Gaff - the proper word...

When Derek, the past-time barman at 'The George Hotel' in Rye told me once that his real love was sailing in his boat, it was like describing a technique for splitting the atom to me, because I'm not a sailor.

His pride and joy was his boat which was a 'Gaff rigged sloop', and this is actually the only single thing I've ever known about sailing. I did have the chance to get involved many times, but they were a dreadful lot down at Rye Harbour, very snooty and unpleasant then, and I really couldn't be arsed to try and fit in there, because there were much better things to do on a Sunday, like wake up slowly after a bruising rugby day at 'The Polegrove', then 'The New Inn', or 'The Two Sawyers' - usually all three. And none of my friends bothered either, so it wasn't a difficult decision to make.

But the one word to describe Derek's boat has stuck as a reminder that there are some good things in life, and I hope he still sails it, (but I doubt it as he would be about 98 now)!

And the word 'Gaff(e)' lives on! Wikipedia is off the mark pretty quickly - see last item on 'Politics' here.

Even funnier, was watching Harriet Harman squirming on the hook last evening, totally out of her depth, and coming out with the statement - many, many times, that 'Gordon didn't mean it...'! Even the journalists eventually took pity on her, and asked her about flower arranging or something, because she looked as though she was going to resign there and then; but there's a few more days to go yet before she has to, and we can look forward to that.