MauriceMynah

Many Chinese takeaways Are 'cash only'. In Stalham High Street there are three, two of which are cash only and one takes card payment. The one taking cards is significantly more expensive. I suspect that the cost of the card service is the reason, rather than Chinese laundering money.

Hmmm. That means if I go to Ranworth staithe for a 6 pint session, that's £43 ÷ breakfast. I'll do it, but not too often.

Griff, in your previous post you asked in what way could we help these people. Sadly you then proffered a number of shall we say, rather flippant suggestions. I'm afraid it was that flippancy that I over reacted to. I apologise unreservedly for the annoyance that this has caused you. You are well known for your charitable deeds and attitude, and for me to imply otherwise is totally unacceptable. Your question asking HOW we can help these people is no less valid and apart from donating kit we have finished with I struggle to think of other ways. I don't believe anyone should be above valid criticism, but we all must accept that not knowing all the circumstances puts our criticisms in some doubt. I am aware that one liveaboard has to stay close to the head of the Ant to enable him to pick up his daughter from school. I put this forward purely as just one example of things of which we may be unaware.

Certainly still true to all members here, and much more fun chatting to people one disagrees with. To reply to an earlier point, perhaps with the exception of prison, I don’t think anyone is actually forced into any form of accommodation against their will. Yes I could be arguing on different forums about living in caravans, motor homes Ford transits or mud huts in Antarctica, anywhere that's away from the norm.

Agreed all the way. I was just getting miffed at some of the sweeping statements being made.

Yes it would require planning permission from the planning authority... I wonder who that would be.!

The masons have a saying they use. "To give of your money is to give of your wealth, to give of your time is to give of yourself." @BroadAmbition you ask what help you can give. I remember giving a member here a doggy life jacket I no longer needed. I left it in the aft well of B Ambition. Perhaps when you are renewing your ropes you might find a home for the old ones. That's the sort of help I was thinking of. I now throw nothing away without trying to find a new home for it first. @kpnut your posts were in no way offensive. @Vaughan your fight regrding Jenners and moral support of those living there is the stuff of legends, and deserves to be remembered as such. To all. I may have been a little ott with my post, I was having a very bad night last night. Generally however I was getting exasperated at the conclusions being jumped to about the Sutton Staithe liveaboards, and their perceived circumstances. Having lived on a boat myself now for 3 years, I'm now understanding far more of the problems some of them have. Some are struggling to make ends meet yet are being asked to burn diesel at £2.50 an hour so someone else can moor there for a night. Maybe you hadn't thought of it like that.

Well, I've read this whole thread several times and have to say I'm disappointed with some of the comments made. I wonder at those who have said they don't want to see liveaboards hogging wild moorings or to see them overstaying 24 hr moorings. They've got to be somewhere. I read the comment along the lines of... "living on a boat is always a choice". Are you sure about that? I hadn't realised you were so knowledgeable about my circumstances or those of some of the other liveaboards. Of those boats moored on the right just as you come into Sutton Staithe, one of them is a sailing boat that's up for sale but hasn't got a mooring yet. The liveaboards there are keeping an eye on it for the owner. Another has just managed to get full time employment and is trying to get a base mooring, not easy as many yards won't take liveaboards. In fact only one of the craft at Sutton is lived on by someone who will not be helped. No. The fellow about whom this thread is about is one of very few who cause a problem and who plays the BA for fools. I suppose that when homelessness was looming, I could have tried to get housing through the council but as the citizens advice fellow told me, as I own 50% of a house, they wouldn't be able to do much for me, and my share of the rent pays for my moorings etc. Sadly not enough for renting a flat though. I've not read anywhere in this thread anything suggesting that liveaboards are people trying to stand on their own two feet rather than be a burden to the tax payer. Finally has anyone heard about low income houses having to make the choice "heat or eat" ? Yes it is cheaper living on a boat, and yes most of us can do both eat and heat, but some are still struggling. I am conscious that some contributers to this thread recognise that not all liveaboards are drug crazy layabout criminals, and that you have some sympathy for those trying to live on vessels rather too small for the task. But has anyone tried to offer any help?

Me? Respectable?? The jury is still out on that one.

