The Journey - This 'n' That from 'Rosy'

A few random thoughts.

French fishermen seem much happier that English fishermen.

That is NOT a sexist remark - I've never ever seen a woman fishing.

Why French fishermen should be happier, I cannot say.  It could be that they are better fishermen than their English counterparts and catch more fish and hence have a greater sense of achievement and well-being.  I cannot attest to this as I've seen French fishermen catch as many (or as few) fish as their English counterparts i.e.  approximately none.

Or it could be that they (the French) are resigned to the fact they are not going to catch anything, whilst the English still live in forlorn hope.

I should mention that the French canal banks are wholly un-adorned with the 'No Fishing' and 'Beware Danger of Death' signs that litter the canals in England adjacent to any nearby overhead power lines.  And I've not yet seen any charred remains of French fishermen bobbing about in the canals.  Since, therefore, the French and English both achieve the same ends (i.e.  no dead fishermen) perhaps we should consider the cheaper, French, way of achieving this desired outcome.

I've had a whole series of niggling boaty problems.  The water supply went on the blink, with the water pump not wanting to turn itself off.  It takes ages to tweak it.  It's a balancing act (for the cognoscenti) between setting the correct pump cut-in pressure, and the correct pump cut-out pressure, and putting the right volume of air into the reservoir.  Each one of these 3 seems to depend on the other two.  The aim is to get sufficient water coming out of the taps, whilst, when the tap is turned off, the pump cuts out reasonably quickly.  Every few months things go wrong (I haven't yet worked out what) and it has to be reset.  I THINK I've got it about right after 3 or 4 days of twiddling.

When I arrived here in Cambrai and asked for a mooring with electrical connection, there was much humming and wringing of hands.  Eventually I was put next to a barge, and I got plugged into his system.  This morning a young man arrived, wanting to check my electrics.  He is an electrician employed by the local council who manage these moorings.  On questioning, I learned that the barge I was plugged into was plugged into another barge, which was plugged into another barge, which was plugged into another barge which was plugged into the shore supply.  Last night our shore supply tripped off and 'they' thought it might be me!!!!  He checked everything over, which was all tickety-boo.  He then came to the conclusion that I must, therefore, have an intermittent problem.  I don't know the French for 'daisy-chaining', and I think he was deeply offended by the hand gestures I made whilst trying to explain the term to him.  I've moved across the basin to a place with a spare 'direct' connection - the socket for me to plug into was dangling on its wires outside it's supporting post.  Trevor then appeared.  He is another boater who 'did this kind of thing for a living' and ran his instruments over my installation, and then went and told the electrician and the barge owners that they were all twats (or words to that effect).

I'm trying to get on a Somme Battlefield Tour, but getting to and from the start point is proving tricky.  Sunday is the 85th anniversary of the 1st day of the Somme. 

Toodle pip!!

Bill