Diary of a Deckhand

I make it no secret that I love cats, I miss the two I left back south more than anything in the world. Several surrogate cats now fill the small moggy shaped holes that exist, but as any feline owner will confess there is nothing better than to have a cat climb onto your knee, curl up and descend into furry blissful sleep, possibly with a quiet purr. Cat sitting for a friend last week made me realise quite how much I miss cursing the hairs on my clothes, the cat farts (which are probably classed as a WMD in some countries), the scratched furniture and the standing on an errant cat toy in the dark. I do miss these things, they add another layer to your life, something or rather someone else to look after and be loved by. Cat love is so much harder to achieve than dog love. Canine adoration is simple, give the dog a biscuit and you have a friend for life. Give a cat a biscuit and you have a friend for exactly how long it takes the cat to work out if you have another.
Anyhoo, I was bought an ant farm which remained ant-less for a very long time, until one of my divers quizzed me about it and its lack of inhabitants. Duly a small package arrived and lo the ants did descend into their new home and start digging! it’s a gel filled sealed box (lid taped on to be totally sure), where they can dig in the gel stuff but also eat it too, so you don’t have to feed them - ever. Hurrah, my kind of pets. I had never really looked at ants before, they were just something that might bite in the garden, but these guys are fascinating! They have dug a little tunnel down one side of the gel already, they get stuck with too many of them trying to dig at the same time….and I am sure if ants could swear they would do that too.



A random Lifeboat shot too.



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I got to go diving today, so here are a few piccies worth posting











People seem to come and go in my life, only a few remain solid, always there, always ready to chat on messenger or on the phone or send an email. Sometimes a relationship seems to get so intense, so utterly intimate so quickly you find yourself wondering how you never knew this person before, how you survived without them there. And suddenly, without warning, they are gone.

The tides of our lives are filled with strange subsea currents, dragging us here, pushing us there. Fight them and you get tired, go with the flow and who knows where you will end up. And so, with one final messenger conversation, a person who I can confess I loved is swept away to who knows where. I hope that someday, once the tides have moved him to a better place than where he is now he can forgive me.