I saw a ship go sailing out... (From Bournemouth Echo)

I saw a ship go sailing out...

8:30am Saturday 19th December 2009

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TO many of us, boarding the Barfleur has been the first step on an adventure. It doesn’t matter how many times you took that voyage to Cherbourg, there was always the excitement of knowing the next stop was France.

Within hours you knew you would disembark in a foreign country with all its exotic Gallic scents and flavours. And, on board, enjoying a coffee and croissant from the French staff on the Brittany Ferries ship was the first taste of the experience to come.

You’d return to Poole with a nimble ability to avoid the over-indulgers, with some fine wine and soft cheese in your bag and with that bracing feeling of the wind on your brow as you stood on the deck approaching home.

But what I’ll miss most when the Barfleur ceases to sail – even though the fast service Vitesse will still operate in the summer – is that awesome sight from Sandbanks, watching the vessel sail so gracefully down the harbour.

You can hardly call a ship a landmark but it has certainly been one of the Poole’s best-loved sights. It will be a sad adieu in March to Poole’s favourite French connection.

SO Bournemouth Council’s code of conduct rules that gifts can be given to staff but they have to then donate them to the Mayor’s charity.

I would call that policy the Present Imperfect.

It is the equivalent of being given a gift from your auntie, saying how lovely it is… and then, once she is out the door, rudely giving it away as a present to someone else.

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