Bund & Flume.

   On one of my first days on the road, we were told to go to a section of the Highway and build a "Bund & Flume". There was a lot of activity as the workmates got together all manner of tools, wire, standards, and stuff. A couple of loader buckets of premix were dumped on the truck and we were off. Now, of course, I had not the faintest notion as to what a "bund & flume" was. It certainly sounded impressive. We duly arrived at the appointed spot and I was initiated into the art of bund making. A bund is just a small dam, in this case made of pothole filler, or premix. It diverted water to the flume which was just a boring old half pipe, so that water was directed away from where it was scouring away the roadside. I had thought that the word bund was pinched from German, as in cummerbund, but it is Hindi in origin, and means embankment, or dike. Flume comes from latin and more interestingly can also mean "a very small swimming pool designed with a propeller or pump to generate a current, allowing a swimmer to swim in place."

It is not my mental picture though. "Bund & Flume" should have an office next to Rumpole Of The Bailey, or be into Haberdashery.

Haberdasher, Mmmmm, now there's a word..... Its got a dodgy definition too... " A dealer in men's furnishings." Well I'm damn sure I'm not going to let any haberdasher near my furnishings.
Suddenly I can see why it can take me hours to get a small post together. And if English is not your first language and you have got this far, I salute you.
Meanwhile, Off the Coast of Haberdashery, the Bund & Flume sailed ever closer to Cape Furnishing.....