There will be no more additional posts to this blog. The blog will remain online as his prints are still very popular. However any material online is covered by copyright law and I would appreciate being contacted to to discuss any use of his work.
Patrica Donovan (Mrs)
pdonovan@ihug.co.nz
Don Donovan's World
Ramblings of a much published New Zealand author
20 June 2014
23 February 2014
Photoprint for Sale: Wreck Of Hinau Coastal Vessel, Kaiaua, Firth Of Thames, New Zealand
This is an original photoprint from my personal collection
Size of image is 30cm x 46cm (12" x 18").
Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz and www.printsbydondonovan.blogspot.co.nz
Labels:
coastal vessel,
Firth of Thames,
Hauraki Gulf,
historic wreckage,
hulk,
Kaiaua,
shipwreck,
wooden ship
16 February 2014
Photoprint for Sale: Wreck Of Hinau Coastal Vessel, Kaiaua, Firth Of Thames, New Zealand
This is an original photoprint from my personal collection
Size of image is 30cm x 46cm (12" x 18").
Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz and www.printsbydondonovan.blogspot.co.nz
15 February 2014
Photoprint for Sale: Foleys Barn 1880, Albany Heights, Auckland, New Zealand
This is an original photoprint from my personal collection
Size of image is 30cm x 46cm (12" x 18").
Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz and www.printsbydondonovan.blogspot.co.nz
01 February 2014
Photoprint for Sale: Albany War Memorial Library 1922, Auckland, New Zealand
This is an original photoprint from my personal collection
Size of image is 30cm x 46cm (12" x 18").
Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz and www.printsbydondonovan.blogspot.co.nz
27 January 2014
Photoprint for Sale: Jacobean Style 'Doctors'Houses' 1897, Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand
This is an original photoprint from my personal collection
Size of image is 30cm x 46cm (12" x 18").
Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz and www.printsbydondonovan.blogspot.co.nz
16 January 2014
Photoprint for Sale: St.Andrew's Presbyterian Church 1850, Auckland, New Zealand
This is an original photoprint from my personal collection
Size of image is 46m x 30cm (18" x 12").
Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz and www.printsbydondonovan.blogspot.co.nz
Labels:
Auckland,
cupola,
New Zealand,
Palladian,
pillars,
Presbyterian church,
St. Andrews,
steeple,
Symonds Street,
tower,
white masonry
07 January 2014
Photoprint for Sale: Chicken, Golden Brown Head And Neck
Size of image is 30cm x 46cm (12" x 18").
Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz and www.printsbydondonovan.blogspot.co.nz
03 January 2014
A Close Run Thing.
-->
George Troup's enchanting Dunedin Railway Station was built in 1906 (which
happens to be the year in which both my mother and father were born. The
station has lasted longer than mum and dad).
'Enchanting' because it is pure gingerbread, a Flemish renaissance
affair of turrets, gorgeous gables, soaring entrances and a tower that
challenges that which houses Big Ben. It's a lasagne of dark basalt from the
Strath-Taieri layered with Oamaru limestone - dark chocolate with white
chocolate as if paying homage to the old factory of Cadbury's that stands
opposite - so close, in fact, that E.E. Barringer, erstwhile Managing Director of
the confectionery company, used to use the station's clock, which he could see
from his office window, for timekeeping rather than his wristwatch.
Above the viridian copper cupola of the tower New Zealand's starry ensign
flutters daily casting its flickering shadow upon the magnificent terra-cotta
Marseilles shingles that comprise its roof.
Inside, art recklessly compounds itself in a booking hall whose floor is
made up of something like three-quarters of a million mosaic Minton tiles.
Looking down from a balcony which is itself decorated with a Royal Doulton
porcelain frieze one can pick out delightful mosaic tableaux of locomotives,
carriages and other Thomas-The-Tank-Engine symbols. 'NZR' is ubiquitous;
everywhere one looks New Zealand Railways' initials proudly proclaim George
Troup's sycophantic architectural homage.
Detail extends to the structures that lie along five hundred metres of
its platform including the gentlemen's lavatory with its serious chest high
pissoires and boxy water closets along the opposite wall, dignified, correct and
white-tiled hygienic. So noble are they that a waxworks identity parade of
kings could inhabit these cubicles, kings installed in stalls at stool like
bishops adorning niches in ancient European cathedrals.
