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Mouldy
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Posts posted by Mouldy
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Don’t think I can afford to look at the menu tbh. Not sure they’re dog friendly either. I’d rather go to somewhere where I’m welcomed regardless, like The Ferry House!
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49 minutes ago, NorfolkNog said:
I seem to be getting a lot of emails from Hoseasons with various offers at the moment, almost every day.
I wonder if bookings are a bit slow?
I don’t think they won a lot of friends during the pandemic with the way cancellations were dealt with, or that’s the impression I got from reading so many instances of less than adequate customer care on social media.
We always used to book our next Broads holiday direct with Summercraft, but Sue used to phone Hoseasons to make the booking and told them what to invoice. Not many folk used to argue with Sue!
I personally haven’t booked anything through Hoseasons since 2017 and frankly have no wish to now. They’re a very different company to the one set up by James Hoseason as my last experience was not ideal, when they disputed an advertised discount and tried not to honour it.
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7 minutes ago, kpnut said:
I thought they had Russian names?
Missing something here me thinks!!!!!
I was thinking of these ones:
https://youtu.be/F0BfcdPKw8E?si=Xm3T0wLlUFxssqpr
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1 hour ago, kpnut said:
Doubt it, but I bet those meerkats on the TV adverts can.
Which one? Alan or Steve? 😉
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3 hours ago, Broads01 said:
Barnes Brinkcraft once again, Brinks Encore Plus 6.
Ah, okay. We actually follow Helen on MS, starting on the evening of 29th March.
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8 hours ago, Broads01 said:
Our paths may well cross then, Helen on your second week.
Where are you hiring from, Simon?
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4 hours ago, YnysMon said:
To be honest, I’ve been rather concerned about how quiet it’s been down south this year. Granted, we don't cruise down south as much as we did when we were based in Brundall, but during the summer it seemed a lot quieter than previous years.
The Broads in general were much quieter than previous years last year. But the loss of the Siverline fleet obviously impacted river traffic down south, especially with tales of dire consequences of crossing Breydon that seem to proliferate on social media.
I also believe that our views had been skewed by the inflated visitor numbers following the pandemic, combined with the effects of the ongoing financial situation, which did make last year look particularly bereft.
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4 minutes ago, YnysMon said:
Who doesn’t like a bit of thread drift now and again.
So, what’s new?
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1 hour ago, YnysMon said:
On the other hand, we do have an indoor proper snow slope in MK, which I’ve yet to visit. The Scrooge in me is coming out again!
Helen! Go on, liberate a few pounds and treat yourself to a go in Xscape! I’ll make the journey from Norfolk to watch! 😉 I can’t really say too much though. Never been on skis in my life!
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23 minutes ago, kpnut said:
Well Helen, in danger of really sabotaging your boat thread and turning it into a ski bums thread instead!
A quick look on a few skiers forums have come up with this. Last seasons info.
France
3 Valleys (Meribel etc) age 75 Free
Alp D'Heuz 72 -66%Austria
Flaine and Grand Massif age 75 Free
Espace Diamant 75 Off Peak Price
Tignes and Val D'Isere age 75 Free
La Rosiere age 75 Free
Les 2 Alpes age 72 -66%
Les Arcs and La Plagne age 75 Free. Discount for age 65-74
Les Gets / Morzine area age 75 €57 Season
Montagnes d'Evian age 75 Free (age 70-74 halfprice)
Paradis ski age 75 50€ Season
Risoul / Vars age 65, dsicount, age 75 think its freeScotland Glenshee age 75 Free
England Hemel Hempstead age 60 £90 AnnualMembership=30% discountAndorra Grandvalira age 75 Free
Austria? Alberg age 75 BIG discounts
The lesson to learn is - if/when planning a ski trip, start looking at lift pass prices in more detail! Thanks for highlighting it Floydraser
Humph! If I live to be 75, I’ll be grateful to still be able to walk, never mind ski! 🤦♂️
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37 minutes ago, Andrewcook said:
How long can you keep Life Jackets for? Do they come under the BSS checks. ? What types of good Life Jackets can you to get ?
