musings

Today we swam played Murder in the Dark with Pat and Robin. And we went to the weekly pictures and we saw the Bugs Bunny Show.

Today we swam and saw some films – one on South Africa, one on Australia, and one on New Zealand.

Today we slept in till 9 o’clock. Mummy said that King Neptune wanted to see us as a quarter to three. I couldn’t wait and we went a quarter of an hour earlier and started to swim. We saw a whale’s spout in the sea. It started to rain and it was warmer in the pool than out then we were called out.

A few minutes later in marched Neptune and wife, two maids, Yogi and Boo Boo, PC Plod and his men and Captain Hook and his merry man! There was also a doctor and surgeon. The surgeon put on the ice-cream with a brush and you were thrown in to Yogi and Boo Boo. The surgeon asked me to bellow my name out and as I did he slopped ice-cream in my mouth and then I was thrown in. At the end the hostess had ice-cream poured over her and thrown in! Then PC Plod pushed Father Neptune and company in!

After lunch we (mum dad and Michael) went on a tour to the bridge. We had to go through the first class place going higher and higher until we finally went through the gate which said “Bridge, passengers not allowed”. Past the funnel into the port light wing and turn left into the bridge.

The first thing we saw was the wheelhouse, with the wheels roped in. There was a white wheel and a brass wheel, and the guide said that the white wheel was the automatic control one, and the brass was for manual control. He explained that the ping-pong balls we saw jumping up and down in a box were for indicating that the air-conditioning units were functioning.

To the left there was a panel of red buttons for the fire alarm. There was also a panel for the watertight doors. Then we saw the radar working and visited the chart room. We examined the maps and had a peep at another radar. Daddy took some photos and we went down again.

In the morning mummy felt groggy and had a cold so she stayed in bed. In the afternoon we saw three films one on Tasmania one on New Zealand and one on America. After that we went in the pool until dinner.

After dinner we watched the fancy-dress party for adults. There was a very good robot called “Robby” and a sculptor and bust. Robin was in it as a dead body that jumped up from a coffin.

As soon as we had breakfast we went in the launch to Colombo. When we got through the turnstiles we saw some Kandy dancers dancing to tom-toms and cymbals.

A guide picked us up and said he would take us to the Pettah (Market Place). Dad said he wasn’t going to pay him, and he said he was paid by the government. He led us to an Army and Navy stores and left us with a man who wanted to sell us some rings. When we got out a beggar rushed up to us and another guide followed us and took us to a sari shop and then to another one and mum bought one.

We looked at jewellers shops and then had lunch at the ship. From what I saw this morning, it is an ugly, hot, dusty, dirty, smelly place and everyone is poor they were sleeping out in the open with millions of flies buzzing around. I saw a boy fetching some water in a rusty peach can.

In the afternoon we went by coach tour to Mount Lavinia and to the hotel there. After that mummy bought a sapphire for 105 rupees.

In the morning we swam and played Scoop with Andrew. At about 3.30 we got dressed for the fancy dress. I thought of having a nose clip on. Then dad said “it could be a radar.” “A whale detector” I said. “No a shark detector” dad said. So we labelled it.

When it came to the judges’ decision for the winners 9 to 19 years the announcer said, “for the first prize No. 288. Mark Durband as ‘The official porthole cleaner for the Piano Line’”. I walked up to the prize man and he put in my bucket ‘Airfix P&O SS Canberra’ scale 50 ft 1 inch. He then said, “What about swabbing the deck?” I said, “I only do portholes”.

After the party we went to a fancy dinner with red lighting, crackers separate menus. We also had a huge cake. Everybody got a present at dinner.

When I looked on the newsheet today I saw “Aquatic Sports” including diving for spoons and pillow fighting etc. I wanted to compete but it was for grown-ups only.

A man brought 60 spoons up from the bottom which was the lot! There was one very good person on the greasy pole and he knocked nearly everyone off.

After breakfast today we went into the shop to look for some crêpe paper for Mandy’s Welsh fancy-dress outfit. We bought some black for her hat. Then we came down to the cabin and made the hat. Then we went swimming until lunch then we played Scoop with Andrew until 3 o’clock then we went swimming again until dinner time.

In school, we did a spelling test and I got 15 out of 19. After that we went swimming but it was rolling too much. We then went down to the lounge and played Scoop. Then it was dinner time. After dinner we played Scoop again until bedtime.

Mummy stopped to have a chat and the waiter bumped me on the head pushed my legs in and blew a straw wrapping past my face! Then mummy stopped talking and we went to bed.

At 7 o’clock in the morning we landed at Djibouti in French Somaliland. We had been warned that it was very hot so we in put on our head-dresses. When we got out we knew the warning wasn’t exaggerated.

The Africans were bare except for a piece of cloth round the waist and a pair of flip-flops, but the policemen have a uniform and must be very hot and sticky. They have guns, batons and canes. A man wanted us to go in his taxi, but it was too dear so we went in a diddy coach and had a smooth ride to the shopping street.

It was a smelly and dirty place with lots of flies. People were sprawled all in the shade begging. There was a little baby on her mummy’s back, with red ointment on her head, neck and face. We then went into the stinking market place with people with money baskets sitting down on squashed cabbage leaves and beetroot and some other things. There was an audience of boys all chewing sticks and shouting “Haji” “Haji” ha ho ha and one kept on flicking us with sticks.

We soon came out and dad photographed a donkey and some people sitting on the other side of the road. The people then threw stones at us. Then the copper standing by us walked over and had a French argument with them.

As we were walking back, we saw two small kids and a little further on we saw a baby gazelle. We went into a perfume shop while daddy went to a shop for film. It was a roomy place, and we tried all the samples! Then Dad came back and we got a cheap taxi to the ship.