Three with two votes each this week.
Next month Enormously entertaining.
From Pat
THIS
WEATHER
Jill's
eyes flew open. Its today she thought to herself. After weeks of
planning the big day had arrived.
Her
brother Peter was going to be 70 and as he had lost his wife a couple
of years ago, Jill had decided to throw his a 70th.
Birthday party. Everyone offered to help which she gladly accepted.
The
garden was blooming, showing off really, must have been all that hard
work earlier in the year. The marquee was up, tables set and the bar
well stocked.
The
phone rang and Jill jumped out of bed, who could be calling at this
time? It was brother Peter asking if he could bring a friend, would
that be all right? What could she say...of course he could, after all
it was his party. Male or female, she had forgotten to ask. Oh well
one more wont make any difference.
Looking
out at the marquee which covered most of the lawn, she thought
please, please do lets keep this weather. By 2pm all was ready, and
with one foot on the stairs the door bell rang. Oh no, I don’t have
my new dress on and besides its only 2pm not 3 as the invitations had
said.
It
was her friend Sheila bearing a beautiful strawberry pie. “ I
thought I would come early to give you a hand” she said. Jill put
on her big welcoming smile, inwardly collapsing. “ how lovely,
please find a place for it in the marquee on the small table”.
With Sheila and her husband dispatched to the tent, she flew upstairs
to change.
After
that her husband dutifully greeted all the guests and served them
drinks, quaffing a few himself along the way. Then brother Peter
arrived with his guest on his arm. A female, with blonde ringlets!
RINGLETS! She must have been in her 50,s but stuck in the 60's. “How
lovely to meet you, please make yourself at home”. The dress wasn't
quite mini but inappropriately short. She carefully tottered towards
the bar where her husband stood with his mouth open. More guests
arrived and there were many sideways glances.
In
the marquee lunch was served and the wine was flowing. The birthday
cake was a huge success with 70 candles which Peter managed to blow
out with one mighty breath. Was he showing off? No, of course not.
The children were getting restless so Jill announced puddings.
“please do come up and help yourself with Peter and his guest
Juliana first. They squeezed through the closely packed chairs just
as the children ran passed, knocking Sheila's strawberry pie down the
back of Juliana's dress. There was a sharp intake of breath, then
silence. “ never mind Juliana trilled “ children will be
children”. Sheila, by that time had had a few glasses and totally
missed the whole episode, thankfully. Peter the birthday boy steered
dear Juliana back to the house to clean up.
Later
that evening when everyone was mellow, Peter reappeared rather
sheepishly, we must sing Happy Birthday Jill though, walking over to
him whispering “do tuck your shirt in”. “happy birthday to you”
she began with a big smile. No sign of sweet Juliana. Jill heard
whispered questions “where is she” amongst the guests. Finally
Jill ran upstairs to fetch their coats and jackets, and there she
was, fast asleep on the pile. “ shall I wake and embarrass her, or
call Peter?.
From Brain
From Brain
THIS
WEATHER (2)
My
name is Ben Dark. I was as born in the fourth year of the reign of
our good Queen Bess. Most of the men in our family worked on the
land., but my Grand father and father were sea men. Father said that
we were second cousins to Francis Drake, on my mothers side.
We
lived in small village in Devon called Cornwood. When I was very
young, I think 11 or 12, I worked on some of the farms as casual
labour. In the winter, hedge cutting, digging ditches, hunting
rabbits, in the summer cutting hay, helping with the harvest.
One
day father arrived home from one of his trips With more money than we
had ever seen, it was enough to keep Mother, myself and my three
sisters for over a year. He told us that he had sailed with John
Hawking. As their ship was sailing close to Santo Domingo they
spotted a SPANISH gallon sitting low in the water. Captain Hawking
ordered our ship to close in on her. Well after a brief exchange of
fire, they boarded her, she was a treasure ship carrying gold and
jewels to Spain. So we removed the cargo chopped down her main mast,
destroyed her spare sails, and spiked her guns Then Captain Hawking
let the ship and the crew go.
This
set my mind and heart racing, what a life it must be, to travel to
far distant lands, to see strange and wonderful sights. This would
be the life for me.
After much talking and
begging my mother to let me go to sea it was agreed, that father
would talk to Cousin Hawking.
Ten
days later a message arrived from him to say that he had spoken to
his good friend Francis Drake, Who was about to sail on a long
voyage, and he needed a personal servant.
I was to be in Plymouth in
two days time and look for the ship PELCAN.
She
had 22 guns and a crew of 80 men.
There were Five ships, with
a total of 160 men.( so I was told.) We sailed with the tide on
the third day I was on board, but had to put into Falmouth for
repairers to one of the ships.
