Hi Doug I did not notice the spelling error,🤗🤗

It was nearly £50 a bottle so only had a glass full. It was from New Zealand marked Holly from the Matahiwi estate. Good and full bodied and nicely mid red, of course to buy normally it is just £24 a bottle.

Restaurants usually double the price for the slightly better wines, but if you buy the lowest price wine they have trebled that price.
I used to assist a friend with a wine business selling to local restaurants I was helping with the s/w side setting up monthly sales and stock control. In return I went through an aprenticeship on wine tasting.
I have been to many Trade only tastings over a period of 6 or 7 years and became adept at finding a good wine. Some were surprisingly cheap but many expensive wines are not as good as they might be, so often it depends on the wine maker.

The weather has an enormous effect on the grapes a good summer with rain at the right time defines a 'Vintage Year'. The American requirement is so often to make each wine taste the same as last time and they are often blended with previous years wines to attain the constantly similar taste.

Countries and regions have there own signature wines like California has the Zinfandel grape. When DNA testing became easy and cheap it was found that the Primitivo grape from Italy was identical! However it is the ground (called Teroir) and weather that nurtures the grape and it has to be picked at the right time as well.

I started my aprenticeship saying red wines all taste the same! Oh! dear was I in for a surprise! I have tasted as many as 80 or more different wines in a morning and you must spit them out into the many spitoons placed conveniently around. Otherwise take the consequences.

I was told I became a very good spitter! However, sometimes one was treated to something very expensive and special like £2000 for a Jeroboam size bottle of a vintage Pol Roget Champagne, no one spat that out! A Jeroboam is 4 times a normal bottle size of 75cl. That was in the Savoy hotel, most of the tastings required a lot of space for the many buyers and the large well known London hotels are easy to get to and centrally placed for visiting.

The downside, especially for red wine is that it turns your teeth grey in colour. I used to have a toothbrush with me and used it before departure, not always a good idea, but for the professionals it eventually rots your teeth away.

The French wine industry is complicated with regions giving their name to the wine like a Burgundy is a Pinot Noir and a white Burgandy is a Chardonay grape, Chablis is an aged Chardonay. If you live in a region you may only grow the grapes of the area. Champagne is made from pinot noir and chardonay and another unpronouncible grape. However, blanc de blanc is champagne made with only chardonay grapes.
The champagne process is used in Italy and called Prosecco.

There are historic situations in France where Malbec in the Lanquedoc area has been grown for many years and they have a bi-annual get together with Argentina, another famous area for Malbec. and I attended a celebration one year in France.
It is often celebrated with Argentine Tango dancing and my friend and I became very good Tango dancers, also giving the occasional Tango demonstration, the last one was in the wine museum in London. We did not get paid but got in for free! It was £30 per ticket and you could keep your Reidel glass afterwards.

Its my knees that finally made me hang up my dancing shoes, so going to limp out to the shed to check on glue drying! Bye for now.
Regards
Roy

Hi Boatshed I was talking about facts and %'s. You seem to know the facts! With all your right answers maybe do not worry about the %'s?

All a percentage means is how many per 100. 1 per 10 is the same as 10 per 100, i.e. 10%.
Hope this helps, my experience is you are not alone.
Roy

The non-political look at the Brexit vote is a case of not understanding numbers by the politicians.
If you have a club with a membership of 100 and you vote to do something radical like winding up the club and think a straight percentage vote will decide. Then one person only could be the one who decides. On a 50 : 50 split one person changing their mind gives a 49 : 51 or 2 % difference. You might think that with 100 members each represents 1% but as you can see it is not the case.

Some younger members may remember that the so called Brexit vote was the second vote on the subject as the Common Market changed into the EU and the UK voted something like a 75 : 25 split to stay in. A sensible 3 : 1 majority, were happy to stay rather than leave.

If Cameron had been more numerically aware he might have added the caveat that there should be at least a 60% majority for change either way. The rather tiny differences at the Brexit poll could have been different if it was raining! With perhaps fewer turning out to vote.

With the Brexit vote at 51.89% : 48.11%, you can appreciate the small number of people who influenced the numbers. So in common sense mode, a flawed decision and an illustration of not understanding the numbers. Not unexpectedly the misleading numbers quoted in the debates have since been seen as not representing the facts.

Although the BBC had a week of the Radio 4 programme "More or Less" leading up to the referendum day looking at the real numbers for what they were.

