Cockatoo

Thank you JohnK, Every donation makes a great difference but yours is enough (more than enough) to get one person off the streets :)

How cold are you on a scale of 1-10? Really? They do this with pain as well and it is meaningless/ Up until a few years ago the most painful thing I had ever experienced was a couple of broken ribs playing rugby. Until then this was my '10' Then, my appendix burst. This made the broken ribs about 3 on the pain scale.

This is my 4th year volunteering at one of the Crisis at Christmas residential shelters. Along with about 10,000 other volunteers we open residential and day centres for homeless people to get them off the streets over the holiday period. For 8 days we provide them with three hot meals a day, clothing, access to medical services and advice to help get them housed permanently. I'll be volunteering for 6 out of the 8 days. I'd like to ask anyone that can to sponsor me through the page linked below. https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SteveDowty

Heard in the house of commons bar, sometime in the future: "Hello Terry, how are you voting on this Broads becoming a National Park Bill" "Well old man it's been a NP for years so this is just crossing the Ts and dotting the Is. Nice to have to vote on something we don't have to think about"

Can I just say that I have found this interesting and thank-you JohnK for posting it. We don't always know what subjects we will find interesting until they appear in front of us so search isn't really an option if you don't know what to search for. Couple that with the fact that even if you do know what to search for most forum search engines are pretty dire.

I commented on their Facebook page before the program ended lol

Well having just read the thread from start to finish all I can say is what a fantastic journey. With regard to buying the boat without a survey what can I say? It's a calculated risk and from reading your blogs I don't doubt that you very carefully considered those risks before taking the chance. Best of luck to you Robin :)

My Dad and a Great Dane called Blue. Not so much 'dropped' in my Dad's case. It was more like he was bowled. I was about 12yo, Six of us, Me, Dad, his girlfriend Barb, her daughter Sue (about 15), Jenny (boxer) and a Great Dane called *Blue were on a sailing boat for a long weekend. Moored somewhere north of Potter Barb was cooking breakfast, Dad was messing about with ropes and stuff and the two dogs were mooching around a big field being dogs. Dad called them back to the boat and they were off! Jenny was a sprinter. instantly flat out and heading for the boat. Blue used to take a while to get her legs into the right firing order and then stretch out her stride so she was actually the fastest. She caught up with Jenny just as they reached the bank. Jenny stopped and hopped onto the deck. Blue, with a look of terror on her face, couldn't stop and bowled my Dad off the back of the boat into the water, Dad had the hump all day because a: we couldn't stop laughing and b: Barb, Sue and I were more interested in getting Blue out of the water than him. *Blue was a rescue dog that we fostered for a friend of my Dad's "Honestly Maurice it will only be for a week or two" At this time we'd had her about 18 months.

Long ago two of us left Felixstowe docks with containers bound for the same place in Kingston. In the morning I was parked outside the Delivery in Kingston-upon-Thames. My mate was in Kingston on Hull wondering why the locals had never heard of the industrial estate.

Hmm, looks like I'm going to have to change the name of the boat we will be attending the meet aboard. Watch this space

The first time I crossed Breydon was under tow in an old broads cruiser that was slowly sinking. An acquaintance (a regular at my local, I lived in Norwich at the time, had bought. We had an electric pump in the bilge connected to his boat by a very long wire. It worked well until the breaker kept popping on his boat and the pump stopped halfway across. What did we learn from this? If you are going to do it again carry a spare pump This is probably why crossing Breydon in a well maintained boat has never fazed me too much. The first time I crossed on my own in a hire boat I don't remember it being a big deal. There wasn't any advice in the manual. I just headed for Yarmouth, moored overnight at the big moorings on the left near the Greyhound Stadium, not there any more I believe, and the old boy that collected the mooring fee told me the best time to leave there was 10am so off I went. Mind you, as a kid I used to drink from the garden hose, play out after dark and put pennies on the local train line so the train flattened them as it passed. All things that result in instant death nowadays it seems. Steve

