Mouldy

Nooooooooooooooooo! Please, no! 🤢

Knowing what I know, but able to not disclose that, your starting point is not so modest imho. It’s a great starting point and one that many people could only aspire to. That said, I’m in total agreement with you in that none of us know what the future holds. Live for today, you only live once and don’t have the opportunity to regret what you haven’t done - all cliches maybe, but so true. Really happy for you. My bank balance doesn’t look as healthy as it might have been after four years of ownership, but the money we’ve spent couldn’t compensate for the memories we’ve made and continue to make.

Wouldn’t worry, Helen. I finished work in August 2020, when I took voluntary redundancy from my last job. Due to the pandemic and restructuring of our department, it was the most palatable option and one decision which I don’t regret at all. So almost three years on and my brain still seems unable to process the fact that I’m now 67 and not 25, to the extent that I’ve just bought a new motorbike. That said, my real age becomes all too apparent when faced with anything too strenuous. Good job we bought a bungalow with a huge ruddy garden then!

Been there, done that! When we bought ours, we went to Dunelm to buy stuff, crockery, glasses, pots, pans, towels, bed linen and a toilet brush! You know the sort of stuff. When we arrived at the till, the cashier said ‘new house?’ We replied ‘no, new boat!’ It sounded as if we were bragging, I suppose, but it felt good. As for fenders etc., I bought ours from Boulters and collected them when we picked the boat up from NYA, Horning, together with a long length of 14mm rope, to make new moorings ropes. The ones on the boat were too short and in poor condition, so I had to learn how to splice, but YouTube can be your friend sometimes!

Nice one! Hope all goes well with the river trial and survey! Look forward to reading more, as and when it happens! 👍

I can understand two people, even with just one mower, incase of an accident or incident when a second person would be present to alert emergency services etc. Even working in an office over Bank Holidays, we weren’t able to leave a sole worker with no one else present for the same reason. Four, however, does seem like overkill.

Who needs an excuse?

Their ciabatta based lunches come highly recommended and not just by me. Have a pint of Nightingale for me. It’s bloody lovely!

My ruddy wallet trembles when I get called that!

Easy!

And me!

My pleasure Neil! As for food, the guy to our stern has his barbecue fired up and the smell is making me both hungry and slightly envious!

It’s quite busy this morning! A fair bit of coming and going. There’s still some room here, but we haven’t ventured down to the basin to check there.

He’s definitely about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . passed him on The Chet a couple of hours ago! Might see you later Neil! Currently sitting in the sunshine at Pyes Mill!

It’s fair to say that camera phones have come a long way over the past few years and it is easily possible to get some quite stunning images with them. Add in some digital enhancements in Lightroom or Photoshop (for example) and they can look incredible. That said, the lenses are not comparable in terms of quality to a good DSLR or mirrorless camera, with flare and other aberrations being apparent in certain lighting conditions. Zoom on most camera phones is digital, which effectively enlarges the pixels and markedly degrades the results, too although generally more than adequate viewing on a tablet or PC screen, they will not stand enlarging for printing to the same degree.

Congratulations grandma/nanny* (*delete as appropriate).

I’d already washed them!

This was a repeat (on the BBC, surely not I hear your cry!). There is a follow up programme on the iPlayer called I Escaped to the Country and the couple featured were revisited by Jules Hudson in series 7, episode 2. They actually moved to a house on the corner of our close in the end. Jules and his team arrived one day last summer to film the episode. If you look closely, you can see our bungalow in the background of one in the sequences (it’s the one with two shiny black cars on the drive).

Should be like our late monarch and keep one in your handbag for such emergencies! 😉

That’s a very vibrant shade of gin, Howard!

I too was becoming annoyed with some of the members, who were expecting instant results, which were never going to happen. It obviously takes time to collate information and make a considered approach with well thought out arguments, instead of impatiently wading in with both feet. It does appear from their latest post, that there is progress and a with it, an opportunity to present a reasoned argument to support their cause, to a body who do have authority to make a change.

I’ve just seen BRAG’s latest post on FB and it does appear that there may be some progress. Two of their committee members had a virtual meeting with a DEFRA minister, Trudy Harrison earlier in the week, which they claim was quite positive. If you do have access to FB and are interested, it would be worth reading the details.

Agreed! Their ciabatta based lunches are excellent and really good value. We went there a few weeks ago and had home made fish finger ciabattas, served with fries and a side salad. Really tasty! 😁

We’ve stopped at Worlingham overnight before now. It’s not as good as North Cove imho, particularly during the fishing season. There is easy vehicular access to Worlingham and it is popular with fishermen (and women). The night we were there, a group turned up for an overnight fishing session and weren’t particularly quiet or respectful of us moored there. We were made to feel ‘in their way.’ They were so close to our boat fore and aft, I almost asked if they wanted to fish from the bow. Im fairly certain that North Cove is more difficult to access as some of the bank is owned or leased to an angling club.

If you put your past managers names on, you’d have needed an even bigger one!