Fidler in the Hood: It’s being so cheerful that keeps me going
Readers of the last couple of editions may have picked up that yours truly might have been ‘distant’ in his weekly ramblings-on.
Greetings everyone. On the countdown now. Two weeks to go when we will eat, drink and try to be merry. And two weeks and a day when either remorse sets in knowing those bills have to be paid or rigor mortis sets in. Better still, start the dieting. On with the show.
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Next stop Brazil
Readers of the last couple of editions may have picked up that yours truly might have been ‘distant’ in his weekly ramblings-on. Well, he tries his best to be up, close and personal with and for you. For his sins and as a birthday present, the CO sent him to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for a couple of weeks. It was kind of a special birthday (no clues!), but the CO thought your scribe should get away from it all, you know, the pressures of journalism deadlines.
Lest readers think we’re the odd couple, we’re not. However, we encountered a funny couple (in the nicest sense) when taking in a show recently at Azalea Hall. Nothing like talking cricket when one is in the company of Ted Morley, who knows more about the game than anyone else round these parts.
A close second must be David Chambers, who, with his wife, Jackie, and without any prompting, told us about the life and times of the Chambers themselves, including David’s career in club cricket in the old Natal provincial league.
Besides rubbing shoulders with SA cricketing legends of yesteryear, including Jackie McGlew, Lee Irvine, Hylton Ackerman, Mike Proctor (remember them?), David played for Old Collegians in Pietermaritzburg in the 60s and 70s. He said that his finest feat was bowling a maiden over – the maiden in question being his lovely wife, Jackie.
Other career
David’s working career was teaching for a living: maths, hockey, and more cricket, starting out in Maritzburg, but more notably Northlands Boys’ High School in Durban North. The proverbial ‘Mr Chipps’, until the day he retired, or as he humorously put it ‘until he had had his chips!’
The couple moved to the Hibiscus Coast eight years ago, and are happily retired here. Lots of friends in The Village, including Gordon and Audrey Middlewick, another cricketing ‘old-timer’, who was around when David was in his heyday. Gordon was featured in the ‘Bonus’ when we first moved to the Hibiscus Coast. Another ghost from the past. Small world, isn’t it?
Suzette Tarri
‘It’s being so cheerful that’s what keeps me going’ – a famous catch-line, uttered by comedienne Suzette Tarri, in her character of ‘Mrs Mop’ in the BBC radio show ‘ITMA’, with Liverpudlian comedian Tommy Handley. A real prophet of doom: she would have fitted in well down here with some of the local folks, who cared to listen! Simpler times. See you. Rob.
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