I’ve had a long and prosperous day, which started with me waking up late after a very good sleep. Anyway, I set off this morning via the very special botanical gardens on my doorstep- it was very decadent. I had a cappuccino and a chelsea bun for breakfast. And I sighed with joy at this new life I’m leading. Last night I was tucked up with a good book by 11.15 and was privy to a boat load of revelers turning around outside my porthole. They were dancing away on the Thames. Anyway, all of this has nothing to do with anything. Except that I had a lovely night last night and a good morning, and then when I got home this evening there was, would you believe it, a live fireworks display courtesy of one of the boats over the river which was having some sort of low-tide celebration. So on the mud banks between our boat and theirs, some poor soul was tasked with setting alight the display and running (maybe swimming?) back to their boat. The fireworks were pretty impressive actually- not just bog standard home fireworks but quite professional. So, this was marvelous, and I looked out over the water wearing my new ‘dutch barge shoes’ that Pat bought me and thought, ‘oh-ay, oh-ay! ’tis a sailors life for me!’ and that was nice.
Then I came back in after the display, parched. So off I went to the tap, as you do, to get a drop of water. Well, a drop turned out to be optimistic, for there was nothing. Not a drop. The pesky pump. But it’s late, and Pat’s away, and I miss him anyway, but when he’s not here, then I have to be the one to poke the pump and sometimes that can be a chore. So anyway, it all became very complicated. Because it’s night time and there is no light in the wheelhouse, so first things first- I needed to get a torch. And I know where all the torches are because I made a system of storage for them all when I unpacked. I was determined to always have torches to hand for precisely this sort of situation. So I find the torch- I find five torches. But do any of them actually work? Of course not. So then I start looking for batteries and suddenly this is all becoming very convoluted. I want a glass of water, but first I must find the batteries to put in the torch to illuminate the engine room (which does have a light but I can’t find the light switch) so that I can get to the pump to poke it so that the water will come out of the taps again and fill my glass. Well, in the end I found the batteries and put them in and had to go down the scary engine hole, crawl through the engine bits and give the pump a good slap. That did the trick, so then I filled up a big bottle of water to keep me going so I don’t have to make any more visits to the scary engine hole tonight. It’s preferable to go in the morning.
All of this is a good reminder that whilst it’s very romantic and beautiful on a boat, there will always be holes to contend with and pumps to poke.
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