How Busy Can It Get?

[NeilB]

Sadly I could probably write a book on this but Mark has done a good job of explaining the difficulties.  My son has Autism which mainly affects his social skills, currently taking his A levels and while not setting the world on fire is predicted to do OK.  I don't worry about him so much as nothing seems to phase him, appears to be a lazy so and so, (he's still a teenager!!), but gets the work done.

My eldest daughter has Aspersers diagnosed at 12, she's now 17.  I won't go into details but her issues are very hard to deal with and sometimes keeps me awake a night.

Luckily we were able to afford private diagnosis as there was a huge wait for the NHS, literally years.  While my son was going through the process the local authority moved the goalposts and we needed a 2nd opinion.  Both professionals involved were convinced this was only done to slow the rate of private diagnosis as the local authority could not afford to provide extra assistance to the amount of children.

My youngest daughter appears to be a perfectly normal 11 year old, with a growing grasp or sarcasm.  Cannot imagine where she gets that from.... 

[Smoggy]

While there's no doubt that plenty have genuine issues that deserve support MM spot on in that we now have so many families desperate for a label so they can screw the system that it makes the system overloaded for those with genuine problems, they are usually the same families with generations living off the benefits system funded by the rest of us.

Although social media and smartphones must make being young so much harder than it was for us old gits, I'm very glad to have grown up without it, as an adult I can use it all to a level of my choosing and can brush off the idiots without much of a care but not so easy for a youngster.

[dom]

1 hour ago, Ray said:

I too can't get my head around gender identity problems in very young children, I would have thought those people who genuinely struggle with this wouldn't begin to suspect they need help until at the very earliest around puberty and more likely as young adults. I have no recollection at all of a single peron having any issue of this kind during my schooling.

Personally, I think there's something far more sinister than just peer pressure and fashion going on with the gender issue. When you see some of these people in person, it's apparent that it's more than just a social affectation and seems more like an actual developmental issue, which has only become prevalent in recent years.

Oestradiol is one of the main oestrogen hormones. At least 2.5 million women take contraceptive pills containing it. It's excreted in urine and treated waste ultimately ends up in drinking water. When a survey was conducted to measure levels in water at 50 sites, it was found in over 80% of cases. Antidepressants have also been found in the brains of wild fish.

Tests elsewhere in Europe and the USA have also found all of the following in water:

ACE inhibitors (heart drug), antibiotics, antidepressants, beta-blockers, blood thinners, calcium-channel blockers (heart drug), carbamazepine (anti-seizure drug), digoxin, fibrates (cholesterol drugs), naproxen (an anti-inflammatory), painkillers like paracetamol and codeine, and tranquillizers.

Microplastics are also widespread and even found in bottled water.

When I was a kid, we rarely drank water during the course of the day but, these days, young people are indoctrinated into the belief that they have to consume target amounts daily, so they now carry bottles around with them and drink litres daily. I suspect that, in doing so, they may well be consuming ever increasing amounts of hormones and drug residues, which could well be causing the increase in both gender and mental health issues.

The sad part about it is, it barely even appears on the radar these days, so we could well be blithely bringing about widespread harm to our offspring. It also comes on top of a substantial change in diet, with large parts of the population now consuming ultra-processed foods - and large amounts of soy based products. The latter has been demonstrated to cause gynaecomastia and low testosterone in some males. It's deemed safe because the incidence of issues is low - effectively saying it's OK to damage some kids, because most will be fine.

If I had kids today, without a shadow of a doubt, I'd be feeding them as much home grown produce as possible, and investing in high level water filtration. That may be viewed as paranoid by some, but ask yourself, should we really trust water companies to deliver completely safe drinking water, when it's often coming from the same companies dumping raw sewage into water courses?

[MauriceMynah]

Well thank you all, for taking my posts on this subject in the spirit that was intended, and thank you for the very interesting replies.  Certainly food for thought there.

[MauriceMynah]

And now for something completely different. 

I'm currently moored at Thurne Dyke.  Last evening, a large cruiser arrived and moored just ahead of me. I couldn't tell how many aboard but the array of beer tins and bottles was impressive and of the crew I could see, they seemed of an age for, shall we say, good thorough sessions. 

The second thing I observed was that they were coming up the dyke using forward gear in tickover and neutral plus minimal use of the bow thruster. I assisted their mooring between two boats as the space was a little tight.

