SteveO

Trouble is, we live in an increasingly litigious society, where just about all jobs have been dumbed down to a box-ticking exercise and no-one wants to be accountable for making judgements and possibly defending them in court later. Someone, I am sure, will have done the calculation and decided that hiring to singles or single adults accompanied by minors is just not worth the extra bother. I think we will see a lot more of this sort of thing before common sense breaks out.

Local history group meeting tonight I'm afraid. A jolly illustrated (when the projector worked) presentation on the history of Kent.

Nice to see a bit of flexibility on the part of the planners, but am hard pressed to see what a derelict canal has to do with the Broads Authority. No doubt an apologist will come out of the woodwork soon to tell me.

Made me laugh for 60 years. RIP Sir Ken. Modern "comedians" just not that funny,

We have at least one roundabout down here that has more lanes than any of the roads entering or leaving it and the result is chaos. The chump who designed it must have gone on the same traffic planning course as the person who designed the Norfolk roundabouts.

Ahhh proper locos. I read an account recently of how Western Region coped with the "big freeze" of 1962/3. Apart from snow on the line, freezing of the water was the big concern. Locos had low fires maintained in their fireboxes at all times and, when not running, would be lined up alongside each other whenever possible. Keeping the water towers/cranes from freezing was a huge issue and freezing of the water hoses between the tender and the loco's boiler was a recurring problem, which was remedied stopping the engine periodically and the fireman taking a shovelful of burning coal from the firebox and holding it a judicious distance from the hoses. Even with all these problems, the service was generally maintained during all but the most extreme weather, unlike now where a scant couple of inches of snow seems to bring the system to a halt. All this, plus the lovely smell of steam, hot oil and coal and the beautiful sounds of locomotives working hard.

The trouble with any form of "electronic" communication is that you miss all the subtle nuances such as tone of voice, facial expression , "body language" and the rest that you would normally have when talking face to face, and which humans have evolved over thousands of years to recognise. You also lose the ability to immediately follow up on any misunderstanding of or ambiguity in the message. When I was working, colleagues would, from time to time. get involved in e-mail "wars" with people in other departments. If left to themselves, these would fester. and/or escalate. When investigated, these were often caused by misunderstanding, often over trivial points, for the reasons I outline above. When the individuals concerned were in my group, I would insist that they either sit with the person with whom they were feuding and resolve their issues or, if this was not possible, pick up the phone and talk. I am sure this didn't make me popular but it certainly avoided a lot of conflict. Sadly, none of this is possible on a forum like this so it behoves all of us to be as clear as possible when posting, to try and see things from the perspective of people who will be reading our posts and to not take things too seriously when you see something that you interpret as a direct threat or criticism. Chances are, it was not meant. Also please try to restrain yourself from posting whilst deep in your cups. In vino veritas is all very well, but people can find your version of the truth extremely hurtful.

Somewhere frequented by nuns?

It is often the days which don't go to plan that make the best stories

This reminds me of an occasion in the 80's when, in early January, I had to drive from North Yorkshire to Great Yarmouth to do some urgent work with one of our suppliers. I got down as far south as Grantham when the bad weather warnings started on the radio. I set off across the fens, with the snow falling faster all the while. When I got to Thetford, there was a strange sound coming from under the car and I realised that it was snow rubbing on the underside of the floor pan. This continued for the rest of my journey. It did slow the car down a bit and no-doubt polished the underside to a fine sheen but it wasn't my car, so I didn't lose sleep over it. I finally got to South Walsham Hall, a hotel back in the day, at around 8pm. The staff were most apologetic as the heating boiler had broken down but fear not! Hot water bottles would be provided. In the morning I was told that the temperature had gone down to -13 degrees C overnight. After my grilled kippers I set out for an early constitutional before setting off for GY. I walked in the snow to Ranworth Staithe, where I found the broad to be covered with ice, the few boats moored there having a good covering of snow. Back to the hotel and off in the car to Great Yarmouth via Wroxham, where I noted that the surface of the Bure was frozen. A day's making bandages in GY, then back to the hotel, where the snow was still deep and the boiler had not yet been fixed. Never mind, to make amends there would be a free bar in the hotel that evening and hot water bottles too! The half-dozen "residents" of the hotel , united in shared hardship, flocked to the bar after dinner and we spent the evening in front of a roaring log fire, entertaining ourselves with yarns and worsening attempts to play the piano, egged on by the inmates and inspired by brandy. Warmed inside and out, and with a good dinner on board, I repaired to bed and soon passed out. The following morning was very much milder and a thaw had set in big-time. The birds were singing, the Bure was flowing freely again under Wroxham Bridge and by the time I left GY after lunch, most of the snow had gone. The reversal of the jet-stream, which causes these extreme conditions has happened many times in the past and will no-doubt happen many times more before we are finished.

