On the face of it, swans have a lovely time of it, floating around doing not much at all except making the place look pretty. In that respect they are a bit like us really. The only problem with their life as far as we can tell, is that they have to hold their breath to eat.
Well we have to hold our breath too, every morning as we turn the “start” key waiting to see what Mr Perkins’ attitude will be to the coming day. It’s not as if he’s misbehaved for a long, long time but old habits do die hard.
It was hardly his fault this morning as he once again instantly burst into life, but none the less it was apparent that all was not well with the world. Perhaps the gear cable had broken, the control lever was impotent, unable to select reverse or even neutral. Our first emotion was actually one of relief that it had happened while we were still safely tethered to the shore. While the while the lock keeper stood happily by, things aboard were being dismantled at a rate of knots, the cause of the problem a deepening mystery until at about the time a nice collection of cotter pins, screws, ball bearings and springs had been assembled and the culprit found. A loose screw deep in the works, was quickly tightened, things put back into place, bandaids applied and in no time flat we were swanning around once more, breathing normally again, enjoying another perfect day.
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