Paul

Pelude struck the Breydon side whilst going north on a rising tide. One onlooker suggested the skipper attempted to back away and was carried broadside on the flood. I cannot vouch for that. With several feet of tide still to rise I guess leaving it in place was not an option, but it surprises me that nothing was done to lower the airdraft before it was dragged out. Six inches of water in the bilge would have worked wonders, or a dozen shoppers from Asda. Peter, SOB was apparently "unavailable", good to see her earning her keep.

it is interesting, what one person would report as "slashing overtime" another would look upon as "taking on xx temporary staff for Christmas". More families with an income over the festive period. What one person would describe as profligacy over prime time adverts with big names another would call investment in the business. Always two points of view. The point about basic wage, overtime and holiday allowance is a real issue. I know a couple of employers who are currently dropping logs over the potential cost if what they see as the worst case scenario, which is currently being supported by the EU directive is enforced.

" from a fire service point of view the a lock would be better placed on the kitchen door" the problems with that are many fold. Not least that there are dangers outside the kitchen which a child like Jamie could have a field day with and it would also mean removing the key from the front door, which knowing a family who lost a parent in a fire because the lady could not find her door key in the dark then that is an absolute no no to me.

Answering the OP, I can understand the concern but it is not an unusual practice and can often be done for the child's safety. My sister has two girls, the eldest started sleepwalking from about two years old and still does, even now twenty five years later as a married woman. She had to be confined in her room as a child for her own safety, a proper twist lock is the way to go meaning no keys to lose etc. At 4 years old a stair gate is not a good idea, certainly you should not have a stair gate at the top of the stairs as by this age children are expert climbers and you are increasing the fall risk. Most children can cope with stairs quite well at 4. My son, Jamie was 4 at the end of June and regularly wakes very early, as in 4 or 5 am . Sometimes he comes into our room which we don't have a problem with but other times he will go down stairs. At 4 years old he can open the bottom stair gate which we keep as we babysit a younger nephew, he can handle child safe cupboard and drawer catches, he can move furniture to reach up onto shelves. Basically nowhere is safe. So far we have resisited using a door lock on his bedroom, but that may have to come. Over the past twelve months we have had a number of worrying incidents, not least finding him sitting on the kitchen floor with the Kenwood Chef plugged in, bowl full of milk and chocolate milk shake powder trying to work out how to fit the whisk attachment into the hole. He was trying to make mummy chocolate milk shake for breakfast. Bear in mind he has opened the kitchen cupboard, with supposed child safe latch, taken out the mixer, fitted the bowl (which is not easy on a kenwood, it has a bayonette fitting.) He has taken the child cover out of the electric socket and plugged the mixer in, He has opened the Ammerican fridge door, moved the kitchen chair to reach the milk down, opened the pantry door and again moved the chair to get the milk shake off the top shelf, unlatched the mixer head to tilt it back and is now trying to get the balloon whisk in. At 4 years old you would be amazed what kids can do. Making sure he can't lave his room until we are awake may be the only way forward, at least for the mid term future.

1050km for John Smiths. Crikey. Most people would drive that far to avoid the stuff. Don't you have camels in Saudi? A likeness between John Smiths and Camel Pee comes to mind.

I think it's way to early for Christmas ads!

I've done this before, travelling with the tide and within the speed limits it's about 6.5 hours from Coltishall Lock to The "Yellow Post" and 5 hours from there to Shipmeadow Lock at Geldeston. North to south is easiest, after passing Gt Yarmouth you can use the almost unbroken 6mph speed limit to Beccles to chase the low tide upriver, and you will need to do so as clearance at Beccles drops very quickly once the tide has turned. It's doable, but not easy and you need to have the right boat, very low airdraft due to bridge clearances. Sat 27 Jun 2015 would be an ideal day as an example, 12:40 low at GY, longest day almost and a neap tide so your highs will not be so high as usual. Ideally I would pass at 14:00 (a little after slack going south) which means leaving Coltishall at 7:30 but the need to clear Beccles would push me a little earlier. Trouble is if you hit the end of the Ebb tide on the Waveney you'll be pushing against it up to St Olaves at least, before it turns. Bridge clearances are your biggest threat, passing Wroxham around 8:30 will mean close to high tide and whilst there isn't the same rise and fall as at Beccles high tide at Wroxham will stop most boats. You could leave at first light, around 4:30 then stop for breakfast below the bridge waiting for the tide to turn, that will give you a few vital inches. Beccles is as bad, if you took the ideal 14:00 round the post at Breydon then it's 18:00 or just after at Beccles, 2 hours after low water. Beccles has an 80 / 20 rule on clearance, 80% of the clearance is lost during the first 20% of the flood. So if the flood runs for 5 hours you lose most of the clearance under the bridge in the first hour. You'll need a boat with an air draft of 6'6 I guess, and which will pass under Wroxham without the need for a pilot. They don't like being disturbed at 6am!

