While I was swanning around having a truly memorable holiday in Hawaii, my lovely brother, Alan, was working his fingers to the bone, up to his elbows in grease and diesel fuel, refurbishing bits of the engine on Terra Nova, our old Seamaster Admiral cabin cruiser.
One of my colleagues recently decided to swim in the Thames to raise money for charity and she bravely navigated the river all the way from Hampton Court to Kingston Bridge in just over an hour and three-quarters which was good going.
As regular readers of this column will doubtless have gathered by now, I’m a keen student of the history of the Thames in these parts and I love reading accounts of life on the river from days gone by.
