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I’m well aware of black humour working with the medical profession some of my time but a public forum isn’t the place for it.

Yes it just reminds us that it's just not worth arguing with people you don't know. We've no idea what happened in this case of course and the attack may have been completely unprovoked. But as a general rule avoid confrontation. It's better to just walk away even if you're right and even if that means losing face. Stay safe.

Secondhand. You don't know what you want in a boat if you've not owned one before and are liable to make expensive mistakes specifying one with little experience. What you think is really important now won't be the same after a year or two of boat ownership. Depreciation is high on a new boat, low on an older one (actually seems to be negative at the moment). Later on, with more experience you can go about specifying your ultimate new boat. Any boat is good for pootling around if the engine works and it still floats. A good well looked after one will be a nicer experience though. Jen

An update: I had my operation on April 7th, 5 nights in hospital, a lump the size of a fist removed from my thigh, leaving a crater the moon would be proud of. Wound has healed well and I was able to drive my van a short distance yesterday, though walking very far is more of a challenge due to lack of practice. Starting to think about the possibility of visiting my boat in about 2 weeks time??? Possibly after getting a small piece of swarf, probably stainless steel, out of my knee. Oh and umpteen scans show no sign of spread so that''s good. (The extra apostrophe is sheer exuberance).

I truly hope it doesn’t close. I love everything about it. Apparently some people don’t share my views and I just can’t understand why. It’s the most perfect pub…it may hark back to simpler times but that’s no bad thing I reckon.

Or we're going to go up on Saturday, pay for what they've done and get the work done by someone else who isn't going to be a Prima Donna who makes up his own regulations because he doesn't actually want to do the work. Then we'll get it re-tested, and if they tell us its a full rest charge we'll go to someone else. We were going to buy some new batteries, but I think Norbury will have lost that business, and other future business.

Update from meeting Well that was "interesting"...much talk of every user group apart from boaters...including the "street art" through nottingham,& Leicester and how towpaths are being "improved"...as well as the work going on at Stoke Bruene Museum....Im sure I heard the new lady in charge of visitor attractions in the East Midlands say that admission was going to be free...which the website confirms! Myself and a couple of NABO members did try to redress the balance in the Q & A session pointing out that boaters used the canal too and towpath improvements arent always beneficial for the boater in many ways and that we help the local economy by spending money in the area...I also raised the the fact that the publicity for the meeting failed to reach many boaters despite us being one of the few directly paying customer groups...That was met by being told we are in effect subsided!!....I may have muttered outwardly then.... We are hopefully having a meeting with CRT area managers to talk about what boaters might want from moorings & facilities....with luck that might be productive and as ever I will report back to the forum edited to add There were approx 60 attendees...CRT were probably 10 of those. I was told that invites had gone out to 650 people....Im not sure who these were mind you! They said they will look how these meetings are publicised in future.

And about all the other gas stuff on the boat, Calor gas bottles, regulator, hoses, valves, copper pipe and fittings? Are they all specifically designated as suitable for boat use? If not, why has he not condemned them too?

And make it clear that if you do replace the cooker you will be getting someone else to supply and install it. Does it say explicitly it is suitable for fitting in a house? Edited to add: Just word searched the manual. The word "house" does not appear!

My reading of the email was that moorings at locks will still continue the be controlled by the lock keeper. It is EA mooring sites remote from locks (I think it said 17 in number) that will be administered by DE.

Your BSS examiner must have told you why it is not suitable for use on a boat. There is a manual for this available at http://kitchen.manualsonline.com/manuals/mfg/hotpoint/hw170lik.html and quick searches for the words "boat", "marine", "car", "vehicle" all produced no match. So as far as I can see the manufacturer is not suggesting it is not suitable for use in these situations. There are some restrictions on room size in relation to ventilation, but as long as you meet these you should be OK (and I would have thought the BSS advice on ventilation would take priority anyway). It does say it is only suitable for domestic use, and not trade or business use, so maybe you couldn't use this in a hire boat, but I don't think your examiner can reasonably argue that 'domestic' means only in a house. The guarantee section of the manual does clarify that the word "domestic" relates to use, not location. I suggest you push your BSS inspector on this, and if he won't give ground take it up with the BSC office.

