Fidler in the Hood: Chance encounter leads to shipping news
Passing strangers along the road, the odd quip (generally about Manchester City winning again) or about something in the Bonus.
GREETINGS one and all. Many thanks to those good folks who have called to say we’re all in the same boat when it comes to modern-day computer science. Much as we try to keep abreast with all things social media, we are, no doubt, being left behind. Thank goodness, too, for grandchildren.
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Any PC problem, just ask them! They might raise their eyes to heaven, throw in a few quips such as “Oh nana, it’s obvious”. A sleight of hand on the keyboard and you’re back in business. A case of ‘time waits for no-one’. Which brings up this week’s ‘topic for discussion’.
Lilliecrona’s delights
One of the delights of living here is being able to walk (don’t run) along Lilliecrona Boulevard and everyone (well, almost everyone) says ‘good morning’ with a friendly wave or smile. Simple pleasures, but makes for a nice way of life.
First nodding terms, then perhaps idle chatter, but over time, you have a new friend. Such was the case with John MacDonald of Uvongo. Passing strangers along the road, the odd quip (generally about Manchester City winning again) or about something in the Bonus.
Despite your scribe’s mum telling him ‘not to talk to strangers’, it was John’s wearing a Chelsea FC football shirt that brought out the worst in him. To a City fan, it was like waving a red rag to a bull, but in John’s case, a Chelsea royal blue shirt. There’s no accounting for taste!
Hello there Sailor!
It was discovered that we had something in common. Not football, but serving in the Royal Merchant Navy around the same period years ago.
John was a marine engineer and your scribe, a ship’s printer. “We must get together; spin a few yarns about our time at sea.” said Old MacDonald. What a question!
Armed with a ballpoint and notepad, a pleasurable afternoon was spent at John and Judy MacDonald’s place overlooking the sea, watching ships and whales pass by. Out came the Merchant Navy ID and log-books, recording voyages to many parts of the world, when travelling by ship was the only way to ‘see the sea’.
An era of leisurely travel and dare one say it ‘Romance on the High Seas’. Comparing photos in the seaman’s identity books: who were those two young guys with dark hair and Gregory Peck looks? Again, time waits for no one.
We saw the sea
John had been with Brocklebank (Cunard) Lines, sailing to remote islands east of Suez when the Seychelles didn’t have a hotel; the highlight for many island dwellers being the arrival of the mail-ship; perhaps, a mail-order bride! Your scribe had been with Cunard, Royal Mail and Shaw Savill Lines, fortunate to see the ‘more glamorous’ ports in this world.
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And another thing in common: both sailed out of Liverpool, which justifies the title ‘Cunard Yanks’. Adopting phony American accents, using dollops of sun-tan lotion and wearing ‘revolutionary’ fashionable American-style clothes (a sure-fire winner with the ‘birds’), who fell for the American ‘hip’ lingo. As a matter of interest, are there any other ‘Cunard Yanks’ around? It would be lovely hearing from you.
Family man
All good things come to an end and John came ashore and got a ‘proper’ job. He dropped the American accent, met and married Judy, a ‘reet proper Yorkshire lass from Kingston-upon-Hull’.
Married for 48 years, the couple raised two boys and two girls and have six grandchildren.
The eldest son is an accountant in the Cayman Islands (say no more) and the younger son has a ‘dream job’ as IT manager at Lord’s cricket grounds, London, the home of cricket. Eat you heart out, Ted Morley!
Arriving in SA
John and Judy immigrated to Port Elizabeth in 1981 to join the Ford Motor Company. After three years in the ‘Friendly City’, they moved to Cape Town and finally John joined Toyota Motors Manufacturing in Prospecton, Durban.
Residing in Amanzimtoti, it was a hop, skip and a jump to work, so it made sense that they realised a hop, skip and jump in the other direction led to the Hibiscus Coast. They decided to retire on the South Coast, in the words of John himself ‘to live in paradise’. We agree, John!
Doggone crazy!
John was born on the Isle of Dogs, London, now known as Canary Wharf, upmarket home to the ‘nouveau riche’. The humorous irony is that John started out in the Isle of Dogs and ended up in our little bit of heaven which ‘has gone to the dogs’, thanks to local government, making it home to the ‘nouveau pauvre’!
It was agreed that there was nowhere else in the Beloved Country we would prefer to live. As Bing Crosby crooned “Every time it rains, it rains ‘pennies from heaven’.” We still have a lot going for us, friends, including us ‘pensioned-off’ Cunard Yanks! See you, Rob.
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