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two Haydn ‘cello concertos for my birthday; hers was six days after mine, but I
do not recall whether I bought her anything) and we co-existed as if nothing had
happened. Perhaps, in her mind, it had not.

Arrival in England was just before Christmas, and we enjoyed what I believe
to have been a novel idea at that time; a Christmas cruise. Naturally, all of those
who worked on the ship would have far rather been at home, but the atmosphere
on board was jovial enough, and while Lisbon, the Canaries and Gibraltar were
good enough, of more interest, at least theoretically, was Bathurst (now Banjul),
capital of The Gambia. One has to say ‘theoretically’ because at the best of times
the city is barely visible, but we could never see it because, firstly it is barely above
sea-level and we were at anchor in the harbour, and, secondly, the whole time we
were there all was covered in thick mist. It was hot, and to the British ‘hot’ and
‘Christmas’ are words that should not co-habit.

*********

The next voyage to Australia commenced on January 6th, 1968, and was
as pleasant a sojourn at sea as one could wish, the Southern hemisphere being
bathed in summer. By now the long days at sea between Southampton and Cape
Town and that city and Fremantle were simply to be enjoyed. There were virtually
no passenger girls, and all were aware of the ‘dangers’ of intra-ship dalliance.
Therefore, one did one’s work and became very familiar with one’s sextant (the
company did not provide them to us).

I thought that on this occasion, because I would likely see Sydney many more
times, I would vary my routine a bit and give Christine a call and get together;
Sandra was great, but variety is the spice of life. Therefore, I wrote to her and
suggested an afternoon of frivolity, and when I phoned, she thought that a good
idea, but asked whether she could bring a couple of friends. Naturally, I thought
that a good idea.

They came down to the ship for an early lunch, and I was delighted to see
that one of the friends was a lass called Winsome … and she really was! The
other friend was a fellow, a law student at the University of New South Wales; I
didn’t quite know how to treat this lucky guy because I didn’t know to which girl
he ‘belonged’ (and I never actually found out) but he was a good person to talk
to. Christine had the peculiar fringe, and dressed rather clumsily, but as there
was an officers’ dance that evening on board, I thought that Mother would prefer
me to invite her to the evening rather than the comely Winsome. We spent the
afternoon on Bondi Beach watching all the beautiful people and left the beach
in the late afternoon. I had to do a bit of explanatory work with Patricia, just to
ensure that no scene would occur, but she took things in good heart; after all,
there was still the lustful Peacock if all else failed.

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