Patmobile
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Posts posted by Patmobile
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These discovery cruises were becoming very popular until the recent sinking.
Now, however, ice and penguins are not enough. Everyone wants the full antartic shipwreck experience. Cruise lines are buying up old ships cheaply so that they can "accidentally" sink them. Japanese shipyards are already offering a new type of luxury cruise vessel that "sinks" and then returns home underwater, where, after a quick change of name it can set off on another cruise.
The passengers get such a kick out of it, they don't even mind losing all their baggage and coming home a week early. They know they'll dine out on the story for the rest of their lives.
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Everyday, on the advice of my wife and other medically unqualified pundits, I eat lots of oats, bran and apples.
I think I'm turning into a horse. No, I'm not growing a tail and neighing. It's the quantity and - (excuse me) - the size of the waste product that is becoming horse-like.
Patrick
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Field of Dreams
Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
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[quote user="Winegum"]I never realised car drivers heard or saw motorbikes (unless they are also bikers themselves). They've usually got the stereo up full volume or they're on their mobile phone![:D]
[/quote]I prefer to listen to the motor - however, it's so quiet you can only hear it inside the car with the stereo off.
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[quote user="raindog"][quote user="Patmobile"]
Interestingly, no-one on this forum has yet been able to give any valid reason why bikes should not be made as quiet, or even quieter than cars. That is because there is no logical reason. No doubt biking is fun, but would it not be as much fun if the bikes were quiet?
[/quote]You seem to be describing an off road event, where some, if not all, the bikes will have competition exhausts with minimal silencing.
It's true, there's a certain ammount of selfishness riding noisy motorbikes. I did alot of off road riding when I first came to France and packed it in when I realized what a pain in the a**e I was being to walkers ejoying the countryside.
[/quote]
No, I can't hear the event, it's too far away, and anyway, I've nothing against people taking part in motor racing, flying, or biking events at the proper venues.
I'm complaining about the outrageous noise they make on the road, where they are noisier than any other type of vehicle that passes. Why?
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I don't live near any sort of sports venue. I just happen to live a few hundred yards from an ordinary road that leads to Berck & Le Touquet. The offensive noise comes from the spectators' bikes as they ride noisily to and from the events that are held on the beaches there. Cars pass by with the faintest swishing noise, tractors with an almost imperceptible low growl. Occasionally the sound of a large lorry can break through the birdsong and the rustle of the wind in the pines. These noises are of short duration because the vehicles pass out of earshot within seconds.
You can hear the shrieking motor bikes approaching half a minute before they get here - and for half a minute afterwards.
Interestingly, no-one on this forum has yet been able to give any valid reason why bikes should not be made as quiet, or even quieter than cars. That is because there is no logical reason. No doubt biking is fun, but would it not be as much fun if the bikes were quiet?
Bikers may be the nicest people, but they are selfish and self-deluding in their inability to recognise the damage their noise pollution does to the quality of life of the rest of the world.
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[quote user="Bob T"]This must be a wind up! The reason that cars make less noise is that the engine is enclosed inside the car. Bike engines, on the other hand are exposed. A six to ten foot exhaust on a car will be quieter than a 3 foot one on a bike. The noise figures for all vehicles are for when they are new and most bikes, when new, are very quiet.
When you talk about pollution, how can one person in a 2 litre Ford Mondeo, doing 30 mpg be polluting less than two people on a bike that does around 50 mpg?
If there had been a custom car event near you would you be saying the same?
[/quote]1) The bike noise I hear, at a range of half a mile or more with some bikes, can only be exhaust noise. the mechanical noise of the engine could not possibly reach so far.
2) A 700cc Smart FourTwo has an engine similar in size to many motor bikes and an exhaust system of similar length. It easily complies with the noise limits laid down for cars, so please explain why a bike with a similar size engine can't.
3) Old cars are still quiter than old bikes
4) I rarely see 2 people on a bike but I often see 4 in a Mondeo or similar car. The car will typically also carry shopping, furniture, business samples, building materials, gardening supplies, etc. during its lifetime, so it's real life fuel burnt/payload ratio is likely to be far better than the bike's.
5) To take a typical example, a Kawasaki bike of 700 cc will do about 45 mpg (Motorcycle News). A 5 door, 5 seat, petrol-engined, 2 litre, versatile multiple-use hatchback such as a Renault Clio, will easily average 45 mpg. Many similar size diesel engined cars will manage 50 or more mpg.
