Boat graveyard

A brisk, short stroll along the foreshore at Whitstable past rows of boats in various states of dereliction before spending the day with Lynda and Charlie. The first time we’ve seen them since December 2019.

The walk was essential as lunch was fish and chips followed by apple and blackberry crumble with copious amounts of tea, coffee and shortbread throughout the afternoon while we talked the hind legs off a whole herd of donkeys.

Lynda was the the secretary at Woodlands High School in Gillingham where I was deputy head and sometimes head teacher from 1995-2000. I say sometimes as I was never the substantive head, only acting on three occasions while the incumbents were off ill.

On the first day of my first stint I was still inhabiting my deputy head’s office until Lynda hunted me out and insisted I take my proper place in the headteacher’s office. Lynda was very assertive like that but a better colleague and later friend you could not ask for.