Indecent Exposure And The Rest I was in receipt of or witnessed discipline in the severest sense. The business of the witch doctor being arraigned for ritual killing could have been a case in point, but the first instance and the most frightful was to do with ‘indecent exposure’ and, if I had known of… Continue reading Africa 1928 – 30, Life as we lived it in Livingstone
The Tank
The house we occupied was at the corner of a roadway leading North into the bush. Across the road on the opposite side was the residence of my inseparable friend, Mike. For the two of us, every activity took on the drama of an ‘adventure’. Who was the instigator didn’t matter, the ‘adventure’ was important;… Continue reading The Tank
Africa 1928 – 30, The car as a battering ram
Our house was on a corner at the junction of two dirt roads and when we were going on trips my father would take the car and set it on the edge of the road, facing downhill, towards the River and the Falls. The servants would then load the car, my parents would get in,… Continue reading Africa 1928 – 30, The car as a battering ram
Africa 1928 – 30, The car as a Boy cartrier
They tell me that once a racist, always a racist, and they may be right. Brought up in the British Raj it is hard to eschew old habits so when I say ‘boys’, I mean men, big black ones at that, in this context anyway – although I have since been taught the error of… Continue reading Africa 1928 – 30, The car as a Boy cartrier
Africa 1928 – 30, Rugby and the sergical saw
Rugby Was Certainly A Culture Shock Prior to leaving England for Africa, the only male member of our family whom I had any regular contact with was my grandfather and he was rarely in the house when I was awake. Hence I had never heard of Rugby, as in those days it was mostly a… Continue reading Africa 1928 – 30, Rugby and the sergical saw
Africa 1928 – 30, Arrival
Livingstone From the age of six until I was eight years old, I lived in Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia, as part of the British Raj, although then it was not thought of in that way, even if we behaved so. As a little boy, lifted out of a simple, stable environment, dumped into a totally rarefied… Continue reading Africa 1928 – 30, Arrival
The African expeiience part 1 1928
My father, severely gassed in WW1, had to take up a post with the Colonial Service to be able live in a dry climate. He was sent to Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. My mother had returned in 1922 and I was born and lived for 6 years in South London. In 1928 my mother and… Continue reading The African expeiience part 1 1928
Auther’s Note
My regular readers will be aware that I have been ill in the last three months and in consequence have not been writing on a regular basis, but I now intend to change that in a radical way. Over the years I have said more or less everything I intended to say that illustrated a… Continue reading Auther’s Note
A Prodigious Reassment
I am nearly 88 years of age which means that I spend a lot of my time not only looking back, and comparing then with now, but trying to assess what is going to happen in the future if things go on the way they are. Most of my childhood and teenage were spent living… Continue reading A Prodigious Reassment
Things I don’t understand,8. The actual cost of buying from abroad
Not only Commerce, but the government is now enlarging the ranks of the unemployed. Anyone who ever had any dealings with the Civil Service, would have been aware that it was top heavy, due to the Mandarins having great influence, and being bent on empire building, their own empire. The management of a budget, be… Continue reading Things I don’t understand,8. The actual cost of buying from abroad