Where there is blame there's a claim

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After another very productive day we sloped down to the Oak to quench our thirst aiming to flush out the noxious fumes of resin, the fine carcinogenic dust particles of ‘tete’ dust plus a cocktail of paint stripper together with concentrated paint thinners. I thought at one point he was hallucinating, enjoying an out of body moment together with temporary body and mind shutdown. 

This condition is a phenomenon practised by “Mad John” who regularly induces this trance-like state when he doesn’t want to communicate with anyone in the Oak. J..............., known as “Mad John”, is a prematurely retired solicitor. He left the profession very disheartened by an act of Government legislation that withdrew all of the funding for legal aid. The consequences of the bill were to effectively exclude the common man from free legal advice. Worst still it encouraged a multitude of solicitors to chase the unscrupulous, dubious rewards of , “If there is Blame there is a Claim” society which was constantly sought  by the many fakers claiming injury at work or a broken leg from tripping over council laid paving flags. John became a very disturbed, depressed man whose only solace is Bolton Wanderers, plants and reciting, in perfect order, the railway stations between Wigan and Southport. After a number of years he finally managed to access his pension along with confirmation that he was genuinely mad. He celebrated his new status by enjoying a sumptuous meal, with friends at the Oak. He, however, still occasionally suffers from partial ‘body and mind shut down’ which is an unfortunate side affect from his self-induced madness.

Chris, throughout the evening, remained very subdued for quite a while, obviously still tormented from toxic poisoning. Even when the Doc produced a huge cured ham, which had been brought back form Seville by Doctor Dave, there was still negligible interest expressed by Chris. Doctor Dave had also returned from the local French market in Wigan where he had excitedly purchased several French country cheeses along with half a dozen sticks of bread to accompany his “Hamon Seville”. This very generous gesture is really quite common in the Oak; it is usually linked to travels or holidays by the people in the vault. Exotic foods from all over the world arrive at the pub on a regular basis. Jerk beef, smoked eels, Scottish wild salmon and lobster, magret de canard, bottled rattle snake, curried squirrel and even a complete red deer.

 After a few nibbles of ham and cheese Chris was revived becoming totally involved the evening, passionately celebrating the progress of the Burlington.

 We have had another day finishing the wings preparing them for Gordon, the best painter in the world, who is willing to slowly work on the parts in his down time so that his ‘subsequent wedge’ will be vastly reduced. Appreciatively, I picked up another great tip from Chris today on how to repair damaged areas on the wings: namely, a cute method of mending a broken section of fibreglass by using polythene as a makeshift mould. The semi-liquid resin compound is smeared onto a piece of polythene (plastic) sheet and folded over the damaged area, squeezed into place to form the perfect mould. This then is allowed to harden off, the plastic peeled off and the repaired area finished by filing and sanding to blend it into the exact shape. Voila.