It was to this lavatory that I made my urgent way one early morning
while passing through Dunedin on a fact-finding tour for one of my books. It
must have been something I ate, a wayward oyster perhaps, at that pretentious
restaurant last evening before a restless night in the motel. A sudden colicky
pain, incipient panic, I couldn't return to the motel; where might I go? I
spotted George's rambling monument beyond a glory of tulips and, fortunately,
found a car park outside the main door of the station which, at this time of
morning on a weekend, was apparently deserted.
The lavatory was empty. No kings installed, I chose the one in the
middle, dropped my slacks, and burst forth in blessed relief. Oh the relief!
I doubt if there's ever been a mass observation survey of people's
lavatory paper usage habits while in the privacy of the privy but I'm happy to
let on that I don't tear paper off its holder, I hold the roll in my left hand,
extract a couple of sheets folded at the perforation and apply to the derrière
as appropriate. On this memorable morning, though, I had no sooner started than
the toilet roll leapt from my hand, fell to the mosaic floor, bounced once and
rolled out of the stall, under the fifteen centimetre gap below the heavy
mahogany door.
I can only describe the feeling that flooded over me after the initial
realization as - appalled. The paper roll had gone completely. Had it left a
tail I could have retrieved sheets bit by bit until business was concluded. But
there it was, gone, and no substitute in sight.
Well, I couldn't just sit there. I reached down and gathering my scants
and pants in one hand, frog-hopped to the door which, thanks to Troup's spatial
generosity, was not easily to hand. Balanced ridiculously, I slid aside the
brass bolt and then, squeaking the door partially open, surveyed the scene.
There, as far away as it could possibly be, was the toilet roll, nestling under
the polished pipes of a wash hand basin. I listened carefully. No sound from
outside. I opened the door further and crouch-hopped, my hand still grasping my
clothing, until I reached the toilet roll, then turning in a series of Russian
Cossack steps, bounced back to the cubicle where, safe, I finished the ordeal.
More relief.
At length, having flushed and feeling flushed, I washed my hands at that
very basin whereupon, with a cheery whistle and a clanking of galvanized steel
a man in a rubber apron appeared brandishing a scrubbing brush and with a
chamois leather wrapped over one shoulder.
' 'Morning mate!' he said, 'Nice day for it.'
If only he knew.
[ENDS]
29 December 2013
Golf. The Musical. How It Was Written
He'd thought about it for many months, discussed it
with wife and friends, solicited opinion, elicited comment. Mind churn
had been unrelenting.
The idea had now almost crystalized - almost;
certainly sufficiently for him to put pen to paper or, more accurately, keyboard
to screen. This long process of idea development and realization was not
unfamiliar to him, he being a successful, experienced dramatist. Its gestation
was at last a nascence. Now the work could take shape. He hoped.
He flexed his fingers and typed the ice-breaking words
on to the screen in Word.doc:
GOLF
The Musical.
He set the font and size: Garamond 14pt. Appropriate.
Dignified.
He sat back and smiled. There it was. Now for a cup of
coffee.
He processed the beans in the grinder, plugged in the
electric kettle, tipped the grounds into the cafetière and waited,
contemplating the opening scene of the musical - it wasn't quite there yet.
Having plunged the piston into the coffee solution and poured a mugful of the
Kenyan brew, he was keen to return to the computer.
His immediate impression of what he had left on the
screen was that it appeared too bland.
He wiped over 'Golf', changed its typeface to Ariel
Black, increased its size to 18 pt. and studied the result:
GOLF
The Musical.
All right, but it needed colour, and that full stop
was unnecessary:
GOLF
The Musical
Much better.
Then immediately, another thought. His name:
GOLF
The Musical
by
Huntly Rodgers
The telephone rang. It was Jerome Lee to remind him
that they had a lunch date in an hour. 'Bugger'. He put the iMac to sleep and
went to change into something a little more formal.
Lee was florid, corpulent and gave off an odour of
stale after-shave. He tended to grunt. His table manners were porcine. He was
gluttonous and his manner waspish. But to his confreres - all literati to a
greater or lesser degree - none of his shortcomings outweighed his capacity to
entertain.
'You still fiddling with that sod's opera?' He asked.
'"Golf"? Yes. Getting somewhere, I think.'
'Bloody silly subject for a musical. Who's going to go
to a performance?'
'You might have said the same thing about
"Chess". It was a triumph.'
'Hmmm.' Lee poked at a tooth gap with his little
finger. 'Sex in it?'