I have tried to avoid politics in the above but many will see that numbers can be shown like statistics to represent what ever you want!

Sorry to go on a bit but I do like facts rather than the Blue sky we are so often fed.
Roy

Hi Duncan, the score will go up but only when the wrong answers are over 30 days old and no longer in the calculation.

If you look at the country ratings with one member responding the scoring is simple. With UK and the USA many more people have to all go up to push them further up the scoring table.
You cannot average percentage scores each score and the number of inputs has to be calculated from scratch each time.

1 out of 2 = 50% but so does 4 out of 8 score = 50%. You could say that the first only got one right but the second calculation has 4 right! Who did best?

Many years ago I had to summarize performance statistics at work otherwise nobody read them. I pointed out that at the end of each month you were measured on outstanding issues.
So at the end of the month clearing 9 out of 10 gave a 90% effective score but if on the last measuring day you still had one outstanding item you got 0%, 1 wrong out of 1!

There is no real difference just a matter of presentation. In the above case once I had analysed the numbers and created a s/w program to mimic the calculations there was no longer a surprise on first reading the ratings of the 'competing' 8 Branches. We were rated bottom when I took over but in 3 months of massaging the numbers we were top.
Nobody worked any harder or did more effective work, it is just numbers!

Roy

Hi SS, the score is calculated from the accrued scores of the last 30 days, So with the rolling 30 day set of answers each day/answer represents just over 3%.

If you get all the answers right for the next 29 days there will still be one wrong answer until it drops off the end. So with one wrong answer the maximum score you can get is 97%

If the calculation was done on all of your answers and one was wrong you could never ever get 100%. The scoring system is a little flawed but with this one taken as an average over your last 30 answers is not a bad one.
Can you think of a better one?

It can be compared to school examinations, do you want to know whether a pupil worked over the whole term or just swotted up for the last couple of days before the exam?

Regards
Roy

Hi Duncan I have been constructing the yacht Wild Duck I am about halfway through. I was hoping to complete it by the end of July but like you said thngs happen.

Had a treat today, family outing, car to Abingdon, Thames river trip to Oxford, splendid lunch there and a bus back to the cars and home.
Lucky you with the grand kids, my grand daughter is at work and busy.
I used to work in a local Infants school as a Learning support assistant I really enjoyed the kids.
With my job (IT) I saw the whole school so I was always saying hello to them when out shopping.
Now one of them is my G.P.

I was / am nackered I think it was the Pint Noir!

Regards to all,
Roy

Well yesterday was a good day. Our son rang me from Thailand on his way to visit us. Our daughter came over for the afternoon, which was nice, I even managed to get a little work done on my sailboat project.

Old age is what you make of it, and I intend to enjoy it all, it was my birthday yesterday and most enjoyable.

I see that JB in the USA has seen sense, there comes a point in life when you have to pass responsibility on to younger more agile minds in agile bodies.
Just sitting and thinking is not a good idea, the body needs exercise to stay fit which in turn keeps the brain active and maybe even useful.

My wife (of over 60 years now) still expects me to sort out anything technical but now I freely admit to not knowing apart from "Have you turned it off and on again"?

Roy

I think this is rather a fanciful idea of a galleon. The fore and aft castles are very high and rather top heavy. It is very detailed and looks rather a fun model.

The bowsprit is totally unbelievable and it looks more like a candlestick holder.
Sorry if this not what you wanted to hear but it is only my opinion and may just be fanciful.

Interesting!
Roy

Hi to Titanic again, never the answer, always a diversion. I agree with comments about iron v steel.

Today is going to be a good day! to quote Captain Tom.

Regards to all
Roy

Hi, just watched 12:01 on youtube. My smart TV refused to find it! But it was on my laptop so with HDM1 cable plugged in I watched it all the way through, no adverts as I paid a premium to stop the too frequent ads.

Enjoyed it again and, by chance, having just watched the last half of Groundhog day it was maybe not quite as good.

Roy

Hi Mouldbuilder I agree a good film also the Philadelphia Experiment but this is a slip into the past.
The reference I was making was to films that feature repeats back to the same day as per Groundhog day.

