addicted

Unfortunately some liveaboards have given the practice a bad name by leaving the area surrounding their boats filled with unsightly rubbish. We saw this occur frequently while on the RGO. A live aboard would arrive and within a week or two the bank would be buried under detritus and look like a rubbish dump. Living on a boat does put having a home of their own within reach of a lot of folk who otherwise would never be able to to do so. That has to be a good thing. Occasionally there is a TV series that features people building boats to live on. I always envy them and am tempted to follow suit however I know that the Winter would make it impossible for us, but in theory I would love to live in that environment. Carole

We had every intention of heading to the boat today. Tony was due to have a routine check-up at the doctor's this afternoon and we were going to load up the car and drive to Horning straight from the surgery. Best laid plans of mice and men etc. Surgery texted cancelling the appointment due to staff sickness and rescheduled it for tomorrow, so now we go tomorrow morning instead. It's not going to be a long stay, only till Monday due to commitments at home next week so losing a day is a real nuisance. Carole

We bought a sewn ensign recently from Gael Force for a very competative price compared with those quoted elsewhere. Carole

I've read most of the David Blake books. Didn't know about all the other authors setting their books in the same location . Will definitely look into those. I can feel a lot of Kindle loadings coming on! Carole

Happy anniversary and many happy returns to Alan also. Carole

Have a lovely holiday Helen. Hope the weather holds for you. Carole

My first visit to the broads was probably in the naughties. We had a berth on Ely marina and a friend there decided to relocate to the Broads. He invited us to spend a day with him on his boat. So we drove to Acle and met him there. We went to Horning,moored up on Percie's island for lunch and spent the rest of the day cruising the area, returning to The Bridge for dinner. We enjoyed it so much that when our marina in Ely was taken over by a less than desirable new owner we had no hesitation in relocating there and have never regretted it. Carole

My daughter got called for jury service when she was about 23 years old. It was pretty difficult for her to manage as she had her own business, an estate agency in kentish Town, But she called in a few favours owed and various experienced friends came to the rescue and together with mum held the fort. it was a pretty nasty sexial offences case which as her mum I would have preferred her not to be involved in! Then a couple of years later she got called again. This was going to prove impossible to handle as she by now had a second branch in Highgate. She wrote to the appropriate person pointing out that she had already served and that to do do again would cause real hardship and received a reply that was positively nasty. She then had her doctor write on her behalf asking for her to be excused on account of the fact that she was 8 months pregnant. The letter that came in response agreeing to release her from the responsability was really grudging. Carole

Hope the treatment is totally successful Ian and you can put this glitch behind you. Fingers crossed. Carole

I've had AVG for years and they have seen off some very nasty bugs for me during that time, Including one that arrived one Christmas Day on the back of a children's web site accessed by my 9 yrears old granddaughter and kept trying to sell me 40 healthy Russian women! When I didn't take the bait it switched to trying to sell me Viagara Carole

When we moved to Brookmans Park Herts in 1990 we discovered that there was a water metre installed which we hadn't been made aware of. Brookmans Park was one of a few areas in the UK that were designated trial areas. and the charges for water varied at diffferent times of the day and night. For instance, if you wanted to put the washing machine on first thing in the morning you simply didn't, it was hugely expensive. Because we were having the kitchen re-modelled the water board came and removed the meter. When the water bill arrived a couple of months later it was estimated. I phoned them and asked what they had estimated it on and the reply was that it was based on previous bills, Really? was my response. There was a family of 6 living here then and now's there's two so how do you make that out and why didn't you read the meter? Since you moved it it is now located under the road somewhere and accessible at all times. A short conversation followed with sufficient prevarication for me to ascertain the the true situation. So, I said, That pair of cowboys you sent to remove the metre didn't advise you where they had put it and now you don't know where to find it. And this was indeed the case. It just so happened I was due to attend a conference later that morning and the guest speaker turned out to be be none other than the chairman of the local water board! He gave a talk extolling the virtues of having a water metre a fairly unknown quantity in those days with alarmist rumours circulating such as elderly people being unable to afford to flush their toilets more once a day etc. When I approached the speaker later he told me that they had had more difficulty with the residents of Brookmans Park (most of them were premier division footballers) than all the other areas put together and he promised to look into my situation. Next morning, Tony opened the curtains to reveal a couple of booted and suiteds roaming up and down the road with metal detectors. the Chairman phoned me later that day and suggested I pay a nominal fee of £10.00 and they would hope to have it sorted in time for the next bill I happily agreed. Carole

