The Sparrow and the Dog Walker

Sunset

Hello Again

This is an unusual Jotting. I only spent two days on the boat this week to do some much needed work, which means that there isn't much to write about. Well, at the risk of you getting bored, or even comatose'd, I'll briefly mention what the work was and then I'll move on. By the way, don't you agree that the word comatose is rather odd? It sounds like something you would groom your feet with. Anyway, the work was to treat rust and corrosion in the gas locker - again! Day one was sanding and scraping on an industrial scale, an application of Fertan,(rust treatment liquid) followed by the conversion of a coal miner back into a Carl. You should have seen the state of the Carl when he emerged, Jack-in-the-box style, from the locker. A glance in the mirror and the mirror screamed back “You've stolen my youth. How dare you!”. I've never used Fertan before; I hope it lives up to my expectations. Day two was the application of paint. 

Fertan applied

Luckily for me, Linda had made sure I was well provisioned with bread, cheese, milk and coffee, plus plenty of feast-making materials to keep me going. I made sure I had a really good tea that evening, I can tell you. The table was groaning under the weight of my plate! Well, my tray was quite heavy, anyway. Well, that's about all I can say re the boat. By the way, I can report that there has been no sequel to the recent cat episode. Mr Big, Knuckle and Duster didn't put in an appearance when I returned to our boat. I should imagine they are biding their time.Time for a new paragraph I guess. 

Flapper wheel at the ready

Are you still with me dear reader? Good. You know, one can't help noticing the strangers that walk and cycle by the boat while we're moored up. All sorts, there are. Early morning we get the ones on their way to work. When I say we get them I mean that we see them trudging or cycling past us; we wouldn't want to actually “get them”; where would we put them all? Occasionally an individual passes who seems to be full of his or her own importance. They stride proudly along in an aristocratic looking way, looking down on all and sundry. I often wonder what their names or titles might be. One bloke looked like he could be Henry the Illuminated Blind Solid Copper Lounge-Lizzard Kakapolomus the Fourth. Then there was another who could have been a candidate for Knight of the Most Ancient Order of Gnomes and Grand Master of The Purveyors of Fine Cheeses and Right Royal Yogurt Sniffers, also Honorary Cup Bearer for Dog Milk Dealerships. Dog walkers abound too, although they wander by intermittently throughout the day and evening. I remember we were moored up north somewhere, probably on the Leeds and Liverpool canal, when one individual went by with his dog. It was a huge beast, panting noisily and drooling as it pulled on the end of a thick black leather lead covered in studs. It was very aggressive looking and snarled at anyone who came too close. His dog was very nice though; a small Yorkshire terrier, I think it was. Many years ago a neighbour of mine wanted a guard dog. He was hoping to get an Alsatian or Rottweiler, but his wife wouldn't hear of it. In the end he had to compromise and got a poodle with a grudge.

Fantastic sky over Eggington

There was a story in the paper on Thursday that I must tell you about. A couple of flat earthers from Venice bought a boat to sail to the edge of the world (I kid you not). They had to be rescued off the coast of Lampedusa by an Italian Doctor, who usually rescues migrants. Flat earthers seem to be everywhere these days. They are all over the globe. How can they believe that the earth is flat when it is so hilly?

Photo from Google (of course)

Guess what I did as soon as I got to the boat? I only went and made a coffee in the cracked blue mug. And it leaked all over the place again. Well, it would, wouldn't it? Just goes to show, old habits die hard. Changing the subject, I've noticed that the sparrows are very big this year. A sparrow landed on the roof on Friday morning. It was a huge thing, almost capsizing the boat as it came to rest. Do you know, there are several collective names for a group of sparrows. These include a knot, host and crew. My favourite is a flutter. A flutter of sparrows. While I'm talking about collective names I'll mention the humble rabbit. I particularly like this one; a group of rabbits can be called a fluffle.

Sparrow from google

On that cute note I must say goodbye.

Lots of Love

The Floating Chandlers


PS The country seems to be in a bit of a mess at the moment, so the following might raise a much needed smile or two.

We both like antique shops. We went into one once and I said the shop man do you mind if we take a gander round your shop? He said we could as long as the gander was house-trained.

I once replaced our bed with a trampoline. Linda hit the roof.

An optician told me I was colour blind. The diagnosis came completely out of the purple.

Never buy a pair of shoes from a drug dealer. You won't know what he laced them with and you'll be tripping all day.

People who keep taking selfies need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

Dolphins are so clever that within a few weeks of captivity they can train people to stand on the very edge and throw them fish.

With sufficient thrust, pigs can fly just fine.

I think my neighbour is stalking me; she's been googling my name on her computer. I saw it through my telescope last night.

PPS no boating this week so here are some photos from last year