Just a thought do not look for Philadelphia Story that is the original B/W version of High Society, which is excellent.
Roy

Hi Xtramaths just found 12:01 on you tube, I will watch it again this evening.
Regards
Roy

In 12:01 I like the early part with the supervisor who sacks him.
I had my copy recorded but long gone now, where did you view 12:01?
Roy

Baloons work well for waterproofing a rx. Put the rx into the outside of the baloon and pull the rest of the baloon over it, and then the neck over all and seal as you want.

When we had more plastic bags around I would cut a large corner off and selotape the rx into it.

I use old crystal type rx's and when sealed up I can never remember which crystal number is in there!
Roy

Hi Doug it is the magazine Model Boats website. Sorry I should have made myself clearer.
Roy

Hi I know there is a thread on model boats magazine but I can't find it.
I tried logging in! The site told me my username and password and then told me there was an error!
I tried change password and was then told someone was already registered with that email address.

I do not know what to do next.
Roy

Makes you think of "deja vu" films. Groundhog Day, Live die repeat: Edge of Tomorrow , Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt. There is another, not often seen on the TV, called just "12:01". I enjoyed that last one as much as the others.

Anyone know any similar films?
Roy

Hi Chum if you look at the blue banner at the top of the screen, and then across to the left there is a small speaker icon. Click this to turn off the noises. It should then have a cross against it.
Hope this works, it did for me.
Roy

I get that feeling of deja vu again, but how many times can you have deja vu? Must be a personal 'Groundhog day'.

I spent my last couple of years at work with bar-codes, scanning and checkouts! Now that was deja vu, with repeats every week.
Roy

I think the only 'chamber' in the options is The Torch(er) chamber. A place where you might be (dis)mantled and be forced to reflect on your past.
Roy

Hi all I use superglue and dress fasteners on rip stop nylon. The fastener locks into a jack-line on the mast.
Roy

Hi Chris all nicely done especially the refereces to Alfred Milne.
I agree about the bowsies they do annoy!

There are some options here, my Inga has turn buckles which look good but are tiresome to adjust and time consuming for setting up at the pond side.
Another is to reverse the position of the bowsies and have them adjust from the top of the mast. Easier to get at too.

If you do this make the overlap (line) adjustment as small as possible and cut the line so that the bowsies are in a regular straight line.
Another thing I do is I buy bowsies from one of the model yacht makers and use black ones, they hardly show.

A further option is to have machine thread studding in the base of the mast and a large nut into a well so that the shrouds are of fixed length and the mast is screwed upwards using the nut to take up the slack.

I have used a heavy spring in a tube which the mast sits in and firmly push the mast down as I hook up the shrouds, it works but has drawbacks.

Regards
Roy

Hi Ross, Nylet stock lots of different size eyelets, smaller the better really.
The eyelets are best used in conjunction with a washer on the reverse side, which they also sell.

If using on cloth I make a hole first to push the eyelet and then put the washer on. Nylet sold me a simple punch to use on the open part and a single tap with a hammer locks the washer in place.
If you have several thicknesses of cloth I put a small amount of superglue to hold the cloth together and then drill through using a hand held twist drill.

Hope this is of assistance.
Roy

I do not know if this helps but when I mark out painting with tape, I paint a thin varnish along the masking tape and leave to dry.

This seals off the paint below from being got at by the paint above and easily comes away when tape removed for finishing.

Roy

Hi Jump, looking at the kit a model which I very much like, what is the blue motor on the kit box cover?

Looks like a Mabuchi, which one? I collect motors and have several of the blue coloured Mabuchi motors.
I thought it might be a 705 or similar number.
I have a new one of those in a nice box.

cheers for now
Roy

I bet it goes at a snails pace!
Roy

I have been on the replica sailing craft. it was a bit small!
Roy

Hi, chumm and et al, my thoughts are still the same, however, daughters are rather special!
If my daughter wanted a particular model boat, I would just ask "How big"?

Good luck with whatever happens but I will keep building as before!
Roy

It is typical of the trend to really ugly boats, especially power boats. On my visits to Oz and by the sea there are many to see.
The design looks like they are a basic boat which can be expanded or contracted on the computer to suit the buyer.

It is probably my age, but the boats that attract attention are the traditional design ones. For me the modern designs look like kids cheap toys. Sad but a visit to some of the large marinas reveals many that look surprisingly the same.

Many leisure craft in marinas are corporate owned and hardly ever travel far. Just look at waterline and see the line of grime and green algae.

Probably just me!
Roy

Only experience of small yellow bouys was in Oz. They were yellow!

Roy