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194                     AN EXILE OF THE MIND                                                                    THE GRAND DAME OF LEVUKA                        195




































                        Levuka port town, the former capital of Fiji.                                 cabana for the last few days of my  late  husband did  indeed  have only
                                                                                                      island sojourn.                      the one leg. And perhaps was not all
                                               and had to recoup  his losses  after                      The  New  Zealand  skipper of  that chipper about the skipper being
                                               going bankrupt.                                        a  fishing  boat,  in  Levuka for the  there. Dora patted my arm and said
                                                  I was invited to stay with Duncan                   season’s  fishing,  moved  into  the  he obviously didn’t mind me living
                                               on a subsequent visit to Levuka and                    quarters I recently vacated at Dora’s  in the house, otherwise I would have
                                               narrowly missed Sir Peter’s visit. I                   house.  And hurriedly  left  in the  had a visit too. And perhaps a rap
                                               could have hitched a ride in the litter                middle  of the  night wearing only  over the  head from his crutch for
                                               used to lug Sir Peter up the 199 steps.                his  shorts. He  had  been  awakened  good measure.
                                                  There were  several Brits on the                    by  a  tap  tapping  on  the  floor.  He   The skipper had hooked a large
                                               island embroiled in  a bout with                       related  how he  had seen  a ghost  shark and I asked him for its jaws.
                                               red tape for Australian citizenship.                   looming over him with a menacing  A surprise for  Jean-Paul. An ideal
         Image: ITV Studios.                   was  a good  choice  to  wait  out  the                from the  house  he noticed  the  at school and perhaps invent a tall
                                                                                                      expression.  In his  hurried retreat  present for a boy to ‘show and tell’
                                               Unable  to  apply  in  Australia,  Fiji

                                                                                                      ‘apparition’ had only one leg.
                                                                                                                                           story. I buried the grisly jaws so that
                                               process under the tropical sun.
                                                                                                         When I visited Dora a couple of  ants  could  chew  off  the  remaining
                                                  I had moved out of Dora’s hilltop
           Sir Peter Ustinov meets Duncan.     eyrie  and stayed  at  a beachside                     days  later, she  explained  that  her  flesh and then hung them on the line
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