floydraser

I'm sure there's a country song about this. Hope this helps.

Do you have a strong accent? If so, they probably wondered where YOU were from!

A word about the Travelodge at Acle: During the winter months when I first started on my boat, staying there helped me get on with the work. I would leave home Friday evening and get there for about 21.30. Shower, tv, beer and crash out in a warm bed. Usual price was about £29 - £32. I would take my own food but nip over to the service station next door for a pint of milk and be onboard around mid morning. I then had time to warm the boat up for the Saturday night if I was staying over. The only gripe is the same with all hotels, people who can't read the "please be considerate..." signs asking them to be quiet at night.

Yesterday - went to the E-Prix at the Excel, London. Warning: it's for youngsters with very robust eardrums; I reckon a Formula 1 startline would have been quieter! But they're electric??? Unfortunately, so is the PA which was turned up to 11 and blasting out thump-tish thump-tish music constantly. Even behind the commentary. Only until they announce the drivers on the grid though, boxing style with elongated names, then they crank it up a bit more to absolutely ear-splitting volume. Good day out though. I've never been called shorty but I reckon I'm shrinking as I now have to look upwards when I talk to my 14 year old grandson!

I think having a dog off the lead is showing a lack of respect for others, so if I see one I will confront the owner. Try, "Your dog's just done a pile over there". Then leave them looking for it. Proves they haven't been keeping an eye on it. I confronted one such owner in our marina, asking how he could see when his dog did a pile if it was out of his sight. After a frank exchange things cooled and he and his mate invited me to go with them on a cruise up to the Ferry House!

Erm.. in an emergency?? Prop should be stopped.

Temu: I watched a video on Youtube the other day by an American guy who was comparing listings on Amazon against listings on Temu. It seems that Temu are trying to compete directly with Amazon and look to be making a good fist of it for now. The Youtube video featured workshop tools. The listings on both websites used the same manufacturer's photos but Temu's prices were slightly more than half those of Amazon. Over here Temu have free postage and free returns. We put an order together and part of it was this rope ladder: It was delivered on time by Evri but if it's late you get £5. Anyway, about this ladder, what does the team think? It's a very simple but clever design; one of those “I wish I'd thought of that” ideas. The stitching is very solid and causes the loops to form the “steps”. I still have an RSJ across the underside of my garage roof so I hung it up there for a test. There's no video so don't ask, but I was for a while, swinging like a monkey trying to climb up this thing and to make it even harder (in the name of scientific research), in my gardening “crocs”! I did manage a couple of rungs. It said it's 2m long: That fence is a 1ft gravel board, 4ft panel and 1ft topper. While not in the Premier League with Griff's on Broad Ambition, it'll be better'n nowt! I just need to work out a good way of emergency deployment and I can't do that until I get over to the boat again. In an emergency situation I would think it easier to hang to the loops than a plain rope. https://www.temu.com/goods.html?_bg_fs=1&goods_id=601099517307861&_x_sessn_id=n88hyk6ltg&refer_page_name=bgt_order_detail&refer_page_id=10045_1690108699491_r0w1wvv794&refer_page_sn=10045 Edit: just checked the price. I paid £10.34. Best to search because sometimes the same item is listed more than once at different prices!

Just a thought: here in Leicestershire the buses have a C shaped card reader - you put your card into the C and a readout on the top syays, "Reading card" then "card accepted" and off you go to find a seat. You don't have to speak to the driver although we think it's only polite to do so, often most of them are miserable and don't respond. They don't need to know a destination and there's no ticket issued. In the Lakes you put your card on top of a reader and the driver wants to know your destination. He/she then issues an ticket with destination on it and the fee paid. Most of the drivers were cheerful types. I wondered if different areas have other ways of working? Didn't see Blakey once!

We think that advert is very funny but we'll see it differently from now on...

