All human life is here

This week has been fascinating. Boating - like so many other leisure activities - is a microcosm of society in itself, with all its hierarchies and its snobberies. There seemed a clear divide between those with sailing boats and those with powered boats. Then again, there is a difference between the "Red Ensign" boats, whose crew own their craft, and those of us who simply rented a boat for a week's break.

And among the flotilla of rental craft, it seems, size is everything. I was amused last evening by a hire boat moored next door, populated by a large family of even larger people.

The mother exclaimed loudly into her mobile phone "It's really cool, all the boats are parked here and we're the longest". She then passed the phone to her enormous and visibly disinterested child, who had just spent ten minutes arguing over more chocolate. He mumbled into the mouthpiece "It's great. We've got three toilets - one of them we're using to keep the food in".

All human life is here...