Paul

Horses have two ends, one bites, the other kicks. As regards the Tesco lasagne scandal I'm not sure which is the most worrying. The fact that amounts of equine DNA in the mince was above allowable limits, or that there is an allowable limit in the first place.

I suppose it's a bit like donating to the RSPB. If they spent the money trying to save the beleaguered little house sparrow, or skylark I would be happy to do so. But when I find my money is being spent lobbying politicians, who earn enough already or watching dolphins in Scotland I think no. Scottish dolphins are no doubt a good cause, but not the concern of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The clue is in the name.

I was aware that the RNLI spent money overseas long before I stopped my regular donation. In those days it seemed to be spent on education projects overseas, teaching local leaders to in turn teach communities about water safety which I did not mind. It was some of the things they spent money on in the UK which made me stop and think. Expensive man-management training and "group bonding" sessions come immediately to mind. We decided to take a long hard look at the charities we supported with the monthly donations, after which we stopped them all, RSPCA, RNLI, RSPB etc. Some of the things that came to light were staggering. We still support our local RSPCA rescue centre through gifts in kind. Pet food, blankets as these can be used at the centre in question. Financial donations made to them still have to go to "head office" to be mis appropriated, sorry I mean reallocated. We still support local lifeboat stations whenever we are nearby one, through the shops and donation boxes though I imagine this too has to go to central coffers so that the professional "moneylenders in the temple" can decide how to spend it. Of all we support Caister the most, being free of RNLI influence I have more confidence that my hard earned passed to them actually gets spent on saving lives than rebadging excercises and the like.

I think Guardiola will be gone from Man City soon. Three seasons and they haven't looked like winning the Champions League, which is what he was brought in to do, and a poor start to this season. It won't be long before we start hearing phrases like "lost the dressing room" etc etc....

You want to listen to some of the children's presenters. When we were kids there was uproar when John Noakes joined Blue Peter as he had an accent. Prior to that it was Queen's English and reserved pronunciation. I said then it was the thin end of the wedge. And what's with the phrase "my bad", for heaven's sake. They mean" my fault" or "my mistake". It's all over the TV just lately. I love that Ron Manager clip, used to love that program, the sad thing about it is he seems to talk a lot more sense than many of the pundits on Match of the Day just lately.

Well done the Canaries, and a big thank you from the red half (red 7/8ths really) of Merseyside.

it's about time they banned all boats from the Broads, all they seem to do is cause trouble....

Which demonstrates the point, my wife gets a good 4g signal at Horning Staithe using a Sony M4 (not a top of the range phone), on Giff Gaff which I believe uses O2 or on Vodafone. My Huawei get's an OK signal. I can browse the web and push or pull emails but I can't use facetime, skygo or youtube. I have to tether to her phone to do that. I can't comment on Salhouse as we never stop there. Coverage is gradually improving, though I fear that may stall as providers concentrate on 5g, and phone manufacturers are, very slowly waking up to the need to improve the reception of their devices though Sony are still head and shoulders above the rest in that area.

I like Sony phones, but like you have struggled to replace them on my recent contracts with Vodafone. My previous phone was a Samsung, I was seduced by a "special offer" meaning the then top of the range phone came "free" whilst I would have to pay extra for a basic Sony. It didn't take me long to realise why they were giving the Samsung away. When people have asked and posted about signal I have made the point time and time again that the device may be more important than the network. I'm not sure people believed me.

I wasn't quite sure whether to post this here or in today's jokes, but what happened to the canaries last night? Fell off their perch a little.

The basin is not normally an issue for most boats since being dredged, though the corner nearest the road as previously described is starting to silt up again and can be as little as two feet at low water. The area of main concern is the old ford just past the end of the boatyards which is a stony bar across the river and can be less then two feet at low springs. I've touched bottom there above once. There is quite a rise and fall on the Chet so just avoid low water and you should have no trouble.

A fabulous result and if Ben Stokes had been elevated to the ranks of the greats for his world cup exploits I think he's just ascended to the higher rank of immortality. I hope that this result, earned by the stoicism of a couple and heroism of one does not allow the ECB and it's selectors to paper over the gaping cracks and avoid addressing the deficiencies which left us chasing 350 plus in the second innings. Had England lost this match, which in truth they should have, the selectors would have had no choice but to make changes. Now they have the age old excuse of the inept, "never change a winning team" The weaknesses in the England batting must be addressed and those who are continually failing have to make way. Jason Roy and Joss Buttler are not test cricketers. Hopefully they will continue to spearhead England in the white ball game for years to come but their tenure in the red ball outfit should be at an end. Time and time again England try to fit players, batsmen especially into a position that does not suit them, and time and time again that policy has failed. It is time to select specialists.

