General Witterings -
Back Home on Rosy

For the last few weeks, there has a been of a silence from this end.  This is largely because I haven't been here!  I've been back in England for a swift visit.  Fanny-the-Woof has been on holiday with Mike and June, our next-door-neighbours on the good ship 'Temujin'.

I'm always a bit embarrassed about admitting to UK trips, due to concerns that non-visited friends may feel a bit aggrieved.  The problem is, of course, that the time available is too short to accommodate all the people that I would like to get to see.  In particular, this time I didn't get down to the West Country.

On the consumerist front, I managed to upgrade an aging mobile phone and to find a reasonable digital camera that, hopefully, will do the biz.

First port of call, of course, was the South Coast, to see Molly who manages this website where all these witterings appear, and much else of a boaty nature besides.  My time there is somewhat shrouded by an alcoholic haze of a 'sticky' variety - we seemed to consume large quantities of liqueurs.

Military friends were also visited.  Mike George is well dug-in at Eastbourne, and was dealing with what started as a cheap dead pigeon issue, but turned into a very much more expensive, improperly capped (and now crumbling) chimney issue.  The whole issue was complicated by the landlord being incommunicado in some warm water holiday paradise.

Richard and Teresa Powel continue to thrive in Chatteris, and Richard is still deeply into military music.  His latest experiments involve re-mastering old records.  The technology at the time could not revolve the master disk at spot on 78 rpm during recording, let alone during playback.  Modern technologies can over come this, so that Richard can now produce sounds that are very much better than the originals.  In the process he found some marches that have been totally lost.  All very interesting.

Francis and Tricia Pearce are alive and well near York.  Francis continues with his railway interests, and is now concentrating on 'scratch-building' O-gauge models of the North Western Railway (I think).  On the internet, he has found E-bay and Friends Reunited.  Tricia is still working and playing bridge - though not necessarily in that order.

Then onto canally things with a visit to David Long and family to confirm some arrangements for the Summer.  1 July is the 90th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme.  I want to be there, and David has arrangements to take a party of school kids over there.  'Rosy' and 'Temujin' could provide them with a useful base, so we look forward to a big meeting in the summer.

David lives in Wigan, so we had a walk up the Wigan flight, and photographed Wigan Pier AND the stone that marks the spot where the house was that George Orwell lived in whilst researching (and experiencing) the social conditions that led to the writing of 'The Road to Wigan Pier'.

Finally, we went over to Stoke-on-Trent to visit Dick Goble and Elaine - boaty friends from 'Rosy's' Kelvin days - Dick specialises in old Kelvin engines.  Whilst there, we went for a trip on Dick's boat - a converted Caggy Stevens butty powered by (of course) a Kelvin J2.  We cruised on the Trent and Mersey Canal, from Malkins Bank to Middlewich and return.  I had never steered a full length narrow boat before, but found it not too dissimilar to 'Rosy' who is 52' long.

Whilst with Dick and Elaine, we met up with Mike Skyner - another boaty person.  I met Mike at the first Stafford GIG (GIG=Great Internet Get-together, and is a real, proper meeting of canally folk who correspond with each other on the internet).  Mike has a lovely gas-free boat with a wonderful Kelvin J4 engine in it, and he gave me sound advice when I was thinking of buying 'Rosy'.

I spent far too short a time in London, visiting sister Jenny.  We visited the Wallace Collection - me to generally see it, she specifically to see the exhibition devoted to the writing of the 11 (?) volumes of the influential 'Dance to the Music of Time' series.

The rest of the time was spent in the Cambridge area visiting my ex, my son and Vron and Brad.

My ex manages Whizz Kids, an organisation that provides theatrical training for 'kids' AND is an agency for providing kids for theatre, film and TV.

Meantime, son Tom lives in a housing co-operative, and involves himself in its management.  He came with me on our trip round the northern outposts of England, so that we spent over a week together - the longest we have been together for many years.  We seemed to rub along OK together, and had a really good time.

Vron and Brad live north of Cambridge.  I met them during my lecturing days.  Vron was one of the lecturers at The Huntingdonshire College, and she gave me a lot of help and support during my time there.  In particular, she was one of several folk who gave me much needed support during the time of my separation, and she and Brad remain my key link in the UK.

The trip to and from UK was by train from Gent to Brussels, and EuroStar from Brussels - 70 Euro return if booked a month in advance.  Booking and travelling went quite painlessly and smoothly.

Fanny-the-Woof survived without me (and I without her).  She gave me a lovely welcome when we were re-united, and now gets a bit fractious each time I leave the boat without her!.

Other than that, life goes on …

Toodle pip!!

Bill