Todays Boating

[Kev.WParticipant @kev-w]

Tell your lad not to worry, it's really quite pleasant "north of Watford", the large green coloured bits don't take too much to get used to & the language doesn't get too difficult until you get past Nottingham.

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

No offence intended to the good denizens of Rugby but it's one of those places I couldn't pinpoint on a map and I've never met anyone from there. Corby and Daventry are similarly lacking in charisma, whereas pretty much everyone knows where Nottingham is (usually for the wrong reasons). I did once go out with a lovely lass from Bristol who genuinely believed that every place north of Gloucester was in Yorkshire!
Good luck to Needham Jnr.

Dave M

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Thanks chaps. The lad has arrived at his hotel in deepest Rugbyshire, having joined a Roman column on the A245 fortunately.

​Pond frozen over today as suspected, walked around the park for 30 mins. Was really lovely, the white frost looked fab, and it was actually almost warm in the sun. Proj No5 felt so much better with a 9.6v Nimh in it, more like the weight one would expect for a boat that size.
Perhaps next week for a test?

​Ashley

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by ashley needham on 03/12/2016 09:20:20:

Sundays boating will have to be a bit brief as have to escort the lad up to Euston to get a train to Rugby, where he is off to a Jaguar Landrover course, part of his apprenticeship training. Its a bit of a step travelling that far north of Watford on yer own for the first time.

That's where I went to school – so I was doing the Euston-Rugby run on my own when I was 8…. anyone remember PLA?

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

Ashley

You get used to them being away. We have one in Scotland, and one who has already been to Huston, Aberdeen, London, Oslo, and is now in Kuala Lumpur. At least we have been on holiday to a few different places. Oh and the one that lives nearby, well that means we have baby sitting duties.

Tim

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

That's where I went to school

Not THE Rugby School? If so then that could explain a lot.

And at school would you believe three hundred boys
And no girls at all
But you're a fool if you should leave
Just think of the joys of rugby football
And prep in the morning and Brylcreem and acne
And cross-country running to kill evil thoughts
I'm surprised that I survived
I ran ten thousand miles with my back to the wall

PLA – Polylactic Acid or Port of London Authority? I think we should be told…

DM

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Pre School Learning Alliance

Preston Liberation Army

Performance Level Assessment

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Port of London Authority…

Colin

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

**LINK**

Mattias

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by Dave Milbourn on 05/12/2016 10:04:17:

That's where I went to school

Not THE Rugby School? If so then that could explain a lot.

And at school would you believe three hundred boys
And no girls at all
But you're a fool if you should leave
Just think of the joys of rugby football
And prep in the morning and Brylcreem and acne
And cross-country running to kill evil thoughts
I'm surprised that I survived
I ran ten thousand miles with my back to the wall

PLA – Polylactic Acid or Port of London Authority? I think we should be told…

DM

Indeed. I still refer to Soccer as Association Football, to distinguish it from proper Football….

PLA? An almost forgotten acronym nowadays, due to the increase in car ownership, and yet all boarding-school pupils of a 'certain age' will remember it well. It would be a good item for the King William’s College quiz, since it is difficult to find it on the Web – scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est…

Your guesses are therefore all short of the mark. Though the correct expansion of the acronym is mentioned (rarely!) on the Web, there is no description or history of the service, which was, as I have indicated, one which many pupils going off to boarding school would have used.

As a parting clue, I see that such a service may still be obtained from specialist companies today – one of them including a beast of burden in its name…. more clues will have to follow if you can't get it in a day or so….

 

 

 

Edited By Dodgy Geezer on 05/12/2016 14:02:13

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Passengers' Luggage in Advance, then …

Mattias

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Mattias has a plausible explanation.

​I must say I do not normally have to do THIS much thinking on Todays Boating!

​Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Pupil Lacking Ability

Or better still……….. People Like Ashley

Edited By Paul T on 05/12/2016 16:39:46

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Aha, Banjoman has it!

Remember the little troops of anxious kiddies clustering around their reserved carriage on platform 6 at Euston – (or 9 1/2 at Kings Cross if you were going to Hogwarts)? All their trunks lovingly packed by their mothers had been shipped off a few days before to await them at their destination – their last link with home…

How long will your lad be away, Ashley? Did you put a fruit cake in his tuck box…?

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

The lad is only away until Wednesday, he will be stuffed solid in the hotel. It is also littered with vending machines.

Fruit cake, no. He is earning, he can buy his own. He seems to have got the hang of ordering delivered Domino`s pizzas on-line already.

Ashley

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Admittedly, I had to google for the exact wording, but from your clues I figured that that was the kind of thing it had to be, and so knew more or less what to search for.

When I was growing up in Sweden in the 1970s, the Swedish State Railways had a similar service of which my family always availed itself when travelling by train to stay with my grandparents for the Summer and Christmas holidays – we would bring our heavy luggage down to the station a day or two in advance, and pick it up at the depot when we arrived at our destination. It must considerably have faciltated the journey for my parents what with them having four boys ranging (at one point in time at least) from one to six years of age …

One could equally send on bicycles and even mopeds (I know cos' I did) in the same way.

The service was eventually discontinued, but by then at the least the eldest amongst us kids were old enough to lend a hand with the myriad of trunks and suitcases.

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 05/12/2016 17:43:38

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by Banjoman on 05/12/2016 17:42:53:

Admittedly, I had to google for the exact wording, but from your clues I figured that that was the kind of thing it had to be, and so knew more or less what to search for.

