[BITList] bain

[HUGH]

Saturday night, TV crap,

Colin,

Joe sailed with Royal Mail before Denholms, and he fell feet first down a shaft (on board) in S America, breaking both ankles.  Joe was always a bit top heavy - small feet - and he had a certain degree of unsteadiness after he recovered.  He joined Denholms and Wavecrest as 2E/O just after I joined GTV Morar as ditto, same company, and the vessels were sister ships apart from the engines.  In the month he died (October 23rd) we had been storm bound in Workington for about 3 weeks and left on the 29th.  Joe sailed for Montreal for London.  He left the ER for dinner (not BI, so 2nds took a watch) and didn't arrive in the Saloon,nor did he come back down. They searched, but that was it.  The ships had a C-shape deck area aft, and I used to have a breath of fresh air there on my way up top for a meal (she had engines aft) - the ER door opened almost onto it.  I reckon Joe lost his balance.  I got the news from my mother while in Bone. Janet and I visited them (he and Jan) just before I joined Morar and he joined Wavecrest.  He left 2 daughters, one only a few weeks old.  Jan took a couple of years to recover, but after that she really got a grip on life - bought a house and did it up by herself, electrics and all, sold it and bought another, sold that and moved to Australia.  Returned from Australia, went to Uni and took a degree.  Both daughters took degrees, one is a lawyer on Arran, the other married a farmer on Arran who also runs a quarry business - she runs a small hotel they own.  Jan and younger daughter share a house on Arran, where Jan is quite happy modifying it. Before she retired she was head teacher in a school on the mainland.  She has boundless energy.

Sleekit does indeed mean furtive in a cunningly Scottish way - furtive, not to be trusted, always looking for the main chance, insincere, and so on.  Not necessarily all at once.

Duncan the Mormon Bishop is unlikely, I admit, but true (at this point I realise Janet has given me her coffee - sugar in it).  I have no idea how he got to that state, all I know is that Greenock acquired a Mormon Church some years back, and when I got contact with Duncan after a good many years he was a Mormon.  I never ever asked about the transformation. He hadn't lost his taste for jazz, but it was still stuck in the traditional form - I moved on to include all kinds, though retaining a nostalgic fondness for the old trad sound.

I have moved on from anarchism, having realised it was just a fashion statement, and I'm just plain old-fashioned left wing without any zealotry (and also without anyone to vote for).  I am still very much of a dissenter in religious matters, but I come from a good many generation of dissenters.

Alan Sharp's films include Ulzana's Raid (Burt Lancaster), Night Moves (Gene Hackman), Billy Two Hats (Gregory Peck), and The Last Run (George C Scott).

I envy you your access to wine and jazz.  Such are available in Glasgow, but at night, hence our son is the only one of us capable of taking advantage of it.  He knows all the best venues, and he lives there.

Enough already!

Hugh.

PS I don't get the weevir pun either - I'l think about it.
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