This is a diary from 1960. The actual entries are in typewriter font. Added comments are in red. The photographs are from that date, some in colour (expensive in those days).
20th January 1960
My 27th birthday. Opened gifts at 0200! We are off southern Italy and heading for Port Said. The water in the lido was 76o F today. Weather very mild. Should get quite hot soon. Our table was decorated at dinner tonight for my birthday. Our table companions bought me a rubber Pluto.
21st January
First day sunbathing on deck. [For most of my young life I hated sunbathing!] Played tennis, quoits. Film in evening ‘Tiger Bay’. Bought some tickets in the Dutch flood relief fund.
[This is a surprising entry because we had almost no money to spend, having spent virtually everything on buying one ticket. We borrowed the money for the other ticket from our NZ employers-to-be, Goldberg Advertising, Wellington, and paid the sum back to them over the following two years]
[Ian, Ken, Pat, 'Pompey and Mrs Stillwell, Don]
Port Said tomorrow. Evening very warm outside with very calm sea. Had interesting conversation with Mr. Stillwell [‘Pompey’, travelling with his wife] who has had a lung removed and thrombosis and is doing the round trip [i.e. Southampton to Southampton via Suez and Panama Canals] for his health. He looks well enough but must have been through an awful lot of suffering.
© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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