We went to the boat last Wednesday, arrriving at about midday, it was our intention to stay for a week. We stayed on the marina for couple of days just enjoying the lovely weather. then on Friday we cruised to Womack water ( my favourite destination) to our amazement we had a choice of several moorings. Having moored easily we settled down to watch the comings and goings. We ate on board that evening. Next morning we were dismayed to find that our inverter was refusing to work which meant we wluld have to return to our mooring to plug in as use of a hair dryer is essential to me. We were also disappointed to find the shop no longer sells newspapers and a trip into the village was necesssary. We moved off late morning and arrived back on our mooring in time for lunch. Having phoned Gary at Sheerling to ask for advice on the inverter we then unplugged the mains and gave it another try and the pesky thing immediately worked.. Grrr!. We stayed on the mooring and had a very enjoyable meal in the Ferry that evening. the only complaint was that they were so busy it took 1 hour .45mins for it to be served. That didn't matter too much because we had got talking to other diners on adjacent tables and were quite content. We had intended to go off for a few days again, but I received news of the sudden death oifmy oldest ( 60years) and closest friend which rather killed my enthusiasm for doing anything much other than quietly sitting with a good book for the next couple of days and we returned home Wednesday feeling very rested and having enioyed the fabulous weather. Carole

I've visited Cornwall a few times over the years. It's very beautiful and its coastline always reminds me very much of Jersey another place I've visited a few times, Carole

Thursday is market day in Ely so a good day to go, The Cutter on the river front is a good place for lunch at least it was, it's a while since we went. The riverbank opposite is where we moored for 15 years. Have a good day. Carole

Our thoughts are very much with you Ian. Carole

We moored at brundall bay for 10 years we never had a mobile phone issue We have vodaphone. However we were moored at NBS last season literally a few hundred yards as the crow flies from our previous mooring and the signal was diabolical. Carole

Had a rodent ulcer( Basel cell cancer)removed from my nose 7 years ago.It left a nasty scar. We weren't made as aware of the dangers back in the day as we are today and it's a bit worrying to think of what damage we may have sustained that has yet to manifest itself. Carole

We're planning on going next week, so if that's true stay there please. Carole

Our heating is on every morning and every night! I don't do cold! Carole

This happened to us in the early hours of one night last Summer. Our first thought was that the alarm was malfunctionioning. but an hour later the other alarm also went off. It turned out to be fumes coming from a faiing battery. Carole

Really sorry to hear this Ian. And of course know to some extent how you must be feeling. As you say it is what it is and you just have to keep going along with what ever it throws you. Reassuring that the hospital is giving it such close attention. Good luck with the treatment. When it's all behind you you can retreat to Mermaid to recover , Carole

It was Summer 1989 and we were just starting a week away on the boat and heading for Ely from Hartford marina. We had just passed under the ramshackle bridge on the Old West when the engine cut out. Investigation revealed that the outdrive leg had kicked up because we had picked up the internal framework of a lorry seat. Fortunately Tony was able to reach it by leaning over the stern from the cockpit and managed to get it off. Luckily, no damage had been incurred and we continued our holiday with no further incident. For the 21 years we moored on RGO I always disliked the Old West immensely particularly in the latter years, (the noughties) when the water level was always suspect and liable to be too low. It very badly needed dredging. For a good part of each day boats moored at West View marina were sitting on the bottom. Carole

We returned to the boat on Friday, a last minute decision as medical appointments had made it difficult to plan ahead. We arrived about lunchtime. On our last visit we found one of the boats adjacent to us had changed and the one in it's place was a boat we have known for many years - since about 1990 in fact. It used to belong to Tony's late brother-in-law. Sadly it was no longer in the immaculate condition we remembered. We were looking forward to meeting it's present owner. We didn't have long to wait. He arrived early Saturday morning. We introduced ourselves and filled him in on the history of his boat, which he seemed to greatly appreciate. He worked hard all day cleaning after which the boat looked much more like its old self. It's a Profile 33 which was originally built for the owner of the company. We left him to his cleaning and went for a short cruise passing the NBN c in c. We waved to you all as we passed just outside Horning, All your boats looked very smart especially Broad Ambition and Water Rail. We stayed out for a few hours returning back to our mooring late afternoon. We had thought to see if there was room for us to attend the meet at Salhouse but our central heating had developed a fault which meant we were going to have to use an electric heater making hook up essential which was why we returned to our mooring. We had a very enjoyable meal at the Ferry. We returned home Tuesday having spent a very relaxing few days aboard doing very little other than routine maintenance done by Tony. Carole

Nice to see posts from the Nogs, welcome back Howard. Always enjoy reading about your boating experiences, Keep 'em coming. Carole

I don't have the knowhow or the equipment for photos I'm afraid. I just about manage to use the computer for the most basic stuff. Sorry. Carole