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Showing content with the highest reputation on 26/08/18 in all areas

  1. Had a transit van on bridge 32 of the L+L last year. Driver ignored red lights and kept coming. He stopped on the bridge with both barriers down hurling abuse at me. I spotted a police car in the queue behind him so I called the PC over. White van man was later prosecuted for failing to conform to a red traffic signal. Yeah !!!!
    4 points
  2. Never keep hot ash under your cratch, it will give of CO which could well drift through the vents into the accommodation
    4 points
  3. First, the right to buy wasted a lot of capital whilst not adding a single dwelling to the housing stock. No-one knows the extent to which money spent on tenure transfer affected new building, but for sure some of the capital would have been invested in additional dwellings. Of course local authorities were not able to reinvest the capital receipts from sales so the effect of the right to buy must have been a reduction in the provision of new housing. Second, one of the arguments put forward by those who only saw the RTB as a win win policy was that most of the buyers would have remained in their houses anyway, whether they bought or remained as tenants, so the overall effect on supply would be minimal. As Blackadder put it, there was one fatal flaw with this argument, it was bollocks. Legions of tenants bought houses for massive discounts and now these houses have entered the private sector it has skewed the options for many folk trying to secure a place to live. For example, out of several hundred former council houses in my village there are now I believe only six left. Ironically the victims of this fallout are the offspring of those who chose to buy their houses years ago. The geographical distribution of tenure types is a major factor in the housing problem in the uk, ie it does matter who owns what. Third, once a property is transferred to the private sector it can stand empty/unused with no penalty. The same property in the public sector (assuming there is demand) will be continually occupied. There are former council houses in my village that are now second homes. Fourth, the dogmatic nature of the original right to buy provisions effectively prevented local authorities from reinvesting in the remaining housing stock which contributed to the falling standard of many estates and a rise in empty properties. Lastly, a factor not widely acknowledged once local authorities stopped building houses was the effect on the building industry. For many small scale builders the constant supply of council housing projects kept them afloat and allowed them the security of maintaining a workforce. The fact that as a nation we simply don't have the skilled labour we need to address the housing shortage could be said to have its roots in the ill thought out government policies of the 1980's.
    3 points
  4. Oxfordshire Narrowboats are particularly well situated between locks, about a mile one way and a mile and a quarter the other way. Whoever does the first show out north, goes to the lock to do lock demos for all the northbound boats and whoever does the first show out south does the same for boats in that direction. They rest of the show outs are given steering tuition to the first bridge and then sent on their merry way to the lock, the guy doing the show out then walks back to base to do another show out. all customers are sent by email a copy of our hand book and a link to the CRT boating video. On check in they are asked if they have read and understood the hand book and sign in to say that they have, or asked to read it then sign. they are then shown through how every thing on the boat works, given a demos on how to tie up etc and boat handling tuition whilst underway. whilst 70-80% of customers do what is told to them the rest seem to think they know better. Many boats come back to Heyford for their last night, as they are due back at 8:30-9:00am; when I walk the dog of an evening it is quite unbelievable how many of them are using bow, stern and centre lines to moor up; with ropes at 90% to the boat instead of the 45% they were instructed to do and with ropes tied to the mooring pins instead of going around the pin and tying to the boat, again as instructed. Often this is done next to Armco railing with the nappy pins left in the lockers. So whilst some may say certain hire boat companies don't do enough training you also need to realise that some people don't or won't listen and a vast proportion of people are so terminally thick that is a miracle we ever managed to climb out of the Stone Age
    3 points
  5. My batteries are not doing as well as they should and investigation revealed that one of my Trojans T105's is totally dead, one of its cells has completely run out of those specific gravity thingies! I noted that the other cells in the pair all read quite high. These two old Trojans have been using a LOT of water for a while now so this failure was not a big surprise. I purchased and fitted these batteries in October 2011 so they have just failed to last a full seven years. With the exception of a holiday in Cornwall each year, and a week or two on shore power in Liverpool, these batteries have been in use every day and cycled to varying degrees most days. Two new T125's will hopefully arrive on Tuesday to supplement the existing 4 T105s. .................Dave
    2 points
  6. I have no wish to attack volunteers. All that is required is that they stop imposing their assistance on people who may not want it. It isn't OK to assume that because YOU want to play with the locks, all those on boats want you to do so when they are going through the locks. After all, given that volunteers choose to give up their free time to operate locks, they must see it as an enjoyable activity, and it seems not to be such a leap to expect them to understand that boaters might actually enjoy it too. It isn't OK to impose your assistance by default, in such a way as to require the boater to go out of his way to let them know that they aren't to help. If you want to offer your help, go and offer it. It isn't OK to sulk if your assistance is declined when offered. Still less is it OK to do so when you imposed your assistance and had to be told to stop. It isn't OK to get all affronted when somebody suggests that volunteers are actually doing it as much for themselves as for others. It is actually very instructive to consider the motivations that people have for working (whether paid or unpaid). Too often, we assume that the motivations are different. In truth they aren't (and I speak as somebody who has a significant number of current and past unpaid roles under my belt) Clearly paid work comes with the motivator of money, but consider the jobs that you do, or used to do. Can you hand on heart say that you would have switched to ANY other job that paid more if the money was offered. I certainly can't. All roles, paid and unpaid, come with a complex mix of material benefits, and intangible benefits. I have a job that pays well, but it is also doing work that I enjoy, because it engages my brain. That is part of the package. My job is with the NHS. I could get another role in the private sector in a similar field that pays more, but I don't. That is for two fairly contrasting reasons. First I have a stable job that is more likely to endure. Second (and this may be somewhat vain of me), I believe that I am VERY good at what I do, and that my being here brings considerable benefits to society. Big headed or not, I know that if somebody else did my job they wouldn't do it as well as I do, and that the benefit to society would be less. There you go, even a git like me has an altruistic streak, but is there such a thing as true altruism? I suggest not. Altruism, helping others, makes us feel better about ourselves. Even the most apparently selfless act benefits the giver.