Life jackets aren’t fixed to the boat, so aren’t part of the BSS. If you have self inflating ones, they should be of adequate size to hold up your weight, fit correctly and ideally have a crotch strap, although some don’t. There is a ‘use by’ date on the gas canister (similar to those used in a soda siphon) that inflates the jacket when either immersed or the ‘ripcord’ is pulled. If the life jacket hasn’t been deployed, yet the canister is out of date, it and the actuator should be replaced.
The jackets aren’t (as far as I know) dated, but should be replaced if damaged, but are repack-able if deployed, with a replacement gas canister and actuator.
Ours are Seago branded, although others are available.
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I wouldn’t wild moor on The Yare. As for The Chet, it’s too bloody narrow for most of its length and getting narrower as time passes. I’ve certainly noticed a difference over the past six years. In some places now, I doubt two craft could safely pass, the channel has become so narrow. We usually moor at Pyes Mill. We tried Chedgrave Common once, but a group of teenagers arrived with a picnic (largely alcoholic) and started having a party, accompanied by some loud music, so being grumpy old farts, we moved on!
Personally, the traffic is so light on the southern rivers now that none of the BA moorings get really busy for the majority of the time, with one or two notable exceptions, those being Reedham and Bramerton when the Brundall Navy set sail.
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23 hours ago, dom said:
It's interesting from a convenience perspective but, as Mouldy points out, completely meaningless until Greta and co start to have a go at China, rather than our tiny carbon emissions and already quite responsible policies.
Hmmm. I can’t help thinking that Greta will have more success shoving an elephant up the stairs than she will with trying to convince the five top polluting nations in the world that they need to reduce their emissions- China, USA, Russia, India and Japan.
Somehow I can’t see the American police or the Russians taking bottles of water to climate protesters who glue themselves to the roads. Their version of sympathy would be a little less sensitive!
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28 minutes ago, Bikertov said:
Unfortunately, this is a problem with many appliances (and cars etc) these days.
A small part, often badly designed or cheaply made, and when it fails it is not economically viable to repair.
2 examples I have suffered:
- We put in a new boiler (in fact a totally new heating system) at home when we renovated. Within 5 years, the boiler had failed for the second time, and I was told is was not worth repairing, so had to get a new boiler fitted.
- When I bought my car, an Audi convertible that was 4 years old from a main dealer, the hydraulic roof pump failed just before I took delivery of it. It 'cost' the dealer over £1000 to replace the pump. Within 2 years, it was failing again. Turns out it is a common fault, the brushes on the motor that cost pennies are cheaply made and prone to failure. But rather than a £1000+ repair again, I found someone on the web that replaced the brushes with better quality ones for about £60. Because Audi won't go down to that level of repair - they only swap out main units.
So much for the environment and saving the planet, that so many things a poorly designed so they can't be easily or cheaply repaired, and end up in landfill well before their time.
Have to agree with what you say about cars. My last ŠKODA, a 2 litre petrol vRS, had an issue at around 60k miles with the inlet manifold, which was made of plastic. It had worn around the fuel butterflies, consequently not functioning correctly, necessitating a repair costing in excess of £800 in 2015.
About three weeks after buying my current car, some kind person left me with a broken radiator grill in a car park, whilst it was parked and unattended. Needless to say, I was not best pleased, but grateful that the damage appeared relatively minor. I contacted my local dealer to order a new grill, to be told that they were only supplied with the front bumper, cost including painting but not fitting, was over £900 (in 2017). Fortunately, I managed to get a grill from eBay and a friend who owns a body shop in Northampton took the bumper off (no mean feat in itself), carefully cut away the plastic welds holding the grill to the bumper and re-plastic weld the new one in place, total cost to me was £250.
This isn’t a new thing though. Back in the 1990’s, I had a Ford Sierra Sapphire. At around three years old the rear silencer developed a hole. I tried the usual exhaust replacement specialists and was told that at the time, they weren’t available as aftermarket parts and had to be supplied by Ford. Off to the local Ford agents I went, but was horrified to be told that I’d need to replace the whole system, from the manifold back - the reason was that the original exhaust was manufactured in one piece and fitted before the rear axle was at the factory, so it was impossible just to replace the rear section. Bearing in mind that it was a Ford, it wasn’t cheap either. I seem to recall that I was relieved of around £130 for the exhaust, which was a fair chunk of money in the early 90’s (to me).
