My Day

[TheQ]

It's stupid oclock in the morning, but in 5 hours I'm off to Horning regatta week.

[kpnut]

Boat spotting of a different kind today. Tony and I took an interesting walk along a bit of the Trent and Mersey canal from near Alrewas (think that’s how it’s spelt) to its junction with the Coventry canal at Fradley junction. 
I thought it’d be heaving with people in the two pubs and strolling along; in reality, not so many landlubbers gongoozling, but the actual canal was a deal more busy than I’d expected. Boats queuing for the 5 locks and lots of residential moorees.  I’ll visit again for a properly long walk with pushchair and grandchild sometime. 

And we think Wroxham bridge is tight. And we don’t then end up in a massive deep bath! 

[TheQ]

Good afternoon's sailing on Black hnHorse Broad, had a good tussle with Liz G in race one,  race two she escaped, and disappeared off to win the race..

[YnysMon]

2 hours ago, kpnut said:

in reality, not so many landlubbers gongoozling,

I just love the word gongoozling. 

Did a bit of that this morning when I took Pozzie for a walk along the Grand Union (Seren and Graham were at agility class). There seem to be a lot more boats moored up along our section of the canal than there used to be. 

[kpnut]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

had a good tussle with Liz G in race one,  race two she escaped, and disappeared off to win the race..

We’ll done Liz

[TheQ]

Ready for another day on the water.

 

[BroadAmbition]

[JanetAnne]

I see it won

[grendel]

for the past 2 days I have been at our office in Coventry, 4.30am departure monday morning and I was in the office just after 7.30 dream of a trip despite at least half of the M25 and 2/3 of the M1 all being roadworks and 50mph. full day at work, then when I got to the hotel i was informed that their restaurant was closed, so had the option of a refund on the evening meal and breakfast, or drive to their sister hotel 7 miles away- not what I wanted to do (the office is about 300 yards from the hotel) so opted for the refund, then went to pizza hut for dinner (just the other side of the road to the hotel) and mcdonalds for breakfast (a half mile diversion from hotel to office at most), another full day of work and team briefs, and then head for home at 4pm, temperatures were 29-31 degrees all the way home, it only started cooling after 6.30, but was still 25 degrees when I arrived home at 7.30pm. it was one of those 2 days a year when you wish you had the aircon fixed (I dont get it fixed because its a lot of money to spend out for the one or two days a year you actually need it.)

[grendel]

not to mention that Monday when I got into the office it was absolutely roasting in there on the first floor, several people went down to complain and were sent away with the response we are not allowed to change the settings, so I went down and asked, initially I got the same response, but I then asked if we could check the settings as it was ridiculously hot, begrudgingly we went up to the control panel, all the first floor settings were on heat only if the temperature was below 21 degrees, no cooling. I then said well thats obviously not correct and proceeded to reset them all to cool if above 21 degrees.

after that i sent an email to the department head that had control of the team that could change the settings, was then informed I had not followed procedure and should have reported it to facilities so went ahead and did that, explaining the action I had taken, the remedial action required and a suggestion the values should be noted on a chart next to the machine in case a manual reset was required.

got told off both by the department head and facilities for messing with the air con (by now we had nice cool air circulating and it was much more comfortable.)  once i explained the reason, I did get informed I had done the right thing, and that there was an issue with the aircon unit, that it would revert to the heat settings every night, and had to be manually reset every morning, the person who normally did this had left a week ago, so nobody was doing it and everyone was just suffering and not bothering to report it.

so it was a known issue, and the staff responsible were just brushing it off with we are not allowed to change the settings. not acceptable. anyway as the incomer I took charge of the issue and got it resolved, hopefully now repairs will be made- the stupid part is that our facilities team can remotely control the air con- but can only set it to heat and not to cool.

[Gracie]

On 27/07/2024 at 20:22, YnysMon said:

I just love the word gongoozling. 

So do I. You just can't beat gongoozling out on the rivers, you do see some sights.  I gongoozle at home too, I think another two words that describe it.... being nosy. I like to refer to it as Neighbourhood Watch  

Well done Liz

Grace x

[grendel]

the net result from my actions re the air conditioning is that facilities have admitted there is a functional problem with the air conditioning, and that two people who work on the affected floor have been given access and shown how to correct the issue  to keep the office cool. and while I may have been given several tellings off, action is now being taken. thepoint being that i dont care at all about being told off, one of our company values is always doing the right thing not just the easy thing, OK so I stepped on some toes, but i got the result.

[TheQ]

Liz won more races..

I didn't, though my little sailing boats position in races is improving steadily, that was until I broke it.. hit a tree.. the mast step failed. Not expensive to fix. Just a pain in the ar... Arms that is and side and neck as I have to go ferreting up under the foredeck to get the broken bit out, fix / replace it, then put it back.

 

The regatta itself went well, not any major incidents, a few dinghy rescues, stuck in the Lillies or equipment failures.

Most motorboaters behaved themselves, except one particular member of the Brundall navy having been asked to keep to one side, proceeded to weave their way through the course leaving boats scattered behind them. They did that at least three times..

Oh and one hire boat just past Black Horse broad decided he wanted to go there. So he sounded his horn twice and suddenly put the 40ft hire boat at 90degrees across the 100ft wide river, right in the middle of a large fleet of sailing boats.

