SueH

Pembroke Corgi. My third, the other two have been boys. A joy to live with. SueH

Dear all I have decided to personalise the avatar. Hope you like her. I will be trying to get some decent ones of her on MS next week so it may change again. SueH

Retirement sometimes sneaks up on you when you least expect it. I was made redundant at an age where I could take the works pension so did. Still 12 years before OAPension, but while we have our health & fitness we are going to enjoy everything we can. SueH

Are these the ones I have seen advertised on the TV recently that seem to clean everything including the kitchen sink, plus a pair of trainers? They certainly look useful. SueH

Morning Gracie. Sorry not 'South of the M4'. Slightly duff weather but so far a very good day. Perhaps will go downhill after aqua-fit later this morning .................. Work always used to interfere with other things. SueH PS - I can commiserate - my keys always have this habit of finding themselves in places I cannot remember losing them. HWMBO always asks the same question as yours and wonders why I get upset!

Hi Neil Always ................ SueH PS - please don't mention good fishing. I'll never keep HWMBO away!!! S

Thanks BB. That saves me looking through the manual for MS. I agree about the centre and 'gently gently'. HA. We cannot afford to be stuck the other side, so will have to keep a beady eye on the tides etc. SueH

On our June trip we are hoping to spend most of the time in the Northern Broads. It would be pleasant to get as far as Coltishall having not been up there since we hired Star Gem more years ago than I would like to remember. I expect that the area has changed dramatically since the RAF moved out. Are there pilots for these bridges nowadays, and will they provide the service for 'private' boats? Weather permitting MS should manage to at least get under the two Wroxham bridges with a 'following wind' and the canopy down. I'm not as sure about Potter. I remember seeing a clip, somewhere, of Broads Ambition going through Wroxham (or I think it was) backwards. The skipper was more brave than we are I think. SueH

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Good thought, but if I do who will be around to keep me in the manner to which I have become accustomed? SueH

I keep the jackets indoors in the bags they came in, when we are not in Norfolk, so that should be ok. Will have to check the date on them. But think they are only a couple of years old. Very pleased my idea of a dunk in the local pool wearing mine is not needed. Just dropping it in the bath is a far nicer option. SueH

I have been thinking recently, as you do, and a great brain strain it has been! Anyway - we have life-jackets that, in theory, are supposed to 'go off' when you hit the water. The trouble is I have no idea if they do or do not work, and don't want to find out if, heaven forbid, I end up in a broad or the River Yare. Especially as not a particularly strong swimmer. I know that it is difficult to extract yourself from water when you fall in, as can be evidenced by the fit young man who drowned when he fell into the river in Bath recently. Does anyone have any experience as to whether this type of jacket actually works? Would it be worth my while doing a practical test, say in the local pool. Granted this would only test the jacket, it would not be an accurate simulation of falling into 12 feet of water fully clothed, and of course I would have to replace the reasonably new 'arming mechanism'. Food for thought on a Sunny, albeit windy morning somewhere 'South of the M4'. SueH

Sounds good. I can commiserate with your wife though, sawdust is a pain to hoover and as for the dust from sanding down ...............! SueH

As it is a number of years since I have to use these companies for a claim. I wonder if they are as quick to pay-out as they are to take your money in the first place. SueH

Mind you, sometimes a lot of the fun of being on the water is the fettling and just sitting 'gongoozaling'. You can learn an awful lot by watching. SueH

Thanks Matt - I'd better not tell HWMBO as this is the sort of store he loves. You never know our weeks on-board may coincide sometime. SueH

Alan - just a matter of interest - do you have the Wards opening hours. The last few times we have been up there they appear to have been closed. It looks like an Aladdins cave of lots of lovely goodies to look at! SueH

Going off the subject slightly. I have just driven 'Ruby' the Red Aygo for the first time at night. Night driving is something that I am not comfortable with - the headlights are rather glary. It seemed better in Ruby but still an acquired taste I think. SueH

I don't know about overboard, the way Rosie is moulting he will just drown in dog hair ......................... No-one is allowed on board in dark clothing it is just tooooo embarrassing. SueH

Especially if you really know it is big and don't want it confirmed! Seriously - it must be an age thing you get so that, as Frank says, it doesn't matter what people think. Isn't it nice not to have to worry about looking like 'Twiggy' or whomever is the latest fashionista. I'm showing my age there though. SueH PS - Frank if you are around during week commencing 1 March you are welcome aboard MS for a chin-wag. We may even provide the coffee and free dog hair from Rosie!!!

HWMBO has just disappeared into the workshop, a good place to hide while I browse interesting sites to see what (if anything) is worth spending our hard earned pennies on. Fortunately generally there is nothing ......................... I'm not clever enough to keep two windows open and toggle between the two. SueH

Have you noticed how some people, either face to face or sight unseen, never seem to fit in (ie square peg) where others seem to fit in straight away with no problems. Has that happened to you or anyone you know? SueH PS - sorry just realised I put this in the wrong area. It should have been in the lounge ......

1st of March for us all being well. Here's hoping the weather improves before then. I don't mind if it is a little wet, but cannot get on with highish winds. SueH

If it's like Martin than probably not - which is perhaps fortunate. Mind you he does ask sometimes what I am chuckling about so he is aware ........... SueH PS - John are you a fisher-person? We moored behind a boat similar to yours last season (I get the idea it had the same name, although I could be wrong) anyway Martin got talking to him and the upshot was that we now have eight weeks a year on MS. S

Back in the day, I was a car owner and had built up nearly 20 years no claims bonus. Then in 2008 we went down to one vehicle which was in Martins name. I became a named driver and assumed that I would keep my NCD as the company stated they did a 'named driver NCD'. This week we got me a little run-around, so I thought that the insurance bill would be quite low with everything that had been accrued. How wrong I was, I had gone down to no NCD at all. The NDNCD appeared to be just a con. We both feel rather let down by the insurance companies and now wish that we had kept both cars running even if we kept one off the road. Grouch over. Mind you the run-around is snazzy a little Toyota Aygo. A super thing to drive. SueH

Hello I tend to agree with Alan from Ranworth Breeze, it needs to be formalised and each person being aware of their responsibilities etc. In the gliding world we had a similar thing where people had what was called an 'insurance share' where they were allowed to fly the aircraft but had to pay a proportion of their insurance/running costs - ie if there were two of them flying then they would each pay half of everything. However they had no capital tied up in the aircraft. SueH