Anniversary

My father died at the wheel of the Thames sailing barge “Thalatta” twenty one years ago last Sunday. By a strange coincidence, on that day i had a hog roast job at the boatyard at St Osyth, where the Thalatta’s being rebuilt. Naturally, i took the opportunity to go aboard and see how the work was going.

I went there and had a look in early February and work had pretty much come to a halt because of lack of funding. There was still no funding, so nothing much had happened since i saw it last. But this time i went down into the hold, which i hadn’t done before, and got a closer look at what was down there… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Booking Flights Again

I worked a fourteen hour day yesterday – doing hog roasts at two separate events. The first one was a gathering of the “Essex Hogs Chapter” of the Harley Davidson biker’s club and i managed to get the van bogged just outside the farm where it was happening!

The boss had told me the job was in a village called Matching Tye, about thirty five miles from the depot. But when i went to pick up the van and the pig yesterday morning it turned out it wasn’t in Matching Tye at all. After a bit of confusion we worked out it was in a village called Much Hadham, a different place altogether – and about ten miles further away. The boss had printed out directions from Google – which, of course, are no use when you’re driving, as you can’t keep stopping to read the next step of the directions. And the last few stages of the route were missing off the bottom anyway!… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »

Deranged!

The last week has been completely deranged. After a couple of weeks of nothing happening – not even any work – everything seemed to happen pretty much at once!

I worked the Saturday afternoon and evening. It was a job in South Woodford, which is on the outskirts of north east London, near Epping forest. They were pleasant people and the job went very smoothly.

Then on Sunday i went to London for Sanjar’s birthday. Sanjar’s a friend and workmate from Afghanistan who’s been living and studying in the UK for a while. We were supposed to meet up at Richmond park and the plan was to go on a boat trip on the Thames, but it was raining and the venue changed to Sanjar’s sister’s place in Westminster… Read more at http://SnapAndScribble.com »