Malanka

Don’t have one, we sold house in UK when we left have rented for the past 16 years. Funnily enough returning to the UK as we plan to do we can’t get a mortgage as we have zero credit history in UK. So we rent for a while until credit is good then off we go. We hope lol

I did say they were a little in the dear side. M

So yes, so much yes it’s fundamental. omg YES IT’S VERY YES

Yes John. The New Roberts radios are digital made to look like the old ones. So called retro chic. They are amazing. They are also quite dear. M

Now my age is showing . Have a gay old time is the flintstones. He’s a bar he’s a tip he’s the championship, he’s the most tip top, top TIM. That’s TOPCAT. I always thought of myself as Benny. Which cat were you? M

Our Roberts worked brilliantly everywhere. M

Oh Timbo, how wonderful it is to read you again. Not sure that “mincing” is a suitably pc phrase in these so enlightened times though. Watch you don’t get hauled out for being something phobic. I’m off to mince about and have a gay old time ( topcat) M

We have oil lamp ( we put citronella infused oil in it) on Malanka too. we have lots of high tech batteries and inverters and galvanic isolators, 12v charging points all hidden. Going in today a new galley with flush mounted 4 burner hob with glass lid, grill and oven. We try to hide all the tech stuff, the Roberts radio now deceased, was faux 1950s look. The new galley will be inset into the mahogany worktop. So we can choose what we do or don’t do, to me that’s the advantage of new tech you can choose or choose not to use it. Still no bow thrusters though lol M

Don’t touch quickfit with a very long pole. I asked my JLR people what fuel to use in Millie.Supercharged V8, 575hp 600+nm girlie and They said and I quote: “Ordinary 95 unleaded is fine no need for additives or premium fuel unless you’re going to race on the track”. Funnily enough that’s what my dad said after 40 years in the lubrication oil business. I use cheapest available from same brand what I don’t do is go all over to save 2p. If you do that you’re likely to find the places that don’t store their fuel correctly sooner rather than later. Usually here it’s COOP, which is a Swiss supermarket brand. Spend the money on nice air fresheners not fuel additives lol M

I agree with Vaughn. Working in quality always exposes you to everything bad anyone has to say. Done that for 32 years now and it hasn’t changed a bit. What the American management should have done was introduce a golden ticket scheme for those giving great service and going the extra mile. Same information gathered but from a positive response not a negative one. On everyone’s bed when they arrive would be five golden tickets to give to staff when they did something the customer finds exceptional. Works a treat avoids negativity and one soon finds out who the golden nuggets are. M

Well folks we joined the 21st century and changed all our bulbs from the heritage collection car type 12v to all LED. We were desperate not to lose the homely yellowish glow indoors which we think matches well with mouldy old wood and diesel aroma or woodie cruising. Well our first efforts turned the saloon into a gynecologists lady parts rummaging room. God Awful they were. I couldn’t decide whether to bend over and exhale ( procological mess about) or sit down and open my mouth for an examination by the mouth torturer ( dentist). Whatever the description in this case “warm white” the effect was retinal bleaching and a headache. So we sought version two and they are amazing , something yellow / pink number 5 or some such they are called and they look like heritage collection 12v car bulb glowness ( don’t care I know it’s not a word) but the leccy use is through the floor. All lamps now done and it’s simply amazing, which bodes well, for if being at home is anything to go by the offspring and their mates / girlfriends only know on, never off. Funny that. So when they go boating the batteries won’t take an enormous battering. Latest to want to take the plunge with his mates ( one Polish one Swiss) is Justin my trusty crew for the past few seasons. He is a great helm but mooring not so much, this summer cruise is his shakedown before being set free as captain of his own vessel. Anyway what’s your opinions on LED, I was sceptical but technology has won me over in a big way. All your fault Charlie boy. Over to you M

We use a 3 dongle with massive free ( pre paid) data only SIM as it thinks it’s a phone but it isn’t . Works great. Its velcroed onto the windscreen support and into the wheelhouse 12v. Wires go behind windscreen catches fannies your auntie all neatly tucked away

For me it’s the lack of trepidation or awareness concerning consequences of actions. I had that drilled into me every day for years and I have done the same with mine. My kids have no limits to their ambitions (13 years at International Schools will do that) but they respect other people. M

