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    Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure

    Iron Heart Meet Ups & Travel
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    • GilesG
      Giles
      IHUK Crew
      Joined:

      I just emailed Mel and asked them.

      Guess what ?

      Gracias por contactar
      Permaneceremos cerrados hasta el 24 de Agosto
      Gestionaremos su correo a la vuelta

      Thank you for contacting us
      We will be closed until 24th August
      We will deal with your email when we get back

      "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • goosehdG
        goosehd
        Mod Squad
        Joined:

        Serious question for our European brethren: when everyone goes on holidays like this, what is open? Are daily commodities still available like milk, bread, etc? Restaurants closed as well?

        Really curious as I’ve not experienced this before and the concept is difficult to understand.

        "I don't give a shit what anyone else is doing, we will do what is best for us and our customers" - Giles P. :)

        last edited by Tago MagoT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • GilesG
          Giles
          IHUK Crew
          Joined:

          Yeah, the restaurants close, otherwise they would be super busy with all those people on holiday.......

          Seriously, when I spent some time in The Netherlands in the 80's, the local burger joint shut at lunch time, so that the staff could go to lunch.

          "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Tago MagoT
            Tago Mago
            Mod Squad
            @goosehd
            Joined:

            @goosehd Restaurants may take a couple of weeks holiday at some point during the year. Supermarkets are under state law in Germany, so in Bavaria for example that means open Monday-Saturday. Restaurants in general may have one designated closed day a week

            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • louisboscoL
              louisbosco
              啓蒙家
              Joined:

              love it when half the people at work in Paris goes on holiday for a month or so in summer and another over christmas. nothing in nothing out. their world stand still but ours go on...

              "Loyalty is a two way street. If i'm asking for it from you, then you're getting it from me."

              • Harvey Specter
              last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S
                sabergirl
                見習いボス
                Joined:

                Begs the question, “why does our world go on?”. Wouldn’t we all be better off with a month holiday twice a year? At least?

                I’m sure that I’m just a dense hedonist—but I don’t think it’d be a great loss for humanity to lose a few trillion out of our productivity/exploitation engine. Maybe the planet would start to recover, and we could all just, like chill more?!

                Anyhoo, I hope you’re able to get the boat fixed without the help of the whole company on vacation. So that you can get back to chillin’ more ❤️

                last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                • DeeDee85D
                  DeeDee85
                  啓蒙家
                  Joined:

                  Super upvote for two monthly holidays a year ⬆️ all time favourite comment on this forum.

                  last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • N
                    NickD
                    Raw and Unwashed
                    Joined:

                    There are 22 working days in a month, so people in the UK often get over a month of holiday a year, just not taken all in one go. The shutdowns in Europe are mostly just in factories I believe, I'd imagine you can be more efficient doing it that way - you need fewer staff as you don't have to allow for holiday cover, and the costs of running a closed factory will be much less than a running one.

                    For my American friends' sake I wish the US would catch up on the need for work life balance and proper worker's rights.

                    last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • GilesG
                      Giles
                      IHUK Crew
                      Joined:

                      Well, in this specific case, it is a factory, a design studio and wholesaler of marine foam.....

                      "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • GilesG
                        Giles
                        IHUK Crew
                        Joined:

                        State of the nation.....

                        The interior skin and high density foam middle layer have been rebuilt. Now, "just" the exterior skin to be rebuilt, then Matt and I can start on replacing the mechanicals...

                        IMG_3839.JPG

                        "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 7
                        • AetasA
                          Aetas
                          見習いボス
                          @Giles
                          Joined:

                          @Giles said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:

                          Long story short, Paula and I tried to pull the starboard rudder off the transom last Thursday. Rapid, unscheduled disassembly …

                          Seeing the damage and the huge effort you’ve to take for the repair, I would like to hear the long story now @Giles.

                          last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • GilesG
                            Giles
                            IHUK Crew
                            Joined:

                            The long story is not much longer really.

                            We were going for lunch in Yarmouth with friends. The harbour was shut to large boats, I think because there had been a fatality on a sailing boat the day before in the Needles Channel, and the yacht had been bought into Yarmouth harbour and it was moored on the large pontoon in the harbour with police and rescue services activity doing their investigations, so we were asked to pick up a mooring buoy outside the harbour. The conditions were tricky, with a lot of wind and current. Picking up a mooring buoy on SAKURA is a little complicated because the bow is so high above the water, we have to pick up the buoy from the stern and then walk the buoy to the bow. I had briefed everyone on board about what we had to do and what their individual responsibilities were (I'd even drawn diagrams of what we were going to do), we all had 2 way headsets on, so that we could communicate with each other through the manoeuvre. As I approached the buoy, Paula said she could grab the buoy with the hook and line I have made specifically for this purpose, it was earlier in the manoeuvre, than we had planned, but I said "OK lets just grab it". We did, but because the boat was not completely down wind/current of the buoy at that point, the boat pivoted on the buoy as the tension between the boat and the buoy increased. Net result, the buoy went under the swim platform and the chain attaching the buoy to the sea floor got caught between the starboard rudder and the transom. If the current and wind had not been so strong, I would have been able to thrust the stern to port and freed the chain, but the thruster had zero effect. I then made the rash decision to power her off the chain, that did the job, but basically pulled the rudder out of the transom, not by much, but enough to bend the rudder, and lift the mounting plate away from the transom at the base of the mounting. We started to take on water, not much and the bilge pumps coped easily, but basically not a good thing 🙂

                            Lesson learned: Stick to the the bloody plan and don't go freestyle.

                            Apart from the shit and aggro (which we deserve for being stupid, I am most upset because we could not use SAKURA whilst @goosehd and family were with us.

                            "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                            last edited by Giles goosehdG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                            • goosehdG
                              goosehd
                              Mod Squad
                              @Giles
                              Joined:

                              @Giles …but a fantastic time was still had by all. You should also know that the kids have been asleep now for 13 hours and still no sounds of movement.

                              You may have even tired out Izzy 🙂

                              …although she recharges fairly quickly 😂

                              "I don't give a shit what anyone else is doing, we will do what is best for us and our customers" - Giles P. :)

                              last edited by GilesG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • GilesG
                                Giles
                                IHUK Crew
                                Joined:

                                Popped down this morning and did some paint removal and brass/stainless steel polishing.....

                                "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                                last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                • GilesG
                                  Giles
                                  IHUK Crew
                                  @goosehd
                                  Joined:

                                  @goosehd said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:

                                  You may have even tired out Izzy

                                  That girl needs zero help with tiring herself out.... 🙂

                                  "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

                                  last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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