tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post8429696889219013344..comments2024-03-28T23:56:24.570+01:00Comments on Interim arrangements: with the appropriate soundtrackSabinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09015827501648296977noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post-38668903834210191132017-02-07T05:11:36.427+01:002017-02-07T05:11:36.427+01:00So interesting! I love your writing -- keep spinni...So interesting! I love your writing -- keep spinning those memories into stories. We want more!Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03313726816776097840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post-72781429074487179242017-02-05T22:07:01.258+01:002017-02-05T22:07:01.258+01:00I love this post and the comments. Such an interes...I love this post and the comments. Such an interesting history in a faraway part of the world. You are a wild woman, taking that walk. I bet it helped in so many ways! Take care there, my fellow hippie friend!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post-63391466739156504462017-02-05T18:16:28.988+01:002017-02-05T18:16:28.988+01:00Ah Mary, we were hippies, still are. But we were a...Ah Mary, we were hippies, still are. But we were absolutely broke, there was no way to survive in the 1980s in Ireland apart from working for pennies on building sites and unemployment benefits. My man had been teaching in Africa before we met, so when he was offered a teaching post in this tiny country, we grabbed the chance. Initially, I had no work permit until a representative from the world bank chatted me up on the beach (!) one day. The pay was shit BTW. I uncovered a mesmerizing amount of double book keeping involving managers and government officials, one of them is now the president of this country. They attempted to wine and dine me while I stayed impartial and well, nothing came of it. I had a great time in paradise.Sabinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09015827501648296977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post-24135814733724333122017-02-05T17:20:35.522+01:002017-02-05T17:20:35.522+01:00Wow, Sabine! The comments are as interesting as th...Wow, Sabine! The comments are as interesting as the post because they fill it- especially as to your duties in Paradise. I had no idea. For some reason I thought you were just there being a hippie or something. And now I know...Ms. Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post-28876482320111899602017-02-05T12:57:21.415+01:002017-02-05T12:57:21.415+01:00You are complete correct re the mini. The road con...You are complete correct re the mini. The road conditions were such that it was driven more or less only in second gear up and down innumerable hairpin bends - the roads are excellent but the terrain is not meant for driving such a car on them. Also the avaliable petrol was at times of questionable quality - all of which did contribute to the mini's sad end, no doubt.<br />Our follow-up car was an equally ancient mini moke, excellently suitable for driving in the tropics as long as we remembered to cover it during the daily downpours. The breaks and wipers were dodgy but it outlasted us - and the uncountable previous owners - by 15 years!<br />As for the twins - they were supposedly my apprentices but they were much much more and certainly never servants. Apart from being smart and interested in absolute anything they kept me sane. My brief was to uncover money laundering in semi state industry financed by the world bank under the cover of training staff in the basics of admin, stock taking and book keeping. Let's just say it was interesting. The twins and I remain in touch. All these social media gadgets come to good use here. <br />The turmoil we encountered with people who wanted to be our servants as in The Crown, I have described elsewhere in this blog. Follow the tab 'paradise'. Sabinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09015827501648296977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post-36969958414757853162017-02-05T09:14:03.374+01:002017-02-05T09:14:03.374+01:00Two things, the least important first.
The car...Two things, the least important first.<br /><br />The car's a Mini made in Britain, ingeniously designed, tiny yet capable of accommodating four people, economical, fun to drive (in the right places), cheap, classless (in the UK at least), sold in millions.<br /><br />Yet in the end a marketing disaster. The car was poorly engineered with the electricals exposed to the rain (in Britain!); users here improvised by putting a plastic bag round the electrical coil. For complicated reasons the purchase price had to be kept low with the result that profits on each sale were minuscule, inhibiting development. When a doomed attempt was made to sell the Mini in the USA users drove it at its maximum speed hour after hour on motorways and the engine, a pre-war design barely developed, couldn't stand it. On downhill stretches speeds were even higher than the car's maximum and car's tiny wheels rotated much faster than they were ever designed for. With predictable results<br /><br />BMW bought the company, continued to manufacture in the UK, completely redesigned the car (including making it bigger) and it now sells profitably.<br /><br />It's only my opinion but I'd say the fire was probably pre-ordained.<br /><br />Second. The twins may never have been called servants but from what you say that seems to have been their function. These days only a tiny proportion of people in developed countries have the temperament to co-exist with servants. My wife and I, for instance, leave the house and go to a café when our cleaning lady arrives for her weekly two-hour stint. Swedes, embedded with a sense of equality, find it especially difficult.<br /><br />The Crown, a TV drama series centred on our royal family (which, against all my left-wing instincts, I found fascinatingly scripted and well-made) shows how it's done. You treat servants as unthinking and unfeeling robots, carrying on intense and intimate coversations with your peers in their presence, as if only their function existed not their person. Not many of us can contrive that sense of detachment. I'm guessing but this may explain the roots of your love-hate relationship.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post-16080879637432876982017-02-05T01:09:49.469+01:002017-02-05T01:09:49.469+01:00I really enjoyed reading about your tropical adven...I really enjoyed reading about your tropical adventures. I'm glad you could get out and exercise. Wish I could get out for a walk too, but have to take it very easy for a few days. Hattiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13297404386730167834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post-64847562833383077692017-02-04T22:46:36.743+01:002017-02-04T22:46:36.743+01:00How surreal memory can be, outside of our main com...How surreal memory can be, outside of our main comfort zones. Zhoenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03515663141425057088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7192718134910479930.post-45220690308627746072017-02-04T21:35:14.793+01:002017-02-04T21:35:14.793+01:00I always enjoy reading about your time in paradise...I always enjoy reading about your time in paradise. Reading about your daring escape to the river made me smile. A couple of weeks ago it would have been out of the question. Colettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13929646037752189809noreply@blogger.com