dom

One2one and BT Cellnet were both rebranded in 2002. A 22 year old sign isn't that unusual though - got to remember you're working with Norfolk time

It's always worth checking Screwfix for stuff like this - although, in this case, it seems like their cheap wellies end at size 13. They seem to be making a point of covering every base with their ranges, including workwear and footwear. They're also really convenient, as they seem to be setting up stores everywhere. I've got about half a dozen stores within a 10 mile radius.

Couple more appearances in another video from Horning too: Youtube link

I've got a pair of dirt cheap Dunlop wellies and they flatly refuse to die. They've now done something like 12 years on the allotment, plus a LOT of miles trekking round fields whilst out rough shooting. In the same period of time, I've had friends complain numerous times about Le Chameau or Hunters failing prematurely. Not sure if Dunlop's quality has gone down in recent years, but they still look the same so I know what I'll be trying when the current ones finally give up. Love the video of Finlay. Definitely 100% typical spanner behaviour. I'm a huge spaniel fan and it's a constant annoyance that I just haven't got the right home for one. I think if I do ever manage to get to a better position, I'd probably opt for a cocker. They're just that little bit calmer, and I'm not sure I've got the energy to keep up with a springer!

"If you know you know" has definitely now joined the ranks of expressions past their best.

I suspect dealing with a claim is hellish with everyone these days. A few years back, I was sat in a traffic queue behind a lorry turning right. As the lorry pulled off the road, I pulled away and carried on driving, but an idiot in a Range Rover had overtaken both the queue and the turning lorry. He then tried to merge back into moving traffic by driving over the front of my car. It was one of the scariest experiences I've ever had and I literally saw the underside of his car as it drove up my front wing. I was insured with the AA, am a gold AA member which gives you accident management benefits and the other driver admitted immediately that he was impatient from getting held up in traffic and it was a stupid move on his part. Despite all of that, I had to argue at length every step of the way. At one point, they insisted I hand back a loan car whilst I was at work 25 miles from home, then had to arrange another one for me so I could get home. When I pointed out that it was stupid to collect the first one, as I still needed transport, they threatened to report the car stolen if I didn't hand it over. To make things worse, they also insisted I use their approved bodyshop. The work done was appalling - the first time I went to check the oil, the bonnet was stuck shut (distorted catch not replaced). Rear elecric windows didn't work (not reconnected), half the interior trim rattled or fell off and I replaced about 20 exterior trim clips around the arch liners which they'd broken and just not bothered replacing. I suspect I probably called either the AA or the body shop at least 20 times, each typically taking an hour. Unfortunately, I think even if you opt for "premium" companies these days, standards are just woeful everywhere.

There's an extremely funny meme about the importance of grammar, but it's also filthy and I daren't post it here, even on the jokes thread. One branch of my family came from the Walsingham area. There's a sign on the way into the village from Fakenham which always used to drive me up the wall. I think it's probably elite level grammar pedantry on my part, so it made my day to discover someone else was obviously even more annoyed and had corrected the issue. I suspect it might have been the ghost of my great, great grandfather who's buried just up the road

Really jealous, I'd love nothing more than to be heading off onto the Broads - and have a bit of a soft spot for the Bounty 34. I've tried to find one to buy before now, but they seem like a boat owners tend to hang onto. I worked in a yard where all the boats were blue and yellow, so with you on the more traditional look! Just in case you're not aware, it's extremely windy in the east at the moment and the forecast is for 40mph winds until Sunday evening - so may be wise to have a contingency plan to stick around the more sheltered parts of the Ant for the first day. On the up side, the temperature is defintely on the up and looks positively warm towards the end of the week.

There are times when, despite the richness and complexity of the English language, only an F word can convey the true nature of the situation. Cars (and boats) are often involved in those situations

The fact people use possessive apostophes incorrectly is something I've got over now from a grammatical perspective - but it now tends to annoy me because "why the *@%! are you typing an extra character which isn't needed"? My brain can't grasp why people who don't understand how to use something don't just omit it, as it's less work and it'd make them look less illiterate. I used to test customer service staff during interviews to see if they could type "its" twice in the same sentence, once possessive, once abbreviated. People these days don't even know what the two words mean

They give the largest tidal range, but the larger spring drop is coming at a time when average levels are remaining high, so it's not translating into a meaningful increase in air draft. I've yet to see much over 6'3" on the "new" gauge, which is nearly a foot off what a normal spring should look like. The more time passes, the more it feels like something is restricting the ebb. The opposite is however happening - higher spring tidal flow on top of record levels seems to be resulting in ever lower clearance.

I always interpret so at the start of a spoken sentence as indicative that the person thinks they're superior, and they're pausing to decide whether to dumb down what they want to say. There's obviously a close correlation between this and ExSurveyor's view that it stems from academia. The new one I'm starting to notice now, is people from the US either using words in the wrong context, or omitting words, depending on how you view things, ie. UK: "The dog needs feeding" or "the dog needs to be fed" US: "The dog needs fed" It seems to have started in the last year or so. So, no doubt we'll start to hear it here soon

Maxine of Marlow is rather lovely. For a second, I thought she might be a Graham Bunn Windboat, as she's very reminiscent of Formby's Lady Beryl II. Apparently she's steel and built by G.J.Meakes though. Wonder if she was designed by Rip Martins?

That's just brought a smile to my face. I spent a week on Queen Galadriel in the 1980s and have been tracking her on AIS recently to try and catch her in person again. I have a picture from the EDP of a very young me, plus a few others who @Turnoar might recognise stood on her bow outside the Nelson Hotel in Norwich. Unfortunately, the pic is in a storage unit up in Norwich at the moment, but I'll have to post it when I can lay my hands on it. I'm guessing the original pic I asked about is Julia of Gibraltar. She's built the year after Galadriel and also in Denmark. Almost looks like she was designed by the same person.

