With a Paddle

My Summer of 2026 can be mostly associated with boats. Boat parties, holidays and hangouts. Now the season is beginning to draw to an end and all good things must pass. I joined my friend who owns a small riverboat for one last cruise to stash it back in the marina til next year. Just the two of us (and a Bluetooth speaker) on a tepid August day. We did a pair of locks then cruised into the pack marina. The water was full of algae and other nasties, which is what we think clogged up our engine and killed it. Just meters away from our mooring point we found ourselves up shit creek, thankfully we had a paddle... One very small paddle that is. Somehow I managed to row the vessel back towards the docks (my friend was low key freaking out, but I was determined to make it work). So despite it being a fun Summer send off to begin with, it turned into one of those bleak endings that will probably cost my buddy a bunch of money to fix. 

I had a great time though. 

Bookshelves Complete

The final push to complete the bookshelves. All I needed to do was to screw everything down into place and lock it all in. The literal second Rebecca finished work she came downstairs and started making piles of all her books - assigning post-its to label each stack. I was playing games online with some chaps tonight so I didn't get to see her wave her magic wand, I only saw the 'Ta-Dah' photo she sent up and it looks wonderful. There's room for everything, plus space for a handful of small photo frames and knick-knacks. It really completes the room and makes for a great talking point for guest. 

It was only 18 months late in the build... But I reckon it was worth the wait. 

Desirably Uneventful

I let Rebecca sleep in for a couple of hours while I pottered around, she needed the rest so we could make it back home to Bristol in one piece. Time back was desirably uneventful, we played games, read books and ordered take out (we deserved it). Rebecca had a theatre show to catch in the evening, leaving me at home to play a horror game that eventually got under my skin. It didn't help that the cat kept chirping during some especially creepy moments so I couldn't tell what was real anymore. One to resume tomorrow when the sun is up and the lights are on.

Funeral - Dorothy

It's been almost five years since I last wore my funeral attire. I know this because I found a COVID facemask in my trouser pocket from Granny Sue's funeral. But today was to commemorate Rebecca's Grandmother, Dorothy who passed away recently.

I got ready with Rebecca and her family, dressing in all black and waiting for the funeral directors to collect us from the house. We followed behind the hearse in the escort vehicle and filtered into a lovely little service. The wake followed at a nearby pub where select friends and family retired to where stories of Rebecca's Nan were passed around. 

In my mind there's two types of funerals. The kind where you get hugs and the kind where you give hugs. I was mostly there as an emotional pillar for Rebecca, doing all I could to make the day a bit more bearable for her. There was a lot of trepidation heading into the day but she's very glad the day went as it did. She's a very brave lady and I was proud to stand by her side throughout the day.

Book Club Basher

I forgot to mention that a couple of days ago I officially became the owner of a car. Rebecca transferred ownership of her old and faithful Vauxhall Viva over to me (after I gave her a couple of quid of course). Rebecca has recently acquired some new wheels which took us up to London today. Because it had air con and that new car smell I was half convinced it was an airport rental vehicle... Hopefully that magic lasts for a long time.

I brought my laptop and microphone along with me so I could attend my virtual book club. Everyone rated this month's book 4/5, minus me who gave it a significantly lower score. I didn't want to dunk on the book too hard though because I didn't want to make anyone feel too embarrassed for enjoying it - I kept circling back to 'and that's why I personally didn't get much out of it' which absolved me of a lot. These days I'm in the business of speaking my mind but not cruising to rustle feathers. 

Impressionable Stranger

Dropped in to my usual barber up the road for a trim. I've been seeing him for almost a year now and we've seldom said more than a dozen words to eachother in that time. It was only when I mentioned I was getting it cut for a funeral that he tentatively made conversation. A lot of my life I think about the strangers that have made an impression on me - I wonder how many people's lives I've touched who don't know my name.

People that aren't strangers though are Mark and Lucy, whom we shared an almost twelve hour Saturday with. They had a board game they were eager to share with us called Eclipse - an epic scale space war game which took us from lunch til dinner to play. I got trounced, but I didn't mind because they put on an immense spread of food for us. Homemade pizzas, strawberry mess, a light salmon dinner and simmered peaches with ice cream - what a bloody treat. The day went too quickly though, we looked up at the clock and the next thing we knew we were catching the night bus home. 

French New-Wave Nemesis

Caught up on writing my Letterbox reviews for all the films I've seen recently. I also made a little list of all the remaining films I haven't seen from Roger Ebert's 'The Great Movies' volume one. There's only nine I haven't seen so I'm quietly using that as a North Star whenever I fancy an old movie with gusto (there's a pair of hefty pick from the 1920's which will be fun). There was a short Jean-Luc Godard one I glossed over so I gave that a watch today... In doing so I remembered why I don't like his movies. I guess I just struggle with French New Wave, thankfully that's not a problem that affects my day-to-day. Only 83 minutes long and I was still counting down the seconds... Maybe I need to read Ebert's thoughts to see what he sees in it.