SteveO

As only four people turned up for this evening's quiz, I have re-scheduled it for next Friday. Hope to see more of you then,

Bump!

I only ever "met" Craig online, but was shocked and saddened to read this. Sincere condolences to Craig's family.

I have just realised that next Friday is St Valentine's day, so we will have a Valentine-themed quiz with the following topics: Be my Valentine The food of love Hearts Half time break for fluid out/fluid in Flowers By any other name General Shenanigans Beware, topics are not always all they seem..... We will kick off at around 8.40 to give the fashionably late time to join. Join at: http://www.nbnquiz.co.uk/chat/ Enter your forum username but no need for a password.

Oh lighten up! I used a "tin hat" emoji with my post to indicate that it was meant to be light hearted. I am sorry if this was mis-interpreted as a personal attack on the person involved or your tender sensibilities, It wasn't meant to be. Personalities aside, I do think that people travelling for miles to attend environmental protests and climate change conventions, often business or first class, smells of fakery and "do as I say, not as I do. I hope that the British people are sensible enough to see this for what it is, even if our politicians are not.

It's not just the rare earth metals, the nickel and cobalt that goes into these batteries are both also in short supply and most supplies originate in countries that are politically unstable and unreliable as sources.

Sounds like another instance of our barely competent politicians being unduly swayed by the voices of pressure groups and swivel-eyed activists, amplified out of all proportion by (anti) social media. I don't know much about hydrogen propulsion, but it would take an awful lot of electricity to produce all the hydrogen we would need. If we go down the electric car route, we will need four expensive nuclear power stations of the size that EDF has not been able to build at Hinkley point. and a massive new charging infrastructure. Either that or we cover the country and the seas around our coasts with wind turbines. As a result, we may find that travel by private vehicle becomes highly expensive or severely restricted, in which case, we won't be visiting our boats very often. Not to worry, because by then, the Environment Agency's "Managed Retreat" programme combined with sea-level rise will have turned much of the broads back into a salt marsh and Packman and his cronies/successors will have turned the rest of it into a bird sanctuary. Do I care? No because I will most likely be dead or dribbling by then.

Being unavailable,

That skipper must have steel ones. Well done!

Tonight's very tightly contested quiz ended in a tie-break between Polly and Nigel, which Polly won by a matter of a few micro-seconds, so Polly will be QM next week.Thanks to all who attended.

Topics for this evening's quiz are: Films Dogs Cats Half-time for exchange of fluids. Link Words Where in the world? General Mayhem Most of the questions are easy, with a few more challenging ones for hardened quizzers and/or googlers. We will kick off at around 8.40 to give the fashionably late time to join. Join at: http://www.nbnquiz.co.uk/chat/ Enter your forum username but no need for a password.

Topics for this evening's quiz are: Films Dogs Cats Half-time for exchange of fluids. Link Words Where in the world? General Mayhem Most of the questions are easy, with a few more challenging ones for hardened quizzers and/or googlers. We will kick off at around 8.40 to give the fashionably late time to join. Join at: http://www.nbnquiz.co.uk/chat/ Enter your forum username but no need for a password.

As I couldn't make it last Friday and Bern stepped into the breach, I am happy to do the same tomorrow. I will post topics tomorrow (Friday) morning.

I just read that the New Inn will not be re-opening at the end of January, and that the present licensees (Mark and Kim) are likely to be moving on. The New Inn is one of our favourite pubs and I hope that whoever takes the lease on does as good a job as the present management.

We zapped ours in the microwave for 5 minutes - very convenient compared to the old days when you had to boil them in water for an hour or more. Irritatingly the skins often burst and all the good stuff used to leach out into the water, leaving you with a haggis that had lost its mojo.

Morrisons originated in Bradford.

I buy Three prepaid data SIMS for around £12 (Amazon or EBay). Each one gives you 3GB of data - more than I would ever use up - and last 3 months. I don't usually bother with one for the "Winter quarter" as we don't use the boat much in Winter. We operate mainly on the Northern broads and the Three signal is pretty good in most places. The coverage maps on Three's website seem to be fairly honest as regards the areas covered, so I suggest you take a look.

We were with the family celebrating our latest addition's first birthday on Saturday so no Burns Night. I did manage to bag a stray lowland haggis on the south face of the North Downs and it has been hanging in the garage since Friday. I don't know what it was doing down here in Kent, but scientists will tell you that it is irrefutable evidence of Global Warming. We had the beast with the obligatory neeps and champit tatties for Sunday lunch, accompanied by a whisky sauce of my own elaboration (Bisto gravy plus 3 capfuls of amber liquid) and washed down with another tot of the water of life, blended and marketed under the name of a well-known game bird. A delicious meal with or without the whisky. Haggis, and Burns) should be more widely celebrated.

We are away next Friday celebrating out latest grandson's 1st birthday. Bern has kindly agreed to step into the breach and do next week's quiz. The only downside is that we will miss one of Bern's quizzes and they are very good.

Windmill Lady with Steve and Nik. Saturday only please.

Hats off to the folks who are prepared to invest in the future of this area whilst preserving at least some of the local amenities.

I would say it is more like robbery.

There was one particular programme that got my goat - Find it, Fix it, Flog it, which featured an awful woman who's favourite line was to screech "Let's paint it purple" in a whiney Liverpool accent. She devalued many a worthy antique with her nasty paint jobs and "creative" (not really) ideas. I would much prefer to see the folks on Repair Shop restoring old stuff in a sympathetic way, often using the same crafts, techniques, tools and materials that our forefathers perfected. I don't care what is involved, whether it be clocks, furniture, toys, leather stuff or even old teddy bears. It all makes for fantastic TV. I just wonder why some of the "cherished heirlooms" have been allowed to get into the parlous state in which they are presented for repair, if they really mean something to the people involved.

From what I have seen of the business and these programmes, they seem to oscillate between fantasy economics and downright exploitation. A 1970's chair with a single purple leg does nothing for me, but I do have a healthy respect for craftspersonship. I can't see the cost of hiring a man and van and a big shed and getting your wife to do a bunch of internet research to concoct a provenance costing very much, particularly if a TV company is also paying you, presumably handsomly. I am not a scrap dealer or a craftsman so I don't "know the business" but I do know business and understand costings, so I reserve my right to have a say on this without you trying to close me down.

On a couple of the episodes I watched, the establishments were selling off their heritage to pay bills, so deseperately needed cash. They were also totally commercially naive as to the value of what they were selling. A win-win for the likes of Pritchard.