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28th March 2015, 04:32 PM
#21
Re: Channel night
I remember the tailors coming aboard in Bombay, you chose material and they measured you up for shirt
and trousers and came back next day with your gear all ready to wear, then you go ashore looking like "Joe the toff",
nice light coloured trousers and tropical shirt, off to the Seamans Mission for a rum and coke, great life, still miss it.
cheers,
John B.
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28th March 2015, 11:14 PM
#22
Re: Channel night
As always, there is a side story.Once we were shipping out and the Taylor was measuring me up for a suit.
He mentioned that I had a fairly good physique.
Just when I was feeling chuffed he said.
"pity you have a protruding posterior'
My big mistake was telling my wife that story.
I had to listen to that for over 50 years.
How come she never remembered the physique thing!
Maybe I lost the one, and kept the other.
Sometimes life is just not fair.
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29th March 2015, 07:09 PM
#23
Re: Channel night
Originally Posted by
John Blaney
I remember the tailors coming aboard in Bombay--cheers,
John B.
Hi John, I can certainly relate to your remarks about a Bombay rig, I fell for it myself ordered 2 suites and 2 shirts, As you say the were ready the next day, One was a pale grey, the other pale blue, The problem was after returning home being away 12 months, I stuck out like a sore thumb all the fashion had changed, I paid off in the pale grey one and remember the looks I got once outside the dock gate I looked like a bloody photographic negative, Another day another dollar Regards John Terry.
Last edited by Doc Vernon; 30th March 2015 at 05:45 AM.
{terry scouse}
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29th March 2015, 09:19 PM
#24
Re: Channel night
I remember getting measured for a suit and the guy said what side do you dress on i said inside .some mothers do have them **//%#@
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29th March 2015, 10:10 PM
#25
Re: Channel night
For a moment Lou I thought you were going say "just make them baggy at the knees" .
Richard
Our Ship was our Home
Our Shipmates our Family
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30th March 2015, 05:09 AM
#26
Re: Channel night
Hong Kong on the Paparoa, some bright spark knicked half the nylon shower curtains. Apparently he thought he could have some good shirts made from them. He also go a pair of shoes made, looked fantastic until he went out in the rain, al fell apart.
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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30th March 2015, 10:50 AM
#27
Re: Channel night
We had a company conference in Hong Kong in 1978. I was there for our Indonesian joint venture PT Asuransi Antar Malayan Bali (try that towards the end of a cocktail do). Our Hong Kong affiliate company were all Chinese and the chief clerk said he had a tailor client who would give us special deals. I had a suit and a couple of pairs of trousers made. Back in Jakarta our Chinese Indonesian chairman, the owner of Bank Bali, put on an expansive Chinese dinner for about a hundred guests. Towards the end of the dinner the chairman rose, we all rose, the brandy glasses were lifted and in unison with the chairman we all yelled out YAAAAAAMMMMM SSSSIIIIIINNNNGGG and downed the bloody lot. By this time getting up and down was becoming laboursome and I landed rather heavily into my chair to the accompanying sound of tearing. That chief clerk had taken us to a rip-off merchant and had obviously pocketed most of the cost of the trousers.
In usual fashion, at the time the chairman had had enough, he stood up, we stood up and the evening was over. I felt around my posterior and my hand arrived on my underpants. I was wearing the appropriate batik dress shirt that didn't reach far enough to cover all of the tear. I picked up the large menu, opened it up, held it in both hands and scampered out smartly as I could in my condition.
Richard
Last edited by Richard Quartermaine; 30th March 2015 at 10:54 AM.
Our Ship was our Home
Our Shipmates our Family
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31st March 2015, 12:53 AM
#28
Re: Channel night
Thats what you would call a having a ripping time Richard .
Hope both you and your good wife keeping well
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31st March 2015, 03:53 AM
#29
Re: Channel night
working on P&O ships we called at Bombay quite often, this is where i had all my white uniform suits made I ended up with 32 sets of whites. back in the 1950`s air conditioned ships were few and far between, so working down below and in the cabins sweat just used to run off you, you could be changing three times a day and four if on afternoon teas. every week they would be sent to the laundry and come back stiff as a board with starch, sometimes it took all your strength just to pull the legs apart to get your feet and legs in them.
for going ashore rig, i had suits made in Singapore (up change alley) and later from a tailor on Chatham st. in Hong Kong i considered these the finest tailors in the world. when i was based in HK> with the airlines i went back there 10 years later and was greeted like an old friend.
keith moody
R635978
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31st March 2015, 10:49 AM
#30
Re: Channel night
Except for the rip-off in Hong Kong I had suits, trousers, tuxedos, shorts, shirts all tailor made in Fiji, Singapore and Indonesia from the finest materials. Just tell them what extra things like a special hidden pocket for a passport and wallet. Change Alley was one busy place. My magician was on the ground floor of the Market Street car park just past Raffles Place.
Richard
Our Ship was our Home
Our Shipmates our Family
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