It's a Marsh harrier then. :-)

Meanwhile back at the bird of prey, does not the Marsh harrier have white markings on the underside of its wings?

I would have said Buzzard.

Holt??? Who goes there??

So, like, what an amazeballs hornets nest I seem to have poked. I really really hope we don't drift off of (another hate for me) it too soon. The upward emphasis at like the end of a sentence is, I believe an antipodean habit innit. "You know" has been ending sentences for many years now, but has now frequently grown to "you know what I mean". Whilst this is grammatically an improvement it is still a rhetorical nonsense. I remember my father once complaining about, as he called it, this verbal diarrhoea. He objected to it so strongly he came up with his own nonsense. If someone stated the obvious, made a totally unnecessary point or in any other way made some meaningless comment, my father would reply "Well there you are, where are you"

I have noticed an annoying trend for starting anything said with the word "So", so I thought I'd just join in. So, here I lie on my bunk listening to the pitter patter of raindrops on the roof, and find myself remembering the Flanders and Swann song of the weather which included the lines "April brings its fresh spring showers, that go on for hours and hours." I had been wondering if it was actually worth getting up out of bed, when blow me down, it stopped raining. Re-enthused with... well... enthusiasm, I decided to arise from the pit. "Things to do, people to see" as they say. With an almighty flurry ... I did nothing (it was a very impressive flurry, though I say it myself). "Why this sudden surge of inactivity ?" You ask. Because its just started raining again. That's why. So (see, I did it again) I have to point out that I dislike eating or drinking in bed. Breakfast in bed is no luxury for me an never has been. Libations under the duvet are overrated ending up with spillage on the pillow and ice wandering towards places I wish it not to. Now, (seemed like an alternative to "So") I have reason to get out of bed sometime today. Libations! Better have some breakfast first though. And it does seem to have stopped raining again.

If you do decide to change the whole bank, what do you plan to do with the old ones. I know a chap who would welcome them with open arms.

No. Only Potter heigham bridge was the northern rivers tricky one, and back in the 60s you didn't have to have a pilot. My first holiday on the Broads was 1965. I still remember it quite well. I was 11 and most of my efforts went into fishing. Many things have changed, some good, some not.

Oh deary me. I seem to have found an inponderable. Back in the universe I used to live in, eggs were either OK to eat, or had "gone off". One could tell the difference quickly and easily by the smell. Now.. I had some eggs that were beyond their sell by date. Something made me crack them open and put them in a jug prior to putting them in a pan. The whites were brown, and the yolks were Mouldy, but there was no smell whatsoever. I decided not to eat them. The "use by date" was last December, yet I was unaware that eggs could go off in this way. The ones I am currently boiling have a use by date of next month, and seem OK. Have I been wrong all these years or has something else changed? I'm sure my mother used to keep eggs for months. Your comments are looked forward to

Well done. Time to treat yourself to a small libation.

I have several CO alarms onboard one right next to the Chinese heater, another by my bunk. The third one is in the wheelhouse and a fourth close to the cooker. Finally I have one protecting the aft area astern of the galley. I'm working on the principle that if just one goes off, I'm on high alert. If two or more go off I take action. What action I take rather depends on which ones are sounding, the weather, and the availability of the gin bottle.

Was the grill functioning properly?

I noticed in Google, when I was searching for something else, that the Canal and River trust is attempting to make a financial move against 'continuous cruisers', and that those cruisers are arranging a protest. This was an article in 'The Standard' newspaper. It was headlined "Boaters to stage protest over 'discriminatory' price rises" It will be interesting to see if their protest is in any way fruitful and how. I wonder if BRAG is aware of the pressure group involved, and if there is any 'cross pollination' to be considered advantageous. I have no idea how to do linky things, nor even how best to bring this article to the attention of BRAG. Perhaps one of you clever people might oblige.

We've all done it, but there's a cream you can get to relieve the pain.

You're a very bad man Vaughan.

Hmmm, what better excuse? Now, let me think.... hmmm Ahh yes. It's too hot, or perhaps, it's too cold. It's raining, it's been raining or it's going to rain. I'm in a hurry or maybe even .. no time, I need to clean my boat. Yessss, that's the one.