    2 points
  7. Also when topping up the stove with fuel open the door very very slowly, open it quickly and the vacuum, suction will draw out smoke and dust.
    2 points
  8. Or take your batteries and charger to a pub. Unplug the Jukebox and plug it in there.
    2 points
  9. Can anyone attest to the use of Craftmaster Raddle Red on their garage floor?
    2 points
  10. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  11. Be sure to treat that perfect system with the same respect and care that you are so concerned about with a more automated approach... ? For someday, it too, may fail. I installed seven cameras in my home a few years back... not only to keep an eye on the house, but to be able to check in with my wife (of 30+ years), who was in the middle of an 8 year battle with cancer. She lost that battle a little over a year ago, and I lost her. But before she passed, I automated the house heater and air conditioner so she could adjust it from her bed. I automated her sprinklers so she could set in the front window of the house and water her yard and garden from her phone. I automated the garage doors so they could be opened and closed from anywhere in the world at any time, and close themselves securely each night. I got our dog a collar that reported to us by text message and email anytime he left our secured area (I admit I still love this when it tells me that my daughter Stephanie and my dog Doogan have gone on a walk). Of all the home automation that I installed, the one camera that kept a private eye on our bedroom was the best. I could log in from anywhere and see how my wife was fairing. And it worked both ways... there were times toward the end when my wife was called to stay in the hospital for various treatments, that she would ask me to pull up the home cameras so she could see how her house and dog were getting along in her absence. Then at times from work, logging in to the cameras was like being able to go home for lunch... which I couldn't actually do because of distance. My cameras are on a secure network and even if someone hacked it... I'm not sure I would care much. We were pretty simple people. If there was any downside to the constant personal surveillance that became such a part of the last few years... it's that I have years of stored video clips of the woman I loved, getting weaker and weaker as the time passed... including April 10th, 2017, at 4:15am... when she took her final breath. I may be completely out of line for posting this. Especially as my second post on the forum. But I was following this thread because of my interest in home automation and just wanted to share a different perspective on its value. If I am someday able to fulfill my fantasy of retirement on the water... there will be cameras. Jim
    2 points
  12. Front steps? Step for side hatch on a hinge? https://hideawaysolutions.com/ Only available in USA. No connection just looks a useful idea.
    1 point
  13. So have many since Duncan Smith came up with it, but dogma rules once again. Just as a correction, I've been calling it Universal Benefit when in fact it is called Universal Credit also replacing Child tax Credits and Working Tax Credits, given it's complexity it is merely a matter of time before it collapses.
    1 point
  14. Ah, I see - I always sail early from those because there always seems to be folk running their engines...
    1 point
  15. Or even just charged them when we were cruising and bothered no-one?
    1 point
  16. I'm definitely no connoisseur of meat but the pork chops we had today were in a different league to what we normally have. I believe their pigs are Oxford Sandy and Black which are so rare they almost became extinct 20 years ago.
    1 point
  17. Do I look bothered by that, as a householder? To me, my house is somewhere to live, nothing more, nothing less, if people bought theirs as an investment the usual warning on investments is ,'..your investment may either go up or go down...' this doesn't seem to apply to housing though, which is expected to inexorably rise upwards. That is precisely the reason that the likes of Barratt, Persimmon, et al will never supply the housing that the market needs, their interest in in keeping house prices as high as they can. We now have 4 million less council houses than when the inane policy was introduced, don't you think that just might have had an impact since that is 4 million people who,whilst they cannot afford a mortgage, are thrown to 'the market' where they struggle to rent at the alleged 'affordable rents'. Fantastic idea, lets apply it to all property shall we?
