chrisdobson45

Sutton Bridge for us too (& I always repeat, without fail something my father would say, every time we crossed that bridge, "did you know this used to be a railway bridge?"). I once missed saying it as another driver had kept to the left hand lane after the first roundabout just past the compost packing plant and then cut me up before the roundabout to the bridge approach, wanting the eastbound A17 instead of the road back into the village, causing me to stand on the brakes, hit the horn and swear profusely. When calm had been regained within the car and we were again eastbound on the A17 my wife said, without any trace of irony, "did you know that used to be a railway bridge?" whilst looking straight out of the windscreen...

I received a call on our landline yesterday from "Jonathon" who stated he was from Virgin Media and it had been noticed that there had been unauthorised access to or broadband from foreign IP addresses since the weekend. I wasn't to worry as he would sort it out for me. I immediately queried how could I be assured he was from Virgin Media, he offered me his Virgin Media vendor security reference number, but me calling Virgin Media to get help wasn't possible, he worked for a special department within Virgin Media and couldn't be connected via the "normal ways". At the time of this call I was part way through a web chat with Virgin Media technical services, sorting out an unrelated issue so I diverted the chat to deal with the call. The live chat confirmed the call was a scam, and we managed to keep "Jonathon" on the call for 15 minutes, he kept repeatedly asking for three (different) digits of my security number and then needed answers to other security questions (first pet, mother's maiden name, first school, etc). Each time I gave an answer (completely fictitious) he would tell me the answer was incorrect and needed to ask another question, clearly attempting to harvest the security information for the account. He then cut the call when I refused to confirm my email address and postcode. I could have invested another hour in wasting his time. Whilst he was attempting to scam me he wasn't scamming anyone else. The scripting was pretty close to what you'd expect if you had to contact Virgin Media directly via 150 or engaged in a web chat with them. I suppose this may be a reflection of how poor Virgin Media's telephone support is rather than the potential scammer being particularly good...

I hope for a new sort of normality for the summer (meaning last week in July to first week in September) such that lockdown restrictions are relaxed for the many but the vulnerable are still protected. I see social distancing and masks being the new norm, and many of those things that we've all become used to and have taken for granted being a thing of the past (such as crowded pubs & restaurants, large outdoor gatherings such as festivals, indoor concerts, theatre, etc). I'm missing travelling for pleasure, there's so much that we want to do, not going to the far flung corners of the world, done that, worn the T shirt, etc, but closer to home, north of Scotland and the Western Isles, Norfolk & Suffolk, Cornwall, The Gower and a trip back to the Valleys to see where my dad was born and brought up. What brought this all home this week was our 5 year old lab was suspected of having a life ending illness and in the three days of worry whilst referrals were sought we talked about all the places we had been with Jasper and all the places we wanted to take him. He had the bestest of times on a boat on the Broads three years ago, every day was an adventure for him, whether barking at the swans or trying to leap into the water wherever we were, he loved it and we're booked on Brinks Tempo in July. Well, two vets suspicions were proven incorrect by £4,000 and a day of tests and imaging at Pride Scarsdale Vet Centre in Derby, there's no tumour, but a fatty cyst that will not been any further treatment so once he's back to his old self we've raods to travel, rivers to cruise and there's lots of swans to bark at...

Completely agree with this. I work in a highly regulated industry where health & safety is priority, yet in the last 30 odd years I've experienced serious accidents, due to either acts or non-acts of individuals, putting themselves or colleagues at significant risk. I've been involved in numerous personal & behavioural health & safety initiatives, some borrowed from the petro-chem industry, some developed for my industry, but all costing many hundreds of thousands of pounds, and the findings were generally the same, companies can always do better but there are some people with little or no regard for their own actions and the consequences thereof. There are some people who will put themselves and others at significant risk, and no amount of legislation, education, instruction will change that. I was involved in a serious accident some years ago in Boston, Lincolnshire, this was investigated to the nth degree by the HSE and the H&S Department of one of UK's (and worlds) largest civil engineering contractors. My employer was prosecuted under the H&S at Work Act and other related regulations. We pleaded guilty, as one of our most experienced supervisors was injured and lost his left leg. Having been fined a significant amount and paid even more significant damages, the senior inspector for the HSE remarked that in future we should consider not employing "stupid". I am all for companies having robust measures in place to protect employees, customers, etc. Companies with little or no regard for H&S need closing down. However, people need to take responsibility for their own actions, something that this current bloody Covid lockdown situation has demonstrated. Sorry, rant over...

