Bonus on the Broads

 

The morning dawns wet and drizzly but we cannot pay too much attention to the weather.  Some of our outings have to be booked in advance come wet, cold or typhoon.  Still, we accepted the booking with the challenge and it has to be honoured.  So to the Broads we sped.

 

Having permitted our active trippers to leave the coach and board the boat, we have room and energy to start to lad the six or so wheelchair people.  One by one, they are taken from the coach and lifted in our only lifting chair and gently lowered to the deck of the boat.  It takes a long time as the chair cannot be relinquished until its apprehensive occupant is seated on one of the seats on the boat.  Then the stalwarts can collect another one from the coach.  But eventually all our passengers are aboard and the coach leaves ready to meet us at the further end of the trip and to take us home at the end of the day.

 

With relief we seated ourselves wherever there were spare seats and were just about to swing away from the little quay when there was a shout.  Alarmed, the engine stopped and the boat glided back to the bank.

 

Nothing happened and the engine started again.  Seconds later the kitchen window at the rear of the boat opened and a lady’s face appeared beaming.  In her Norfolk accent she relayed the information; “The chap on that yacht”, pointing with her finger to the quay we had just left, “said, have a drink on me”.  Then through the hatchway came a large bottle of scotch.

 

Everyone within easy reach of the incident had seen the bottle and their eyes gleamed.  But how to distribute a whole bottle of scotch among so many.  It must have been a similar problem which confronted Jesus when he was faced with five loaves and two small fishes.

 

We may not be miracle makers but we solved the problem.  At about midday, when the packed lunches were being unwrapped, the kitchen hatch was open again and steam, promising tea, oozed through the aperture.  As each cup came through, a tiny jet of whisky was added to it.

 

By two o’clock everything looked brighter.  Even the weather had relented and a few tiny shafts of sunshine pierced the cracks between the parting clouds.  Everyone began to sing.  All along the narrow waterways the ducks and small waterfowl looked in amazement and then headed for the cover of the reeds lining the water and disappeared.  So we arrived at the destination and unloaded our merry band of pensioners back on to quay and into the coaches.

 

Just half an inch of whisky remained in the bottle of the whisky bottle but Doris had suffered from such a dreadful cold that she needed some medicine!

 

So far as we are aware, our benefactor possibly witnessed our struggles in lowering those of our large party who could not manage to board the boat unaided and decided that we had earned his gift but we could not have known what jubilation resulted from his present and how it added to the enjoyment of the day on the Broads.