I was just curious, as the blocks on the outside of the spar suggest it's something fairly large. In my youth, I was supposed to crew on the Tall Ships Race, but the route and conditions on the year in question meant plans changed and we just did a trip up the east coast instead. I always think of myself as a motor-boater, but the appeal of sail does keep drawing me in - particularly with historic stuff.

I think that's the sort of issue which has led to some hire yards favouring Rolls batteries. The price is very premium, but the extra cost is easily offset against the cost of an engineer going out to an avoidable breakdown, or an aggravated customer. Also means you know you're getting a true deep cycle battery, and not just a standard FLA someone's stuck a dodgy label on. The norm tends to be 14.7v for AGM, 14.4v for FLA/VRLA/gel. That's fine for routine use, but not for "repairing" maintenance related degradation where sulphation has been allowed to set in over winter or similar. Long term stored FLAs also suffer from stratification, where the acid splits into two distinct layers - one higher concentration acid, one water (which freezes more readily introducing other issues like case fracture and leaks). In some cases, it's helpful to have a charger which operates at higher voltage, to effectively boil the fluid. It can be beneficial to do this, as it "stirs" the acid content, removing stratification and the movement also helps to drive sulphur off the plates. I've always had best success recovering FLAs using tabs and a 15.8v charge. I used to manage a company which was one of the biggest UK retailers of CTEK's products - we actually had battles with them, as we ran a dedicated website and they accused us of passing off. As a result, I don't have a great opinion of them (IMO, they were trying to stop discounting) but their products were technically way ahead of anything else on the market. Most of the range were 8 stage units - although, annoyingly, not the marine ones back then. They do also do a really nice solar controller and DC/DC charger in one but, again, a bit fatally flawed only having a max input of 23v, so you have to parallel panels, which isn't always best in marine applications.

Wet lead acid batteries generally lose their capacity due to sulphation, which sets in rapidly as soon as batteries drop much below around 12.4v. Above 12.4v, the charge keeps sulphur in suspension in the acid fluid. Once the charge drops, the sulphuric acid splits into water and sulphur, and the sulphur molecules adhere to the lead battery plates. The sulphur progressively masks the plates off, insulating them and stopping them conducting electricity in the intended manner. As the amount of masking increases, the battery charge capacity drops. Meantime's description above is a classic example of sulphation happening in practice. The battery still functions, but the Ah rating is dramatically lower than it should be. There is a widely held belief that sulphated batteries are scrap, and it's often proliferated by narrowboat liveaboards, but it is possible to reverse in some cases - as long as you catch it early on, the batteries are non-sealed (rather than VRLA) and have removable cell caps. I've had a reasonable success rate using a combination of charging and Granville "Bat-Aid" tablets. Adding 2 tablets per cell increases the acidity level in the cell, helping to break down the sulphation deposits. If you then use a battery charger with an aggressive desulphation cycle, if you're lucky, it'll remove the remaining sulphation by effectively vibrating it off the the plates at high frequency (a bit like how ultrasonic cleaners work). I used to sell a lot of CTEK chargers. I don't particularly like the way they run their business, but their products are technically very sophisticated and very high quality. The recondition cycle on their chargers desulphates at higher than normal voltage - up to 15.8v, which seems to be one of the keys to success recovering badly sulphated batteries. There probably are other chargers on the market which do similar, but I'm not aware of any offhand. For all of the above reasons, I'd always stick with good quality, open cap wet lead acid cells for marine use (unless you can stretch to lithium, or sodium ion becomes more mainstream). Disconnect every load when not in use, no matter how small (but obviously make provision for bilge pumps). If at all possible, keep batteries stored for long periods on a pulse charge, not a float charge, which will overcharge after prolonged periods. The latter is another area where I know CTEK are suitable, but not sure if others have caught up yet. Alternatively, solar can be used, but make sure it's on an MPPT, not a PWM charge controller - and long periods on float can still potentially be detrimental to battery life.

You're doing one of the best things on Youtube though - providing little niche "how to" info which appeals to a small market, but tends to be extremely valuable to the end viewer. I'm curious what the sailing vessel in your channel header is though?

I'd look for someone local who could clean it for you then let it out on AirBnB. Farmers are being told to diversify, so you can probably come to an arrangement with your mate so everyone's happy. Most areas you could probably get £100 a night, or go cheap, aim for the itinerant tradesman market and let it 5 days a week year round.

After seeing them mentioned the other day, I wondered how exactly they're managing to keep them all under control. Presumably, they must have at least one experieinced sailor per boat? Must be quite a job to find that many suitable people.

I think it's potentially a bit different in this case, as it's not necessarily Entity A vs Entity B. It could well be a QC expressing an indepedent legal opinion which gets taken to parliament by an MP. I suspect in that case, it'd carry a lot of weight.

That was meant as a rhetorical statement, rather than an invitation to post it

Tenner from each BRAG member would equate to £14k.

I grew up in a Victorian house in Wroxham, originally built for a fairly wealthy member of the local community. Obviously having no refuse collections in those days, all the waste from the house, as well as carcasses of pigs and horses got buried in the back garden. I went through a bit of a wannabe archaeologist phase and used to spend hours digging trenches looking for stuff. Amongst the finds, there were tomatoes and plums preserved in Kilner style jars. At the time they were probably something like 70-80 years old. We never dared try any of them, but they looked as good as the day they were first picked.

Do you know his channel name? It'd be interesting to see if the metrics match up with the earnings, or whether they might be coming from other activities.....