Strap me vitals!

This is not a fake Amanda really is on a horse.  After 40 years of being scared of these noble creatures (following the unfortunate incident on Hampstead Heath) she finally saddled up - well, was forcibly coerced with the promise of an ice cream.  This is Apache from Chris's ranch, an 11 year old mild-mannered mare.  Bear in mind Amanda only knows what to call the male & female of the species from another embarrassing experience at The Stable Bar in the early days of "going out" with me - (draught Stella was hard to come by in those days.) Look closely - she's smiling but her eyes give her away (Amanda, not Apache).

Look at the barnacles on that! I've been helping the boys refurbish "Reef Runner" one of our boats . Ok by helping I mean standing around scratching my chin much like a garage mechanic. However I did get to flex my muscles when it came to taking the boat out of the water. This could so easily have been a Monty Python sketch, 12 strapping men (and me), 2 rolling logs and a couple of planks. The logs were not very cylindrical, the planks (one short and fat, the other long and thin) tending to disintegrate under the weight but somehow we managed it.  After 6 days of scraping, filling, sanding, painting and polishing we reverse the log process (one log crumbles so another is quickly hewn from a spare tree) and relaunch.

Scuba equipment occasionally wears out too and I'm called upon to service some regulators. For those who don't know it's just a case of stripping down to component parts, cleaning, inspecting, replacing worn parts and reassembly. For those who do know (I'm looking Simon squarely in the eyes), no that isn't an adjustable wrench, that bucket really is an ultrasonic bath and the sloping brown carpet effect stainless steel workbench is parallax error on the part of the camera.