Well I was on the broads in the 70’s and every decade since and yes there were more hire boats then. We never moored in a hire yard unless it was give boat back day. If folks remember that differently that’s fine. What we did was drop mudweight, or chuck rhond anchors into reeds and take a leap of faith that it’s reeds not water and hope for the best as we jumped as high and far as we could usually enthusiastically yelling some imaginary pirate boarding cry. Magic fun for a child of 13. North or south it was usually bank side mooring. Anyone using percy’s Island recently will have witnessed almost every night double mooring on horning staithe and the pub too. So I don’t know about nobody doing that there these days. My eyes say differently. I’m with JM on this issue in that folks don’t seem to want to moor nose to tail anymore, with all the mod cons coming out the wazoo these modern hire boats have, thrusters here there and everywhere nose to rail should be a fiddle. What I do see is less care being taken over other people’s property, this leads to then people leaving space so as not to “be in the way”, which in turn leads to well if he’s doing it and so on. Even when single handing I can push Malanka sideways with enough impetus to get ten or 15 feet out quite easily and I’m pretty sure there aren’t many hire craft that weigh more than Malanka does. I’m not the most mobile anymore ( two bouts of crutches six months each in the past 6 years) and I can still get onboard even if a little ungainly these days. My opinion for what it’s worth is that folks don’t moor with others in mind. They moor thinking I go forwards to get out therefore I must have space. This lack of thought or awareness of how boats move is down to lack of information from the hire yard at handover to new hirers. It’s not a mistake experience let’s you make. Think Reedham leaving with tide and so on, I’m sure everyone I’ve seen do that never ever does it again. When we cruise we always have plans A B AND up to F. When it comes to mooring, the I must go there in that spot is not how we cruise. We don’t have issues with mooring , apart from the smacking the boat with either boat or boat hook morons that is. Great debate, great points and as usual I agree to some degree with everything. Life’s too short to fret. My blood pressure can’t take it . No job yet still searching. M&F

Floods due to culverts being overloaded due to not being permitted to be cleared. Then rivers doing same the levels flooded for thousands of years then managed drainage ( hint hint) was stopped by the rivers authority at the behest of natural England due to commission decisions about dredging rivers and subsequent spoilage removal. Owen Patterson was one of the few who understood this so they fired him, I suspect Lord Deben has an influence there. M

My counsel would be just because they’ve stopped talking about it doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned wanting it. They are slaves and willing ones at that to EU environmental dictats without scientific foundation, study or basis in fact. They are hoofing it as they go along and it will end in disaster sooner or later. Maybe ask those in Somerset. Don't forget the same morons responsible for the CFP, CAP et al are responsible for this too. Or maybe they got it right? I wonder what history will say? A thousand year old ecosystem artificial though it may be wrecked by a quango driven by slavish adherence to nonesense issued as a commission instruction ( which means we have no choice and no SI is required for its immediate implementation) by Eurocrats from Latvia, Estonia and god knows where, who wouldn’t know Norfolk from smorfolk. Instructions follow similar numbering system eg 75/319 than directives. They are NOT the same. M

Doesn’t anyone do Irony on this forum. Natural England shouldn’t be permitted to sell snow to eskimos never mind advise our parliament so stuffed with PPE degrees they wouldn’t recognize fact from fantasy. The stupid is palpable. Keep your eyes and ears open Natural England are about nothing natural... Culvert clearing and the Summerset levels anyone?? M

Yep, felt and seen the same. Old world Brits tend to go down like lead balloons in California even if they can juggle soot and nail jelly to the ceiling. M

Hickling will disappear when natural England’s plan to stop fixing flood defenses and allow the sea in come to fruition. On record go check. M

When we moved out of our house in Belgium we found an huge rat stuck the dispensing bit of a box (was full) of grass seed. Little devil had eaten half the box and eaten itself to death when it swelled up. Ooops M

Marianne Faithful, Mick Jagger and chocolate. Enough said. Lol

“Get their rise this year”. Having worked in the private sector my whole life and latterly for an American concern, it has been drilled into my DNA that rises and bonuses are a discretionary thing, not a right. Same job as last year with no changes or improvements no matter how good you did your same as last year job, a rise should not be guaranteed or assumed. I worked through the 80s when rises if you got one was only a small proportion of inflation at the time. So more with less what a home based mantra not a work based one. Lol

Google or FOI if you can’t find it, foreign drivers prosecuted for speeding in Norfolk and Suffolk. Four years ago for cars it was zero. Lorries were different as they got magistrates by the roadside to make it happen but cars , naaa they can’t be bothered. Reason is it costs more than they raise. Road safety my bottom. Head of the RTSL years ago stood up against fixed cameras ( he said awareness worked not prosecutions) and his report was suppressed and he was replaced. Father in law to my friend of 55 years. Go figure huh M

One of our Airedale’s was a great Mole deterrent, she used to stand still cock her head to one side then tense and leap three or four feet into the air, then pounce paws down onto the offending pile on the lawn. She got really good at it. No mole, rat, or mouse was safe. She also had a penchant for hedgehogs, and subsequently died of a brain infection from bacteria from deer ticks found on hedgehogs. Very traumatic and quite horrible. We disabuse our current aireboys that hedgehogs are for chucking about the garden. Not always successfully but we do try. M

Phil at Simpsons just did ours. M