6) If the people who turned up to spectate at a custom car event, or even a motor racing event, drove cars that made as much noise as the hundreds of spectator bikes at our local events, I would certainly say the same. I'm sure a lot of the spectators for these bike events came by car, but I didn't hear a single outrageously noisy car on either weekend.
I haven't found out yet if most bikes have catalysts in the exhaust to clean up the emissions. I suspect they don't. Can someone answer this question?
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Thanks for that. Sorry - been having major internet problems or I would have responded earlier. We're still unpacking boxes and bringing the house up to scratch at the moment - so can we take a rain check on the idea?
When it's all straight and the plaster and brick dust is out of our hair and noses, we hope to find new friends in the area. Cup of coffee or a glass of something would be very welcome then.
Patrick
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There were two motor bike events near us on two consecutive weekends last month. These brought lots of bikers to the area - and lots of noise pollution.
Why are motor bikes so noisy?
I was surprised to find out that bikes are permitted by law to be more noisy than cars. The motors are small and could easily be made to be quiet. Very brief research also revealed that motor bikes are among most dangerous and least environmentally sound vehicles you can legally use on the road. I've heard about people campaigning against 4X4 vehicles, but why are they not concentrating more effort on pointing out how noisy, polluting, dangerous and fuel inefficient most bikes are?
If anyone knows of a genuinely valid reason why bikes should not conform to noise and pollution standards that every car in Europe has to, please enlighten me.
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Vanessa, we liked St Valery when we looked for a place there back in 2000. Unfortunately we couldn't find anything that suited us at the time, but it's always been one of my favourite places in this region.
Woolybanana, if you're looking for a town with some authentic character in a beautiful setting, St Valery would be my recommendation as a starting point. I'm sure pagnol8 could tell you more about its facilities and the quality of life you'll find there. Just a couple of miles outside the town, towards Abbeville, we recently found the prettiest little 18th century (I think) chateau I've ever seen, in good habitable order, for sale at a very reasonable price. We were strongly tempted to buy, but we would have had to make a lot of changes in order to provide a granny flat, so we reluctantly turned our backs on it.
We're now close to the Authie estuary. I used "Marquenterre" in the topic heading to give a general idea of the area without being specific. We have owned a second house in Fort Mahon for a number of years and we had noticed that the area seems to have a micro-climate of its own such that the weather on this part of the coast was always a bit warmer, dryer, sunnier than at home near Hesdin, only 50 odd kilometres away. It can get a bit busy in summer, of course, but you can't blame other people for wanting to take advantage of the same benefits we came here to enjoy all year round. I imagine St Valery can get a bit clogged up in August, too.
I hope you'll both get the opportunity to spend more time here.
Patrick
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[quote user="powerdesal"]What an absolute waste of time, effort and money. "Green" confidence tricks rule OK.
[/quote]I've sailed more than 25,000 nautical miles without any other power but the wind. To do the same, at the same average speed, in an economcal diesel engine powered boat of similar size, would have meant burning a minimum of 2500 gallons of fuel.
Before the industrial revolution there were thousands of wind powered mills all over Europe. Nobody complained they were ugly, killed lots of birds (!), altered the route of the jetstream (!!) - I've actually heard all these ludicrous claims - or criticised them on the grounds that the claims made for their efficiency were greatly exaggerated.
I don't believe that mankind's activities have ever caused any change in the Earth's climate, and I believe they probably never will. To think otherwise is greatly to overestimate the importance of we puny creatures and hugely underestimate the power of the natural forces to which we are all subject. But, there's no question that burning fossil fuel is polluting our environment, and that we can't go on doing it forever, so why not use wind power when and where it is possible to do so? .
Patrick
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After 6 years living near Hesdin we've just moved to a location near the seaside towns of Fort Mahon, Quend & Rue. Got a bigger house so as to accomodate my 88 year old mum.
Anyone living around here?
Patrick
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[quote user="Gastines"]
Is it a case of those at the bottom paying for the mistakes and bonuses, of those at the top?
The funny part being amid all this uncertainty, the powers that be are wondering why so many aren't saving/investing for thier future.
Regards.
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I bought a Ferrari with my pension money. Unfortunately it was for someone else.
Patrick
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[quote user="sharkhunter"]The end of my watch finally came, I was relieved by the next man,
My, what you sailers get up to ???????????????? [;-)]
[/quote]Well, at least I'm not sodomising a shark!