Day 4 – Windermere. We were in our 40s when we discovered this campsite and as we walked into town past the bus station we used to say, “Look at all the pensioners waiting to use their bus passes”. Well what goes around as they say... I got my bus pass in January but Mrs Raser had to wait until mid June, after we had come home. Note: we usually book early in the year and have a good choice of dates but the legacy of Covid lingers on and suitable dates were harder to come by. Free for me but only £2 each way for Mrs Raser. I've driven the A591 from Keswick to Ambleside many times but never as a passenger, and what a difference! I could really get used to this non driving lark. I thought the bus wouldn't stop once we left Keswick, until we got to Grasmere but how wrong was I? It stopped at all the best places from which to start a walk, including the expensive National Trust car parks. Noted for next time. I always thought Grasmere was just a tiny village where someone wandered lonely as a cloud and built a house with a blue plaque, and a gingerbread shop. Wrong again; the bus went right into the village centre where quite a few shops and eating places have sprung up over the years. And a gingerbread shop. At Ambleside we bought a “Walker's Ticket” for the Lake Cruisers which gave us: a launch trip to Wray Castle, a 4 mile walk along the shore to the Ferry Terminal, an old wooden launch accross to Bowness where we boarded the new, hybrid powered “steamer” (???) back to Ambleside. 20230608_132240.mp4 Day 5 we took the bus back to Grasmere to smell the gingerbread being cooked. Had lunch in a converted chapel and saved £1.20 on toilets while we were there, as they were 60p a go otherwise! Inside St Oswald's church. I've never seen an old church with white rendering before. Some of it dates from around ad900 I believe, but not the scafolding. St Oswald is having his organ refurbished. Form an orderly queue here: In conclusion: one of the best holidays we've had up there but these free bus passes are proving to be quite expensive, although it's nice not to have to drive home after eating and drinking out.

I thought that in these wokey days it was discriminatory not allow goups of the same gender. No question mark, don't answer.

First full day we usually do the “railway walk” as a starter. Up through the town to the old to the old station and it goes for about 3 or 4 miles to Threlkeld. The bridges are interesting in that some appear “upside down”, but all were designed by the same guy who designed the Tay bridge, which fell down. However, most of these in the Lakes were solid until storm Desmond washed away a couple of them and some of the trackbed too. Anyway, that's a digression because we didn't do that this time. Having retired we have said we need to keep ourselves fitter so this time we went straight in with a walk around Derwentwater. Ten miles according to Strava. We prefer to use time as our guide for exercise; stick to the flat and keep going in bursts of about an hour. Water level was low this time but sometimes you have to take to the road in places to keep out of the water. It's hard to find a bad view in the Lake District: This is the view from the other end of the lake from the campsite, the same direction as the first pic on this thread, only a bit further away! Not a cloud in the sky for most of the week. Not sure what Mum is saying here but I think the second word was "off". Day 3 was a slight disappointment. We are members of Historic Houses and this has it's let downs at times. The houses are all independent so there's no set standard. We visited Lowther Castle near Penrith and while it's a lovely looking building, like a fairy tale castle, the gardens were a let down. Plenty of colour if you like green. “Re-wilding” is my favourite modern excuse for “can't be bothered”. Ceramic daffodils (I think) on sale for a charity, jumping on the bandwagon of the ceramic poppies of a few years ago, looked like a three year old had made them. If your three year old had made them you would hide them until the three year old came round to visit! Then keep, to embarrass them as teenagers... The castle itself has an interesting history and was only finished quite recently by historic houses standards, about 1814. It was only taken apart for tax reasons. Rebuilt, it would make a great exclusive hotel/comference centre etc. I would have been more disappointed if I had paid to get in; I won't be rushing back.

Don't recall ever seeing that but the variety of shops etc. is constantly changing. Latest arrivals are a Premier Inn and a Screwfix! Pencil museum is a must see.

That's two of you mentioning winter - too cold for camping; we're blue gas campers - summer only! I'll do a bit more on this holiday then do a bit on the hotel we use in the winter.

