Saturday, 24th July 2010
07.00hrs We crawl out of the scratchers and already find Scotty is already up rooted to his laptop in the cockpit. We have a light breakfast and tackle the computer with blogs and emails.
09.00hrs Skipper and Aileen go to Josephine's, the hairdresser on the marina, for a hairy appointment. Skippers hair is so long at this stage that it could be platted easily, and Aileen needed a complete makeover.
11.30hrs We were finished with the hairdresser, and really happy with what she did. Aileen looked 10 years younger and skipper was very neatly trimmed, looking dapper indeed, and then the hairdresser gave us a loan of her car for a few hours to visit the town of Mackay. She was rather expensive, but well worth the money and we were really happy, and so were Maggie and Slovitsa from "Crazy Horse" and "Liza".
On our return from town, ( the shopping center) skipper was returning the car keys to Josephine at the saloon when he observed the owners of one of the fleet cats abusing and bullying the hairdresser over her pricing to such an extent that she lost the cool and told them F** off. ( rightly so ). The hairdresser was so shaken, that skipper had to help her sit down and fetch her a cup of water to revive her. Meanwhile the bullies marched off to the "Rally control office" and then bullied young Nick to make a totally misleading statement on the morning radio to the fleet about how rude the hairdresser was, of course forgetting to mention that they had bullied her into the situation in the first instance. Unbelievable, that's what! Look at it this way, this radio announcement was made on behalf of people who did not have anything done at the hairdressers, and no mention was made on behalf of the the people who had their hair done and were more than totally satisfied. But then, Bullies always seem to omit the crucial facts in an effort to get their own distorted view across. As you can see, skipper is still upset over the whole thing.
Later, Skipper and Scotty went to the Off licence and stocked up with wines, beer, gin & tonics for the Party on board "A Lady" tonight. Aileen cooked a chocolate cake and did lots of cheese and strawberry sticks, and other tit bits. The party was in honor of Scotty's departure, Slovitsa's departure, and as a coincidence, it happened to be Bill's from "Crazy Horse" birthday as well. 38 people in all joined the party on "A Lady" and as it was pissing rain, everyone had to go below, so it got tight, Bodily contact was natural and everyone just loved the whole scene,,, ohhhhhhhhhhhhh lovely... Of course Skipper had to say a few words on behalf of the departing crew, and this was followed by a few words from Scotty... there were cheers all round, and the chocolate cake was devored in a second....not to mention the gallons of booze.
Much later, we retired to one of the restaurants for something to eat, having had a great night on the boat. Much later still, we made our way back to the boat and hit the scratchers, ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
That's it for today.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)