Day 110: Sunshine and paintwork.

Dear family, friends and followers.

It is another beautiful week weather wise. There has been a nip in the air for the past few days in the evening and morning but that has now gone. This morning it was a warm start right from the get go. It was going to be another painting week for me as I continue to smarten the boat up and keep the rust at bay. Before getting on with the first paint job, I wanted to rub down the galley door frame and re-varnish it. It had been some years since this one had been done, so it needed a bit of work with the sandpaper, but once all sanded down and the dust cleared away, I did the fist coat of clear external gloss varnish. I wanted to do it first thing, so it would be dry enough to close the doors overnight.

Once the galley frame was done, I turned my attention to the gas locker lid and surround. The lid is made from chequer plate, which makes it a pain to rub down, so I used a wire brush on a drill, to help make life easier. I also have a trusty old chisel which I used to scrape off the flaky bits.

By the time I had rubbed it all down it was too hot to start painting, so I left it and got on with a bit of weeding and crochet to wait for the sun to go around to the stern of the boat and the heat to dissipate. Four o'clock and it was cool enough to put the first coat of primer undercoat on, this would dry overnight. Since I began the job on Monday, it has come on and I am now onto painting the gloss coats. The galley door frame is now finished.

As the country and the world begins to get back to some sort of normality, it has certainly got busier here. There are more cars on the road and people wandering about. The Arm though is not open to visiting boats or anyone wanting to use the services. We have vulnerable people living here at the moment and as we are in the leisure industry, we will not be open before the 1st of July at the earliest. Our gates remain closed to the public for now. Even when we do open up, there will be a lot of restrictions and rules, in order to keep everyone safe. I can see this going on for sometime to come. This period does however give us time to get jobs done. They say there is a plus to every minus and I agree there is. We may not like the minuses but at some point a plus will follow. I hope the plus is that people are kinder to each other and we learn to be nicer to each other, because the one thing this situation has highlighted is that there are some truly not very nice people out there and yet on the plus side, there are some absolutely amazing people, doing some extraordinary things.
Take for instance Captain Tom Moore, who inspired the world and most of all the nation with his 100 laps of his garden for the NHS. Today Tom has been given the amazing honour. He is now Captain Sir Tom Moore. He is such an inspiration and his words of wisdom always make me smile. This morning watching him with his daughter Hannah speaking to BBC Breakfast, really got the day off to a wonderful start. This great man like all of those who fought in the wars, shows a true stiff upper lip mentality and lets nothing defeat him. I can imagine when he eventually gets to see the Queen, they will have a lot to talk about, if given the chance. Congratulations to Captain Sir Tom Moore and thank you for inspiring a nation.

Today is a big day in England. Organ donation opt out comes into effect. For anyone who does not know about it, this means that if you wish to be an organ donor you do not have to give specific consent, it will be presumed that you are willing to do so unless you say otherwise. I personally think this is wonderful news. Just for the record I state right now that if there is any part of my knackered old body that is useful to someone else after I have finished with it I would consider it an absolute privilege for those parts to be used to help someone else. I have carried a donor card for many years. Once I leave this mortal coil I will no longer need my bits, so they may as well be put to good use. If you have never spoken to your relatives about this subject, it is something you really should express your wishes, so that when the time comes everyone knows what you want to happen. Saving another's life is the last act of kindness any of us will be able to do when the clock stops ticking for us in their world.

Have a wonderful day.

Pop back soon xxx