They thanked me for my assistance saying that they'd only taken the boat over two days ago, and hadn't got the hang of it yet. One of them had been on a boating holiday once before but quite a while ago.

At minutes before 07:00 this morning they started their engine. I thought to heat water, but no. 10 minutes later they were untying there ropes and again, all in tickover,  they departed, going astern out of the dyke, a feat some experienced skippers would have thought twice about.

We're they the novices they claimed to be, I believe so, going by their terminology (front, back, left, right and "parking the boat", that sort of thing.)

So, what do we have here? A group of predominantly male youngsters, on the Broads, loads of beer and doing it properly. 

To be honest, I'd pretty much given up hope of witnessing that sort of behaviour again on the water, and what a delightful experience it has been for me.

We are very quick to write about the bad ones, I couldn't let this pass without comment. I just hope I come across them again. 

[Gracie]

Thank you for posting this MM

What a refreshing change it is to read a post about a same sex group being polite and having consideration for others. 

I'm quite sure there have been plenty of them in the past and lots more, hopefully, in the future.

Grace x

 

[NeilB]

4 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

And now for something completely different. 

I'm currently moored at Thurne Dyke. 

Just passed you at The Ferry in Horning. Was tempted to stop but I’ve got work tomorrow!!

[MauriceMynah]

Shame you couldn't. Tempest is in the area too.

[MauriceMynah]

The perils of boating.

Here I sit, in mighty distress. I'm lying at mudweight in Ranworth broad (or is it Malthouse, I can never remember), thinking to myself... "Know what Mynah, it's time for a pinkers", only to find I'm almost out of Angostura.

Options are limited. I could try to moor at the staithe, pay my fiver to find if the store here has any... which I doubt, use Campari instead or go native and just have a gin & tonic. 

Hmmm, I never realised that this boating malarkey was so dangerous. 

Oh well. Chin up Mynah, you've got plenty of Campari. 

[Vaughan]

If you have a fountain pen, you could always try a couple of drops of ink in the gin!

The reason that naval officers drink "pink" gin goes back to between the wars, when junior officers on ships had their mess bill restricted to a few shillings a day and this was monitored closely by the 1st lieutenant.

This meant that they could afford a large gin and tonic every evening but, as tonic was more expensive than duty-free Plymouth gin, if they went without the tonic, they could have two large gins of an evening.

They also discovered that if they added a couple of drops of good old "Quink" in the water, this would take the bitterness off the plain gin. Then some-one discovered that Angostura bitters had a much better effect and so a great naval tradition was born!

"Another true story from Steve Wright in the Afternoon".

 

[kpnut]

1 hour ago, MauriceMynah said:

Hmmm, I never realised that this boating malarkey was so dangerous. 

Or so expensive if you have to add a fiver to your visit to the shop, even before you’ve found they haven’t got any. 

[MauriceMynah]

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.

A A Milne

 

I have to express my gratitude to Mr. Milne for the above quote as it demonstrates wonderfully my present status. 

Whilst I was in thinking mode, and moored at one of my favourite spots, I looked out of the window at the BA 24hr sign 

"Wroxham Island" it said. "TG311 183" it added.

My interest was aroused when I read   "NR12 8TS".

Ahh I thought, hmmm I added.

Who on earth is going to send a letter or a parcel  to Wroxham Island? Or, who is going to input it to their satnav.

Now, if I remember to do it, while I'm moored at Salhouse for the meet, I shall put it into my Garmin that sits by the helm and see what happens.

If it directs me out of the broad and tells me to turn to port, I'll be very impressed.  Any bets?

 

[Smoggy]

It'll take you too the sailing club by road is my guess, a better route for Grendel as it's one he couldn't fall in the water following. 

[grendel]

I am doing well, 24 hours and haven't fallen in yet, got wet though as it rained all morning.

[MauriceMynah]

Well, what a lovely meet. I couldn't get the Beachboys out of my head as I hummed "Good Libations".

It was great to catch up with everybody again. And once again I suspect I over libated on Friday, it certainly felt like it on the Saturday. 

Now, back to business. Although I was generally a tad disappointed with the overall lack of patination displayed at the meet, it was delightful to see, and be treated to, a display of an instant patination installation of the shorts by courtesy of little bramble.  His efforts are much to be commended.