YnysMon

January 29

10 minutes ago, oldgregg said:

The Indian in the old station building at Oulton Broad was great last time we were there, and I know the Commodore has changed hands but that was a decent meal.

We had a takeaway from there (The Labone) last year and it was excellent.

January 29

4 hours ago, Smoggy said:

I'm not one for restaurants and prefer pubs that feed hence always the ferryhouse, if you expect fancy food and service you will be disappointed but if you want a good feed and a welcome you're in the right place.

It is possible to like both. :default_biggrin:

January 28

I suspect that may be a reason why there were so many diverse views about the Water’s Edge under the previous management. A lot is about expectations. Some people rolled up expectating a welcoming pub, whereas it sounds like the place was trying to be more upmarket and snobby.

p.s. I like upmarket if it’s welcoming to all.

January 26

8 hours ago, LizG said:

Why not hire a Hunters for say a week when you also have an allocation on Moonlight Shadow - ideally all the family so some sail and others cruise with the dogs staying on the cruiser?

What a delightful idea. Maybe when the boys are both working and can help with the cost.

January 26

2 hours ago, guywilkes said:

I sincerely hope not. As a Trustee for Hunters Yard (Norfolk Heritage Fleet Trust) we are very keen to encourage youngsters to experience the joys of sailing and the benefits of being outside and on the water. In fact during 2023, the yard provided sailing experiences for over 360 primary school aged children from local Norfolk schools. In 2024 Hunters Yard is expanding this new initiative. The 1930's fleet is maintained by a dedicated team of skilled boat-builders so there will still be zig-zagging and flappy sails for many more years to come. Incidentally, many of the yachts you see from Hunters fleet (they are the ones with the varnished hulls) are equipped with silent electric pod engines - so zero emissions even when the sails are down!

Glad to see a post from the Hunter’s boats trustees here. Our first, ever so magical experience, on the Broads was on a Hunter’s boat, and we hired several others over the years, including some of their day boats. I’ve posted several holiday tales about our experiences (check out past holiday blogs). :default_biggrin:

Our family would so love to hire another Hunter’s boat, it’s my idea of bliss on the Broads. However, we have regretfully decided it wouldn’t be safe now that we have two dogs. We love him, and have no regrets, but rescuing Pozzick has restricted our options. Tales on the Pozzick rescue are also available.

Really, for anyone wanting to have the authentic Broads experience, you can’t beat hiring from Hunter’s Yard.

January 23

4 hours ago, catcouk said:

We have booked Melody from Richardson's for our Easter break. Their prices dropped suddenly for the first full weekend in April but that's still our school holiday. After booking, my 5-year old was grumpy with me - "Why do we have to wait THAT long?!?! Why did you not book it for sooner?!?!"

Glad to hear you’ve booked for another Broads holiday. :default_icon_e_biggrin:

January 23

Hope are better soon Andrew. I think (Hope) that the flappy things will be around for awhile yet. They are a lot of run to sail.

January 22

Ferrets might be a thread drift too far, though I will mention that there was an interesting YouTube video from Cruising the Cut who interviewed various canal liveaboards about coping with pets on board. One couple had two ferrets on board.

January 22

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.

January 22

I think we made a mistake when we visited my brother in law who was living in Orange County in California when the boys were little. We visited in February, and there are some ski resorts just north of LA. We were so keen to ski that we visited one of those resorts for a day and booked the boys into a skiing crèche. Harry (who was about 7 at the time) was quite happy to learn to ski, but Alec (4, going on 5) just didn’t want to. He preferred just playing in the snow. The nursery staff had the temerity to suggest he was on the autistic spectrum. Just because he wanted to do his own thing.

I think that experience probably put Alec off skiing for life.

Actually, one of the things that I appreciate about my boys is that they are quite independent minded. They were never bothered about pressure to ‘fit in’ at school or since.

P.S. I’m starting to think we might get our skis and boots out of the loft too!

January 22

3 hours ago, Broads01 said:

Our paths may well cross then, Helen on your second week.

Hope to see you!

January 21

Maybe I should rename this thread ‘carried away on a pair of skis’. Totally my own fault. Who doesn’t like a bit of thread drift now and again.
:default_rofl:

January 21

Where on the Waveney? Can you narrow it down?

January 21

31 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

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!

I got rather good at skiing by 1990. Then we had kids and prioritised other holidays. It didn’t help that younger son Alec was adamant that he didn’t want to ski.

After I mastered being able to turn with parallel skis I realised though how it takes it out on your knees, particularly going down a slope with lots of moguls (mini snow hills caused by the passage of many skiers). And that was when I was 30. I’d really struggle now.

:default_badday:

January 21

1 hour ago, Mouldy said:

Humph! If I live to be 75, I’ll be grateful to still be able to walk, never mind ski! 🤦‍♂️

Kudos to Kate’s Mum, but I think most of us will be past skiing by 75.

Hemel Hempstead though…that’s a good idea. It’s where we learnt to ski. We started learning there one Spring in the late 80s and travelled down to Hemel weekly, so by the following winter when we went on our first ski holiday we were quite proficient.