'Don't know yet. I've toyed with the idea of two
screwing in a bunker but the thought of sand under a foreskin is a bit
off-putting. It would certainly put you off your putting!'
'Make him a Jew.'
'There's a thought.'
The rest of lunch disposed of too much food and surely
too much wine. They consumed two bottles of a chewy Pinot Noir, Lee gulping at
least two thirds as a dying man at an oasis. Unaccustomed to heavy eating in
the middle of the day Rodgers felt uncomfortably replete and slightly fuzzy and
after having seen Lee into a taxi following his seemingly never-ending series
of dismissive snorts and bright ideas all to do with golf, Rodgers was pleased
to see the back of him as he walked slowly along the street towards his
apartment building.
The first thing he noticed was the flashing red light
on the telephone. He pressed the messages button. It was Nancy, his wife, who
was staying with her mother by the sea. 'Hi it's me.' It said tinnily, 'Nothing
of import. Just wanted to know how the work's going. No need to reply. I know
you of old. Love you. Bye.' beep, beep beep.
Good old Nan. Always knew when to stay away. Once the
musical started to write itself he'd get her home again. He fired up the iMac.
The screen came up as he'd left it:
GOLF
The Musical
by
Huntly Rodgers
Lunch had made him sleepy. He went to the bedroom and
laid down.
Waking at six thirty in the evening his mouth felt dry and metallic. He
pressed the mouse on the way to fixing a gin and tonic. The title was still
there. Something not quite right. He'd think about it. He sipped the refreshing
drink and thought about it. The title page felt like a roadblock. Until he'd
got it just so he didn't think he'd be able to proceed to scene one which, in
any case, was inchoate to say the least. The trouble with Macintoshes and
Word.com was that they turned you into a typographical obsessive. Perhaps he'd
have made a better designer than playwright; he just loved all of those font
options!
His tummy rumbled, so being naturally lazy he went to the MacDonalds
about ten minutes walk away, had a quarter pounder with cheese and a paper
cup-thingy of chips before walking back home swearing that he'd never go to a
take-away again.
He was plagued all night with salt and saturated fat indigestion coupled
with vivid scenes of golf played both on stage and on the links. He did nothing
about either discomfort, being between sleeping and waking, until he finally
dropped off completely. Too soon a pesky shaft of sunlight stabbed at his eyes
through a crack in the curtain. It was nine-thirty in the morning.
Something had happened in his sub-conscious. He booted
up the computer and stared at the isolated title on the screen. He ran down the
list of available fonts and selected Braggadocio:
GOLF
The Musical
by
Huntly Rodgers
Then he enlarged the sub-title and opened up some
interlinear space:
GOLF
The Musical
by
Huntly Rodgers
And finally put his name in capital letters in the
sans serif Gill typeface that he'd always admired:
GOLF
The Musical
by
Huntly Rodgers
Then, with an insightful flourish, he searched the
Internet for a neat little illustration that would give it life:
GOLF
The Musical
by
Huntly Rodgers
That was it! He sat back and studied the title page
thoroughly. Then he went to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee which he
brought back to the study. He poured a cup of the thick, hot, black brew,
spooned in four sugars, sipped contentedly, pressed the command 'insert page
break', and started to type:
Scene: A crowded
club house. Twelve women in tweed skirts, twin sets and pearls and brogue
shoes. Ten men in blue double-breasted blazers, white flannels and black
loafers. They stand expectantly, silently, either side of a door up-stage.
Through the door come two more men dressed as the other males in the chorus.
Sitting on their shoulders is the hero, Dick Killinger, who raises both arms
and cries out 'I did it! A hole-in-one on the fourth. Shout the clubhouse.' There
is a cheer as the chorus crowd round him. The orchestra strikes up...'
The telephone rang. Rodgers ignored it. The text
signal played 'Greensleeves' on his iPhone. He ignored it. The apartment
doorbell buzzed. 'Bugger!' he yelled, then louder and louder 'Bugger, bugger,
bugger!'
He reached over and unplugged the iMac.
[ENDS]
28 December 2013
Mahinapua Hotel, Westland, New Zealand
The illustration above appeared in my book 'The Good Old Kiwi Pub'. I can offer prints of it for $NZ95.00 including p and p in New Zealand. They're the same size (and almost indistingishable from) the original at 29cm x 50cm (12" x 20"). That mad sky is not unusual on the West Coast!
