Christmas drinks for us rowing newbies was very cosy, at the Yacht pub next to the club. The instructor grew up as a steel worker in the East End, just across the river. When we plied him with a couple drinks, he was this amazing human history book. The last person I met like that was the guy who works with the letter presses in the Camberwell art college basement. It's an amazing little world down there, tiled in dark reds and greens like an old tube station. He's worked with so many of the greats in British illustration and he retired this year. The college needed the space and decided to get rid of a lot of their letter press equipment, which meant he was leaving on a kind of sad note. I hope they don't get rid of it all entirely.