    1 point
  18. After having has coal burning stoves on boats for 20 odd years, I now have a boat with a Kabola Old Dutch oil drip stove. It creates zero ash and responds quickly to being turned up, down and off.
    1 point
  19. Virtually all coal merchants store their coals outside in open to the weather staithes, on purpose perhaps, it makes the coals heavier when they bag it. Multifuels should really look a light black or dark grey colour if nice and dry, not jet black. When your using the oven to bake a meal put a few shovel fulls on the bottom shelf. to make sure its dry.
    1 point
  20. Don't you just love it when a car driver sitting at the barrier asks the bridge operator "Are you going to be long?". The correct answer is "About 48 feet" [or whatever applies to your particular boat].
    1 point
  21. If you speak to them nicely they might even fold the edges down for you!
    1 point
  22. We inherited one of those tippy boxes with the boat and I wouldn't want to be without it. I must confess that, like dmr, I do leave it inside the boat during the day but try to put it out in the (open-air) cratch before bed. If I remember. We have two CO alarms and have never had any trace of anything on the readout. I find that the best way to use it is to just use it for small amounts of ash, letting this cool before transferring it later to a lidded bucket outside the boat, preferably on the towpath. I don't empty the ash pan too soon after riddling the stove, I leave it a while first as this allows it to cool a bit rather than be full of small glowing pieces. I then open the tippy and hold it almost horizontally before carefully placing the ash pan inside it. I then remove the ash pan handle, close the lid and tip it vertically and then leave it a moment for the dust to settle. I then open it, re-attach the handle and gently remove the ash pan to try and avoid disturbing the dust too much. Immediately after doing this I riddle the stove so the next lot of ash can be settling and cooling (a bit) in the ash pan. The ash is then left in the tippy to cool and a couple of hours later it is transferred to a lidded plastic container (an old 50 fatball container works fine) stored outside. The tippy is then empty ready for next time. We still suffer from dust but there is definitely less when the tippy is used in this way than it you just tip the ash into it time after time with the lid open while you do it. Which is now I used to do it.
    1 point
  23. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  24. Yes, its the plate area that gives high current, but plate thickness that gives lots of deep discharge cycles, so starters have lots of thin plates and Trojans have fewer but thicker plates. Better batteries usually have bigger cells but I don't fully understand the advantage, though having more space at the bottom to collect the "sheddings" is a factor. The 12volts Trojans have an inferior cycle life to the 6v Trojans, and proper 2v Tractions have huge cells. Warped plates will be a failure but its just loss of material from thin plates that usually defines battery life. ................Dave
    1 point
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  26. First rule of plumbing, turn off the water
    1 point
  27. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  28. I've had my 1.8 BMC from Calcutt nearly twenty years. Considering its age and unknown provenance, I don't think I've done too badly. Over the years I've had the following: (1) new starter motor - the first one burnt out when it stuck on (2) new head gasket. I also had the head skimmed with new valves etc. while I was at it (3) new water pump. The face plate on the Jabsco pump was scored (4) new lift pump (not actually necessary) (5) new injector pump to replace the one with the perished seals (6) new alternator - to beef up the charging from 35 to 70 amps (7) new water pump pulley (see https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/37915-bmc-problems-water-pump-this-time/) I also had problems with the cooling system, but that was nothing to do with the engine, but rather a fault in the plumbing. "Other than that, Mrs Lincoln . . . "
    1 point
  29. Fruit machine surely? Far more ethical.
    1 point
  30. We have a tippy box which is fairly good at containing the dust, but I wouldn’t contemplate using it inside the boat. Which still leaves the difficulty of getting the ash pan outside without it blowing around in the wind.
    1 point
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  32. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  33. It seems to me that if a proper battery monitoring system were in place to prevent any further discharge once the LAs get to 12.2V there would be no need for any of us to have a separate starter battery.
    1 point
  34. And another point, I wouldn't bother getting solar until next spring now, rather than shelling out for it next month. God turns the solar electricity OFF in the winter months so yours will just sit there doing nothing. People say it just drops off a bit in winter but no this is not in my experience. My 560W of solar is brilliant in summer but delivers negligible charge in the four shortest months of the year.
    1 point
  35. There seems to be a potential opportunity to use the volunteer lock keeper scheme for a genuine purpose. The way volockies operate at present is too random to be classed as a genuine service to boaters. It should be possible to specifically arrange tuition for new hirers at specific locks by collaboration between CRT and hire bases. JP
    1 point
  36. 1) What condition are the existing batteries in ? 2) Can you reduce your electrical consumption ? 3) If you are not charging 2 batteries sufficiently, what do you intend to do to be able to charge 3 ? Batteries are only storage vessels, you must put back in more than you take out.