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or +64 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz and www.printsbydondonovan.blogspot.co.nz
23 December 2013
2025: Ironic Thoughts of a Visionary
The year is 2025. New
Zealand has had a president for five years, the Green-Labour Government
having declared a republic without referendum in 2020. There had been
little opposition, the coalition having continuously held power with
increasing confidence to the point where it governed with a
significant majority. The murmured accusations of election tinkering
and gerrymandering that had characterized what the long-serving prime
minister had sneeringly labeled ‘the disaffected whingers of the wet
right’ (i.e. National, Conservative and Maori) had largely died out
by 2017. The opposition only had itself to blame having had no distinctive
beneficial policies to offer a public who turned out in fewer and
fewer numbers on election days, those who did opting for the devil
they knew.
Some semblance of
parliamentary democracy had staggered on until early 2019 when, on an
otherwise pleasant autumn morning, New Zealanders awoke to hear, on
state-controlled radio and television, that the country would henceforth
be run by presidential decree (the president having been installed unelected
after some years as Secretary-General of the United Nations).
Green-Labour members of parliament were now transformed
into ‘electorate satraps’ in order to administer and minutely control
small districts known as ‘gaus’ - a word borrowed from the German.
Many prescient opposition notables had earlier left the country for a long
divergent Australia preferring its condition as an American client
state to that of isolation and totalitarianism. Those
remaining had been given the option of either following the
presidential line or of expulsion from the Parliament on the grounds
of membership of illegal political parties.
The public of New
Zealand reacted with customary apathy to the slow but remorseless impact
of the state upon its liberties. Since the assassination of John Key
and, from the resulting vacuum, a panicked change of political weightings,
state agencies increasingly took over responsibility for the nurturing and
schooling of children from mothers (particularly) and fathers (who
were, in any case, considered of little account in the stewardship
of their whanau). Now, male
teachers are no longer permitted to work in girls’ or mixed sex schools
(and most certainly not in kindergartens or crèches) and within the
foreseeable future they will, as single gender schools are
phased out, become completely redundant. (This policy was forced upon
the republic ever since it was decreed that any male suspected or
even accused by any citizen of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ towards
minors, whether or not charged and found guilty in a court of law,
would be named and shamed in a monthly ‘no-smoke-without-fire’
gazette emanating from The Presidential Palace, formerly Government
House).
Not surprisingly, with
advances in human genetic engineering technology, there has been much talk
of reducing the male population by selected abortion of male foetuses
its biological function being replaced by sperm banks topped up by
authorized donors drawn from state run sports academies.
The latest
manifestation of presidential power has been the shut down of all media
that are not licensed by the republic. This follows an analysis of
biased and ‘anti-society’ news items from the last ten years which
have openly investigated or criticized such things as:-
1. The extent to which
the activities of the security intelligence services should be made
‘transparent’.
2. The issuing of
ration cards bearing coupons exchangeable for limited amounts of butter,
full cream milk, high fat cheeses, sugar, sugar-based soft drinks,
sweet biscuits, confectionery and other items considered inimical
to the health of people whom their doctors consider to be obese or
genetically at risk of diabetes. (The medical profession,
compensated by special payments, has accepted this mandatory obligation in
the same way as it complies with notifiable diseases regimes).
3. The removal of all
religious symbols from public buildings: crosses and holy statues from
churches, Stars of David from synagogues, crescents from mosques etc.
4. The wisdom of
replacing the ageing RNZAF Lockheed fleet with Korean transports financed
by a twenty year loan at 15%.
5. The extent to which
genetically engineered analgaesic cannabis is being permitted to grow in
Northland under the aegis of a consortium of South East Asian drug
companies.
6. Speculation as to
the degree to which the public will, over time, accept a general loss of
freedom for the sake of good order.
A mobile pirate radio
station has operated from the day that total presidential rule was
announced. So far it has eluded prosecution but one of its satellites
is believed to have been operating somewhere in the
Fiordland region. State radio has acknowledged its existence and has
reported the frustration of the police at not having pinned it down.
(It is known that a cordon was recently thrown around Friedensreich
Hundertwasser’s public lavatory at Kawakawa but nothing was flushed
out).
