The boat 'MISS BAUDET' is a garden, party venue, writers' retreat and HQ for serious meetings with my publisher David

Saturday 12 February 2011

Brush Up and Brush Off

Firstly, I must apologise to all my blogees for my absence of late due to a combination of circumstances.

I'm pleased to be back in full swing again with more tales from the river bank - and what an exciting time it has been just recently...

To begin with - the Brush Off.

You see, we had a stormy high tide, and my dear nautical neighbours rang me up, demanding that I get down to the boat "straight away" because, in their words "your stern rope has broken and your boat is touching ours, and it's YOUR problem to sort out, not ours".

Well, I don't mind admitting that I came over all of a quiver, not wishing The Boat For My Potplants to be the cause of any conflict to anyone, or indeed any damage to their beautiful vintage sailing vessel. I dashed down to the quay within seconds, only to discover that my boat was in fact floating several feet away from theirs, with all ropes intact. The problem had been with the boat on their other side, which had come adrift and was subsequently being dealt with by friends of its owner.

So, dear Nautical Neighbour, please note...there are ways in which to enlist the friendship and co-operation of people to assist when things go wrong (which they inevitably sometimes do)...but your aggressive and incorrect stance was not it.

And now on to Brushing Up...it was a pleasure, after many years, to recently meet up with Robert - an ex-colleague of mine. He is now the UK MD of Alaska, a successful Danish company, selling, among a multitude of other products, brushes. And one of which he gave to me.

And this ain't any ol' brush, I can tell you - no sirree! The Alaska Premium F1 ActiveBrush has a unique water chamber, which slowly releases its water onto the surface of your car, caravan, OR BOAT! You simply immerse it in a bucket of water, and you don't even need to get your hands wet. It says so on the side of the box, so it must be right.

Yippee! I can't wait to get down and clean off all the mud and crud that's been dirtying the boat's sides during the past winter months.

Sorry to 'Erindoors, but I won't be able to take you shopping on Valentine's Day. I'll be far too busy cleaning the Boat For My Potplants with my new ActiveBrush! I'm sure you'll understand.