Dave,
No one local, is ridiculing you or taking the p, believe me, we all want to get along with each other. You annoyed us initially for reasons you know, and I think if you could put yourself in the shoes of other local true professional CCs for a minute and had a think, how it looked from our point of view - you would see why. Before you say it - yes I can sort of understand your point of view as well - we disagree, thats all. We expect and see those sort of promotions all the time from so calles CCs who run about with a two bit set up but not from someone with a set up like yours - it was a bit of a shock actually. Each to their own of course, and Im sure none of all this will hamper your obvious determination to succeed in all you plan.
Dave.