you are assessed for boat repairs, hand all your cash and half of your property to the nearest boat yard. as there are 22 "property squares" in the 8 main colour groups perhaps we should decide on 22 locations then the order?

"Friend of mine called it Military Style....left....right....left....right." I used to play golf like that.

There does seem to be a tendency amongst some people that as soon as something needs paying for to invent a reason why hire boat yards ought to bear the cost. They are rarely convincing and this time is no different. Any benefit to the hire boat yards for access to break downs is equally valid for private owners, perhaps more so as yards have a far greater infrastructure to offer assistance by water than most private owners. I would not like to see access lost, mainly because Pennygate Staithe (note the correct name, not Barton Turf Staithe, which doesn't exist) is one of my favourite moorings and will become very busy if Paddy's Lane was to become isolated. Perhaps there is an argument that the boardwalk, giving access to a 24 hour mooring should be funded in part at least from the navigation account, which yards already fund very heavily with their multiplied tolls remember. I do wonder whether, if the boardwalk was funded from the nav account, it would be being earmarked for abandonment?

For all the reasons Strowager quotes I would stick with a chemical cassette, although we are used to them from many years of caravanning. Often, people who are not used to them have rather inaccurate opinions on what they are like. If you use the proper chemicals at the correct dose they are not particularly smelly and all have easy to use and clean emptying mechanisms. My preference would be a Fiamma Bi Pot, the larger 39 model has a twenty litre tank, is quite substantial and will cost you about £55 for the initial unit and £35 for extra tanks.

I read this in yesterday's Telegraph and thought the cast would do a good job of impersonating the original, that being the obvious intent by casting such like for like actors in each role. It will be more a case of Bill Nighy playing John Le Mesurier playing Sgt Wilson, and so on. That may not be a bad thing. What will be vital is the standard of the writing, Croft and Perry cannot be imitated, and I fear as has been said earlier this may turn into a storyless nostalgia trip. A bit like the Monty Python O2 gigs recently. As for it being produced in Yorkshire, it's about time something decent came out of the place, so let's keep our fingers crossed!

Don't Ferry Boatyard have one of Moonfleet's old Diamond 43's?

Jon, does the site have water, electric hook ups, car parking etc?

I'm not sure what number those stools would rate on the old Bristol chart but I'd be a little worried about the variation in colour!

My preference is for boats with a large aft well, ideally with some comfortable seating, dining table as well as a helm station. A cool box for the Guinness .... The problem for boat designers is of course that this reduces interior space and the number of berths is reduced, the boats hire value diminishes and so the return on investment for the boatyard drops. I do think that designs like the one shown in Jim's opening post would benefit from rails, at least a push pit rail to protect that rear seat, but again it comes back to cost and return. Adding a railing is expensive, they are prone to damage, the deck fixings become worn over time and water ingress becomes an issue ..... There are certain boats that are more suitable for parties with children in just the same way there are some boats more suitable then others for parties with elderly or infirm crew members or parties with dogs on board. That's nothing new, it's just a case of choosing the most suitable boat for your own needs. My biggest beef with many of the new designs is that they sleep six or even eight people but there is nowhere on board for that number of people to sit comfortably together.

I understand exactly where Keith is coming from as something similar happened to me a few years ago, travelling down river wind and tide behind me. The speed at which the chains lift of the river bed ahead of the ferry when it starts moving would perhaps surprise some people. I don't really want to say too much as I don't think speculating as to what has happened on this occasion helps Andy or anyone else. I certainly add my voice to the many in hoping that the damages, especially the water damage which can be so far reaching is not as bad as first thought and the boat can be repaired and back out of the river promptly, earning money as it should be.

