Achievement ?

France certainly has more mainland coastline than Scotland, France 7330 kM, Scotland 6718kM, however we have more in England, 8981Km. However, if you include the islands than the Scottish beat the lot, England 10076kM, Scotland 18588kM.
 
Coastline length (mainland)

France 7330 kM
England 8982 kM (including islands, 10077 kM)
Scotland 6718kM (including islands, 18588 kM)
GB 17820 kM (including islands, 31368 kM)
USA 19924 kM
NZ 15134 kM
Switzerland 0 kM

So if coastal length makes for good sailors no excuses for the Americas Cup next time!
 
Well done Ellen. But let me be churlish for a moment.

Nothings changed much around my house.

In the realms of personal endevour, reputation and wealth building I'm sure this is all very good. I'm pleased to see a youngish person go out and finish something they started and bettered themself. Great, very nice. A successful young women of courage.

If I was looking for hero's though, I'd look to those that did the grizzly stuff, that they and everybody else didn't want to do, for no reward. People who quietly wandered off and did something that really needed doing or people who find out something that really matters.

After them might come the adventurers, sportsmen or entertainers but I'm not really looking for hero's.
 
Re: Well done Ellen. But let me be churlish for a moment.

Ahh, but therein lies the paradox, as the True heros, who do totaly selfless actions for the 'right' reasons, are by definition anonymous and unseen. As soon as they get in the public eye, then they no longer fit the aforementioned 'true hero' definition!
I'm sure there was a film, or an episode of a sitcom or drama once which was written around the concept of doing a truly selfless deed, and it turned out to be impossible as the giver always got some reward in return, even if it was just a feeling of self satisfaction- thus negating the 'selfless' part of the requirement!
 
Fishcake achievement

Well, i think it's high time we took our fishcake-making heroes seriously. 14 million fishcakes in 23 years is approx 600,000 per year or 2,000 per day or 80 fishcakes an hour or one fishcake every single minute which er um well actually sounds a bit piss easy er....did he by chance catch the fish as well? No, I thought not...
 
There's coastline and then there's coastline. The important thing about coastline is not the coastline /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif - it's the harbours - and here we're even more blessed. The British Isles must have at least three of best five natural harbours in the world. Cork, Poole, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Falmouth, Southampton are all able to contend with - well Sydney and San Francisco, someone tell me some more.

Even so, as island races, it's lucky for us God also found the time to give us harbours.
 
fishcake cheat

ah, but in fact he only made and sold the fishcakes a few at a time, which surely rules him out of being a real hero, cos that's like going across the channel or around the solent again and again, unlike someone who made 23million fishcakes bosh like that in one hit, do you think? Anyway, the bloke did actually sell the fishcakes, didnee, unlike Ellen who is as pure as driven snow, so i reckon mr fishcake is after all just a moneygrubbing git like er...me.
 
Re: fishcake cheat

I once worked in a fish factory in Aberdeen during a Summer vacation from Uni to pay off an overdraft.

A choice posting was to the skinning machine, where the task consisted of slapping fillets skin side down and tail forwards on a travelling belt, and changing the skin bucket when full.

On the other end of the apparatus was a gnarled wee mannie of indeterminate age and no conversation. His task was to watch the skinned fillets fall into a bucket and change buckets when full.

Occasionally the machine would jam. Veteran operators like my wee mannie would usually - against all regualations and the placard on the machine - lift the safety guard with the machine still running and guddle around to free the obstinate skin.

When bored to the point of screaming I would sometimes surreptitiously slip a fillet thick end forward on to the belt, and nine times out of ten the machine would jam. I would then announce that I had to go and find the supervisor or mechanic (as per official procedure) and go for a lengthy wander round the factory to stretch my legs and soothe my numbed brain.

The wee mannie regularly went berserk. He was at his wits end when the machine stopped, ranting incoherently and twitching alarmingly. I found out that he used to take every bit of overtime he could get and in fact lived for his hours on the skinning machine.

Now, if you want to put people like that up as heroes then it is time for me to quietly disappear over the horizon because we have finally, totally lost the plot. The venerable fishcake maker is a sad victim of a society that has invented the means to free us from drudgery but not found the political will or imagination.

Well, you did ask . . .


- Nick
 
Re: fish stories

hm, i think your story merely shows that i don't know what i'm taking about when it comes to fishcakes and fish, whereas you have vast first-hand experience. However, with truly heroic spirit, I'm determined to carry on regardless.
 
Re: Well done Ellen. But let me be churlish for a moment.

Totally disagree !! She's pushed back the boundaries to show what can be done and also shown what the human spirit is capable of. That's what I call an adventurer.I could say LOTS more but something more important's come up. My dinner's ready.
 
Re: Well done Ellen. But let me be churlish for a moment.

She's pushed back the boundaries to show what can be done

Are you not all getting a bit carried away. It is now over 35 years since Knox-Johnstone sailed alone around the world non-stop and held the record. Since then we have all lost count of how many others have soloed non stop through the Southern Ocean (including many women if one wants to divide the sexes) and at any one time one of those has always been the fastest.

Along comes Ellen who for this moment in time is the fastest (perhaps with a mind grabbing publicity machine) and you all go soppy.

As there are a number who are very quick to draw their swords the moment anyone is deemed in their imaginations to criticise her, I make it very clear that I view what she has done is an accomplishment worthy of admiration and respect - but in the end she is only another one in a stream of people who have done the same or done equally so in other sports and endeavours (and often remain unsung).

John
 
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