Pedro Bora 43 - manufacturer's air draft +/- 3.20m Kath & I looked at one (secondhand) a few years ago, very traditional, very well made but not for us at the time. I have a soft spot for trawler yachts, having spent several weekends messing around on a colleagues boat in and around Vancouver Island (Beneteau Swift 52)

My sister was a nurse in the RAF and used to finish the final night shift of seven at RAF Hospital Ely and then go straight to the train station and catch the train to Nottingham, to spend a few days at our parents. She would catch the Harwich Boat Train at about 8.15am and find an empty compartment, set an alarm clock and grab an hours sleep before arriving in Nottingham. Once afternoon she woke up with a start, finding herself on board an empty train at Liverpool Lime Street. Someone had stolen her alarm clock and she had slept all the way through Nottingham & Manchester...

I've always thought Norwich to be a great "destination" terminus station, ever since my personal involvement with the city began. I'd holidayed with my parents throughout the 1970's and early 1980's and had visited Norwich by boat a few times. When I left university I had no idea what I wanted to do so took a temporary job in a brewery in Nottinghamshire, working in the racking cellar. The work was backbreaking but the money was good, especially for a broke 21 year old. My then girlfriend had graduated and taken a job with Norwich Union as a graduate accountant and had moved to Norwich, living in a bed-sit on Stafford Sreeet, off the Earlham Road. I would finish work on a Friday at about 1.30pm and cycle back to my parents, have a strip wash and then catch the bus into Nottingham, to catch the late afternoon service to Norwich via Ely. I can remember the stations between Ely and Norwich now (Brandon > Thetford > Harling Road > Eccles Road > Attleborough > Spooner Row > Wymondham > Norwich) as though it was yesterday and not nearly 35 years ago. You knew when you'd arrived in Norwich, the station was (and still is) a magnificent building. I've often travelled the first part of my route in recent years, to Ely, then changing for Cambridge and Bishops Stortford, as an alternative to Nottingham to London and then back out again. Enduring another snowy working from home day, I've realised I need to add the journey to Norwich onto my "to do" list for when all this is all over...

A few years (OK, a few decades) ago I project managed a bored piling project in Bury St Edmunds, site of a demolished timber treatment works adjacent to the Greene King Brewery. The ground was saturated with all sorts of timber treatment products, including the tanerlizing liquid. We found out that it acts as a retarder, the concrete placed in the ground wouldn't set for days and when it did it had next to no strength. We returned and drove steel tubular piles... Sorry for the thread hijack, as you were, and I'm waiting eagerly for the reason for the high oil pressure in the BMC...

Not much change in cold and miserable Nottinghamshire. Apart from three visits to the office (Bishops Stortford), two face to face meetings in London & a week on holiday in North East Norfolk in August, it's been the same routine, get up at 6, walk the dog, feed the dog, switch the computer on, Teams & Zoom meetings, walk the dog, feed the dog and then supper with the wife when she arrives home from work (teaches, no sign of her working from home, she's currently conducting chemistry practical's for onward online transmission to the students who are at home), then a couple of hours catching up on emails, etc., before an early night. Rinse & repeat... I've never worked close to home in the last 25 odd years, always "worked away" including three years in Canada, so having my family close to me is still very much a novelty. Not sure what going back to a "new normal" will feel like as previous to lockdown in March I was a frequent flyer to Scandinavia, Germany and the Baltic Countries...

Bit of interest for Floydraser at about 8mins, 38 sec...

