By Keith Evans
Some time ago Sandie suggested that volunteers might like to take responsibility for individual boats. Having thought about this I think we should go one further. Volunteers need more exercise involving something useful. Not like jogging which always seems to me to be a useless activity – have you ever seen a jogger looking happy? No! Something useful such as scrubbing the pontoon to clean the seagull guano, cleaning the tidal windows preferably when the tide is in, polishing the brass on Waterlily or, for the less energetic, touching their forelock to the Director. We would of course have to have meaningful negotiations, a feasibility study, environmental impact and Health & Safety report. We’d probably be infringing on the seagull’s rights, the fish will object to looking in at humans, the glittering brass would dazzle the visitors and one of us have forelocks. Sorry Sandie it’s a non-starter.
It had been a quiet morning in the Main Hall. A young couple came in and stood talking around the orientation model, as confused as everyone. She was a bit of an ugly duckling really. Suddenly he picked her up and twirled her around like a crazed Dervish. Nigel woke up and nearly fell off his chair. We wondered what was going to happen next. Unfortunately nothing did and within a couple of minutes the Main Hall returned to its normal November tranquillity.
A delicate situation arose when a group of French students with questionnaires on clipboards were seeking information about the large oil painting in the Packet gallery of an English Packet capturing a French privateer in a bloody skirmish. Now Keith, I thought, talk yourself out of this one without causing a diplomatic incident. Any suggestions on a postcard to the Editor please.
