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An 'ex-spurt' In The Nbn

BroadAmbition

By BroadAmbition
in The Broadscot Lounge

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tjg1677

tjg1677

Posted
Posted

And i thought it was just the canals where the friendly rivalry took place between the tupperwares and rustbuckets. In a wide lock if a narrowboat had a grp boat alongside, the grp one was referred to as a fender :hardhat: all good light hearted joshing.

I , as many will know have a marmite boat, in my opinion it is a combination of the best of both worlds, personally i wanted a bathtub when looking to purchase but settled fot the one i got coz it has a flybridge, darned difficult getting up there but great once esconsed., all good stuff but i do still miss the front door of a bathtub..

 and finally, the original point of this thread, hear hear griff, that is recognition long overdue, one of robins reviews saved me a lot of time and money, so good on yer robin, keep em coming and i will gladly buy you a drink when we eventually meet and you would be welcome to crew onboard GK anytime.

cheers mate

Trev.

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BroadAmbition

BroadAmbition

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the grp one was referred to as a fender :hardhat: all good light hearted joshing.  - Like it, must remember that one for the next time we have a tupperware alongside :naughty:

Back on topic,  -  Yesterday I rode down to Stalham on the mighty Tiger for a flying visit then onto Norwich Hospital, this was the primary reason for the ride out to visit Jason after his biggest operation to date.  Now what's that gotta do with being back on topic?  Night riding on the Tiger has to date been somewhat awkward due to it's commonly known Achilles heel, that is the poor light output from the dip and main beam headlights - they are puny and have given me and other riders many a scare during night riding exercises.  Many 'Fixes' are out there on the Tiger forum.  One of the easiest to accomplish is to fit a pair of driving lamps.  To date I had not done anything about the situation as I was not sure which 'Fix' to have a go at.  Robin at some time must have overheard me discussing the subject, next thing I know out of the blue a link turns up in my inbox for matching gold LED driving lamps ideal for the Tiger, he had 'Got on his bike' (Pun intended) and researched then recommended without any hint of a request from me.  Now if Robin says something is worth getting, it usually is, so without hesitation I ordered them and subsequently fitted them.  The ride back from Norwich last night - I left at 1745 arriving home at 1945 (with a stop for a coffee and a sticky bun) was a revelation.  Those driving lamps have transformed my confidence and pleasure of night riding.  I can now actually see where I am going, big grin factor last night.

So Robin - Tks for the kick up the backside I needed, that's another one I owe you :bow

Griff

 

BA NBN 285.JPG

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JawsOrca

JawsOrca

Posted
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Griff... lovely words... (disappointed someone has taken it the wrong way though.. I can't be bother to comment on that any further). Where is the Rascal you clearly have made him blush at least!  I echo your comments.. He does an excellent job for promoting the broads and his specials such as the ones you've posted are just brilliant.. MBE for broads promotion me thinks! 

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BroadScot

BroadScot

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35 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:


Sunday morning Clay shooting as per the norm accomplished.  100 clays,  100+ 21g 6's used in the process,

Maybe I ought to introduce Robin to this sport? - he may well be a natural at that too!

Griff

BA_NBN_286.JPG

Very dapperGriff !

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grendel

grendel

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Sunday lunchtime shoot for me, a couple of quivers of arrows at my old viking mates training event today, I still achieved a reasonable hit rate even after a 20 year break, passed two bows on that I had picked up at a boot fair a couple of weeks back for their have a go archery stall. Sadly no pictures of this :-) 

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LondonRascal

LondonRascal

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Well, to be honest I feel like a rabbit in the headlights and unsure what to say – which means I will probably begin saying little, and an hour later you will still be reading this reply.

Firstly, Charlie is the type of person that some might describe a little as being like Marmite – you know, either love him or hate him – but that does not wash now especially with the fact the stuff has become so expensive  and no longer allowed past the Yorkshire border. 

The fact is he is charming and a real gentleman.  He is wise and witty and a very much a kind person who will come to the aid of those he may know and those he has yet to -be it leaping to the help of a cruiser drifting in the reeds, or coming to Norwich from Doncaster to visit Jason recovering in hospital, he will always have your back. 

Now I’ve been coming to the Broads since a kid – not as young as some of you mind, it took a while for my parents to figure out the canal system was much the same after a few miles and the boats too narrow.  As for the Thames it had too many and locks and Toffs, so they discovered the Broads and brought me along a few years later.  Like many here, I was taken by the area; the boats the experiences and holidays which I would long to come on and then try and ‘slow down time’ so the week did not pass by too quickly. 

