Time for decorating

Confined to the marina though we are, nothing at all (and certainly not the weather) can prevent us carrying out some home improvement work on board. When we had our acrylic cabin windows replaced a year or so back the internal trim suffered badly from the experience and has been hanging on loosely ever since. It was always on our agenda to repair or replace as soon as we could but just as for you house-dwellers, everyday living generally takes priority and is the best excuse in the world for not decorating a living space. On board Cirrus we have limited space and Kate's patience with the mess I created when ripping off ancient foam-backed plastic and scraping glue-remains from the fibreglass of our coach roof has no bounds, so long as the results are worth it. The before and after pictures below means anyone can judge for themselves. (And you thought you'd had enough of cookery and decorating programmes on TV.) 

Careful observers may spot other features in these shots. On the left Kate is caught using a measuring jug whilst preparing some culinary masterpiece in our galley. On a boat this apparently simple task is not as straightforward as one might think because, as I have mentioned before, gravity misbehaves and creates its own waves in liquids used in a world that is itself floating on them. Kate's technique here is one that could be usefully copied in other gravity-deviant conditions, for example whilst flying, or perhaps in earthquake zones.

The really keen-eyed may identify something else here - evidence of how our diet has changed. Tucked away bottom right of each shot is a box of our current breakfast cereal and in the space of less than 6 months, the evidence is clear, we have migrated from Special K to Scott's Original Porage Oats. Kate's insistence on this particular brand, and here I am about to reveal a forbidden secret, has nothing to do with the vest-clad Scottish shot-putter who disports himself on the box. Kate tells me his name is Ruaraidh (Rory), by the way.

Many of those reading this will not appreciate what an atrocious weather hand we have been dealt of late here in the Western Isles. I am not going to dwell on it but I do worry about how all those living elsewhere are coping with the drought and the heat I have been reading about in the news. It must be pretty tough for you.