Plus ca change ...

This isn't a book review, but I've just finished reading David Blagrove's Bread Upon the Waters. Silly title, great book. Made me laugh (out loud) and cry (real tears), both while on the train. But what struck me, among other things, is how many of today's concerns are not new at all. I know I noted this with Narrow Boat too, but what about this for the binge drinking menace:

...a huge drinking emporium ... designed to pour alcohol into the maximum number of people in the shortest possible time. ... one after another the patrons left to vomit; sometimes in the lavatories, occasionally across the floor. From time to time arguments would lead to fisticuffs or outbursts of vile language and the bar staff threw the refilled glasses across the bar, serving new customers with indifferent contempt.

And having been walking around London in shirt sleeves today, it's easy to think that such mild weather in December is unprecedendented, but Blagrove 'tied up below the lock in balmy sunshine ... It was the shortest day of the year yet the weather was like early spring'. December 21st 1962. And we know what happened after that ...

We're off up to Warrior again this weekend. We seem to be going regularly about once a month. Can't justify going any more frequently; can't stay away any longer. This time Jim and Aaron (yes! Number One Son will see Warrior at last!) will be working in the engine room, building a cupboard for all the fuses and electrical things, lifting the floor, and moving ballast and batteries around, while I'll be putting my curtains up in the cabin and trying a new idea with the floor. We're also - planning ahead - meeting up with the signwriter whom we hope will be writing Warrior some time in late spring. And this leads me nicely back to Bread Upon the Waters, where Blagrave describes how a young Ron Hough went about his painting and signwriting, concluding that 'It was good to think that at least the pleasure craft renaissance would continue to make it worthwhile for Ron and others to practise the art.' So think of that little bit of optimism before you order those stick-on plastic letters ...