Many thanks to my old chum Roger Jolly for taking over the tiller while I toddled off down the Thames on Terra Nova last week. I’ve escorted the old boy back to the ‘Laughing Ferret,’ bought him a pint, given his parrot a handful of grapes and he’ll be fine until the next time he’s called into action.

The thing about owning a boat on the Thames is that, just occasionally, there’s a desire to venture to pastures new. To cast off from one’s home mooring and head off into the unknown (well, almost unknown, anyway).

I really hate bean counters. Those faceless accountants who sit in the background out of the firing line in so many organisations and who, with a stroke of a pen, decide that services must be cut to balance the books without any real thought about how the decision could impact on people’s lives.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about Dot Beeson, the lovely lady who runs the Swan Sanctuary in Felix Lane, Shepperton and told the story of how she first became involved with helping injured birds and other wildlife.