The Suez Canal

[Captain Kong]

Sorry from going from the Middle east to the Far east but it's only a small distance on a chart, is it not ?

About twelve inches on my map



I had a load of those, tea and coffee sets, Geisha Girls head in the bottom of the cups, gold dragons along the side. Made in Japan, I always got them from Aden, they were ten shillings each in early 50s, . In my local every time I was going east or to Oz I would have an order for around ten sets, Paid ten bob and sold them for two pound ten, two pounds profit on each one equal to two days pay. Then having just paid off I was always paying for everyones ale including the Landlords and so the money just disapeared back over the bar again.
I have still got one of each sets in my cabinet.
I still have the music boxes, black laquer with a bridge with two geishas walking over with a house and Fuji Yama in the distance and those other music boxes in wood with ivory mosaic and a shelf for ciggies inside.
Still have and use my photo album from Suez all leather with a picture of the pyramids on, bought that on my first trip nearly 60 years ago. still in good condition.

[Albert Bishop]

Saw one of those tea sets in a local charity shop, It was only twelve quid, so I'm afraid the one in my loft hasn't been much of an investment, Cheers Albi

[Ivan Cloherty]

Saw one of those tea sets in a local charity shop, It was only twelve quid, so I'm afraid the one in my loft hasn't been much of an investment, Cheers Albi

What you need to do Albi,

is write a provenence for the teas set in your loft, how you bought it, what adventures it went through before reaching your loft and then take it to the Antiques Road show, they love anything thats got some documentation with it. Write it on nice new paper, then soak it in black tea or coffee, preferably black tea as it doesn't smell, to age it, crumple it. air dry it and some bloody expert will tell you that this is the original documentation from the 1950's, you should get more than 12 quid for it. I used to know an antique dealer!

But then again the investment was the memories that our now useless trivia brings us, and those memories are priceless

Ivan

[Ron B Manderson]

what about these fine Y fronts.2/6 a pair.
One wash and the elastic was around your feet.
Or the desart boots . Once traveled into engineroom and the soles parted from the boot.
Ah!! these were the days.( I am not going to mention the famous books in case ladies read this .) us to know and them never to find out
Ron the batcave

[happy daze john in oz]

Took two of the tea sets home for mum and an aunt who loved it, not sure where they are now. Also six sheepsking rugs from Oz and in Genoa you could buy blankets that were packed in small suit cases, think I took about six of those home with me. Still have two wall hanging type carpets which came from Las Palmas way back in about 1961. Had shirts made in Hong Kong from the ships nylon shower curtains, and a pair of heavy shoes made that fell apart in the first shower of rain. It is quite amazing the things we brought back from our travels.

[Graham Payne]

King Kong/John, I really wish I had kept some of the things I brought back, alas the Pub (I kept nothing) . One other thing I would liked to have kept were the "Butterfly" Trays & Coffee Tables from South America, bit naff I know but I really liked them. Happy Days.

[graham mcglone]

Remember buying a flick knife from one of them.
Mainly because he held it [open] to my kneck and asked'do you want to buy a knife'
Also bought a 'leather' bag which I gave to my now wife.
Turned rotten and stunk the place out.
Still as John says. Got a few good things that are still with us and family members.
Who was the guy who when he saw you could talke in any dialect? ie scouse etc.
Loved Suez.
Den.

That was the barber known as MacGregor. As he was cutting your hair he would chat to you in manner dialects ie scouse, geordie, scots, brummie,cockney, irish, whatever. the gilly-gilly man on the other hand, was a magician who who do tricks (usually involving baby chicks) for a small fee. happy days!

[Don Rafferty]

Remember buying a flick knife from one of them.
Mainly because he held it [open] to my kneck and asked'do you want to buy a knife'
.

The seller of the flick knives I remember was a little old lady with a basket, she'd hold the knife closed inside the basket, and if you showed any interest (or not) in buying one, she'd release it and the blade shot throught the basket!! Perhaps the years are playing tricks on me, but the port I remember this from was either Bombay or Columbo.

[Tom Abernethy]

Hi to happy daze john.
Yer, i bought one of thoes leather writeing folders and my one also is still in use. One of the few good buys off the bum boats. Once saw all the bum boats alongside raceing to send stuff up and down there lines when tyhe biggest fight i have seen broke out. All the bum boat wallas joined in ,it was very entertaining to watch, they were hitting each other with anything that came to hand. A few were knocked into the water and were being shoved under with oars or boat hooks,.....hillerious. The police had to sort it all out,
hi phill, yes i remember george robey or as we used to call him george robbery.i sent you a message last night, dont know if you got it or even where it went. Hope i got it rite.cheers yo all,
tom abernethy ( r721582 ) :d

[Albert Bishop]

I wonder if anybody else noticed that after Nasser took over the canal, the general standard of living seemed to have improved, Somehow all the locals seemed a bit better dressed, More suits in place of the old white nighties.and a general feeling of more prosperity? However they were still a bunch of robbing B*******. That didn't change. Cheers Albi