Law and order have been
much affected by new ‘cause and effect’ statutes. These hold that in order
for an offence to be committed, the offender will have been put in
the position of perpetration by the ‘victim’. Thus it is that many
burglars are not only being set free but also compensated by
culpable householders who have left doors and windows unsecured and
who own possessions that invite their theft. These laws do not, however,
extend to government agencies such as the Childrens, Young Persons,
Families, Friends and Neighbours Service (CYPFFNS) who continue, as
they have for years, to place children removed from dysfunctional families
in the care of known paedophiles, rapists and de-frocked bishops.
The old and much abused
111 emergency call system was replaced some time ago by an 0900 111 code
designed to produce revenue for the NZ Police Regiment. Calls are
duplicated to local taxi service centres as the NZPR no longer despatches
cars to incidents.
Other happenings in
2025 have been:-
The America’s Cup
challenge was sailed in Yupanyang Bay south of Shanghai. While New Zealand
did not put up a contender all of the competing boats, including
those of the four Chinese syndicates were designed and skippered by
expatriate New Zealanders. The ‘Auld Mug’ now resides in the Shanghai
Yacht Club and our president has sent a signed picture of herself
to the commodore.
The All Blacks, still
resisting a change of name to something less politically insensitive, were
eliminated from the first round of the Rugby World Cup having been
beaten by Patagonia, Easter Island and Zimbabwe. Excuses for their defeat
range from the uselessness of the coach who, it is said, spent far too
much time giving world media conferences and in any case should get
her hair cut, to the fact that the Watchdog Institute for the
Management of Public Safety (WIMPS) which, with greatly increased
powers, replaced OSH in 2021, ruled that rugby players may not tackle
others to the ground, and must wear body armour and orange steel helmets
while on the field.
The old Embassy Theatre
in Wellington has received a presidential grant of twelve million dollars
for re-refurbishment in order to premier ‘Lord of the Rings Come Home’,
this block-buster production following the money spinners ‘Lord of
the Rings Trilogy’, ‘Heigh Ho the Hobbits’ and ‘The Life and Times of
Peter Jackson’.
The new national flag
has been unveiled which depicts a kiwi couchant on a field of silver
ferns bordered by the spiral device of the Disunited Tribes of
Aotearoa. Meanwhile the president has assured Maoridom that
pending foreshore and seabed retrospective disallowance legislation
will satisfy everybody that matters and that the ten-year protest
occupations of the ancient beach at Oriental Bay, and Fergusson Wharf are
no longer necessary.
On the international front,
the New Zealand dollar is now worth two US dollars and three Euros and the
country is in the unique position of having bought everything and
sold nothing. The US President, Ms. Chelsea Clinton, has assured our
president that while we’re still not allies we’re ‘very, very, very good
friends...’ to which our president has replied, ‘nya, nya ni nya
nya.’
[ENDS]
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz or donovan0001.blogspot.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz or donovan0001.blogspot.co.nz
Labels:
Aotearoa,
assassination,
government,
John Key,
Labour-Greens,
New Zealand,
prediction,
prophesy,
republic,
United Nations
21 December 2013
Photoprint for Sale: Waimate North Mission House 1831-2, Northland, New Zealand
This is an original photoprint from my personal collection
Size of image is 30cm x 46cm (12" x 18").
Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
09 December 2013
07 December 2013
Francis Bacon does Lucian Freud
The Spectator invited readers to write a poem supposedly from any famous painter to accompany any of his works. I wrote this one. It didn't get anywhere with the Speccie but I still think it says what I feel.
I can't stand the paintings of Francis Bacon and cannot imagine anybody hanging one on a wall. He did a triptych of Lucian Freud (whose paintings are masterly) which sold at auction a week or two ago for $US142 million!
I can't stand the paintings of Francis Bacon and cannot imagine anybody hanging one on a wall. He did a triptych of Lucian Freud (whose paintings are masterly) which sold at auction a week or two ago for $US142 million!
Freud Bacon
I did of old Lucian a triptych
All streaky, distorted and cryptic.
The usual stuff,
Calling Everyone's bluff.
(Must be good if it's so futuristic).
One hundred and forty-two million!
Bought by Rusky? a Yank? or Brazilian?
It's grotesque and distorted,
The buyer's been rorted
By something that's Mephistophelian.
The Emperor's Clothes doesn't rank
With my prank that's been bought by a crank.
My only regret
Is that I didn't get
To take all that bread to my bank!
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz or donovan0001.blogspot.co.nz
04 December 2013
Photoprint for Sale: Yellow Volkswagen Beetle At Beach With Palm Tree, Port Douglas, Australia
This is an original photoprint from my personal collection
Size of image is 30cm x 46cm (12" x 18").