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31 minutes ago, dom said:
But are you trying to change things? Have you bought a house and now expect to influence planning to reduce industry or tourism in your locality? Are you pushing the NP agenda to help further those goals? That's the bit which I was really referring to in the context of this topic.
Personally, I’d like to see a reduction in the building and development around where I now live and around several other Norfolk towns until such time as the infrastructure is updated to accommodate the increase in local population. Yes, we have moved to the county, but our bungalow was built over 35 years ago and we have simply replaced the two people who originally lived here, so no nett increase.
Our doctor’s surgery is overwhelmed, getting a dentist is virtually impossible, barely a week goes by without Anglian Water digging up the roads to repair a system that is not fit for purpose and suffering from under investment to modernise.
As far as The Broads is concerned, I resent navigation funds being used to further NP aspirations. I do not see that more ranger patrols will promote safety generally, although they may help in busy areas to educate and protect kayakers and paddle boarders who contribute nothing financially to the BA’s coffers, most of whom are licenced by their own organisations.
31 minutes ago, dom said:One of the reasons I'm particularly vocal about it is that I was, to a degree, driven out by the onset of the decline of the boating industry and lack of prospects as a young person in Broadland (and that was as an academic high achiever). Having worked long and hard over several decades, I now want to move back to the area, but the job market is far from healthy and the cost of accommodation is disproportionaly expensive. I'd love to be in the same position but sadly the cost of living in the area I still call home is currently preventing me buying somewhere to retire to. I'd happily live on a boat, but the BA's stance on this effectively renders it impossible to do as a hard working, law abiding person these days.
Our property is small - just a 2/3 bedroom bungalow on a small development about a mile and a half from the nearest town. It’s nothing special to look at and we bought it in a very dilapidated state. It was liveable, but only just. The day we moved in, my wife started to put things in a kitchen cupboard and it promptly fell off the wall! We have spent a small fortune on the place, updating everything from the gas boiler, the kitchen, bathroom, even the internal doors and garden, which was extremely overgrown and uncared for. Yes, I’m lucky, I’m retired, having spent 48 years at work since leaving school, the vast majority in the logistics industry working long, antisocial hours. I consider my position now to be one I have earned, not to which I am automatically entitled.
Just as a footnote, I lived in north west London until I was 21 and had to move away to be able to afford to buy a house. Like you, there is no way that I could afford to return to live in the area of my birth and childhood, even if I wanted to. It’s just how things are.
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Andrew, as a nation, the UK contributes about 1% of global emissions in total. Changing from gas to electric for cooking on boats on The Broads would have no effect in real terms.
The fact is that to power electric cookers would probably entail using a generator anyway.
Much is being made of becoming carbon neutral in this country, but who will tell the Chinese, whose emissions represent about 28% of the total produced (amongst others) that they will have to reduce their output of greenhouse gasses, when their whole economy is based around a manufacturing industry that makes so many of the things that we buy.
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56 minutes ago, dom said:
I think this is a key problem area. Increasingly, the Broads is suffering "Burnham Market Syndrome". Large numbers of incoming surburban retirees driving up house prices, marginalising working class people from the leisure and similar industries, then complaining about traffic, noise, etc from holidaymakers disturbing their bird watching or paddleboarding. . . . . . . . . . . .
Oooh! That hurt. As an incoming suburban retiree, I resent that generalisation. I keep my boat on The Broads, spend quite a lot of my money on maintenance at a Broadland marina, spend money at Broadland businesses when onboard, whether in shops or pubs. Since moving here, we’ve spent multiple thousands of pounds with local businesses refurbishing our home.
Ive been coming to The Broads for over 50 years and it was a long held ambition to move to the county when I retired. I remain extremely grateful that I will spend the remainder of my life in a county in which I feel so very comfortable and am proud to call my home.
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58 minutes ago, YnysMon said:
It’s even more worthwhile getting up extra early during the Spring and Summer. The bird song alone just after dawn is wonderful. I always see far more wildlife just after dawn than any other time of the day.
Mmmm! Good point. But I’m quite enjoying living like a normal person after too many years of working shifts, including fourteen years of nights, long hours and starting work at times that don’t feature on a lot of people’s clocks.
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36 minutes ago, kpnut said:
I ought to get up earlier to see these sunrises; I need more willpower!