A bit of therapy as we care for my MIL. It's getting more intense now; we are limited to not going very far at all. Last month was the last time we managed to get away in our touring caravan and it was to our most favourite place on the planet: the Camping and Caravan Club's site at Keswick. Apart from the views there is a beach onto Derwentwater and 5 minutes walk away is the town centre with an excellent supermarket, a good range of other shopping, pubs and a main bus station. We found the site almost by accident about 25 years ago when we went to another site at Ulleswater which turned out to be disappointing, so we had a look around. We don't visit this site same week, same pitch etc. every year, but we do try to have a week here and long weekends trying new sites during the summer. We had excellent luck with the weather this year: I always polish the Volvo and clean the van but a little light rain on the 4 hour drive is usually enough to lift the muck from the M6 and chuck it all over both. Not this year. We normally book for 8 nights, Sunday to Monday, and it either rains for the first few days and we have to wait, or we have a few days great weather followed by rain, and go home early. This year we booked 7 nights Monday to Monday, and had great weather all week! Anyway, here's the view from the pitch we had this year: And less than a minute's walk away is the beach: To the left in the dark you can see a row of lodges. I have a photo from 2003 when there were static caravans there. When new the lodges were about £350K each, but then the view is: Up the middle is the ridge of Catbells. I walked up there as a younger person 15 years ago, the views are amazing. Some idiots can be seen jumping off with paraglider things sometimes. Takes all sorts. Actually where I'm standing to take this photo is usually under a couple of feet of water; it normally goes all the way to the trees on the right and the bank in the middle is submerged. Very shallow entry to the water so ideal for paddleboards, canoes and dinghys. You just have to watch out for the old, wooden water bus launches which wizz round the lake churning up quite a swell if you get too close. They won't slow down for smaller craft. The view from here changes dramatically as different cloud formations come over; it can change in minutes as you watch. Early, misty mornings bring out the keen photographers too. Sunsets bring out couples with camping chairs and bottles of wine.

That, to me sums up the complete ludicrousy of so called "team building" events. It says to me that if you haven't got a smart phone then you're not part of the "team". I walked out of one such event. In some circumstances they can be counter productive in that they cause resentment among other areas of the workforce.

And to try and balance things up a bit: to employ someone these days costs a lot more than just the wages, for instance everyone wants maternity/parternity leave, sickness benefits etc. All has to be costed. We are happy to have our wages paid into the bank direct instead of a brown packet every Friday, and we are happy to buy fuel and groceries anytime of the day or night by waving a card over a sensor. We can't have it all ways. Banks (and rail ticket offices) can't afford to pay people to twiddle their thumbs all day because we have all found alternatives. There'll always be losers unfortunately.

I'll guess that tune in one: Adam Ant before he was famous?.....

fast food outlets and tattoo parlours... And as you exit be careful not to get run down by a youth on a bike delivering Just Eat orders.

Just a suggestion for pics: Get your widest angle lens and find a spot in the shed where you think you could get a pic of the finished boat. Take a pic and mark the spot. Take more pics from the same spot during the build. Maybe more than one spot; front and rear? Sod's law says that during the build someone will park something in the way but hey ho...

This weekend coming for those of you who like your gardens. I can't post a link because I'm using the phone. We wanted to go but our caring duties have become more intense recently.

Toilets: You only need to deal with the smelly stuff if you use sites without their own facilities. Join the Camping and Caravan Club and/or the Caravan and Motorhome Club and most of their sites have nice, clean facilities. Then just use your own for No.1s and emergencies. Or use an independant site with facilities. Hiring is the best advice for beginners. Towing with an A frame is for the experienced only, and I think it's now illegal in Europe. Campsite guides and websites usually give details of local transport links - nearest bus stops etc. A lot of retired people with caravans or motorhomes like sites to have a bus stop near the entrance; this has new emphasis for us this year as we both have new bus passes!

We're trying not to be political but it IS political unfortunately. Poverty, the amount of homes available/being built, food banks etc are tools used by all parties to try and score political points. Some even manage to sound like they care.

I wonder how this compares to other holiday forms like static caravans? We have had more last minute deals from a hotel we use in the Lake District this year, than we have before.

This is a good point. Some seem to assume that most liveaboards are there through ill fortune. We can never know an individual's personal circumstances of course. If a local council did have a marina as suggested by Cambridge Cabby, they would be encouraging people into the circumstances suggested here by YnysMon. Whereas a council house is owned and maintained by the council, housing association etc. Such a marina would have to have good transport links if these people are actively seeking work, which they would have to prove to keep their benefits. So thats Norwich then.