SteveO

I got mine from Norfolk Marine. Good quality and not a bad price.

The good news is that the work on the A47 seems to have been completed. The bad news is that, on the Bizzaroland of the NDR, new horrors are in play. They seem to be doing something to the road surface, although why work should be needed so soon after the road was built, I don't know. The outer lane has been coned off to traffic and vehicles on the inner lane are restricted to 10mph, which seems to be enforced by a kind of convoy system. How this will play in peak travel periods during the busiest time of the year with hundreds of "staycation" travellers about remains to be seen. This, together with closures for re-surfacing large sections of the A12, central reservation "improvements" on the A14 and the reinstatement of Operation Brock for those using the M20 make me wonder whether there is an official policy of making national road travel as difficult as possible this Summer. Convention in the past was to clear away as many roadworks as possible during the school holiday period. This is clearly no longer the case.

Summer of'76 I had finished my finals and decided to hitch-hike over to Whitby for a few days with friends. I took my tent, a light sleeping bag, cooking gear and a spare t- shirt. When I arrived the sea fog had rolled in and it was freezing. I distinctly remember shivering in my sleeping bag whilst being kept awake by 2 loud fog-horns which sounded off all night. I came home after 2 days.

I can't help thinking that to decide the outcome of a football match on penalties is about as clever as deciding a tennis tie-break with a serving contest would be. It would be far better to decide the game on the number of red and yellow cards each side receives during the course of the match. At least that would keep the game clean and prevent some of the cynical fouling we saw last night. If no team incurs a card, a period of extra time decided by "golden goal" could be used instead. Simple and fair.

Reminds me of a work colleague who was having a pigeon problem. Her first approach was to trap them - stick with a forked end, long string and inverted box with a pile of grain under it. Surprisingly it worked and she soon had a box of cooing vermin. Her husband was making a business trip to the Midlands the following day so he took the birds for a long drive.Unfortunately, he was there for 2 days and the birds were back before him. Her next approach was the one that Griff alludes to. She borrowed an air rifle from someone at work. She managed to shoot one but rather than dying a clean death, it flapped its way onto the roof of the house opposite where it proceded to flap around highly visiblly to her embarrasment and the amusement of the neighbours (these were different times - no "snowflakes" then, thankfully for her). She finished up having to borrow a ladder and bringing the, now dead, bird back down to the ground. After that she saw reason and gave up,

This evening's quiz has been cancelled due to lack of numbers. We have agreed that we will give it a miss next Friday as a number of us are likely to be away, so my quiz will now take place on Friday 23rd July. I will post a reminder nearer the time and let you know if anything changes.

Topics for Friday's quiz are: 1. Food and drink 2. Rivers 3. Science Wine O'Clock - beverage and comfort break 4. Books 5. Corny and Cryptic Broadland 6. General Confusion All are welcome to join. Hope to see as many as possible there about 8.30 in the chat room -see link below: Enter Username - no password required; https://www.nbnplus.co.uk/chat/

We called into Black Horse Broad yesterday for lunch and to watch the sailing for a couple of hours. We had to mudweight in the margins as racing was in progress and were concerned by the huge amount of weed growing around the edges of the broad, so I chose a spot where the weed was not lying on the surface. We often see weed at Black Horse but this year seems particularly bad for it. When we got back to our mooring we found that our forward heads would not flush. I investigated and found the flush water inlet hose to be rammed solid with weed, to a distance of around a foot. Once removed, normal service was restored. I then decided to check the weed filter on the cooling water intake only to find the bottom half of this solid with weed. Black Horse is one of our favourite broads and it is sad to see it in its present state. If you do visit in a motorboat I would strongly recommend that you check your weed filters afterwards.

Well you managed to beat me and I was there from the beginning.

I suspect that the extent of the country's dependence on cheap Eastern European labour is about to be exposed big time. It seems that not only fruit and veg picking and hospitality jobs have gone down this route but a large proportion of the HGV drivers who shift goods into and around the country have gone this way too as have the food processing and packing industries. I suspect that employers in a number of sectors are playing "who blinks first" with the government over the points-based immigration system, so brace yourselves for shortages and price hikes.

A lovely holiday tale and great photos. Thanks Grendel!

Similar at the New Inn Horning, when the door was slammed in our face at 8pm the other week. Can't understand why the pubs aren't wanting to stay open longer and make the most of the staycation trade.