There has been a lot of debate locally about school uniform recently. Jamie has just started reception year at our local CofE controlled school and wears his uniform, typical first school style, grey trousers with embroidered polo shirts and embroidered sweatshirts. We could either buy from the school, or from Tesco with who the school had registered the design for the embroidery. Jamie's uniform, three pairs of trousers, three sweatshirts, five polo shirts, school shoes, socks and even new undies cost less than £100. Can't argue at that, in my opinion. If any of it starts looking grubby it will be replaced, it's cheap enough even though I would not call us "well off". We have the old school system here still, reception plus two years at first school (infant school as I would have called it), across the road and change of colour for Junior school, then round the corner and another change of colour for three years at high school before we make a choice on school for his two years leading up to exams. One of the schools we can choose has been openly criticised a number of times for the cost of it's uniform, which can only be bought from the school. £20 for an embroidered polo shirt (remember these are now 14/15/16 year olds so you'd expect it to be more than the infant uniform....), even more for an embroidered jumper and the blazer is £55, though classed as "optional". Last year an OFSTED investigation found the school guilty of inflating uniform prices to discourage less well off families sending their children, and so improve their results, there being a proven link between less well off families and their children's academic achievements. The school was penalised, the head "resigned" and a new board of governors appointed by the local education authority. At the time lots of parents called for the uniform to be scrapped but OFSTED produced a number of reports that showed that academic achievement was clearly improved in schools where uniform was worn, than where it is not and it is one of their key proposals to improve failing schools.

I got stung about twelve months ago in our local Asda (Nuneaton) which has a two hour limit. It too is "patrolled" by ANPR cameras though I didn't realise until the letter with photos and bill for £90 arrived in the post. We had been doing our normal weekly shop but in addition spent quite a while searching through the children's sale clothes. Normally we would go on to a local garden centre for lunch but as it was already after twelve we had a snack in the Asda café instead. Total duration two hours twenty four minutes. I emailed Asda and explained and got a standard "go away peasant" response which was actually quite rude. I forwarded the email to their head office complaining about the manner of the email and the parking charge, a copy of that days till receipt, £263, 11 entries from my bank statement showing nearly £2000 spent on my debit card in Asda in the previous three months. I got another standard reply, supposedly from their head of Customer Relations which was nearly as bad as the first with phrases such as "not raised anything new" "your comments do not therefore warrant any further investigation" and finally "we hope you will continue to enjoy your shopping experience at ASDA"! I spoke to a local solicitor as there is a lot of stuff on the internet saying these charges are unenforceable, sadly that is all twaddle. There are a number of grounds on which you may be able to fight the charge, mostly technical loopholes but most parking companies are very efficient in making sure these (things like correct signage etc) are properly covered. The only grounds the solicitor said I might contest is "fair and reasonable charge". The charge, which is not and may not be referred to as a penalty must be fair and reasonable. He did not think it reasonable that I be charged £90 for such a short period, especially on a weekday when the car park is never full so I have not deprived anyone else the chance to park, or the landowner that custom. However, he warned it was a lottery if an appeal would rule the same and by appealing I would lose the early pay discount and possibly incur additional late payment fees. I took the £40 early payment option and wrote ASDA's MD a three page missive as to why my £8k a year of business is no longer going into his tills and that he should take a look at the car park I question as at least half the people who use it don't even shop in ASDA. They use it as a two hour free car park for the town centre. I didn't get the courtesy of a reply. In a way it did me a favour, we are now committed Aldi shoppers. We love the products, better quality than Asda and save about £200 a month on our shopping.

keep them coming Carol excellent stuff. The bottom of Stepping Hill is very different now. The cottages were demolished around 1988 I think in place of a brick and flint house. The only buildings that remain from that photo are the row in the very background which are the houses opposite the top of the steps on Ballygate.

Before we can establish where the gateway to the Broads is, can we establish where "The Broads" are. As you travel east along the A47 signs direct you towards Acle and over the bridge then fizzle out. For me "the gateway" has always been Loddon, even before we started hiring from Pacific Cruisers back in the early 80's.

If money were no object ah, the eternal song of the boat owner. If however money were no object then for me it would be a diesel / electric hybrid. The diesel would be a marinised automotive engine, probably the VW group 1.6 tdi unit which is already engineered for lumping onto a generator without the need for a gearbox. A water cooled bi-mex battery controller running sixty four banks each of sixteen 3v 3200mAh disruptive carbon batteries driving a pair of 48v permanent magnet pancake motors.

I was just about to ask if you could get a minus score. I'd hate to be the first, or has that achievement already escaped me?

Bonjour, Kon nichiwa, Sawubona, Nei Ho.