However, as one grows up and explores new horizons I lost touch with the Broads – for a decade.  I came back to find the area so much changed, the boatyards I remembered closed and far fewer boats on the water and yet despite it all I was once again taken by the whole experience and this time I knew I was not going to let it go.  

In that first year I hired 3 boats to begin I’d write up my holiday tales but soon thought that it would be far better if I could somehow share them in a better way with people who followed my tales – I’d film the day.

I had no plan, no script – no idea – just point the camera at me and talk and describe the places we had been and were going to then do some rough kind of edit and upload that evening from the boat for people to enjoy using some new fangled device called a MiFi unit.  Nothing like that had been done on the Broads, prior to that point the only videos you may find were family holidays but the ‘blog’ format seemed to catch on, and so it grew and as I learnt more tried to keep things how they had begun but improve the quality and invest in some new cameras to try and capture more.

I soon learnt that You Tube is not a very kind place at times, and also that you can’t please everyone all of the time – but I decided to do what I did none the less and you can enjoy it if it is your cup of tea or if not that’s fine by me just exit the through the gift shop in an orderly manner. 

So here we are 5 years down the road and so much has changed.  I remember how I met Charlie, it was when I was doing a live stream on a boat from Freedom Holidays, who were based in Horning at the time.  I remember making a big thing about this and having various people comment how it could not be done and there I was outside the Hotel Wroxham with an assortment of webcams, cables, hubs a laptop hoping it would all actually work.  It did. People began to come and watch, chat in the chat room that followed along with the broadcast and I was cruising along the rivers, showing people things I saw in real time – complete with audio – it was truly interactive. 

Charlie liked it so much he got in touch with me and said that Broad Ambition was set to go to London for the Queens Diamond Jubilee – at the time nothing was set in stone, they had been accepted in their application but whether or not they could make it there and  how things would pan out was not known – not to mention the wider ‘forum community’ had no idea this was all set to take place but if it all went to plan could I bring my cameras on the boat in London and do it on a larger scale?

Blimey! I accepted and as the year progressed and more was shared the excitement (and fear) grew and come the day I travelled to West India Dock to meet the crew for the first time and hear of their calm, hot passage to London which all went so very well (how they would wish that the return was as smooth) and I set about setting up cameras and running wires – in the end there was simply so many people all sharing, texting, calling, and so on the ell towers along the Thames were saturated so the data stream slowed to a crawl.  I was at home and ‘remoted into’ the boat controlling the cameras, the sound and so on – we lost one through water damage, but the others held up and despite everything was a far more real and pure experience that the BBC had output themselves.

Since then I was fortunate enough to be part of many other events that featured Broad Ambition, became good friends with Charlie and met a bunch of new people though the community on the Broads – be it people who follow my videos, Forums and Groups or just the people you meet in your travels. Last year I became one of the owners of Broad Ambition and it all can trace its routes back to the times I would holiday on the Broads, the want to share experiences through the written word and video and the people who make up this rich tapestry of views, skills, help and friendship one finds on the Broads.

Now, when it comes down to it we may all jest about things boating – but be you the owner of a small weekender with an outboard, a large sea going boat, an ex-hire boat, a classic woody or something powered by the wind – you’ve got passion for it and that is what matters and brings us as a community together.  Try talking to most people about prop pitch, heads, bilges, glands, greasers and pulpits and they will wonder if you are alright in the head, but to the boater these are the questions, the challenges of how you fit 10lbs of pipe into a 5lb space.  It is the time you are set for dinner and a fuse goes and you’re into ‘maintenance man’ pulling up panels and working things out – the leak, the drip, the fenders being cleaned, the ropes cheesed down – sorting the aerial out to get the game it is all part of boating and you never know quite what will present itself next. 

We as a community on this Forum have skills in many areas of life, and new ones we can learn from each other and the fact that we can then get along, have a joke about and a couple of times a year get together in person makes it all the more special.  I mean, I can’t imagine anywhere else in life one could be on someone’s boat, music on, drinks flowing and an three ‘nerds’ looking through a 1994 Blakes brochure by torch light – but we were, and that is the NBN.  It is a place for everyone – the hirer and owner, the old and young, the new or veteran and unlike a Facebook Group – we can get out teeth into things and chew the fat.

So thanks to Charlie for his post and making me blush, but I am just a small cog in a greater machine – for what I may bring is just part of a larger picture.  So, if you have been, thanks for reading – more as it happens!

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SPEEDTRIPLE

SPEEDTRIPLE

Posted
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I`ve come across this thread a bit late. In the beginning, remarks were made about rags and sticks, tupperware boats, etc etc, so i think you could say that by broads standards, i`m a part owner of a Broads GIN PALACE?,  what makes it worse is don`t even drink alcahol as i`m allergic to the stuff.

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