1st ade

To the owner of boat 71819 - moored at Wolverton with gearbox problems. You have an envelope from C&RT secured to your vessel; "To be opened by the Owner/Keeper of this vessel only" Please don't shoot the messenger!

Got to be worth a Greenie just for that phrase!

We get that as well in Wolverton ...

The things some people throw onto the towpath...

I suspect the OP has got a normal washing machine! Our replacement machine (after years of good service from the previous one) has no hot feed. It fills with cold water then heats it. Fine in a house. Not so good on a boat (especially where you have limited electricity but lashings of pre-heated water)

Thanks for that one - I'll pass it on.

Greenie - Classic

Biggest problem we've found is people setting it BACK to last years number. Presumably because they have "friends" who they told the number to (or have poor short term memory). But it locks out those with limited imagination or those who never knew last years number.

Thanks one and all - I'll try the various suggestions for "Locks with an overide key" and see where we get.

A group of us are trying to secure a small property, canal-side, such that members of that group have easy access and that the general public is, at least, discouraged (Think tool store) We currently have a reasonably secure padlock and an awful lot of keys. But if someone leaves the area and doesn't hand their key back we can end up buying a new lock and re-issuing a large number of keys. The costs mount up. A combination padlock has been suggested. The problem is that anyone who knows the combination can re-set it. So an individual could decide to lock everyone else out. We have found one (very expensive, ~£140) combination padlock which can be set once and once only. If we have to, we'll buy one and then, once a year bin it and buy a new one (and program it with a different number). But, as a Danish friend said, "It's shooting Starlings with a Cannon" There must be a market for a combination lock where anyone who knows the number can get in but only one person can change it. Mustn't there? If anyone has any thoughts, please shout. (For info - there is no power available and we don't want to go down the road of adding swipe card readers or electric locks) Thanks - in anticipation

I'm an (amateur) scuba diver. We dive a lot in a local lake which is also a nature reserve (with the permission of the local authority). At one point this summer we were approached by a woman who said that the lake should be filled in as it was unsafe; her four year old and seven year old frequently played near the lake and could drown. I asked her if she supervised said children and "she was too busy". She also allowed them to cross a busy road (60 MPH limit) on their own to get to the lake. I'm deeply sorry for the parents of the child who fell off the gas pipe. But children (like anyone) need to learn what hurts and what doesn't. Early on, that falls to their parents, later to their teachers and at some point to themselves. As an aside, my 14 year old Grandson plays many games on his PS4. Most of the games (even the non-violent ones) involve first person action leaping across rooftops, jumping drawbridges etc. At some point a screen appears Game Over - Try Again. There comes a time when we need to educate our children that, in real life, there is not always a "Try Again" option.