Another Maus!!

I arrived home this lunchtime, from having been in Kempen this morning where I run an English conversation class, to find another "maus"! And no I haven't spelt it wrong, I have deliberately spelt it the German way, though it is pronounced the same, to differentiate between the real type and the one I found decorating my front door jam!

I laughed quite a lot when I saw it. It is a sure sign that I have some really good neighbours and I will now have to think of something to do to them in return.

In case you were wondering, my real mice problem seems to have resolved itself. My landlord sent some builders to remove the marble window ledge under which the mice had a run and to fill in the two holes they had created in the outside walls. Since then I have flooded the window box and have not seen any mice again, nor did I drown any, least ways I do not think so.

These mice are the good kind and I shall leave him where he is. I think though he needs a name, all suggestions but not "Jerry" would be welcome.

Life is......................

Life is breakfast in the sun.

Life is................

Life is apple pie and cream on my loggia!

New Teddy!

Yesterday a new Teddy was born! I made him myself! :-) My English conversation class gave the kit to make him to me last term. Suggested Names on a postcard...........

More Mice

When I came home from watching the "Iron Lady" with my two English conversation groups I found I had caught two more mice. That makes 10 in all! My grandson and I, Christopher Thomas aged 3, took these to the same place in the woods where I let the other one free. They did not seem to want to leave the safety of the trap. The family all agreed that they looked really sweet and that perhaps I should keep them in a cage as house pets! I thought not.

What still I cannot get to grips with is that they all live in my window box, although they have dug a hole through the wall, so they can get into my flat, which they only occasionally do. All my captures have been in the window box! 

I am thinking now of flooding the window box once the holes have been filled in.

More Mice than Men

My mice problem has not been solved yet! I discovered that the mice have a nest more or less directly under the alabaster vase  which I have made into a lamp, and above the radiator inside the window ledge. The entrance is from the window box in the left corner as seen. Inside there is a small gap between the marble facing and the brickwork through which the mice could come, but the droppings do. Additionally the mice have an underground nest in the window box! I placed all my traps therefore outside in the window box. Three in all, two death traps and one live trap.

In this picture you can see that I caught two mice the other day, one in the death trap and one in the live trap. The bait I used was mainly Nutella. The dead mouse's tail is nicely visible in the left of the picture.

This lucky little chap I took to show Christopher Thomas my 3 year old grandson and then we both took it and set it free in the woods near where we saw some rabbits, so he would not be alone!

This evening I have caught another mouse in one of my death traps, and there are clearly more out there. When I trapped the first two I got my landlord to come and see and so he is now arranging for all the holes to be filled in.

The big question still remains, how and why did the mice climb up to the fourth floor window box? Once the holes in the masonry are plugged will I have to dig up the window box to get rid of the rest of them?

I'd be grateful for all advice received.

Since writing this this morning I have discovered a dead mouse on my balcony!! Surely this can't go on?

Number six! How many more are out there? It was caught this evening 3 March in my window box on the 4th floor???? 

Today 6 March. Number 7! I think I need a cat.

Just discovered number 8 was caught by the trap I set up right outside the hole they have dug in my window box. I seem to be doing quite well without a cat now.

EMERGENCY AT SEA

Thy sea, O God, so great,
My boat so small,
It cannot be that any happy fate,
Will me befall,
Save as Thy goodness opens paths for me,
Through the consuming vastness of the sea.

Have you been following the disaster that befell the COSTA CONCORDIA? As a seaman who has circumnavigated in his own boat, I have, with great interest. The circumstances of this disaster raises many questions and the authorities have reacted quickly in arresting the Master of the vessel and the Cruise Company have rightly already made the Master responsible for the sinking. You should watch this, if you have not seen it already. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw4pVWYeplU

As sea going commercial vessels get larger and as more and more technical advances make it easier to operate these huge ships with only one man on the bridge, I ask whether or not we should allow it all. We forget too easily that sailing a vessel in all conditions is about competent and responsible seamanship.

The International Regulations for the Prevention of Accidents at Sea says in:

Part B, Rule 5, Look Out: “Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.”

A modern Bridge, more like a video game than a ship at sea.

My problem with today’s commercial vessels is that all too often they forget the “proper look-out by sight” bit. They rely too heavily on all the electronic navigation aids, such as AIS, Radar, GPS and Chart Plotters, instead of going out and taking a look. The whole control aspect of modern bridges is more like a virtual computer game than real seamanship. The officer of the watch seldom, if at all, goes out on the bridge and takes a bearing to the nearest headland or light house to check his course. His arrogance is total, as he knows where he is, the chart plotter and GPS tell him. Well they do until it is too late. 

Me off the coast of Australia

I once made the same mistake. I relied upon my GPS, visibility was good and I knew where I was. I also knew that there was a rock in the vicinity over which the depth was only 50cms, my vessel drew 1.8m. I was making 6 knots under sail, visibility was good, the sun shone, yet I struck the rock and came to an immediate dead stop in the water!! I was lucky as only my pride was damaged and not my vessel or any of my passengers.

My chart table

Before GPS and all the other electronic gismo’s we now have, we navigated with a certain amount of scepticism. It was more important when navigating in the vicinity of land, to always know with any degree of certainty where you were not, rather than knowing where you were. This helped keep one off the rocks, charted or otherwise.

Another aspect of this case are the stories that are coming out about the crew and their handling of the emergency situation. What most people do not realise is that 90% of the crew of a cruise liner are hotel staff and not seamen. They have as much understanding of emergencies at sea as the passengers do. Yes they may be schooled now and then in the procedures for abandoning ship, but they are not sailors and seldom if ever can handle the life boats. The real sailors on board must get a firm grip of the situation early on to suppress the panic that the majority of passengers and hotel staff crew will have. Another factor is of course the many different spoken languages that there will be amongst the crew and passengers. All this will just add to the confusion in the emergency situation. In the circumstances I feel we can be grateful that not more lives were lost.