    1 point
  37. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  38. Many years ago when I was fitting out VS I decided to fit a BMC 1.8 went to Calcutts with a view to buying a "reconditioned " one from them. When I asked a few questions I was not impressed. For example crankshafts were re-ground "if outside of tolorances" . Received other answers along the lines of "if needed". As i say not impressed. Wòund up buying a £100 scrap engine from Telecom Sherpa and completly re-built it from the sump up. One of my better decisions. It's still going strong and uses no oil between 150 hour services
    1 point
  39. That was a remarkable thing you did for your wife and thank you for telling us
    1 point
  40. She was probably eyeing up Old Goat with a view to slaughtering him and starting a new line in goat steaks.
    1 point
  41. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  42. Have never understood why Kathmandu and Dog Man just Won't?
    1 point
  43. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  44. We are a aging population, so it’s not kids but old farts that are causing the growth.
    1 point
  45. You really have little idea about how btl works. Or worked back then. Firstly I was not ’wealthy’ I was poor as a church mouse when I bought my first btl, done in desperation at my pension plan going down the tubes. I became wealthy BECAUSE of those shrewd and lucky decisions which seemed such a big risk at the time. Secondly property values rising are of no consequence to pension btl investers like me as we will not be selling. Ever. Why would I sell? The rent income is what i did it for. The focus is to pay off the mortgage(s) so my kids struggling to buy their own are garanteed a free house when I die. How evil is that?
    1 point
  46. To be honest, names, addresses and phone numbers aren't a particularly dangerous data breach. the first you can get from the electoral roll and the last from the phone book sites. I don't believe there is any way whatsoever, once data is held on a computer, to keep it genuinely secure. All the evidence points the other way and we just have to live with it. It's the price you play for having these toys to play with.
    1 point
  47. I think around 30-40 years ago, when interest rates were something like 10%, and mortgage rates higher, many people were paying over half their monthly income (after tax/NI) to their mortgage lender. Okay, so they were probably going to end up with a house many years later, but at the time they still had to cut back on other expenditure simply to pay their housing costs, so had to forgo things that were then 'luxuries' as a result. It is no different now. Except perhaps that some people now feel 'entitled' to much more: expensive mobile phone contracts, large TVs, take-away food, overseas holidays etc
    1 point
  48. You are of course entitled to your opinion, but it does seem to lack any logic. A sort of religion perhaps? I am a buy to let landlord, I bought a flat in 2014. In the first year I rented it out to an oil worker who had a 1 year contract in Aberdeen before continuing his career elsewhere in the world. He didn’t want the expense and hassle of buying a property to live in for just a year. In the second year I rented it to an Italian hospital registrar. He left after a year to go to a consultant’s job in Glasgow. He didn’t want the expense and hassle of buying a property to live in for just a year. In the third year I rented it to a mature Finnish student. After a year he graduated and went back to Finland. He didn’t want the expense and hassle of buying a property to live in for just a year. In the fourth year I’m renting it to a Saudi PhD student. He doesn’t want to buy a property in the U.K. i struggle to see anything evil in my provision of medium term accommodation for these people. What would be evil would be to deny them the ability to rent a flat, forcing them instead to live in a hotel or be homeless, on the grounds of some fanatical political belief.
    1 point
  49. It's an odd thing. The same number of people are chasing the same national stock of accommodation whichever way you cut it. If there were no property available to rent them everyone would have to buy, and the price would rocket. The govt NEEDS private landlords to take the risk of renting to those who are uncreditworthy for a mortgage to buy.
    1 point
  50. Just to demonstrate how messed up the whole system is follow this. I retired about 10 years ago 3 years early. I claimed pension credit as I had paid in for 47 years, all well. I reached retirement age and drew my pension and my pension credit was reduced by an amount equal to my pension. So for 3 years my income remained the same. As time went by each time my pension increased my pension credit went down by an equal amount . So 5 years on my income remained unchanged. I then found I could apply for housing benefit all well. Again each time my pension increased so my housing benefit went down. So now 10 years on my income is exactly the same to the penny as it was when I first retired . I've gone from being comfortable to bordering on broke Now before the usual suspects jump in to give me a good kicking I'll explain why I'm not retired and minted. All the promises about endowment mortgages failed to happen, we got suckered into swopping from repayment and suffered accordingly. Chris got stiffed because her retirement age extended by almost 5 years. Chris will now be able to draw her pension aged 64 and 8 months but we know that our income will fall by an equal amount because HB will be cut by the amount of her pension. So it will be about 12 years that we have lived on the same income . Always makes me chuckle when people moan because their income has only risen by 4%, they really should try 12 years with zilch % increase Phil
    1 point
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