Mother of all container ships

At the risk of attracting a load more Indians, searching for free porn, I feel I have to report that Emma had an FSI today. It was at the beginning of our walk, just across the culvert that runs just beyond the back gate. She smelled something, went to investigate and, amid my shouts of “Leave it!” she rolled.

I went racing towards her. (Note that my idea of ‘racing’ is not particularly fast.) I almost lost my footing, which would have seen me floundering in the muddy trench. Fortunately, Emma realised continuing wasn’t a good idea – I did mention a bath – and stopped.

Not a great way to start a walk,” I told her. Freya, of course, just watched from the sidelines.

The walk turned out to be lovely after that. It was made even lovelier by Emma rubbing herself, and consequently the fox shit, on every bit of moss she passed.

During the walk we ran into a chap who, it turned out, knew Mirinda from the Thursday night språkcafés she has been attending. She and Nicoline had been talking about him the other night and today he started chatting to me, not knowing she was my wife.

When I said I lived in Trosa and was Australian, he said he may know my wife. Turns out, he was right. Anyway, he told me all about his son’s impending marriage to a woman from New York.

Later, during an unexpected språkcafé with Nicoline over Skype, she was surprised that he didn’t mention the French castle that they’re getting married in. She had even seen a photograph. I suggested that, perhaps, his English isn’t quite good enough for that much detail. Mind you, his English was definitely better than my pathetic attempt at Swedish. Hopefully, that will improve.

After fond farewells, we continued our walk, heading along narrow, leaf strewn paths, towards home.

Shortly after the photo above was taken, Freya chased another deer in the same place as Saturday. While she isn’t that bothered about fox shit, she is dead keen on catching a deer.

My unexpected språkcafé with Nicoline wasn’t the only time I was sat before my laptop screen. I also attended the first Western Front Association webinar of the Autumn/Winter season.

While not exactly about the Western Front, the lecture by Stuart Hadaway was about an intriguing series of events during the First World War in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The lecture, called More than just Gallipoli: The Royal Navy in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1914-16, told the stories of flimsy seaplanes, the cruiser HMS Doris and how the Royal Navy had still practised prize money for foreign vessels in the Great War. Just like they had during the Napoleonic Wars.

HMS Doris had the amazing Captain Frank Larkin at the helm. He was like a character straight out of Bernard Cornwall. In fact, as Stuart was telling of his derring do, I was reminded of the time that Sharpe was involved with the RN at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Captain Larkin was a very interesting fellow and, I reckon, deserves a webinar all of his own. There’s an excellent pdf history of Larkin and Doris here.

There was a bit of surprise when Stuart mentioned the use of HMS M33 during possible bandit expeditions on the shores of the Ottoman Empire. I visited the M33 at Portsmouth Dockyard shortly after she arrived back in 2015. The idea of her crammed with rustled livestock was intriguing.

All in all, it was a very interesting webinar, showing great promise for the rest of the season.

In Hamburg, Mirinda strolled around ugly, traffic surrounded buildings, searching for somewhere to eat before heading for the Miniature Wonderland. The visit included a boat trip around Hamburg harbour where Mirinda was treated to lots of container ships which included, in her own words, the “Mother of all container ships.”

My wife is so lucky.

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