SteveO

School's out, so the local stores and supermarkets are all promoting "Back to School". In celebration of this, Friday night's quiz will have a school theme. Topics will be: Maths Science School Dinners and break History Games Detention Litter picking (for those who mucked about during Detention) As ever, the topics won't be all they seem and, weather permitting, we expect fun and banter in and amongst the forecast thundery showers. All are welcome. To join the quiz, go to http://www.nbnquiz.co.uk/chat/ Enter your forum username but do not enter a password. Proceedings will kick off at around 8.30pm/ Hope to see as many as possible of you there.

Very, very sad news. Sincere condolences to Lisa and family,

Last time we visited (c 3 weeks ago) the Salhouse bins were on the edge of the camping field. The bins in the car park were for glass recycling only. I wouldn't want people to lug their rubbish all the way to the car park only to find the bins much closer.

Last post? I thought someone else was flouncing off for a moment.

With all those sailing folks discharging directly into the river, it's not so much swimming as going through the motions.

I bottled 5 gallons of IPA, dry hopped with Citra and Mosaic hops this morning. A half-teaspoon of sugar in each bottle ensures that I will have a nicely conditioned and very tasty beer in about a month's time regardless of any CO2 shortage.

Ha ha, done that. When someone pointed it out to me, I pretended that I was giving it a wash.

Sorry I had to drop out. Doing the quiz on iPad was doing my head in and the wifi kept dropping out. That's the trouble with " foreign parts".

Looks wonderful. Look forward to seeing RT on the water.

All these men taking photos of ladies shoes! Honestly chaps" You can probably get treatment for it on the NHS

The old games are definitely worth the effort. Good luck Paul!

All looks very innocent, but this is just how Admiral De Ruyter's 1667 raid on the Medway started. I shall be on my guard.

Even though it has seen better days, I still have a soft spot for Great Yarmouth. It is an interesting mix of seaside resort and industrial port and, if you can see beyond the charity shops, permanent closing down sales and seaside tat, there is quite a lot of character and history. To cut through two pages of sometimes acrimonious and childish debate, I would definitely go for the public transport option.

It is a real pity that so many people associate a good time on the river with the consumption of large amounts of alcohol. There are so many more interesting things to do on a boat. Whilst it may not be illegal, there are killjoys out there just itching to introduce drink-drive regulations on the water, which would be to everyone's detriment. The irresponsible use of alcohol by an antisocial minority just gives power to the killjoy lobby.

I just hope we never have to use it.

Done

We live close to Folkestone racecourse where the local authority is preparing to build 12,000 houses. There are few jobs around here other than seasonal or agricultural ones, which nobody seems to want to do. Everywhere I look around the country, more and more land is being built on or has been earmarked for housing developments. I'd like to know who is going to be living in all the houses that are being built and how much we haven't been told by politicians about how many people there are in this country. This is not a political point. I am just curious.

I'm not sure that taking your rubbish home with you after a week's boating would meet with the approval of your local council's waste gurus, Not sure where they would stand as regards you importing what has been defined by another council (albeit illegally) as "trade waste" and disposing of it in your local waste stream. Time was when the councils just got on with their job of providing front line services. Now it seems they are more concerned with everything from promoting diversity to property speculation rather than do what they are paid to do.

Some local councils have made it a made a major industry to liberally interpret the EU waste regulations in order ostensibly to save a few thousand pounds, regardless of whether what they are doing is legal or makes economic sense when viewed as part of the bigger picture. We have the ridiculous situation of councils paying millions to attract tourists with one hand whilst p*ssing them off with the other by refusing to collect their waste. Our daughter lives near Reading and was able for years to use the waste disposal facilities in the town. Now she has been told that because she lives the wrong side of a county boundary, she has to take her rubbish to Newbury, a round trip of 30 miles. Are people caught in the same situation doing this? No, they are dumping their waste in woodland or by the roadside when no-one is looking, from where it has to be collected at great cost by Reading and the other local councils. Suggesting that the Broads Authority (and therefore private boaters) should pick up the tab for domestic waste collection is circumventing the issue. Local authorities should be made to fulfil their statutory responsibilities - by central government if necessary.

Boulters at Horning is usually open.

We like the Walnut Tree veggie pub place at Thwaite. I'm not a full-blown veggie by any means, but I love their food, which is always tasty, plentiful and reasonably priced. They have good draught beers too. I was in the Burger King/Little Chef place at the bottom of the A140 the other day. The men's toilets were awash with (hopefully) water and the handwash taps didn't work, so I wouldn't have fancied eating there even if we hadn't had cod and chips from the Chip Inn at Long Stratton half an hour or so earlier. That BK is the only one I have ever come across with a food hygiene score of less than 5. Place deserves an appointment with the wrecking ball IMHO. Plenty of better places to stop up the A140.

Heard and saw a cuckoo as we came down the Ant on Wednesday. It was sat on a dead tree, so easy to spot. We've heard a couple down here in SE Kent too.

What a contrast. And it is hard to see now how those seas around Dungeness made Indy look so small.

We have used Groupon on and off for several years and have had some excellent and heavily-discounted goods and services from them including a Segway tour at Leeds Castle, a ghost walk in Canterbury and several meals. At no time have we had a problem and I can't say I have been pestered by follow-up e-mail from the companies involved. I always read the terms and conditions carefully for exclusions and limitations before I buy and would expect a provider to honour a booking which was made within the T's and C's . If not, I would complain both to the provider and to Groupon.

We used the NDR from Postwick to the Wroxham exit on our journey to and from the Broads this last week. My observations are as follows: 1) Going North, the journey seemed straightforward and quick compared to our usual trek from the A47 via Blofeld Heath and Salhouse. 2) No sooner is the road built, but bits of it are already coned off - why?????? 3) The roundabouts were easy to navigate despite the insertion of additional lanes in them. 4) Drivers in Norfolk need to be re-educated with regard to the use of indicators on roundabouts. We twice observed drivers go 3/4 of the way around roundabouts without troubling their indicator stalks once in the entire manoeuvre. Discourteous and potentially dangerous! 5) Going South, there was a long queue of traffic coming out of Wroxham all the way to the NDR roundabout - so no time-saving there! 6) The route seemed straightforward and easy to use until we hit the Postwick interchange, at which point we were presented with traffic lights. Although traffic was fairly light at our times of travelling, I can imagine these causing queues and delays when the predicted housing developments are built and populated. 7) The wild flowers which are already springing up on the verges and embankments looked wonderful this morning.