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Day 2 on Snork Maiden. Not yet marina crazy, but won’t be long. Have been listening to cricket on radio 4 LW. Bangladesh vs England. I think England are winning. There’s not much commentary on the cricket, more like listening to 2 old geysers having a chat. One of them has a wife buying a summerhouse at Chelsea Flower Show… other one has house on Isle of Wight with a painter on the roof… so he uses some of the airtime to chat to him. Somebody’s wife has just had a baby. Can’t quite understand why it isn’t on radio 5 – I thought that was for sport. Maybe cricket isn’t sport. They also moan because there’s not enough cricket in schools, nobody is playing competitively, Lords is half empty…. Even public schools aren’t all playing cricket.
Why was I listening? Because I was doing a little job, re-sticking headlining (like ceiling wall paper for boats) over aft berth. But it turned out not to be a little job – all the foam has crumbled into fine black dust, and the glue I bought hadn’t the faintest chance of working. Resorted to gaffer tape – not really pretty but it worked. Had to borrow a vacuum cleaner to deal with black dust. Next job was to paint rust spots on the keel with Hammerite. Went to chandlers but they were out of white spirit (to clean brushes) so postponed this one until tomorrow when I can visit my friend, M. Brocolage (DIY supermarket). I want to do this before anti-fouling so it can dry. Hammeriite I brought with me, since it seems like such a very British product that I couldn’t imagine it being sold here.
Cricket finished, Count Arthur Strong on radio. French are displaying alcohol units on cans of beer, and trying to discourage smoking. Village post office is closed because of some sort of social disruption – I will check out exact wording on next visit. Maybe France isn’t as immune to the modern world as I’d hoped.
Good news is that showers, that used to cost 2€ are now free. Bad news – they aren’t very warm. Not a perfect world, but it’s a sunny evening with a clear sky.