Price is $NZ 50.00 inc. urban p. and p. in NZ.
Please contact me at donovan@ihug.co.nz or 09 4159 701.
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
Labels:
beach resort,
palm tree,
Port Douglas,
Queensland,
Volkswagen convertible,
VW,
Yellow Beetle
28 November 2013
Sandalwood. A Short Story
The Diamond Wing lounge was almost empty as
Perry Durham sank into one of its soft, enveloping armchairs. He looked about
him. He could be anywhere in the world, these waiting rooms all had an
international look. There were the magazine racks with the latest issues of
Time, National Geographic, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and various
glossy inconsequentialities that always seemed to carry the same advertisements
for Swiss watches and high end cars - BMW, Audi, Lexus, Range Rover. There were
the same potted palms, the computer stations, the tea, coffee and snacks
buffets and a small bar, seductively lighted, that would politely offer complimentary
drinks to the premium traveller.
Perry guessed that, as with some worldwide hotel
chains, the familiarity of the lounge's appointments gave comfort to the
frequent traveler - never far from home however far that might be.
He went to the coffee maker, poured a
slightly stewed brew and returned, nodding to an elderly banker? lawyer? arms
dealer? who acknowledged him fleetingly over half-moon spectacles.
Perry checked his watch. Two and a half hours
until his connecting flight. He started to read Time magazine. The world was as
it always was and always would be. God - at thirty he was becoming the world's
great cynic!
She arrived with energy and almost fell into
the armchair alongside his, her shoulder bag going to one side, a topcoat to
the other. 'What a mad rush' she laughed, 'and now an hour to wait.'
Perry smiled at her. 'Going far?'
'Paris. Almost a regular trip. UNESCO. You?
'London but I have a longer wait than you'.
They lapsed into silence almost as abruptly
as she had arrived. He returned to Time while she fished a paperback from her
bag, pulled out its bookmark and settled to read.
Paul looked at her covertly,
having read the same paragraph several times without absorption. She was an
attractive woman indeed. He judged her to be somewhat older than he; perhaps in
her early forties, with a clear, almost unblemished, face adorned with small
laughter lines radiating from the outside corners of her eyes. She had a full,
generous mouth and bouncy blonde hair. Dressed in a tailored suit of navy blue,
her only adornments appeared to be a tiny, Longines gold watch and a single
rope of small pearls about a neck that was not greatly lined.
She caught his eye and smiled. She reminded
him of somebody from his distant past and the atmosphere around her, as an invisible
aura, reinforced the impression. He could just capture a hint of what he had
come to know as sandalwood, it was a perfume that had long struck with him and
the memory she had evoked took him back to when he had first been aware of it.
Then, he had been a boy of eight years and could not have put a name to it but
once or twice over the years the scent had been on the air and he had been able
to identify it through a friend in the perfume business.
Now, here it was again with this intriguing
woman.
'I've caught you in a reverie'. She smiled,
one eyebrow lifting as a question.
'Was it that obvious?' He
replied, 'You've sent me back a year or two.'
Then, with that intimacy of
strangers who do not expect to meet again, he opened his mind to her.
'Something in you has taken
me back to my school years. I was eight, away from home, lonely but madly in
love...'
'In love? At eight.' She
chuckled, 'The little girl in the next row, I suppose.'
'No. With Miss Kingcombe. She
was my teacher. I adored her. I would do anything for her.'
'How long ago? What was she
like? Can you remember her?'
'I am thirty now. Twenty-two
years ago. I can't remember much from then but some little things stay in the
mind for ever and I think she had quite an effect on me. I've no idea how old
she was. To a small boy all adults are grown-ups, but I have a feeling that she
might have been perhaps eighteen or twenty because I do recall that I had heard
her referred to as a student teacher. She was tall - well seemed so - and
willowy; I have an impression of her hair drawn back into a practical bun, I
can't see her clothes but, oddly, I remember that she wore sandals and that her
legs were suntanned with fine, blonde hairs and she had long, straight toes, the
big ones turned up as if they were being jolly.'
He grinned almost sheepishly at her, 'That
must sound awfully silly!'
They were interrupted by
the barman standing over them. 'Hello again, madam' he addressed the woman,
'Can I get you something?'
'Yes, thank you, I'll
have...'
'...don't tell me; your
usual chablis? And you sir?'