You have been extremely naive expecting a mechanic to visit your boat and prepare a quote for work which involved some kind of diagnostic work, however minimal, and not make a charge. I would not expect that on my car, let alone my boat. Regardless of that you cannot NORMALLY be charged a fee that was not made clear to you at the time of enlisting the service for which you are being charged. I say normally as there are some responsibilities on both parties to clarify any contract when entering into it. Asking if a quote is free or not is pretty basic. The contractor could demonstrate that he charged within his published table of charges and you did not ask if the quote was free. I'm bound to ask, if the information on his website is so basic what led you to approach him? Reading through this thread I was thinking pay the fee and put it down to experience, being more careful in future i) about who you invite to give you a quote and ii) to ensure that you clarify details properly when you make any agreement with a contractor. Then I saw the fee ..... It strikes me that you might have been subject to a scam perpetrated by someone who makes a living doing such things, i.e. arranging to give a quote or estimate for work, making a charge for the estimate and then either a) giving a quote so over priced that you will never take it or b) refusing the work altogether. The same person could work the scam in many different areas as they actually need to know very little about what they are looking at. They make a living from giving you dud quotes and never actually undertake any work. These people usually know there way around the law and how to make you pay. In your situation I would return the invoice for the quote fee, stating in writing that you had not agreed to any fee and are not legally required to pay a charge not made clear by the contractor at the time he agreed to give a quote and hope that puts an end to it.

And do be warned, Norfolk Constabulary has unveiled it's new patrol car for the NDR ....

I notice a Decapotable sold for $400k in the US recently, who'd have ever thought a 70's Citroen would be fetching that kind of money. I'm working on the theory If I keep my CRV for another 25 years it too will be worth half a million. Whilst it is a very pretty car If i was looking at that kind of money there are an awful lot of things that I would go for first, which could be had for much less. A Volvo P1800 convertible would probably be top of the list, very closely followed by an Alvis TD21 Drophead.

It looks like that will not be happening for another twelve months. The CRV passed it's mot first time again today. 15 years old and 200k miles and it just keeps going.

I love this style of boat, that high steering position gives a great view out over the marshes so pleased to see another one on hire. I did look at her for our October half term dates but she looks a good deal more expensive than either Contessa from Richardsons or Princess from Pacific. Interstingly looking at Craig's boat database he has Pacific Princess listed as a Broom 37, built by Brooms, however she used to have a brass plaque in the wheelhouse "Built By John Williams, Stalham". She originally entered service as Mediterranean Sea with JW.

Just testing the voltage of a battery doesn't give a true indication of it's condition. Often a battery will show an output of 12.6 - 12.8v but then when put under load will drop. A decent yard should be able to put a proper tester across them for you in a couple of minutes and see if they need replacing.

It's getting better for you Norwich fans, three places above Chelski, I wonder if it will last......

I've tried glass, razor blades, stanley blades but nothing's as quick or gives as good a finish as a properly honed scraper. Nothing else can get that hooked burr which is the all important cutting surface. Despite the name a good scraper actually cuts, rather than scrapes. I inherited my fathers full set of Record scrapers, straight, bevelled, gooseneck, concave and convex, all in their leather roll with sharpening file and honing tool . Still use them regularly.

IIRC the older DS had a bench seat in the front, a huge sofa style seat in the back, then in the gap between a row of three individual seats that folded behind the front bench. All unbelted in those days of course.

I love old Citroens, they really had style. My best friends family when I was a kid had a DS Familiale later replaced by the CX equivalent. These were the (supposedly) 7 seat estates though in the days before seat belt regulations we once had the entire boys brigade footbal team plus two adults in the DS. Xantia was a lovely car to drive, but even better was it's big brother the XM, a really underrated car. Sadly it's about that time that Citroen reliability started to suffer. The garage in the village had an 83 CX Familiale on the forecourt a little while ago, traded in ... One owner, 60k from new, yours for 8k. I was tempted for a while.

Mazda 6 never shared underpinnings with Mondeo or the X Type. It's predecessor the 626 did, being built on the same chassis as the X Type and Mondeo I II and III. When Mazda introduced the 6 they used a modified version of the US Ford CD3 chassis, whilst the Mondeo IV used the EUCD which also underpinned virtually all Volvo's of that era. The chassis were all related, and whilst we refer to them as Ford Chassis they were really variants of the Mazda G platform.

One of the most useful tools in these situations seems to have fallen out of fashion nowadays but for me you cannot beat a decent cabinet scraper. They can be awkward to sharpen until you get the hang of it but nothing gives such a good finish or prepares wood for refinishing more quickly.

The head honcho at the garage I used to use always said there were three makes of car to avoid, and three you should buy. The avoid list, Renault, Citroen and Vauxhall, the buy list Ford, Mazda and Honda. When I come to change the CRV a Mazda 6 is high on the list of options.