Make the most of it at this time of the year, sunrises are a tad early during the summer months. 😉
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1 hour ago, Broads01 said:
Yes I know, I was only being silly. Joking apart, do you think passage under Ludham for boats with your airdraft and similar (many hundreds of them) is getting harder?
Without a doubt. We need 8’3” to clear Ludham and looking at the river levels since the end of October, when the first of the storms hit, I’d guess that we’d have had few (if any)opportunities to navigate under the bridge since.
Something needs to be done - I’m not entirely convinced that global warming is the reason behind rising river levels on the northern rivers in particular. There must be something else influencing the change, whether it is a lack of dredging, more water run off from streams and rivers running into the Broadland waterways or something else.
I don’t have the local knowledge to say with any authority, merely to speculate, but I think the lads at Richos will have a busy season at the bridge if levels don’t recede soon.
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1 hour ago, Broads01 said:
So Malcom, with a bit of ballast you'd slip under Potter no problem 😊.
Simon, we sometimes struggle to get under Ludham! I think the rudder would be digging in the mud before we had enough ballast to negotiate Potter! The last time we went under ‘that bridge’ was around 2006, when we hired Grenada Girl from Summercraft.
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1 hour ago, Bikertov said:
Mine has an automatic pump with a float switch, like a bilge pump.
We have a similar set up on NL. The container looks like a Tupperware box, but I know it isn’t, with a float switch and pump mounted inside. The shower drains into the box and water is then pumped out through a fitting on the starboard side.
Our galley sink and basin in the heads both drain through fittings above the waterline on the port side, marked in the photo.
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21 minutes ago, oldgregg said:
The frustrating thing is that insurance is now supposed to be the same price for a new customer as it is for existing.
But that's blatantly absolute nonsense, unfortunately. Mrs OG's renewal has come up, last year was £100 less than the renewal quote.
A quick look with the Meerkats and we're getting quotes for £150 less. Not really a shocker, but not how things are supposed to be.
There appears to be no reward for loyalty now. My RAC renewal came in at the end of November and it took a phone call to negotiate the price down to something more acceptable. Our mobile phone contracts were coming to an end and we’ve saved a fortune by buying new phones direct from Apple and getting discounted SIM only deals from EE, who provide our full fibre broadband and not accepting the deal offered.
And don’t start me on actually getting through to speak to a human being. Automated answering, selecting multiple options to eventually get through to someone who can help is so frustrating and the music they choose to play whilst you’re waiting usually drives me to distraction.
My most recent experience being with Halfords, whose Tyres on the Drive operative succeeded in damaging two of the alloys on my wife’s car whilst fitting new two new tyres. Twenty minutes listening to inane ‘muzak’ to speak to someone in South Africa, who lacks any degree of empathy, is not what I call customer service! Grrrrrrrrr! 😡
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There is too much speculation that the cause of the fire was hushed up. With the promotion of EV’s as ‘the future’ open admission that they aren’t dangerous when they do catch fire could be damaging to the industry.
Looking at some of the videos and explanations on line, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that it was a hybrid. The explosion that caused much of the damage seemed far more violent than one would imagine from a diesel vehicle. Although diesel combusts, it is far less combustible than petrol.
There are a great many rules and regulations abut the safety of lithium batteries. Try sending them by post and see the hoops that have to be negotiated before they can be sent. There are special boxes that are recommended for storing batteries for drones and camera, such is the volatility of the materials they contain, yet they are deemed safe in a vehicle that can be involved in an accident. I’m afraid that I remain suspicious of their safety in vehicles and of the cause of this incident.
The current storm of publicity in the news about another ‘cover up’ should be proof that the truth is often withheld.
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My Day
in The Broadscot Lounge
Posted
At last! A (relatively) warm, sunny day. Had the boat not been in Paul’s shed receiving some attention to a couple of leaky windows and a couple of gel coat repairs, it would have been a great day to be afloat. I didn't want to waste a dry day, albeit a bit chilly early on, so decided to get some of the accumulated crud of my car, especially as it’s going for service on Tuesday - I can feel a pain in the wallet developing already. Washed, quick wax applied and vacuumed, all ready for the inevitable rain, or deposits from the local crow population!