Friday 13th

Friday the 13th! Traditionally considered in Western superstition, to be an unlucky day. That always seems strange to me because Friday, when I was working in Government, meant the end of the working week and a day to let down your hair and relax a bit; catch your breath. Usually, it was a good day because Wednesday was a sitting day in Parliament, so if anything was going to hit the fan it was usually Tuesday night and then Wednesdays! Friday was a good day generally, and the atmosphere in the office was always a little bit more relaxed and cheery.

Albeit Fridays now are just another day to make the most of as and how I see fit, it is a day that I get to enjoy watching visiting yachts and all their crews coming and going in the marina. For example last night, two yachts arrived on my pier from Belgium loaded up with families - young kids and teenagers, who were all laughing and excited to hit the ground running and spend the weekend in Lymington and beyond. So there was lots of activity on our pier. Its nice to sit on the deck late afternoon with a glass of wine and enjoy that. Friday now is also my day where I take a moment to ponder the week gone and what I've achieved and what I've learnt.

This week I learnt a lot: caulking is a crappy job, Inelsamo has an enormous deck acreage to treat, diesel engines are not that easy to get around, dressing cabin beds requires gymnastic abilities, some things float when you drop them over the side...others don't. I have also learnt that my knees do not like being knelt on for hours on end, that shins and companionway stairs never really work well together, that stinging nettles + bramble thorns are actually quite painful. I have also achieved a lot. I've managed to get a lot of manual jobs done on Inelsamo, I've have learnt how to maintain and do simple servicing of a diesel engine, as well as a generator.

In addition to all that, I have met several really interesting people from all over and from all sorts of backgrounds, and I have enjoyed all the shenanigans of the week with the England football team achievements at the World Cup.

So it has been a fulfilling week in most ways. But it is also true to say that without all this activity to keep me occupied, I would suffer dreadfully from the absence of Craig. I guess you could say that with loneliness comes learning also and each of his absences teach me something new about my capacity and will. So bring on next week and lets see what it has to offer!