Twelve years on if there is one thing I have learned after a dozen years afloat in English ditches it is that nothing is black and white. These worthies should be a black swan and a white swan. I spent a week waiting for de black lad to come near my boat and when he eventually deigned to grace me with his presence he flew in and I discovered that a Kiwi swam in flight is a beautiful sight to behold, in black and white. White swans are not white until their second moulting.  "Black and white" is an idiom that means "a situation or subject is easy to understand, or that something is clear".  You will know from my first book "Muddy Brown Water" that, after twelve years, I have that sorted.

Hyperlink to WIP elsewhere coded CORDWAIN

About a month ago, I made a decision to reconnect with some 'old' workmates from a job I had retired out of almost forty years previously.  There were twelve: gathered in the sumptuous Wynn's Playwright Restaurant in Dublin's Abbey Street. The pictures were taken by Dan, youngest of the group, who managed to keep himself out of the mirrors. 

Some of these worthies trained me back in 1964, the 'oldest' being born before the start of The Emergency and all but the child entering the world as I did before the D-Day landings. 

One had been a mentor in my early days as a union rep and another had been a constant companion who chased folk music with me across the 60s and back again.

Another sat the same qualifying exams as myself in 1968. (Pass mark 70% four subjects at Degree level.) In written exams we expected to average 81% across the board.

Among my papers back in East Anglia I had a hand-written list of 30 lads who joined the service with me in 1964,  I had wondered how they had fared in eighty orbits of the sun and indeed wondered how many orbits they had achieved.  It was for this reason I came to Dublin on 10thDecember 2024

The visit led to my joining Whats-App groups and an e-mail lists, swapping mobile numbers, all of which placed me in position to establish contact with others scattered retirably around the four corners of John Bull's other island.  I was cheered by the fact that, among the twelve, were four from that list.  Better still was to find I was heartily welcomed and well remembered. Three I am delighted to report are in these pictures and in rude good health and I am the fourth. 

Having returned to Blighty I reviewed my list and set about building contacts from among 30 twenty-year-olds including myself who had filtered into the service between April and December of 1964. 

Looking back, it is obvious that that the twelve became the nucleus of a team that would work the service and expand it into Europe. One departed early to engage with the minutiae of aviation in Brussels.  Others I shared wine with in Wynn's graduated to become training instructors; some became specialists in simulation, some developed safety systems.  I trained in Systems Analysis while there and later in Robotics and Electronics but my life was in sailing and boats reflected by the website that hosts this blog

My co-mates from 1964 gave their working lives to ensuring the safety of others, so that no fatal mistake was ever made by our service.  I stayed 25years but all those shown worked on into the 21st century ensuring that millions of people flew safely through the skies of Europe and still do.

My visit to Dublin counted as only my fourth visit in the 25yrs since I turned my back on John Bull's Other Island to start a new life in England sailing old ships, training young sailors and writing articles for boaty magazines when and if the editors would pay me for it. 

My last visit had been in 2022 for a wedding, the previous one in 2017 to show my adopted son the way to Galway and before that was a funeral in 2008. 

This is an all out offensive on the NHS system with no holds barred. My first priority in 2025 is to have the Willow Tree practice accept that I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and NOT Fibromyalgia. 

Extract from the pink diary Friday 26th April 2024
liberally edited and reformatted to make sense without  losing the sense of the entry

"Subjecting any muscle to 'exercise' causes it [very quickly] to seize up leading to immobilization and can be remedied only by total and immediate immobility and rest.  Recovery typically takes between half a minute and fifteen minutes. {*using scissors*}

Any attempt at repeating the 'exercise' ensures subsequent 'seizing up' over a shorter timespan and involves a longer period of rest/recovery and if the action is persisted in locomotion will become untenable and may require total rest overnight.

Any persistence over time will lead to an inability to use the muscle or muscles at all. The most common muscles to cause cause the most trouble are those most used and the effect is like a marathon runner would experience on hitting the wall.  I am told this condition is down to the muscles filling with lactic acid which in the case of the athlete dissipates over a short time as his muscles clear the lactic acid and replenish the muscle with oxygenated blood

For me the muscles most affected are  my buttocks, backs of my legs when climbing stairs or an incline is involved

The upper arms and shoulders if winding paddle windlasses, the lower limbs including the feet if standing. 

manipulation of fingers as per kneading dough, working ropes or squeezing things affects my hand and has been frequently been misdiagnosed and treated as carpel tunnel

see Apr29th for inspiration ...

I presented with "inability to fill lungs" as shown on the card and used the card as an aide memoir when I was face to face.  I was flabbergasted when her best offer was to provide me with a link to self refer for physiotherapy. I tried to provide background but she gave me to believe she was hemmed in by regulations or something which prevented her from widening the scope of the consultation. She admitted to knowing nothing about Chronic Fatigue and had obviously never heard of ME even when I said 'Myalgic Encephalomyelitis'

I have been trying to get a diagnosis from Willow Tree for over twelve months and you seem to be concerned only with my cholesterol.  Tests find absolutely nothing wrong with me in spite numerous of blood counts over the past year, ECGs, X-rays, a CT scan, blood pressure monitoring and even a day at Huntington for extensive examination which showed nothing wrong with heart function.