Once
the repairs were done off we sailed. We crossed the ocean towards
the new world, every now and then we spied Spanish galleons on the
horizon. The weather as we went south got warmer. One day the the cry
went out “ Land a Ahoy.”
The was a land call Brazil.
All five ships had made it but Captain Hawking now change the name of
our ship to the Golden Hind.
All
hands were called on deck, there the captain told us that we were
going where no English ship had gone before. We were going around the
horn to the PACIFIC, there we will raid the Spanish treasure ships.
All
the crew gave three mighty cheers.
(
2 )
I
got talking to one of the older seaman, he had been on a ship that
had tried one before to go around the horn, but had failed, he said
the waves were like mountains, and the wind too strong, it was the
wrong time of the year, but this time the winds and the seas were
just right and this weather seemed perfect to try.
It
seemed that the gods were pleased with us, only two ships made it
through.
Two
of our ships turned back before the horn, one was lost with all
hands, the fourth one was in such bad condition that we had to sink
her, the crew came aboard with us.
We
sailed up the south American coast, raiding towns along the coast. In
the city of EL Callao, he got information about the treasure ships.
The Golden Hind was now
disguised as a merchant man. Thus we were able to close in on the
Spaniard, our first broad side took off the Spanish
mizzenmast.
Not expecting English ship to be in the Pacific, the Spanish crew
were taken completely by surprise, and surrender with much
Resistance. We destroyed her main sail and the spare ons, plus spiked
all her guns.
Drake moved both ships
close to shore, it take six days to transfer the treasure to our
ship. We sailed up the west coast , pulling into places for water
and to hunt for food. The Captain told us that we were not going back
the way we came, as the Spanish may be waiting for us. He had decided
to cross the Pacific and the Indian ocean round the cape of good
hope, the on to Plymouth.
We
sighted England one sunny morning, a great cheer rose from the crew.
We had lost so many, only 56 of us returned. The ship had been away
for three years.
We
unloaded the treasure under armed guards, There were 8o Tons of
Gold, 20 Tons of Silver, 13 chest of royal plate, one chest of a mix
of diamonds, ruby’s and Peal’s.
We all shared in the booty,
the Queen had a Third , Captain Drake 20%
The rest was spit between
the rest of us.
I had enough to buy this
pub, the “ QUEEN BESS” and enough so I would NEVER have to go to
sea again.
From Sue
"This Weather" 25/05/15
"This weather has hardly let up since we sailed
from Portsmouth a week ago," I said gloomily as I peered out of the window.
"Well, we'd better get down to breakfast and make our packed lunch, or there
won't be any left."
We could hear the noise as we clattered down the bare
boards of the stairs and entered the refectory, to be greeted by mainly cries of
"Bonjour," with a few of "Morning" from our fellow Brits. We chomped our way
through dry baguette and jam, washed down with copious quantities of coffee,
then threw our packed lunch together before gathering our rucksacks, donning
waterproofs and hiking boots and setting off along the shore.
It was a
blustery, cold day, with squally rain and the leaders, both French and English,
were worried we might not be able to cross the sands. We could see our goal,
Mont St Michel, sporadically through the stormy weather, looming closer as we
approached the crossing point, but still seeming a long way away. The angry
surf clawed at the shore as if to say, "You won't get to us today," before
snarling its way back and launching towards our feet once more.
We
huddled in our waiting groups, sheltering from the worst of the weather.
Luckily, by early afternoon the rain had stopped, but the wind persisted,
leaving us chilled and apprehensive as we were called forward. We took off our
boots and socks, heaved our rucksacks and canvas bags containing water and
baguette supplied by our hosts, onto our backs, and took up our position. We
were to lead the crowd of hundreds of walkers on this special Millennium
crossing of the sands on St Michael's Day.
At last the tide had receded
enough for the Fire Brigade to lead us out, probing the sands as they forged us
a route, ever watchful for quicksands, marking the way with long poles as they
went. Even so, we still had to gingerly negotiate patches of quaking sands
which threatened to such us down into their depths. We had to ford three rivers
as we crossed and these were higher than usual, sometimes soaking the shorts of
the more vertically challenged of us. We linked hands with our nearest pilgrim
friends and drew ever nearer to the awe-inspiring height of the Mont with its
soaring abbey and spire at its peak.
After three hours, legs and feet
burning with the effort, we neared the edge of the sands and the bells of the
abbey started to peel out a welcome. We noticed the whole causeway was lined
with people, waving, cheering and clapping us on as we reached the final hurdle
of the muddy rocks which had to be scaled. Such an undignified finish before so
many people, but somehow it didn't seem to matter, as everyone was so
welcoming.
We eventually extricated ourselves from the crowds, washed our
muddy feet at the freezing water tap, donned our boots once more and set off to
toil upwards through the town to the abbey, where a service of thanksgiving and
the ever-present reception with speeches and welcome food awaited us. What an
experience