[LizG]

Also learnt a design of day boat coming out of Wroxham can't steer! There was during a course of an hour about 6 all asked to keep to bank, we would turn round and they would be bow into the reeds or zigzagging across the river - it was not the hirers fault and it is a relatively design!

[LizG]

As to the week - it went relatively well! Some good results, some dreadful and I learnt by Thursday the first race of the day should be avoided in my white boat. No wind and a strong tide are not a good combination. I have a Windex that resembles Concorde and shortened gaff jaws after one broke taking the sail down! Jaws repaired by the first race the next day!

The friendship at Horning Sailing Club is the reason why this club is excels!

[MargeandParge]

9 minutes ago, LizG said:

Also learnt a design of day boat coming out of Wroxham can't steer! There was during a course of an hour about 6 all asked to keep to bank, we would turn round and they would be bow into the reeds or zigzagging across the river - it was not the hirers fault and it is a relatively design!

Was that an outboard powered raft as we were nearly T boned by one whilst moored on the Church mooring at Horning. The capacity crew were really struggling to control this craft that has very sharp corners and wouldn't be a friendly nudge into a Hull below the rubbing strake . Sorry but we think it's a very poor design.

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[LizG]

1 hour ago, MargeandParge said:

Was that an outboard powered raft as we were nearly T boned by one whilst moored on the Church mooring at Horning. The capacity crew were really struggling to control this craft that has very sharp corners and wouldn't be a friendly nudge into a Hull below the rubbing strake . Sorry but we think it's a very poor design.

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

No, actual launch, not naming company though!

[YnysMon]

It's hedgerow harvest time.

The last few days I've been picking blackberries, crab apples and elderberries. We've settled into a habit of taking the dogs to Stanton Low Park most days. It's a newish park on the northern edge of Milton Keynes with the Grand Union Canal running through it, so lots of lovely hedgerows with no road traffic anywhere near them. On one side of the canal near a new housing development is a more formal park with paths, playground, area for football etc., the other side of the canal the park is divided into fields with dog-proof fences and 'corridors' with mown paths between the fields. Sometimes there are cows and sheet in some of the fields and one field is reserved as a meadow, which has been beautiful this summer. There's a ruined church, which was abandoned in Victorian times after a church was built in New Bradwell  (near Wolverton). I don't think you could find a better city park, and one that is so ideal for dog walking. 

Anyway, the blackberries are in the freezer, as I don't have enough to make jam yet, but the crab apples have been made into jelly and the elderberries into elderberry syrup, which I've read is a good winter tonic for warding off colds and flu. I went slightly overboard with the elderberries and collected a whole carrier bag through. It took me all yesterday afternoon to pick the berries off the stalks (the wood is poisonous). What a boring job! Hopefully the end result will be worth it. Trouble is, I've run out of bottles, so the last 1/2 pint or so had to go into a jam jar.

Apple jelly and elderberry syrup...

Some photos from Stanton Low Park. The first is from last autumn, the rest from this summer.

[kpnut]

That whole area looks wonderful Helen. 
 

As for ‘hedgerow harvest’ - good work, I’m in full approval of pursuits like that. With the words of ‘all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin’ ringing in your head!

[SwanR]

Making any apple crumble Helen? A neighbour has given me some of his apples. I do miss Ian giving us all his wonderful recipe tips. 

[grendel]

talking of apple crumble, I really need to pick some of my apples and make one, or at least make a big bowl of stewed apple, my tree produces lovely large apples that dont keep well and are great cooker / eaters- just a bit on the tart side for eaters, but perfect when cooked- they do make a great apple sauce with no need for sweetening. in the past I have had apples weighing in at 1 lb each- they also make a decent cider.

do I know what variety they are- not a clue- 3 times we have sent them to brogdale- 3 times they are too far gone by the time they get round to trying to identify them- 3 times we have had a refund- we have found similar varieties amongst the collection- except ours ripen about a month earlier than theirs. ie its ripe now, and theirs wont be for a few more weeks.

when we moved in the tree was a sapling planted right next to the house, so we moved it, now many years later its about 20 foot high.

[YnysMon]

18 minutes ago, SwanR said:

Making any apple crumble Helen? A neighbour has given me some of his apples. I do miss Ian giving us all his wonderful recipe tips. 

Yes, I had meant to make one yesterday, but was too exhausted after all the elderberry prep. Maybe tomorrow. I collected some cooking apples from the allotment, so they need using. 

[Lulu]

We have had so many blackberries in the garden this year. Lots of blackberry and apple crumbles have been consumed and been giving punnets of blackberries away as there’s no more room in the freezer. Desmond loves them and we keep finding him munching on them in the garden.  

[grendel]

I was rather vocal towards a motorist just now while cycling back from my chemist after picking up a prescription, got to a roundabout, was on the roundabout when a BMW driver decided to floor it to beat me as i went round, I just missed the back of this car when I see the big 4x4 behind him was pulling away too, by now I was right in front of him, I kept going and he clipped the pannier at the back of the bike, how I missed going under him was more luck than judgement- do drivers not actually look before pulling out nowadays- well I think this guy might well in future- the BMW driver- well he obviously saw me and decided to go anyway as he accelerated quite hard. but the 4x4 !!!! (no I was not wearing a lifejacket, but I was wearing a cycle helmet.)

[YnysMon]

Crumble made and ready to go in the oven, plus a spare for the freezer. I'm going to serve it with an egg custard made with soya milk.