Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Very funny that pair.
Thank you for that info and those encouraging words Solo.

Singeing, that reminded me of old Harry the barber.

When I worked in a shop in Temple Bar in the 60’s there was an old barber shop next door, Harry the owner was a decent old skin but he wasn’t great at spelling, he had painstakingly made a colourful sign and placed it in the window, it said “Singing Promotes the Growth your Hair” Nobody had the heart to correct him.
I was working away at my bench one Saturday early afternoon when the air was filled with the tune “I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair” when I opened the window and looked down there were these two bald lads singing and laughing to the top of their voices, they were Welsh Rugby fans and had just come out of the pub to head over to Lansdowne Road for the match and had seen Harry's sign.
Harry also had, presumably as a back up if the singeing didn’t work, a small back room where men were discretly fitted for wigs.

“A singe is a treatment available at a barber's.[1] A lit taper (candle) or other device is used to lightly burn and shrivel the hair. The practice of singeing was popular approximately a century ago; it was believed that hair had "fluid" in it and singeing would trap the fluid in. Singeing is supposed to have beneficial effects – sealing cut ends, closing up the follicles, preventing the hair from bleeding (a belief that has since been debunked)[2] and encouraging it to grow.[3] Singeing is still sometimes used to bond natural hair to hair extensions.[4]
Primitive cultures have also used singeing as a means to trim scalp or body hair, as a part of normal grooming or during ritual activity.[5][6]
Sir Francis Drake was famously said to have figuratively "singed the King of Spain's beard" when he raided Cadiz and burnt the Spanish fleet” Wiki.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

What ever form the singeing process takes, it stinks.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

The wife and me decided to sell our house and buy, and live on a Narrow Boat. Could we buy one for love nor money, no, apparently the market for Narrow Boats was too buoyant.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Jem...It's years since I saw those singe tapers used and I honestly thought it was to stop to stop hair growing..daft really as I guess they would have used a blow torch for that. See female logic isn't always logic is it

spitty... Years ago I owned a 75ft Birmingham coal barge house boat which I used as a floating hotel when I was back in the UK. The fact that I suffer from terrible sea sickness never entered my head when I bought it...boats rock and tummy wobbles with it...but a small price to pay for a wonderful life.

At the time we were considered as water gypsies and mooring fees were quite steep..also a boat was a chattel and therefore not insurable so you had to make sure it stayed water tight..which meant caulking her bottom each year with boiling hot tar...not an easy task as you had to tip the boat alarmingly over which was a heart stopping moment.

Not all walkers passing down the tow path treated our boats with respect and stone throwing was a hazard you lived with along with the daft questions you were often asked..and rolling that full porta potti down the towpath was a chore fraught with danger and one that was undertaken very..very carefully.

For all that I loved being on board whenever I had the chance and would do it all over again in a heartbeat if younger.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Solo, as a lad, I used to play on the Cut with my throwback pals, spent many an happy hour, mingling with the morons on the moorings.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

In all walks of life you will get your morons and I did meet a few who with their expensive boats..knew it all. Once they had ignored well intentioned advice and dented their paintwork..and more...advice was normally heeded the next time they came through...but not always.

Being a slight 5 footer who knew a thing or two must have been hard to take from a burley expensive boat owner but hey....with some things in life it's not about the brawn ..it's about the brain..and nothing looks more forlorn than a sunken boat.

We had a lot of lads that used to try their hand at fishing along the towpath...it was always a sight to watch their faces when waiting for a bite ...their chosen pike would rise to the surface and take baby cygnets or a moorhen chick with one snap...and be gone in a flash. Clever fish...just waited for the right moment.

Seeing a pike in action put any thoughts of swimming in the buff right out of your mind I can tell you

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Does this directive need re-applying with two metres substituted for two second?

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Food for thought there spitty...one way to stop this....female logic working here again...is to wear a headlamp that flashes thus warning the pillock encroaching on your 2 metre space that they are encroaching on your 2 mtre space...when not in use it can be used as a mask...I think :

Me ..I'm less subtle and think all OAPS should be issued with mini stun guns for shopping. That should stop those pushy lot dead in their tracks and let you get on with your leisurely grocery list.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Hang in there Spitty until they float the pound, Phil Miwallett, my financial adviser was telling me on the phone today that will happen as soon as things get back to normal, and it will blow the boat market wide open, you can forget about the canal barge and think big, newly fumigated yachts and cruise ships will be going for a song, cos nobody will touch them with a bare pole.
How about giving us a bar of the Volga Boatman just to get us into the boating mood?

Female logic how are yeh.
I’ve had to live under the thumb of female logic for over 50 years, one would think I was an expert on female logic by now, but alas, I still haven’t a clue how it works.

Here’s a bit of Irish male logic.
I remember in my youth when I went up to Belfast to join the Navy, I filled in the form and handed it back to the officer in charge of recruitment, he looked at it and said.
“That’s fine me lad, now one last question, can you swim?”
“Why?, have yiz no boats?”

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Spent yesterday rearranging my kitchen...couldn't find anything so spent this morning putting things back the way it was. Should have known me better as I like to put my hand out and my favourite knife..ladle etc is just waiting to leap into it... why we want to go and confuse these poor utensils is a mystery.... anyway all is now well with my world.

Since I have lived here I have watched for the swallows to return as each year they have always nested in the houe facing mine eaves. Watching them in their swooping and gliding playing over the garden in the evening has always been such a pleasure..however this year there site has been netted off for them as the new owners 'don't care for birds' or trees. There choice but so sad that we won't get to see those lovely swallows acrobatic games nor the babies learning them over the gardens again .

I am reading A Singapore Fling by Peter Broadbent who was posted there and did a lot of the same daft things as I did. Reading through his escapades and knowing you did the self same shows we really did not have the sense we were born with..anyhow you apparently have to have passed The Royal Naval Swiming Test before you can get on anything that floats. ...mind you non of the Mary Rose lot could swim in those days so I guess the RN took note of that and ammended their admission rules. No swimming certificate...no Singapore.