Grafham Water (Anglian Water).

[pickle]

Went to Grafham today, dragged there by the wife. My very first image/audio impression was of a Polish couple and child studying the water intently and not wanting to pay the car park fee - well nor did i but I did. They left, seemingly not wanting to stray far from their little VW car. So many rabbits; mounds of poo. Anyway went off to the visitor centre and tackle shop place for a cuppa. Not many boats out or fisherman wading. Watched the ducks and a flotilla of cormorants herding the fish in the shallows - spooky how they work together. Had a chat with some of the locals and I said to one guy with binoculars, 'there seems to be a lot of cormorants out there', thinking he must be a birdwatcher - well he was. So I says (no I said to him), looks to be about 50 or 60 black witches out there. More like 200 says he. How much fish do they eat a day I opportuned. About a pound a day would be a conservative guesstimate he says. So about 14 to 15 stone of fish consumed at Grafham per day conservatively and then there's the fishermans takeaway cut. Well it turns out that Anglian water treats fishermen rather better at Grafham than Northumberland Water does in Essex at Hanningfield. Essex Police apparently prefer to fish (fly only) Grafham because Hanningfield is not really a worthy place for fly fisherman these days and is less than desirable now that Northumberland Water has taken over and lets in people wearing white vests fishing with nets, worms, maggots and just about anything they like, apparently. Now the out of towners launch there own canoes and inflatables whenever they like from the road bank or off their own backs. Now if you go to Hanningfield you can have a swim anytime you wish. Well, where was I, oh yes. The staff at Grafham are apparently allowed to shoot two cormorants a year on licence. Now i don't know if the RSPB is funding Anglian water for the loss of fish stocks but I can hazard a guess. BBC Look Left wasn't there to comment but there were a lot of sailors out in their little boats. It was a nice interlude. Now that I'm home i can watch an F1 race kick off at a cramped little go kart track called Malaysia.

[rodp]

Went to Grafham today, dragged there by the wife. My very first image/audio impression was of a Polish couple and child studying the water intently and not wanting to pay the car park fee - well nor did i but I did. They left, seemingly not wanting to stray far from their little VW car. So many rabbits; mounds of poo. Anyway went off to the visitor centre and tackle shop place for a cuppa. Not many boats out or fisherman wading. Watched the ducks and a flotilla of cormorants herding the fish in the shallows - spooky how they work together. Had a chat with some of the locals and I said to one guy with binoculars, 'there seems to be a lot of cormorants out there', thinking he must be a birdwatcher - well he was. So I says (no I said to him), looks to be about 50 or 60 black witches out there. More like 200 says he. How much fish do they eat a day I opportuned. About a pound a day would be a conservative guesstimate he says. So about 14 to 15 stone of fish consumed at Grafham per day conservatively and then there's the fishermans takeaway cut. Well it turns out that Anglian water treats fishermen rather better at Grafham than Northumberland Water does in Essex at Hanningfield. Essex Police apparently prefer to fish (fly only) Grafham because Hanningfield is not really a worthy place for fly fisherman these days and is less than desirable now that Northumberland Water has taken over and lets in people wearing white vests fishing with nets, worms, maggots and just about anything they like, apparently. Now the out of towners launch there own canoes and inflatables whenever they like from the road bank or off their own backs. Now if you go to Hanningfield you can have a swim anytime you wish. Well, where was I, oh yes. The staff at Grafham are apparently allowed to shoot two cormorants a year on licence. Now i don't know if the RSPB is funding Anglian water for the loss of fish stocks but I can hazard a guess. BBC Look Left wasn't there to comment but there were a lot of sailors out in their little boats. It was a nice interlude.

You should have shouted to them "Hellooooo Sailor" and stood with your one hand on your hip and done a sort of limp wave with the other. That may have made the nice interlude way more exciting !!

Can you run fast, you may need to if you listen to me

[chas]

There speaks the voice of experience.
Limp wrist Rod.

[pickle]

No rod, (and no chas you are wicked) they were just that bit too far away. Nice place though, well organised and well policed and absolutely no litter. They were all so, well, well behaved and decent. Went home via St. Neots to Caxton Gibbet. Cracking place on the Gt Ouse, no parking in the little town centre, picturesque and a bit olde worldy until one gets to the outskirts on the Eynesbury road toward Caxton Gibbet. Christ what a bloody mess. More high rise flats than you can shake a stick at in the middle of prime farmland - a sort of new but already crumbling slum island infrastructure. Obviously laughing boy Blaire and gang got their way to reduce middle England to concrete and the Tory boy band (cumma cumma vote for me, vote for me and you'll be free ee ee jimmy) finished the appalling mess off. Great leveller is concrete, along with Left wing Labour ethos that would have us all living on a level playing field in a green and pleasant brown field that used to be located in a green and pleasant land. But let us not forget the high yield of immigration that now supports the capitalist infrastructure of Conservatism - notwithstanding the current birthrate that will take a generation to grow - or should that be yield, cede, remit or bequeath to the nation. Sorry to Carp on.