Was it as I remember it (nissen-hut like)? A google search didn’t throw up any photographs

Hmmm, could have been a prefab rather than a Nissen hut affair, it was a long time ago....

In the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's, as a kid, I used to holiday with my parents on the Broads, hiring from Pearson Marine (Reedham), Brister Craft (Brundall & Wroxham), Aston Boats (Beccles) and Harvey Eastwood VIP (Brundall). Our family (mum, dad & sister) would usually holiday with another family and hired two boats. As we grew up, various friends, girlfriends / boyfriends and then husbands / wives would holiday with us. I've not had any contact with the other family for years, maybe 25 years, and recent family events provided an opportunity for a socially distanced catch up. Early Broads holidays were the main topic of discussions and the first holiday, in 1977, has prompted a question I'm unable to answer. We hired two boats from Pearson Marine, Golden Arrow, a DC30 which wasn't the yellow of the Hoseason's brochure photo (it was white hull and grey cabin / decks) and Golden Gleam, a 30-odd foot centre cockpit woody. Memories suggest we got just about everywhere, apart from Potter Heigham. First night was Oulton Broad and then we headed north via St Olaves, over Breydon Water, eventually spending nights at Acle, Coltishall and Stalham, before heading back south and visiting Beccles, before returning to Reedham. Back in 1977, things weren't as sophisticated as they are now and my parents were very much "meat & two veg" sorts. As such, adapting to 1970's pub fayre was a bit of a culture shock for them. Scampi or chicken in a basket was all the rage back then. The specific question that has me stumped is where we ate when moored at St Olaves. We moored north of the bridge, same side of the river as the Bell Inn. My father and the dad from the other family went into the pub to sample the local offerings and the mums plus four kids, ages 13, 11, 11 & 9 were left with the boats and had a wander to the shop near the bridge, and then walked up the road to the priory remains (I recall being underwhelmed, I was after all 11 at the time). For our evening meal we crossed the bridge and then, I recall, we turned left in to what appears now to be Johnson Yacht Station, there being a cafe / restaurant in what I recall was a large corrugated iron shed (nissen hut?), filled with formica topped, metal framed tables. I think the servery was a hatch on the wall and the food was very much what my parents were used to, minced beef & onion pie (big square slice from a bigger rectangular pie tin), boiled potatoes, cabbage and gravy. Some 43 years later this place has stuck in my mind, and also with the daughter of the other family who was also 11 at the time. What has resulted in this memory is unknown, but maybe the meal stuck out as it was so very different from suppers at the Bridge Inn, Acle, Rising Sun Coltishall and the Glebe, Stalham, which were all something in a basket, and kids were welcome in certain parts of the establishments is eating with parents. I wonder if the Bell Inn welcomed children in the bar at that time? So, if anyone has any ideas where we ate at St Olaves, I'd be grateful. Another recollection is that the "lady" serving was quite forthright, the choices on the menu were quite restricted ("Is there a choice?" "- yes, you can either have it or not...") and there may have been pennants on the curved wall....

I think you're right, a lasting memory of this location is of my dad borrowing a child's bicycle and riding it off the end of the mooring one summer's afternoon in the mid 1970's singing "Raindrops keep falling on my head..." There was enough space for three or four boats and we had been "adopted" by the son of the boatyard owners for the afternoon, hence where the bike came from. Once second he was there, on the grass and the next there was a splash.

The Rising Sun was a favourite for pub food in the late 1970's & early 80's. My dad could pay for a meal for four of us and drinks with a £10 note. The food was "...in a basket" but most of it was back then, and we were very grateful to be eating out. Highlight of the week was a "proper" dinner at the Waveney House Hotel, Beccles, where a silver service restaurant offered delights such as Duck a l'orange and Steak Diane, my dad didn't get away with £10 then...