I bought my Nextbase after being involved in an accident the year before last. At the time I had a cheap Amazon camera that only seemed to work when it felt like it. Luckily this was one of the days that it was working. Sunday evening and someone pulled out in front of me. The following morning I rang his insurer, Admiral, and the conversation went something like this. Me: One of your policyholders wrote my car off last night, his reg is blah, blah Admiral: [tap, tap, tappity tap] He is insured by us but we haven't had notification from him yet Me: Yes you have, I heard him talking to you on the phone yesterday Admiral: Ahh that would have gone to our 'out of hours' service. It will take a couple of days to get to us in claims Me: Have you got an email address? Admiral: Yes sir it is claims@blah blah Me: OK well lets knock the BS on the head straight away. I've emailed you a link to my dashcam footage. If I haven't heard from you by close of business today accepting liability and with a proposal to deal with the claim I will be instructing the biggest bunch of ambulance chasing lawyers I can find. Bye {click} This was at about 9.30am By 3pm they had rung me back. How can we help? Do you need a car? When can our engineer inspect your car? By Friday pm we had agreed a value and the money was in my account the following Monday morning That convinced me of the need to get a decent Dashcam and also to fit one in Debs' and my father-in-law's car Steve

I tried the three mock exams on the RSGB site and scored an average of 19 so with training I shouldn't have a problem. That was without guessing any, if I didn't know the answer I marked it as fail. I did get three wrong that I thought I knew but that was more down to rushing and not reading the question properly.

Mine was delivered the other day and yes they can however as Nigel says: So it's channel mode only for me at the moment. I have got interested enough to be looking into getting a ham radio licence, something I'd thought about for a while but, for some reason, I thought it would be really expensive. Although I must confess I do suffer from "Ooh tech, take my money" syndrome

Thanks Nigel, Stupid question 2: Does a ham radio licence cover you for using the Marine VHF frequencies? And how come you can answer these questions in English when the Ofcom site (and others) send you on an endless loop of weblinks all written in techspeak

Thanks for that Viking23 Well I've just been on an Amazon spree (I had £89 in a giftcard balance) I shouldn't be allowed to Amazon unattended. Well that's what Debs will say anyway

Time for an idiot question now. If you have an amateur radio licence is it still illegal to use something like a UV5-R on PMR channels?

Brilliant for Sea Scouts

Another vote for Nextbase here

I was flying back from Benbecula (Outer Hebrides) to Stapleford (NE of London) in a light twin many moons ago and saw fog pouring over the ridge of the North Weald as we approached Stapleford. It was an awesome sight with fingers of fog gradually filling up any depressions in the ground. No camera phones then and by the time one of my passengers had got their camera out of their bag we were past and on finals. It was one of those lost photo opportunitiesthat you really regret.

I went to see a Doctor after a motorcycle accident. The very snotty receptionist insisted on knowing why "Because my bo77%^ks got squashed against the petrol tank and are all bruised" I said in a very loud voice and I pulled my tracksuit bottoms down so she could see. The rest of the waiting room were in stitches On subsequent visits she never asked

Is not it Izzerntit

Does that mean someone else brings the cakes?

Can anyone help the newbies out with the format for these meets? I've posted on this thread to keep Polly's other thread clear for signups :) Steve

Not a lot more to report really. That night we moored at Thurne Dyke but unfortunately there was no food at the Lion. Acle Spice came to the rescue with a delivery :) then it was on to Potter Heigham for some shopping followed by a night at the Maltsters at Ranworth. The next day saw us moored in Faircraft Loynes at Wroxham for a pump out, a few drinks in the Boatshed and Fish and Chips onboard. Thursday it was pasties from Horning for lunch followed by another night at Ludham Bridge and a visit to the Dog. Friday night saw us at the White Horse, Neatishead leaving us with a short run up to Stalham to return the boat Saturday morning. Mission accomplished. Everyone had a lovely relaxing time and back at Stalham we booked another week on a different boat (two cabins) for us all in May, Debs is sold on the idea of buying a share and after contacting Alan (ranworthbreeze) we are going to take a look over Ranworth Breeze next month :)