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One night in August 1979 I was sailing my boat up the Channel. It had been a long and tiring passage with several sail changes and some complicated stretches of coastal water to navigate earlier in the day, and, alone on deck towards the end of a four-hour late night watch I realised how overtired I was when I imagined seeing flashes of light streaking across the sky. I thought it best not to wake the next man on watch and thus alert the crew to my exhaustion, so I hung on doggedly until the watch change, all the time telling myself the flashes in the sky were an illusion caused by fatigue.
The end of my watch finally came, I was relieved by the next man, and I went wearily below to write up the log and plot the boat's position on the chart before turning into my bunk for a welcome rest. Suddenly, the new man on watch shouted excitedly from the deck. "Wake up you lot, and get up here quick! You've got to see this fantastic show of shooting stars!"
Patrick
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I haven't been following all of this thread, but I looked in at the beginning and saw your website. Just looked again and have to congratulate you on the vast improvement. You must have been working very hard on it.
I hope your business does well.
Patrick
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[quote user="sclarke2208"]
Hi,
I am moving to Pas de Calais in 4 weeks time and wondered if there were any golfers on the forum in that area. I am a comparitive novice to the game, having only played 3 nine hole games. But I love the idea of improving. I am a single 60 year old lady who would love to keep up the sport in France. Anybody willing to take a chance?
roseysan
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Roseysan, try Nampont Golf Club. It's very friendly and there's a good bunch of seniors who meet informally to play on Thursday mornings at 9 - 9.30. You can play with them no matter what standard your golf, and afterwards enjoy lunch and a lively conversation in French (very good for improving your fluency).
Nampont is not the finest of courses, but it's good value and the people are famously welcoming.
Patrick
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I like 461 Ocean Boulevard by God
and
Rumours by Fleetwood Mac
Sgt. Pepper sounds dated compared with most other Beatles albums, probably because of its self-indulgent style
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Do you like this one?
"Make Me Smile" (Come Up And See Me) by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel
Yeah..... Guitaaar!
Patrick
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Does anyone remember Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes?
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Born To Run
Just listening to it now. "Strap your hands 'cross my engines.." What a line - I must use it someday before my engines stop working.
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"Hit Me One More Time" - but not the Britney Spears version. Listen to Travis performing it.
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I have always liked a song by the Kursaal Flyers - "Little Does She Know". It's very meaningful to me.
Here is a sample from the lyrics:
"Little does she know that I know that she knows that I know she’s two timing me. Little does she know that I know that she knows that I know she’s cheating on me."
Great stuff!
Patrick
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[quote user="Gluestick"]
By the way Pat: I do hope you have a certificate of origin for the fur your sporran is made from! Or you will be the next criminal to be banged up! [:D]
Anyone else picked up on this latest inanity of law making?
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My sporran is cowhide leather - not furry - so no licence needed I hope.
I don't see that there's a greater divide between haves and have nots now than ever before. Quite the reverse I would have thought. Nowadays, in Britain, anyway, you have the haves and the have mores. There was far more real poverty and need in Britain when my father was a young man than there is now, yet there was less crime. I suspect very few criminals these days are motivated by need.
Is the man mentally deficient ?
in Other Topics
Posted
Mr Brown is very clever - maybe even more clever than the one with two brains - he should be teaching PPE in a good grammar school somewhere. Oh, I forgot, there aren't any left.
But that doesn't mean he can't act stupidly some or most of the time. 2 examples:
1. When he decided to sell off a large part of Britain's gold reserves all at once, he announced his decision to the world long before doing it. Result - the market wrote down the price of gold in anticipation of tons of it becoming available. Brown knows all about the theory of supply and demand but he wouldn't listen to anyone when they told him that, in real-world practice, his plans would cost the country billions.
2. He recently lectured OPEC on the price of oil. Told them, quite rightly, that the industrial nations would have a hard time and could go into recession if they didn't do something to reduce the price. (i.e produce more). If that were to happen, he predicted, almost certainly correctly again, the price would drop like a stone when demand turned down sharply, as it does in a world recession, which would be uncomfortable for the OPEC members. At the same time he informed them that Britain and other western industrialised nations would be taking major steps to reduce their reliance on the OPEC products in future. Clever, eh? Negotiate wth your major suppliers to get a lower price, but while doing so tell them you're going to stop buying their only product as soon as possible anyway. I don't think any corner shopkeeper would have made such a basic error in price negotiations
Mr Brown has got 2 brains. One of them is evidently very clever, the other must be moronic.