oldgregg

Yeah, I did think it was a bit odd. The turn of phrase was very specific, to me it implied that the individual knew less than they were making out.

I see that there is a potential buyer. If it does indeed happen (and of course buying a Boatyard is not as simple as buying your lunch), then I think an owner who is actually interested in running a Boatyard would be a very good thing for that site.

Does anyone remember this guy? https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/05/youtuber-jailed-after-staging-plane-crash-to-make-video-trevor-daniel-jacob The YouTuber who had the misfortune of suffering an engine failure on his light aircraft and had to bail out. Lucky that he was wearing a parachute and had a fire extinguisher strapped to his leg under his trousers..... It wasn't long before people analysed the video and suggested that the FAA got involved. He got six months in prison for staging the crash.

Indeed. And this is why there is so much clickbait on YouTube. There's lots of "You won't believe what happened" and "My latest car purchase was a huge financial mistake" titles on Videos, with the bigger channels also able to add a custom thumbnail of them holding their heads in despair. It's aways a good way of spotting the dullest videos where they were scraping the barrel for ideas.

I watch a lot of YouTube, particularly car and photography content but a fair bit about boating. Not so much about the Broads though. But I don't really watch any of the Broads 'influenzas' any more, they're all just producing the same stuff year on year. New faces and channels come along but it's just exactly the same formula rehashed again and again and again. Someone sent me a link to the Ludham Bridge video person the other day. It was something like a 15 minute edit of just boats coming up to the bridge, some getting through, some turning round. I skipped through it, to see if there was anything interesting... Spoiler alert but there wasn't. I get that sensationalism is easier and to make genuinely interesting content requires real talent and a lot of time and effort and therefore genuinely interesting content is going to be rare, but it's good to see there are still a few people about doing that.

Oh I didn't say they were any good.... Those approved repairers are often pretty terrible. It's more the case of they have to replace everything which is damaged rather than skip stuff which you or I would think is okay to leave. It's more about 'well, the insurer is paying' than actually doing a good job. But of course a 'specialist generalist' repairer is never going to have the knowledge of a brand specialist. It's all really broken.

Unfortunately, having worked in the industry, I don't think you're too far from the truth. I get that the repair prices are high because insurers need to use approved repairers who meet a certain standard, and for the work to have a warranty etc. They also aren't allowed to compromise on repairs, again for example if a door was heavily damaged but there was nothing else apart from some very minor marking where the door had brushed against the closure then you or I would just replace the door and ignore those tiny scuffs. Insurer-approved repairers aren't allowed to do that and so a perfectly good car would be written off. The example I have cited happened to Mrs OG when she was hit by a third party and we settled for pretty much market value plus the car back as an unrecorded write-off. I found a replacement door for less than £100 and never did spot the marks that the car apparently had. There's something very wrong with the insurance industry.

I didn't realise it had closed, bit of a shame if so as it seemed to be a useful resource. The shop stocked the sort of stuff one tends to forget and the cafe was a handy breakfast stop. I've not stopped there since before covid, but I was talking to the owner back in 2019 and it did seem to be very much a lifestyle decision to be there.

Everything I've heard about the NDR from people in infrastructure seems to suggest that the Western Link was always planned, but that the council knew they'd never get the cost approved to build it in one go so they split the project into two. The overall cost of doing so (allowing for inflation, analysis etc) is almost certainly going to be more but that's public sector procurement...

Take this with a massive pinch of salt because it's from those talented folk at Archant. https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/local-council/20769218.controversial-175-000-bat-bridges-ndr-work-surveys-reveal/

Gotta love 'Stives'. We've not been since autumn 2020... At which point any sort of holiday anywhere felt like an absolute luxury. A sunny week in Cornwall even more so. Only the other day we were saying how we need to get back there. Time for a pint in the sloop, and lunch at the Seafood Cafe .

I bet it doesn't!

I think that's the sweet spot. The post-2011 cars have more power but way more problems. I'm 6'2" with fairly long legs so a lot of cars don't fit me properly.... Z4's are better than most, though.

It's surprising how many low-mileage examples there are out there, even in the first gen. They do seem to be a car that people keep a long time and cherish. I'm guessing you went for a pre-LCI with the N52? I test drove an LCI (I think it was a 2013 car) 20i at Inchcape and it was a lovely car in many ways, but without the six pot it didn't really 'feel' like a BMW roadster. I think the 23i and 30i are probably the ones to go for. 24,000 is properly good though! If you do ever think about selling, I could be interested.

I think he's got one with the M54 though.... That and the N52 are pretty solid. It's the later turbocharged stuff with direct injection that is troublesome. I'm currently trying to work out which Z4 to buy. It's a bit of a minefield, but generally DI and turbo(s) = trouble - NA and port injection = reliable.

Well... Blue Mist had a go at an alternative during lockdown

There's a few Supreme Commanders floating about... One has been ruined by some idiot painting the blue gel white, but plenty still around these parts.

Yeah they're very good for the money. I've hired Major 2 a number of times and she's hard to fault. In 2020 I had her booked for my usual "boys weekend" in September..... Lockdown meant we couldn't all go together, but I kept the booking and Mrs OG and I had the boat instead. They're an excellent boat for a couple, tons of space and with no-one sleeping in the aft cabin it becomes a wonderful lounge/diner. Not many boats handle like them, either. I think the Pearl provides a more modern take on that design, with a bit of a layout re-jig and better stern and sidedeck access.

Tideway is lovely, I went onboard the previous one but this looks to have been done to a similar standard. I like a Pearl and I know Clive does too.

If only there was some sort of social network dedicated to the Broads, which didn't sell your data or use it to profile you for advertising and monetisation purposes and which wasn't run by some greedy global megacorp...

The pun is that the Nag is Sat next to you.

There's some pretty good pictures here too, you'll need to click/tap to make them bigger. Norwich Castle Mall Development (georgeplunkett.co.uk) There's also a (paid) article about it at the Institution of Structural Engineers. I have no idea whether it's any good...

It's awesome isn't it. I have also wondered where the rest of it is! There's a documentary about the building of Castle Mall, it really is a fascinating project as it it woven into the fabric of the city centre like pretty much no other shopping centre ever has been. I was fairly young when it was being built, but I remember standing on the temporary bridge to the Castle circa 1990 and looking into the massive hole and seeing the decks of the structure being built under Castle Meadow and Farmer's Avenue. Such a complex and clever project. It will be an absolute nightmare to demolish, I suspect they might not do it as a whole.

If that's your mileage, you're best keeping those cars until the wheels fall off. There's no real need to replace cars that aren't causing trouble. I think @BroadAmbition would approve of those numberplates....

Given that the other rumoured sale appears to have fallen through, you'd have to wonder who else would take the site on.