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Victoria Park. A bank holiday Monday. Arrived here yesterday. Just a 75 minute cruise from the Angel. It's about 10 and the runners have been pounding past at intervals since the early hours. Had a pleasant but uninvolving evening last night. Just seemed contactless. Maybe it was just fatique. Or the age difference, but I wish for something with a bit more substance. The last conversation of any challenge, real humour, or interest was probably with Will and Kath. I find myself trying to avoid the pergorative 'lightweight' (it's also a term virtually trademarked by Alan Sugar). But this does describe my deep-seated dissatisfaction with most of our social encounters. There is something about conversation largely driven by anecdote that I find saddening. Not because anecdote as a conversational form is intrinsically dull; it's just that most people we meet have so little of interest to say.

Evening. A day of children. N lovely. A charming baby. A real sweetie. Came back to the boat just a few minutes ago. Running the engine to top up the domestics. The weather has teased us today with what it could have been like over the bank holiday weekend. It's now a mild spring evening. The planes are whirring overhead. But the fish aint jumping. Tired and stressed after couple of days of babies and toddlers. Too old to cope well with the inscesant demands of this alien breed. Well, not alien perhaps but parental over-weaning makes them seem so. Small, forming humans - not from mars. Hunger for a bit of adult conversation though. Now peace but little tranquility.