When I was growing up in Sweden in the 1970s, the Swedish State Railways had a similar service of which my family always availed itself when travelling by train to stay with my grandparents for the Summer and Christmas holidays – we would bring our heavy luggage down to the station a day or two in advance, and pick it up at the depot when we arrived at our destination….

Edited By Banjoman on 05/12/2016 17:43:38

Yes – in our case the luggage was picked up by a van at our home and dropped off at the school from Rugby Midland station in the same manner – I'm sure the Swedish Railway had a similar service if you asked for it… I suppose that it was stopped when cars became much more common. I wonder why there is so little mentioned about the service on the web…

Our experience was a little more spartan than Ashley's lad will encounter – a good illustration of hauling the cases up from the quad can be seen at the start of Lindsey Andersen's 'If' – **LINK**

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Yes times change. I accompanied him to Euston (bus/train/tube) , we looked at the board and saw that the Birmingham New Street train (via Rugby) was going from platform 7, and wandered over and he jumped on. Off at Rugby, Taxi to Hotel. Easy.

​Fare from Hampton court to Rugby…..£30, Taxi 12.6 miles Rugby to hotel….£25 !! Paid by company of course.

​My first Post Office (telephones) courses were in Stone, Stafford. Most of the classrooms were Nissan huts and half the accommodation was a pre-fab of some sort. But the food was fantastic, loads and loads of it.

Ashley

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

I accompanied him to Euston (bus/train/tube) , we looked at the board and saw that the Birmingham New Street train (via Rugby) was going from platform 7, and wandered over and he jumped on.

And you tucked a ten bob note in his pocket and told him that had to last him for the term…?

£25! I don't know which hotel he was in, but the walk from the station to the centre of town is about 3/4 mile. Uphill, admittedly.

Of course, he may have been right out in the country somewhere – they have conference centres in Dunchurch and off towards Hillmorton, and, no doubt, many other places…

My first Post Office (telephones) courses were in Stone, Stafford. Most of the classrooms were Nissan huts and half the accommodation was a pre-fab of some sort.

I can remember courses at RSRE Blandford, on Salisbury Plain, where the rain was horizontal. It used to come under the window-sills of the huts and spray over our desks…

Edited By Dodgy Geezer on 06/12/2016 12:23:50

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

I don't know which hotel he was in

DG – It was 12.6 miles from the station if that helps you…..or perhaps the driver went the pretty way?

A 'Nissan' hut? Admittedly Liz's old 120Y Estate (aka Datsun) was a bit of a shed but I didn't know they'd gone mainstream with pre-fab buildings. You learn something every day.

DM

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

He is staying near Staverton, 12.6 google map miles away.

Ten bob??? What means this??? I am too young.

​When I started work at 16 1/2 I don't think I had ever been on the tube, or at least I was even younger, and no train trips that I recall of any length. I didn't have a clue really on how to get about. Although Berengar is a bit older and has been on the tube and train (and I used to point out the navigation system and so on) it is still a bit of a worry for the first time. In any case I had shopping to do.

Most training appears to be "on-line" now, certainly a lot of the BT training is that way, and this does suit elf`n`safety, fire regs, lifting/handling, security and the yearly mandatory stuff. No nasty trips to contemplate, just getting the tea in before putting bum on seat.

Have we gone sufficiently far from boating yet ???

​Next Sunday it is going to have to be the Hovervan I think unless the ice goes, also possibly the Jersey OPV wot makes a great ice breaker (its once yearly outing I am afraid to say)

Ashley

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by Dave Milbourn on 06/12/2016 13:34:16:

I don't know which hotel he was in

DG – It was 12.6 miles from the station if that helps you…..or perhaps the driver went the pretty way?

A 'Nissan' hut? Admittedly Liz's old 120Y Estate (aka Datsun) was a bit of a shed but I didn't know they'd gone mainstream with pre-fab buildings. You learn something every day.

DM

 

 

That does confuse me a bit – as the crow flies Coventry is less than 12 miles east of Rugby, Northampton outskirts are about 12 miles west. Banbury is about 12 miles south, and Leicester is about 12 miles north. Perhaps he did go the pretty way – or perhaps he was at the Land Rover plant at the old RAF Gaydon site? I learnt to glide there back in the 1960s. It's a lot nearer to Banbury…

I suppose a 'Nissan Hut' should have read 'Nissan' (sic)….

 

(Edit:  Ah – clicked before checking updates! &nbsp

 

 

Edited By Dodgy Geezer on 06/12/2016 15:07:31

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ash

A 10 bob note was small enough to roll up into a tiny wad that would fit up your nose, not something that you would learn at a public school but a valuable life skill if, as an apprentice you wanted to hang on to your first weeks wages.

The MOD are researching into fitting Nissan huts with hovercraft skirts as this will allow the officers mess to be first on the beach. A HoverHut would make a great article in the ever growing range of publications entitled 'Ashleys 101 Things to do with Hardboard'.

…….Which thankfully brings us back to boating.

Paul

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

DG

Your knowledge of obscure Midlands towns undoubtedly does you credit (in certain company), but which part of "He is staying near Staverton, 12.6 google map miles away" confused you? Is my faith in a public school education to take an unexpected and unwelcome shaking?

This is proving to be a very difficult year.

DM

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Dave

The problem is that all of the references have been Google based which is obviously lowbrow to be taught at public schools.

if Ashley had used Jeeves instead then DG might have stood a chance.

Never mind the year is nearly over and the revolution starts in 2017

[Author]

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