The practice is willfully or innocently avoiding the pulmonary option which is strange since I have complained of breathlessness, dizziness on exertion, profound fatigue at times, tired after sleep, fatigue in variable muscles after small exertion, difficulty with inclines and stairs for no obvious reason.

You notice (among the most recent data) a slightly raised cholesterol level and home in.  When I refuse to countenance statins you offer alternatives in spite of there being clear evidence I will not take any drug unless it shows an immediate beneficial effect, and no side effects.  I

insist that my medical condition is ME/Chronic Fatigue and there is no proven relationship between that and cholesterol levels.  Indeed the is no relationship with Fibromyalgia either., which is the stated medical condition on my record.  I have requested those records recently but they have not yet been made available and this issue is now on a separate trajectory.

I manage cholesterol levels by diet and my record indicates that.  I have been eating too much cheese recently and included too many sausages. I know this but you did not ask me about my diet  I live 'in the outdoors' by choice engaging in energetic activity which requires that I eat to provide the energy.  You have not asked me how I manage my diet or how I maintain my weight within acceptable BMI but your concern is that my cholesterol levels are 'high'. 

To be as positive as I can among all the negativity coming at me. I am going t help you. Starting immediately, I am going to minimise all foods currently in mt diet which are accused of raising cholesterol readings in the blood. I will  include as few dairy and red meat products as possible and reduce the quantities of those items I cannot or will not give up. 

I will target butter cheese cream for reduction  ........ and will confine my milk intake to not more than a litre a day of Jersey Milk.  Since you invited me to repeat the bloods late in January this should give us a clearer picture ...

Having managed to write a new blog every week for year 2024, in 2025 I hope to maintain the momentum but change emphasis.  2024 blogs focused largely on the here and now. 2025 will focus on me in the moment, living a Jeckel and Hyde existence on land and water

A page from my book "Muddy Brown Water" is currently being edited to refract the emphasis into the subject 'water'

I live on canals and more correctly I live on a boat which floats on water'.  Looking out at the surface whereon I float, it usually appears MUDDY and BROWN I am conjoined with nature and I live a simple life.  I eat simple food.  I do not drink the canal water.  Nor do I wash in it.  But I am happy to live on it and be borne by it. I observe. I record, I review. I report and I ask simple non judgemental questions.  Liquidity has no direct attachment to water which is a liquid.

Water is essential to most bodily functions. 

• The body has no way of storing water and needs fresh supplies every day
  
• Women should have about 2 litres (8 cups) of fluids a day, and men about 2.6 litres (10 cups).
• Dehydration can happen when the body’s fluids are low and can be life threatening.
  

Asking a simple question of the internet. "how much water per day is needed for healthy living?  Depends on who you read or who provides it. NHS site is almost useless for finding out about hydration. The Eatwell Guide recommends that people should aim to drink 6 to 8 cups or glasses of fluid a day. Water, lower-fat milk and sugar-free drinks, including tea and coffee, all count.  Interestingly the science does not support this contention.  My own investigations indicate that human body water circulation loops loses 2 to 5 litres a day mostly by evaporation but intake should be balanced by  a kidney subtraction of about 1/2 litre a day of clear and light yellow coloured urine.  Where about 300ml is expelled three times a day the human body has pretty ideal circulation. The web does not address that a good diet high in vegetables and indee almost all food is capable of providing nearly half the total needs

The Mayo clinic does not allow you to copy and paste

Darragh is the fourth named storm of this season. The name derives directly from the Irish word for the sessile oak one of five sacred trees in our culture (the others being beech ash hazel and hawthorn).  Our language has but 19 letters and the Irish 'alphabet' is enunciated as a list of trees the concept descending from the runic ogham which predates Newgrange ...  Those familiar with the graeco-roman alphabet do not realise that Irish can synthesize a large range of consonents by the use of strategic dots and dashes.  Who would know that the word 'sean' (pronounced shann) means variously old, past it, worn out, decrepit all that and those and making it Sean does not change its hiatus.
Monday 9 To Dublin
Tuesday10 in Dublin
Wed 11 Return from
Thursday12Laundry
Friday13 Stamford? uddermint
Saturday second fitting?

