Catrin

This is my favourite picture of me in a long time Cheshire~Rose.

You do indeed Monkey!

I deliberately took a day release secretarial course while doing my A levels at evening class. People couldn't understand why someone doing A levels needed to be able to type. The A levels got me to university and on to teacher training, the typing made my work as a teacher of ICT and computing much easier - and I still sometimes take notes in meetings in shorthand - but I did Teeline, no soft or hard writing.

Despite this being a much choppier ride than the one we did six weeks before, we didn't come close to colliding with anything. The previous one did have one tense moment as we were heading for a raft of anchored Thames barges... Incidentally, the Thames lifeboat can be seen in a very few frames at one point (doubtless David could say where), those things don't half move!

Well done to Hawkmoth, that is one of the finer features of the forum - the willingness to help others.

Excellent, we'll bring the melodeons then...

My apologies, that was not my intention. I was just hoping that if MissMax does decide to take that risky path, then she has alarms to alert her to things that she cannot see, or smell, and which could kill her.

No, not at all - you know me better than that MtB. There is no way that I would take the risk. I'd wear lots of clothes and go to bed with lots of blankets. I might get cold, but I'd be unlikely to die in September - unlike the risk with CO. However, since MissMax seems determined to light 'a small fire', then I really, really hope that she has alarms. MissMax, you do understand that you cannot see, or smell, or detect Carbon Monoxide in any way without an alarm, don't you? Lighting the fire might tell you if the radiators are working, but doing that risks death from CO poisoning if you have a leaky flue.

You have got a fire alarm AND a CO monitor, haven't you?

One of my favourite memories of David, when I barely knew him. It was at the 'Village at War' in Stoke Bruerne. I was emerging from the back cabin of Sickle, in my overalls, with a flowery pinny, and a scarf wrapped around my head in turban style. David was passing in his 'Ministry' uniform, as seen in the picture above with Ron Withey. He was carrying a leather document wallet. He marched up to me, showed me his 'official Ministry pass' and asked me, "Madam, are you pregnant?" I was somewhat taken aback, not entirely surprisingly. He continued, "the Ministry is extremely concerned with the number of days that are being lost to trade when boats are tied up while women give birth, we are surveying families to assess the problem". I assured him that, as far as I was aware, I was not pregnant, and therefore there was unlikely to be a disruption to our trade.

Sad news, a true character. Fond memories of a lovely man.