I’d almost forgotten what London looked like; it’d been so incredibly long since I’d been there. Things certainly do change a lot…all the place I used to visit for sandwiches and such have been replaced, probably a few times since I was last here. Though things at the docks have remained the same. Things at the docks have remained the same forever, even though the technology and the buildings have changed. You could come back after 100 years and people will still be talking about the same things, doing the same jobs…they’re all salt-of-the-Earth people who are more concerned about the basics of everyday life than politics or any of that.
That’s why I need to start coming back. Got to support the folks from Melbourne, outboard motor servicing and all that jazz. The boat mechanic olympics aren’t quite as big as the actual Olympics, but it’s pretty important to a small fringe, and that small fringe has kept it going for decades. Travelled all the way to Goa last year, so I’m glad it’s somewhere familiar this time.
Got a few favourites this year as well. They’ve just added an anchor winch section to the competition, which I personally think we in Melbourne have in the bag. People old the Australian boat maintenance scene in quite high esteem, you know. The competition has been going for about fifty years, and we’ve come top of the medal tally in sixteen of them. Which is nice, because with Australia being so small, it’s not like we get a huge amount of opportunity to shine at much else.
Melbourne’s outboard motor services have brought us glory in this tiny sphere of competition for a long while now, and even though I’m just here to do the supporting, it’s become pretty regular for me. A nice little holiday to somewhere nice every four years, just to watch people fix boats.
-K
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