You are right to get it checked out promptly, if only to put your mind at rest. Hope all goes well.

Nik and I were fishing at one of our favourite spots on the Bure. My float slid off to one side and went under. It felt like a small perch, but suddenly the weight on the line felt much, much heavier. My little perch had been siezed by a sizeable pike. The water was very clear and I could see the larger predator quite clearly. Suddenly the perch broke free and shot off. The pike lunged after it but manage to get my size 14 hook on a 3lb line caught in the scissors of it's jaw. I played it for a few minutes until I thought it might come to the net, then asked Nik to officiate. As soon as it saw the net it went crazy. I don't think it realised it had been hooked up to that point. I played it a little longer with much use of the slipping clutch on my little Shimano reel and then we "gentled" it into the net. Out of the water, but still in the net, I found the hook and cut it off the line, which released the fish. I put the net back in the water and let the pike rest for a few minutes, before it ejected itself with a flick of its tail and swam off back into the depths. 20 minutes later, Nik caught a small perch and it too was followed to the net by the very same pike, which was quite distinctively marked. Nik took a photo of my catch, but they don't give an accurate impression of the size of the fish, which I estimated at 8-10lb. I didn't weigh it or photograph it properly because my main concern was getting it back into the water as quickly as possible. I didn't set out to catch a pike and would not fish for pike deliberately until much later in the year, but hopefully the fish was no worse for its misadventure.

We are on the flight path between Biggin Hill and the White Cliffs of Dover. Last Sunday was like the Battle of Britain with the fathers of wealthy children enjoying their Father's Day commemorative flight experiences. We see and hear Spitfires and Hurricanes most days but Sunday was the busiest ever.

Our local GP practice refers you to Specsavers for hearing aids. My wife has 2 of the NHS ones which they set up. They are quite good, but eat batteries and emit audible shrieks when the batteries are running down. She bought her last lot of batteries from Amazon and they last much longer than the "freebies" you get from the NHS.

After being let down by a disposable BBQ that had been "nobbled" by the accountants - the charcoal ran out before the food was cooked - I invested in a tabletop gas BBQ, which we keep on the boat. It has lava rocks under the grill, so you still get the BBQ taste, but without all the smoke and fuss. This satisfies my need to annoy any lurking pleasure-vampires by cooking on the riverbank a couple of times a year. the unit stays on the boat in its own locker and the gas cylinder and regulator live in the gas locker when not in use.

Was surprised to see her at NYA at the weekend. She looked immaculate.

We might well be joining via phone as we are now more or less recovered from the grandchildren's school/playgroup colds and the call of the Broads is strong.

The runaway winner of this evening's quiz was Bern. We have agreed to give next Friday a miss, due to people being away for half-term week, but Bern will be QM in 2 weeks time.

NikO' topics for Friday's quiz are as follows: Animals Mixed up famous people Big facts Half time break What's your poison? Food and Drink Odd one out Pot pourri Looking forward to seeing you all about 8.30 in the Chat Room. If you've never joined us before then why not make this the week you give it a go! Enter Username - no password required; https://www.nbnplus.co.uk/chat/

The trouble with the "predator type" bird deterrents - owls and hawks and the like - is that, unless they are coupled to an actual biological threat, birds get used to them and they cease to be effective. A few years ago, we were pestered by starlings, which would feed at my neighbour's bird table and then sit in a large ash tree which overhangs part of my decking and rain cr*p down onto the deck and my conservatory roof. I invested in a bird scarer which emitted amplified recordings of raucous predator bird cries and played it whenever these nuisance birds congregated. Although the starlings seem to find the noise quite amusing, fortunately, my neighbour soon took the hint and moved his bird table to a spot under a different tree.

I think my wife wanted to but she couldn't fit "I can't believe you've nothing better to do than persecute an old man enjoying his boat" on it.

Oh yes, there was paddle waving, but I thought it best not to invite the lady to a game of pingpong, given that I was 0.2mph over the limit and that she would most likely have beaten me, as my varifocals make me useless at pingpong.

I was merely Interested to know the means by which the rangers measure speed and understand why a tolerance is not applied to cover the margin for error. I am not interested in the gender of the BA official involved. I merely mentioned it in the context of believing she might have been new. don't think any of this is strange but I do think it rather odd that some have reacted to this thread in the way they have.