Another good turnout tonight and plenty of banter. The contest was tight at the top, but the clear winner was Lulu, who will be in the chair for next week's quiz. Thanks to all who joined in.

Nothing much by way of snow here since Tuesday, but it has been pretty cold. At least this should put the "global warming" maggots back in their holes for a while.

Following on from Nigel (Fair T' Middlin's )excellent quiz last week. I will be QM on Friday, kicking off around 8.30pm: Topics will be: 1. Watching the Detectives 2. Bad guys have all the fun 3. Raining cats and dogs Half time break for fluid in/fluid out 4. Number phrases 5. Food and Drink 6. General Mayhem To join the quiz, go to: http://www.nbnquiz.co.uk/chat/index.php Enter your username but do not enter a password. All are welcome for some lighthearted quizzing and banter. Cheers Steve

No snow here apart from the remains of the sprinkling we had on Tuesday. Quite nippy though outdoors. ,

As I write this, looking out over a scant 2 inches of snow, I reflect with annoyance at the fact that the "Smart Motorway Awareness Course" (Kerchinggg!!!! ) courtesty of Kent County Council. that I was supposed to attend this afternoon was already cancelled even before a flake of the white stuff had been seen in the sky. However, it seems that the “Beast from the East” should have been renamed the “Least from the East” at least for today. No doubt the many thousands of employees of KCC had decided that they would prefer a day with their kids, sledging on the North Downs to a day's desk-polishing in the office. No-doubt this decision was backed by a multi-page "Risk Assessment", which piles “worst-case” scenario on top of “worst-case” scenario regardless of likelihood and adopts a “zero tolerance” approach to risk. So much of our society is governed by this mentality that we are beaten before we start. I saw on the news that the M20 motorway was a car and lorry park this morning. Our little patch of bad weather was forecast well in advance and should be well within the capacity of Kent's gritters and snow ploughs to deal with. What the **** is going on and how would we cope if there was a patch of really seriously bad weather? Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Both, as I remember things.

I thought that Norfolk natives were the ones characterised by the phrase "Gimme six"!

Hmmm not sure about a badge that might describe me as a "Windmill Lady". I'd better think on that for a bit.

My grandfather was a Scot from Dundee and my grandmother a Yorkshire lass through and through. This combination made for interesting meals whenever I went to stay with them. My favourite was mince and tatties, with lashings of onions, accompanied by Yorkshire pud that grandma made in a big rectangular tray. Crispy round the edges and slightly flabby in the middle. It was a marriage made in heaven. Eee, it wor reet grand.

Nik and I will be there, notwithstanding further random closures of the M20.

Go on. I am sure you won't regret it. The performance left me with tears of joy and laughter. Not a bit like the "Shakespeare" that was inflicted on us at school. We will definitely be back in Stratford too. We loved the place!

Our "day" actually started on Tuesday evening, with a drive to out daughter's place near Reading. The object of the trip was to steal a march on a trip to Stratford upon Avon. An early start from Reading would see us in Stratford within an hour and a half, whereas an early start from Kent would probably find us queued up Lord knows where on the M25 this morning and a late arrival at our destination. We no sooner hit the M20 at 6.45pm yesterday when the satnag flagged up warnings of a motorway closure at Ashford, which added 45 minutes to our journey. It was worth it though, because we had an easy drive up to Stratford via Oxford and were parked up at our hotel by 11.15 yesterday morning. We wandered into town and were torn between the shopping (which Nik said was good by East Kent standards) and the Shakespeare's uncle's dog's birthplace type of "experience". In the end, we did a bit of both. Then it was back to the hotel for a cup of tea and a bit of a rest. We had booked a pre-theatre dinner at an Italian restaurant in town and frankly neither of us was holding out much hope of a decent meal based on past experience of such things. We were pleased to be proved wrong as the meal was absolutely excellent and reasonably priced too. Then on to the RSC just in time to take our seats for a performance of 12th Night. We were seated 15 ft from the stage, so had an excellent view of proceedings. The production was excellent (I think that Polly has reviewed it elsewhere on here, so I won't bore you) and we had a thoroughly excellent evening. Seeing Shakespeare at Stratford was one of Nik's "bucket list" items and I was very pleased to share it with her. Today we drove across country to Norfolk to check on our boat, with tonight to be spent at the Wroxham Hotel. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!

I do wish people on here would act like adults.

Got our "demand with menaces" today. Needless to say, they won't be seeing my cash until it is due.

Congratulations Pat and Mike! You kept that bloomin' quiet! From Steve and Nik