Page 165 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

chap, I thought, but I never found out what he did). We also had a few very nice
evenings on board, the most notable occasion being when I had actually located,
close to my own, her essential lady-parts, but in the midst of that most exciting
part we were startled by a knock on the door by Mr Miller, advising me, in no
uncertain terms, that the time for my fire-rounds had arrived. This profound
event therefore was not a consummation about to which boast for the rest of my
life, but it was not at all bad! (This was the closest that I came to being caught in
flagrante delicto – the pun is intentional.)

I improved my technique over the next few evenings in this important respect,
and on May 13th we sailed for Rotterdam. Our Captain was a very nice man,
Captain Nowell, whom, I thought, was the sort of skipper that I might thereafter
try to emulate. Loading the usual manufactured products in the Netherlands, we
soon arrived in Southampton to take on passengers, and I quickly realised that
this was probably to be a rather dull voyage, our passengers consisting almost
entirely of civil servants and the retired. Moreover, our trip was only to go so far
as Manila and then to head back home.

I received the not unexpected, but disconcerting, news in Port Said that
Karen had arrived in Venice and been a bit upset about my not being on Oronsay
(I had tried the poste restante business, but it had apparently not worked all that
well for me). ‘Bit upset’ did not really express it; she was pretty miffed. While
this I could understand, I could see a Karen/Louise problem arising upon my
return, for I could only expect a day or two off when we returned to UK. Some
planning was needed.

Nor did I get much mail enlightenment in Malaysia; I began to wonder
whether the promise made to Louise about ordering a cheongsam for her in
Hong Kong should be fulfilled; I knew of nobody else for whom such a dress
would be so entirely suited.
I also found that useful information could be gained from some knowledgeable
literature; in 1963 Ian Fleming had published a book, not really a travelogue, called
‘Thrilling Cities’ which referenced some places about which I needed further
advice. These cities included Hong Kong, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Hamburg,
Naples and Geneva (a far racier place than I had discerned!). This was a useful
little tome, for his descriptions were a lot more interesting than those that I would
have ascribed to those places, although this was probably because my budget
was never likely to rise to the level of that given Fleming by the ‘Sunday Times’.
Nevertheless, the book was far more interesting than the Pilot Books were ever
likely to prove to even to the most chaste of travellers. My appetite was somewhat
whetted by other cities that I had not visited, but which I certainly hoped to see,
Tokyo, New York and Monte Carlo particularly. It was also conveniently current,
the opinions arising from his world-wide trips made in 1959 and 1960.

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