'Well I'll have the chablis
too, thank you.'
As the barman walked away
Parry remarked, 'You are a regular, aren't you. How long have you been doing
this journey?'
'It seems many years, but
not really. I just think he fancies me a bit.' She laughed, 'I don't discourage
him. Get well looked after that way. But,' and at that she leaned across to
Perry and tapped his arm, 'I'm enjoying hearing about you. Tell me more about
Miss - what was her name?'
'Kingcombe. Oh how I loved
that woman, I wonder where she is today? I remember that she used to tell us
all sorts of things that weren't about writing or sums. And she used to do
wonderful colourful crayon drawings of the things she told us. For instance,
have you head of a shadoof?'
'Well, it's something
Egyptian...'
'Yes, ancient Egypt; and
the word has stuck in my mind all these years because Miss Kingcombe told us
about how the Egyptian farmers used to irrigate their land by using a bucket -
a shadoof - on a pivoted pole to raise water from wells and pour it into drain
channels. She drew the farmer using a shadoof and I can almost recall every
detail of that drawing that hung on the classroom wall.
'I wanted so much to please
her that I got two simple books from the school library, one about ants, the
other bees, and I read them - devoured them - so that I could tell her what I
had learned. You see, she used to have a session when she would ask the
children what they had been reading and I, of course couldn't wait to put my hand
up. "Ants, miss; and bees". Well now Perry, Miss
Kingcombe had said, why don't you come to the front and tell us all about your
discoveries?'
'Were you nervous?'
'No', said Parry, 'I was
ecstatic. I stood up there on two occasions at least and told my classmates all
that I had learned; the first time about bees, the drones, workers, queens; the
hives; the nectar collection and the honeycombed nests. And then, on another
day, of how ants, like the bees, were colony creatures, helping each other and
so on and so on.'
'What do you think Miss
Kingcombe thought of you, then?
'I don't really know from
this distance. Perhaps she thought I was a precocious little prig. I don't
know. But she filled what could have been a lonely life, she was with me at the
time, and in anticipation, and in recollection.'
The chablis was cold, dry
and flinty and he watched as she ran her carefully manicured finger down the
frosting on the glass to send rivulets to its base.
She look at Perry. 'And I
remind you of her. How so?'
'I haven't worked that out
yet. But there's a trigger there somewhere.'
'What happened to her?'
'I've no idea. At some
stage I was taken from the school and restored to my parents. In fact I've no
idea why I had been separated from them. Never asked. Never questioned
happenings. I guess she grew older - well that's rather obvious - probably
qualified and found another sea of faces to confront'
He sank into reverie again.
When he emerged he took a
sip of the chablis, and said, 'Here's something interesting: I even drew a map
of the world for Miss Kingcombe. I didn't copy it, I drew it from memory
knowing that South America and Africa were sort of the same shape and separated
by the Atlantic ocean and that Australia and the little islands of New Zealand
were tucked away in the bottom right hand corner and that great lump of Europe
and Asia dominated everything. I coloured it in. I gave it to her and I
remember she smiled at me and thanked my very much for it and put it very
carefully into the music case that she used to carry'.
The woman sat back in her
armchair and crossed her legs. She looked at the watch. 'Not long now.' she
said. 'Thank you for telling me your story. It's made the time go so quickly. I
might just have a smoked salmon sandwich before I go, can I get you something?'
'On one condition.' he
replied. 'That I get to hear your life story, too.'
'Wait.' She walked across
to the buffet table and as she passed he caught that evanescent perfume again. Odd
how evocative a scent could be.
As they settled to eat she
started to tell him about herself but had gone no more that a few words when
the PA announced 'Singapore Airlines wishes to announce that the Paris bound
flight...'
'That's me.' She cried and
gathering her shoulder bag and topcoat, stowing her book and retrieving her
passport and boarding tickets made to leave. She pushed her hand into his,
'Sorry, you'll have to hear about me another time.' she said. 'Must go'.
Perry stood as she moved
quickly to the door of the lounge. 'Go safely.' He waved and then frowned as
that fleeting scent was carried on the air.
She stopped at the door and
looked back. 'By the way, Perry Durham' she called, 'you left the whole of India
off that map'.
And she was gone.
Perry frowned again and
then, as the significance of her throwaway line dawned upon him he breathed,
'Of course. Miss Kingcombe. Sandalwood.'
[ENDS]
© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz or donovan0001.blogspot.co.nz
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