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!

January 21

We’ll be adding to the river traffic. Our next trip on Moonlight Shadow is the fortnight running up to Good Friday. A whole fortnight! Bliss.

January 21

12 minutes ago, kpnut said:

I'm going to do a recce and find out which resorts offer that. Might be useful.

Please share if do you find out. I’ve decided that I need to replace my passport that expired in 2014 so might actually be able to go abroad.

I’ve found out that won’t be allowed to sing with my choir in St George’s Windsor unless I have a photo ID: either passport or photo driving licence. For some reason there are extra security requirements for St George’s than your normal cathedral. Wonder why?

:default_dunce:

January 20

We’ve stayed on the mooring that Neil mentions two or three times. It used to be distinguishable by the ‘Easter Island’ carved wood head on the bank. There were originally two, but both had disappeared by the time we last passed the location.

Further up the Waveney there are two wild moorings that seem fairly popular in the summer which are between Somerlayton and Oulton Dyke…they are nearer to Oulton Dyke and I’ve heard they can be a bit shallow at times. Both are on the port bank if you are travelling upriver.

There are also a couple of wild mooring spots on the upper Waveney, if you can get under Beccles Old Bridge. There’s a spot before Geldeston where there’s a proper quay heading and a load of substantial tree stumps that looks like a great wild mooring, though we haven’t tried it yet, and there’s Geldeston Dyke, where we have moored several times.

Options on the Yare are more limited, though I have seen boats on a couple of occasions moored on a stretch with quay heading upstream of Langley Dyke. The stretch immediately past Langley Dyke, backed by woodland, is marked as private, but there’s a section further on which doesn’t have no mooring signs.

January 20

3 hours ago, floydraser said:

We are enjoying the free bus rides and today someone told me that in France, over 65s get free ski lifts! Now if only I could work out to get there for free...

Ooo, I didn’t know that! Im not sure the knees would hold up though.

Pre having the boys (i.e. over 30 years ago) skiing was my passion. In fact, the year that Harry (our eldest) was born we had two skiing holidays. One in January in Val d’isere, which we had paid for. Relatively cheapo holiday via coach and self catering accommodation, though we were sufficiently committed to have bought our own skis and boots. The second holiday was in Bormio, Italy, and was just two or three weeks later. We had won that one in a draw we had entered in the pre Christmas Ski Show in Earl’s Court. It was particularly good, as the hotel was part way up the mountain, so skiing from the door. The hotel owner’s wife was from north wales, so we also got preferential treatment. The only downside was that the first signs of morning sickness slightly got in the way of some skiing. Once we were home I did a pregnancy test. Harry was born the following October.

Just figure that out.

January 20

6 hours ago, SwanR said:

I do think most things are now settled into a new normal.

I’m still trying get used to the new normal of being retired! Doesn’t help that we have had three trips on the boat and been up to Anglesey since the end of September. Not that I’m moaning. I just don’t seem to have got into a new routine yet.

January 20

On 04/02/2020 at 20:26, YnysMon said:

One of the reasons I post holiday blogs is so I can revisit memories. Just read this from an entry dating from February 2020.

On 04/02/2020 at 20:26, YnysMon said:

I’m so looking forward to Saturday. I had meant to do most of the packing last weekend, but both Graham and I were wiped out by horrible colds. Back at work now, but still struggling to sleep at night due to coughing. Small mercies...better last weekend than next!

That was the month before Covid lockdown. I’m starting to wonder if we did just have colds. The coughing persisted longer than normal. The following month it turned out that Covid was pretty active in Milton Keynes. Our next door neighbour Anne was one of its early victims, I still miss her.
I don’t know about everyone else, but it seemed to us that life took an awful long time to get back to normal. Even now I think that some things will never be the same.

January 20

4 hours ago, grendel said:

Probably try and get king Canute to visit.

Cnut, surely?

:default_coat:
From an Anglo Saxon nerd.

January 18

Hope we’ll get an Aussie holiday tale Jean?

January 17

2 hours ago, dom said:

When I was young, if you spent a day on the beach, you could pretty much assume you'd see a search and rescue Sea King from Coltishall at some point. I wonder if the lack of RNLI coverage between Happisburgh and Yarmouth is in any way due to this and the assumption that the RAF would be there if needed.

The RNLI's capital is such that they could put a couple of decent permanent stations in and barely even notice the dent in their finances (they lost £26m a few years ago just in investment losses!). What's the betting if you asked why they're not considering doing so, coastal erosion would be cited as a reason not to?

Apart from Coltishall base having shut down it’s my understanding that the majority, if not all, air sea rescue has been privatised now. E,g. RAF Valley (where Prince William was based) no longer operates the air sea rescue for the North Wales coast and Eryri (Snowdonia) That’s now done by a private company based in Caernarfon.

January 17

13 hours ago, floydraser said:

He played a lot of sport in his younger days, a fast bowler for the local cricket team, and football every weekend.

I watch people my age (60s) jogging and can’t help wondering if they are doing more harm than good to their joints.

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