http://www.marinemodelmagazine.com APRIL 201563
Removals
Removal men are the masters of logistics, they are the gods of
the humping and packing required by a house move. Who better
to be trusted with your model ‘fleet’? Well, that’s what I thought,
anyway, so it was with the confidence only felt by the utterly
ignorant, that I led their rep down the garden, to look in the shed.
I opened the door for him, and led him inside, expecting the usual
“ooos” and “aahs” of previous visitors. NOTHING! His previously
cheerful countenance disappeared, to be replaced by the hangdog
look of one defeated at his chosen sport.
“What are they worth each?” said he, I gave him a figure, per
boat, which only served to drop his mood a bit further.
“We could make packing cases for each one, and then fill them with
polystyrene bits, but it would be very expensive,” was his only riposte.
I felt the gloom lift a little, as he ventured, “How do you transport
them?”“When I take one to sail, I put it on a piece of foam rubber, and
carry it in the car on its side.”
He hesitated.
“Can you use a van, extra to the pantechnicon, but big enough,
and lay them all down together, on a big piece of foam?” says I.
“It’s a long way from Sheffield to Newcastle,” he replied,
somewhat superfluously, I thought, “We couldn’t guarantee not to
do damage.”
I could feel in him a certain conflict at this point, between shame
at admitting he was beaten, and relief to be getting off the field, and
escaping an insurmountable challenge. As so often in life, at times
like this, all I could manage was, “Oh.” I followed up with, “at least
you’ve been honest with me”.
We retreated back to the house, to the (to him) more comforting
prospect of shifting sofas and cupboards. I reverted to my fall-back
position, storage.The pond at Millhouses Park, in Sheffield, looking peaceful, on a damp morningMy ‘other’ pond, in the Pavilion
Gardens, Buxton, in the Derbyshire
Peak District. On the bank, to the left,
are the model boatersp62_MMAPR15_A Moveable Feast.indd 63 9/3/15 09:52:48