Corned Beef or spicy ham /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ Corned Beef or spicy ham /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\

Everyone has their own view but I object to being conned or treated like a fool. Only last week I received my renewals for both the car and the boat. (different companies). The car was £750. When I phoned and asked why it had gone up by £90 it took the individual about two seconds to reply that he could offer it for £704! Two seconds and a couple of keystrokes!. The boat insurance came in at £150. A couple of minutes on line, no more, and the same company, same cover, £130. While I'm having my morning rant. Why is it that insurance companies always attempt to auto renew when you have specifically stated that you don't want this 'service'. It happened on both the above insurances and I know for a fact that I instructed both companies to delete it. I feel better after that. ☺️

I'm in the locality and it seems everyone here knew Clive. He was a beat bobby in Tring for many years and was well known and respected as a proper good guy. I just knew him as the guy who went up and down the towpath on his bike taking boat numbers, but he was a familiar friendly face. He was an unpaid volunteer in that role. People say he just loved working outdoors meeting people and that sounds about right.

“Even though he has been taken from us in this brutal, pointless attack” Maybe this sentence above should have been left out until the police have charged someone and the facts are made public.

It’s clear you are not liveaboard, therefore the GSIUR specifically doesn’t apply to your boat. My mantra is “if you want a job done properly, do it yourself!” So if I were you I would go up there, remove the oven burner (which usually just lifts out), clean it out thoroughly. Typically the burner comes out without the jet, the air is mixed with the gas after the jet so most likely the jet doesn’t need to be removed - symptoms of a blocked jet is just not enough flame, rather than yellow flame which indicates not enough air. Dont poke the jet hole with anything hard like steel wire because it is very easy to enlarge the hole. So once the burner / air mixer is clean, the flame will be good and the BSS man will be happy. You simply don’t need a Gas Safe person, let alone an over zealous one. Incidentally, we have a Beko gas fan oven which is designed for a house, but so far BSS man has not taken offence at it - because there are no grounds to!

Oven burners are a devil for getting boiled over food and grease into them. If it were mine I would be seeing how to get it our to clean the holes and jet etc. Often not easy on modern cookers.

Anyone bored by the trip to Boston hasn't got eyes in their head. Gems like this for example, and an alternative view of the town:

"Guided", not "required". Since the BSS produces a list of CO alarms which are suitable for use in boats, perhaps they can issue a list of cookers which meet the requirements! Because some of those on sale from the mainstream chandlers would seem not to be.

What are Norbury doing getting between you and the examiner? They have no place getting involved. Get hold of the examiner and ask the organ grinder not his monkeys.

I think most of us here can cope with measurements in metric or imperial units, whatever our personal preferences. Or indeed mixed units - 8ft by 4ft plywood 12mm thick etc.

You obviously haven't heard the stories then?

When, long ago, we brought Secunda down the Canal de Calais, its solitary lock was 5.20 metres wide. Since then a new one has been installed, allowing loads up to 600 tonnes to pass - a larger vessel is waiting in the background of picture 2. Present-day traffic is in crushed stone from a plant outside Calais itself, involving several sizes of craft, though, curiously, access to Calais docks remains still at 5.20 metres in beam.

The popular moorings at Reading - by which I assume you mean at Caversham and every one else as the 'Tesco moorings' is not an EA mooring - it's owned by Reading BC. Before DE came on the scene much of the pontooned part was camped on by CMers and the council became fed up with complaints from boaters who (as I do) wanted to shop at Tescos and couldn't - DE came up with a solution and thus the general takeover of Thames moorings began. My particular beef with DE is that their mooring site is pathetic - incorrect locations shown (river banks don't have postcodes), length of mooring illogical (- shown as number of "bays" ??car length or width - or something else) The net result is that any reasonable boater will either avoid any official mooring (DE 'manage' EA's and various other third party owned banksides) or run the risk of being hounded for unenforceable files. The Thames used to be a joy to cruise, offical moorings were clearly marked. Unofficial - wild moorings were tolerated as long as boaters behaved A good time was had by all.