Yep, Stalham Staithe is a lovely place when the sun shines

We had an Asda delivery yesterday afternoon. Never has a household been so excited by £70 ish worth of groceries. We've made do with essentials from the village Coop which has been brilliant, however we were running low on rice, pasta, vegetables, tonic, etc.... Each item was carefully examined before being put away, almost like it was Christmas. Managed to get a tub of Sutherlands Potted Beef, all is well with the world.

Jasper snoozing where he knows he shouldn’t be...

Coltishall, on the horse shoe by what used to be the Anchor PH. Many happy summer's afternoons spent there. Our holidays had (almost) the same itinerary, year on year; we hired from Brister Craft so Brundall >> Reedham >> Acle >> Coltishall >> Stalham >> Oulton Broad >> Beccles >> Brundall. Always had a formal dinner at the Waveney House Hotel, Beccles, many precious family afternoons spent there, laughing at my non too athletic mother climbing onto the wall off the boat to get ashore. Stalham was also a favourite, we used to moor at the boatyard opposite what now is the Museum of the Broads, room for three / four boats, lovely for watching boats head up to the staithe and then turn around again for lack of space. When we returned to the Broads after 30 years we followed much of the old itinerary, somethings hadn't changed very much and vivid memories of my departed father gave me great comfort. He loved Norfolk, especially the Broads, having spent holidays sailing the Waveney as a boy in the late 1940's. This was taken in 1977, Reedham, in what was Pearson Marine's boatyard

We were on holiday in 1979, aboard two of Brister Craft's finest. Nottingham Forest was playing Malmo in the European Cup final in Munich so we had moored at Coltishall mid afternoon and gone to the Rising Sun for an early supper (Chicken in a basket) before the menfolk (two dads and two young sons) returned to one of the boats to watch the game whilst the ladies remained in the pub (two mums and two daughters). One of the dads, (Bill and not my dad, I hasten to add) had consumed a fairly significant volume of alcohol and was fairly docile once aboard the boat. The 14" black & white TV was turned on and tuned in, in readiness for the match. There were thunderstorms all over Europe that night and we were treated to a pretty significant display of lightning to the south of our mooring on the green. Bill slumbered for most of the game, until Trevor Francis appeared through the snowy picture & scored with a diving header at the far post from a John Robertson cross. We were delirious with joy, and woke Bill up with a start, who then ran up the steps to the centre cockpit, cracked his head on the door frame and rapidly exited via the port door to celebrate. Problem was were moored starboard side to the green so there resulted a big splash. What remains clearly in my mind all these years later is how dark it was and how far down the water was. We eventually managed to get Bill to shore and with the help of other boaters we got him out of the water, by now very cold and with a sizable gash on his forehead. We did however, manage to loose a life ring and a fender. He spent the rest of the holiday with the gash being held together with Elastoplast, and it left a wicked scar. Who said they were gentler times??

That's lovely, great place to be when the weather is as good as that

We managed to Moor there two years ago, just enough room between two private craft, then a huge hire boat arrived and wanted us to move as they wanted to Moor!! They then spent 15 minutes trying to turn around.... Sent from my iPhone using Norfolk Broads Network

Thanks ChrisB, amazing that trip boats from the Broads cruised the Trent...

This image was posted on a historical Nottingham Facebook page, supposedly of pleasure boats moored on the Trent adjacent to Trent Bridge at the turn of the century. There’s no further information for this image. Does the name of the boat suggest it started life elsewhere?

I returned to the Broads last year after an absence of 31 years, we managed to buy a couple of guides & an OS map, and picked up a copy of Broadcaster from the tourist information office in Wroxham. I did also take my 1981 edition of the Broads Book, in glorious black & white and hand drawn maps. what was striking was how much was the same, The Bridge Inn, Acle still serves scampi & chips and the sandwiches at the Rising Sun, Coltishall, we’re so stale they could have been made 31 years previously. what had changed was the number of hire boats (we managed to moor everywhere we wanted to go). However, in what is true for most of society, we weren’t surprised with the rudeness and stupidity of some holidaymakers, especially all male and female crews... We’re looking at booking next year, we’re looking at the window between Easter and Springbank.