A parcel was delivered this morning. It was from our youngest son to his mother. The woman, when selected by me, has been so fortunate to spend the rest of her life in domestic bliss. Her annual birthday had arrived and youngest son sent her a gift. Working on the tried and true principle women don’t like being reminded of the passage of time, I don’t buy her birthday presents. Son has much to learn.
Jan is a dog lover. Particularly miniature dachshunds! Noisy creatures who demand the last word. Initially I though the gift might have had a link to me.
But then I remembered an earlier model
Shoe scraper used as a door stop
I’ve sometimes wondered if this might be me under heel. No! An unkind thought. Jan is far too kind and gentle for that. Happy birthday to the girl who tossed her auburn hair, flashed her eyes and walked away with a delightful wiggle leaving me to follow whilst attempting not to stand on my tongue!
We’ve had almost a week of mizzle and now I’m a confirmed West Australian I won’t go out in it. However there was a break in the weather yesterday so I took the bike for a ride (it needed the exercise).
My longest ride to date. 66km and with no after effects; apart from a slightly sore posterior.
I was reading the latest blog post from WAL where David took a tumble into the canal and thought “I’ve done that”.
It was our second trip to the UK and we hired a narrowboat for 10 days to complete the four Counties Ring. Earlier in the holiday I’d purchased a pair of leather hiking boots and on that day was wearing them to break them in. We had exited a lock just south of Stoke on Trent on a wet day. I was wearing my raincoat The boat was against the bank and I was attempting to depart with the boat in gear. However the boat appeared to be aground so I got off the boat and from the middle of the boat, attempted to push it away from the bank. Suddenly the boat moved away and a gap appeared. I decided to jump the gap onto the gunwale. The soles of the boots were wet and didn’t grip the gunwale. I was left dangling by my hands from the cabin rails. Of course I didn’t realise the canal was shallow and hung from the rails whilst I unsuccessfully attempted to get a slippery heavy boot full of water up onto the gunwale. Jan had knocked the boat into neutral and after giving up on the attempt to clamber up the gunwale I made my way hand over hand to the cruiser stern where I eventually dragged myself back on board. Not without significant difficulty.
What lessons did I learn or re-learn?
- wet clothing is heavy
- the side of a wet narrowboat is slippery
- there is almost nothing to below the boat gunwale that provides leverage
- canals are often shallow
- don’t try a jump a gap onto a boat
- if the depth of the water is over your head wear a lifejacket
- it’s easier to climb onto the bank than a boat
- when I wrote the specifications for Waiouru it included a half circle step on the uxter plate.
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