began in 1990 and last year was the 25th and sadly last. It will not happen again, not a COVID victim - the decision to end the festival was taken after last years event and is largely down to the ever increasing amount of bureaucracy and costs involved. It was a wonderful weekend, display arena, steam engines, vintage cars, wild west enactments, fair ground, lawn mower racing, stunt men, red arrows etc etc. Plus the neighbouring steam railway and vintage boats on the canal. Having searched the web for similar events elsewhere, not this year of course but maybe in future years I'm finding a similar story everywhere. Music festivals galore, but no good old fashioned family fun weekends. I wonder of you know of anything like that, not just in broadland but in your local area?

We looked into this a couple of years ago regarding a potential CL (small caravan site), the post is considered a reseller of electricity and as long as the unit charge being made is not more than that being charged by the supplier you are not committing any offence. You are at liberty to charge rental for the post, you can also levy a set charge for a specific time period, ie daily or weekly, as long you identify this facility charge and don't include it in the unit charge. Most caravan sites do this. As for refund on unused power for prepaid posts the £5 rule makes it irrelevant in most cases and in most cases the meters will not accept more than £5 credit. I think this is more generally aimed at protecting people with prepaid domestic meters

Lovely little boats those, and the lines are fairly simple. I always fancied a go at a plywood stitch and stick version with a second row of seats, just don't have anywhere to do it.

Am I doing something wrong? I run Windows 10 and don't have a problem. Updates never take long, nothing untoward happens, occasionally after an update I have to remind my laptop that Vivaldi is my preferred browser or that I like to open PDF's with Adobe, but it only take two or three seconds and only has to be done once. I do feel that I am missing out on some serious opportunities to moan, should I be doing something differently?

Sadly the cafe is takeaway only at the moment, though the garden is open, I'm sure delivery to boats could be arranged with a smile and polite request although as said earlier it's only a few steps from the mooring to the cafe to fetch takeaways.

Sadly the General Practice system is broken and that is the cause of many of the issues in our hospitals. The GP in our village is by no means the worst but you are still more likely to see a Unicorn than a Doctor unless you have a long term underlying condition, everything else is dealt with by telephone and prescriptions where needed go electronically to the pharmacy across the road. This is not a COVID measure, it has been this way since John The Baptist complained of neck ache. We complain of unnecessary use of A&E but many of these people have tried to see a Doctor and simply cannot get an appointment. The staff who are there do their very best, but there are just not enough of them. I sense a rant about foreign aid to countries who spend millions on space programs or armed forces and that money being better spent on our own NHS so before that develops further I'll slide the soap box back under Jamie's bed and tell you all that he is starting to show some small signs of improvement.