[rodp]

No rod, (and no chas you are wicked) they were just that bit too far away. Nice place though, well organised and well policed and absolutely no litter. They were all so, well, well behaved and decent. Went home via St. Neots to Caxton Gibbet. Cracking place on the Gt Ouse, no parking in the little town centre, picturesque and a bit olde worldy until one gets to the outskirts on the Eynesbury road toward Caxton Gibbet. Christ what a bloody mess. More high rise flats than you can shake a stick at in the middle of prime farmland - a sort of new but already crumbling slum island infrastructure. Obviously laughing boy Blaire and gang got their way to reduce middle England to concrete and the Tory boy band (cumma cumma vote for me, vote for me and you'll be free ee ee jimmy) finished the appalling mess off. Great leveller is concrete, along with Left wing Labour ethos that would have us all living on a level playing field in a green and pleasant brown field that used to be located in a green and pleasant land. But let us not forget the high yield of immigration that now supports the capitalist infrastructure of Conservatism - notwithstanding the current birthrate that will take a generation to grow - or should that be yield, cede, remit or bequeath to the nation. Sorry to Carp on.

Can't argue with that Alf

[Radagast]

Sour Cucumber, just one correction. Its BBC -is- Left.
Caxton Gibbet.
St.Neots.
Graffham.
Hanningfield.
Anglian Water.
Must have been a national contest to come up with place names back in the day, everyone responded with the medieval version of Boatie McBoatface.

[pickle]

All very English old boy. We exported place names all over the world. Am very pleased in a sense that we exported your forefathers to Australia. I just hope your politics stay middle of the road. You are now the last English speaking outpost left on the edge of civilization. This probably explains why I can't understand a blutty word you say.

[Radagast]

Well you are a middling East Saxon. I assume you speak Ænglisc as a first language. As you are an accomplished Scop I assume you have some kenning of BBC Received English. The Saxons were into Gnomic Poetry, Gnome comes from old Greek for 'an opinion'. You are quite the poet and have many opinions. Do you spend your days sitting in the grass in the garden? Tis sad that the People of the Knife no longer go out in their keels to conquer, but then its hard to do that when you've swapped your Seax for a British Pen Knife and the Rolls Royce motors in your ships don't work. At least they didn't blow up like that Trent on a Qantas A380. Anyhoo, the RN is on track to having the same number of combatants as the RAN. Partly thats the RN shrinking, partly its OZ preparing for war with China. Meanwhile our major export is raw materials so China can build its own navy and our major import is Chinese to fill the blocks of units we build as make work because we sent our manufacturing jobs to China.

[rodp]

Well you are a middling East Saxon. I assume you speak Ænglisc as a first language. As you are an accomplished Scop I assume you have some kenning of BBC Received English. The Saxons were into Gnomic Poetry, Gnome comes from old Greek for 'an opinion'. You are quite the poet and have many opinions. Do you spend your days sitting in the grass in the garden? Tis sad that the People of the Knife no longer go out in their keels to conquer, but then its hard to do that when you've swapped your Seax for a British Pen Knife and the Rolls Royce motors in your ships don't work. At least they didn't blow up like that Trent on a Qantas A380. Anyhoo, the RN is on track to having the same number of combatants as the RAN. Partly thats the RN shrinking, partly its OZ preparing for war with China. Meanwhile our major export is raw materials so China can build its own navy and our major import is Chinese to fill the blocks of units we build as make work because we sent our manufacturing jobs to China.

Scuse me, the engines work just fine as Rolls designed them. But, some know it all softy office tart decided he knew better and altered the spec, as with a lot of mod gear.
Will heads roll ? Not a chance ! if it had been Rolls at fault they would have had to rectify the problem with their own money, as it is we, the taxpayer, have to finance it. This should have been traced back to the start and offenders dismissed without pension.

[pickle]

Methinks there is a lot of old English about you Radagast - but then there would be. Glad to have you aboard. Whats all this about a Rolls Royce Trent going tits up on an A380 - not heard anything hereabouts. I shall have to look up Scop and I am not allowed to carry a penknife in a public place unless I want to sharpen a pencil or carve my name into a Horse Chestnut. Not sure about middling East Saxon but I believe you are on the the right track. What do you mean 'the Rolls Royce motors don't work in our ships'. Have a care old chap we are a bit sensitive here in this locale.