December has been just one storm after another, Darragh swiped the east bu a few days later there was a three day wind event where the winds {and rain) were much worse in the Nene valley and although New Year is relatively quiet in the South East we have had a long period of reduced visibility down to dense fog even.
Te boats were moved to safe moorings at Weedon just after Xmas and due to holidays and holiday bus schedules it is expedient to satay at the flat for the time being and continue decluttering

Yesterday was the last day of Autumn and apart from a quick breakfast at Moor Farm near Newborough I had a first fitting at Tailor and Cutter plus a rummage in an Ag store I'd heard about where I hoped to get a product which helps aching muscles. Farming folk will understand.  The day turned out to be a bit of a magical mystery tour due to the recent massive rain dump in the East of England. From Stamford I took the 301 to Market Deeping, 201 to Queensgate and  No.1 home. To quote old fashioned reporting " a good time was had by all"

Sunday was a day of total R&R due to my serious and ongoing management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or as I know it myalgic encephalomyalitis. With the festive season ramping up it was a good time to ensure my addresses were up to date for chrissy cards.  With stuff going progressively digital and paperless ya gotta stay on top of the paper and the digits.

The rest of the wek is a bit of a blur but  do have five bags of HomeFire stored on board. I have received my cork pumps from China.  My travel arrangements for Dublin are in order.  My Chrissy cards are sent and mostly received. Storm Darragh is overhead and Lewis is starting from 16 on the grid at Abu Dhabi and I attended the sherry and mince pie event yesterday ans have the sweater for Christmas

and the clock keeps ticking.  Overnight we weathered a huge blow named Storm Bert which hammered some parts of the British Isles mercilessly but here in the East Midlands its main effect seems to have been to blow the emaining leaves off the trees and pile them into the nooks and crannies. Tomorrow the winds are forecast to lighten the sun is forecast to shine the temperature is forecast to be teens and I intend to take the bus southwest to see how my boats fared over the past 'week'.

Here at Home Nene we are due to get a new screw tomorrow after months of none but depending on how i feel in the morning I may be gone before she signs on. My initial intention though is to come back Wed.

MID NOV. LEAF MUGGING 
GALES and a WARM CABIN

Where to start?  Last evening, 16th) I left WaveyRider at B13 after meeting my Boat Safety Examiner who advised me of how to get the boat through.  Initially moved to Lock 13 to get bits from the chandler and then dropped down to an overnight mooring opposite the marina.  Quite a salubrious mooring out of the wind few towpath walkers trains are on Saturday schedule so they stop running earlier and start later next day which is Sunday.

Ar an lá arna mhárach   I took off trepidatiously towards Weedon Bec.  Its only a short distance away less than three miles but it has to be the most hateful reach of canal it is my misfortune to ever travel and let us just leave it so shall we?

 New paragraph
The overall plan into the next few months is to systematically de-clutter the boat and tidy it up to take visitors or crew.  It is due for the four year Safety Certificate and I need to work on that.  In the past year I have made major changes to battery capacity and cabling to future proof a boat which has become dependent on voltage and voltage drop is an issue on board. The circuits are all secure but the alternator seems not powerful enough to handle the needs of four large batteries and this needs to be addressed by putting a silicon diode in series with the sensor circuit. 

Thursday. Very cold at the nene OAT -2 and the flat was at 12c last night going to bed but the storage has been introduced and in the morning 15C. Lots of layers going to WillowTree to complain about pain in foot query broken bone. Also laundry done and all is well

SUNDAY 10 This is a test page where I begin to experiment with photo import.  I choose to illustrate an oven-cooked full Irish which was a regular though infrequent occurrence at the land-house before we sold out for off grid.  Jean and I developed it at Avalon in 1994 when we did B+B in a room with a view. 

An identical breakfast can be made on board with the gas oven but is difficult to replicate at the land-flat.

But then, food is done differently on-grid and off-grid. I am into the morning porridge in both venues and both methods use bain-maries and maceration.  Cod liver oil capsules used to be a winter treat.  I now take them all the year round usually washed down with  Pentargon's famous coffee.   
Did I mention cardamom seed?
Did I mention shooting logs?

MONDAY11:- Stamford to order a jacket. I am shittin myself as this is being made by the bet tailor for 50 miles around and will probably cost more on ts own than my complete wardrobe on board and off board include footwear, but I made the decision. It will be ready for 'xmas' but not for Ireland.  I discovered that the wedding suit got in 2019 for asgeirs does not suit my needs to coin a phrase.I have not widened in five years but the suit was never wide enough for me and has never been worn. However the trousers is perfect and the new jacket is planned to be worn with it.  Later in this day I had a phone in with that stupid doctor and have nothing more to add to her quest for cholesterol 

TUESDAY12:-  Resting at flat and decluttering paper and sorting out finances ... I tried to contact Simon Proctor but his system requires a txt so I added to the previous two.  Not much point in actually going to the boat unless I can intercept him or predict him. 

WEDNESDAY:- Head scan scheduled for 16.45

THURSDAY:- this is a prediction if i were to catch the 8oc X4 on spec I would be in N.Hampton early enough to visit the boat with an option to return to the flat so if proctor did contact me I'd be there. I have options also I gotta put in train a way of getting another couple of bags of charcoal