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Maggie was right

Margaret Thatcher and Katherine Hamnett in 1984-02. Yes, this is my favourite photograph of Maggie.

“There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families.” Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), quoted in, Women’s Own (1987-10-31). Yet, Maggie could be charming, as shown in the above photograph from 1984, with Katharine Eleanor Hamnett (née Appleton; 1947 – ), an activist and English fashion designer best known for her political T-shirts, such as the one she is wearing criticizing American Pershing missiles in Britain. She was invited to a reception at #10 Downing Street, London, after being selected as fashion designer of the year, 1984. Hamnett was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours, for services to the fashion industry. Then, on 2024-02-20, Hamnett publicly relinquished her CBE distinction in protest against the UK government’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Wearing an all-caps t-shirt reading “DISGUSTED TO BE BRITISH” she said she was against Britain’s role in the Gaza genocide before disposing of her distinction in a rubbish bin/ trash can/ garbage can.

I have journeyed by train in England, for the last time.

On British trains we encounted the phrase See It, Say It, Sort It, numerous times in the course of every journey. The details of this phrase will remain vague for some paragraphs, as I attempt to show how I am interpreting it, to gain greater control over my life, as it is forced to interact with rail corporations intent on profiting from me.

On Wednesday 2024-07-31, I was a passenger in coach 1 of a 12 car train from Stratford station in London to Gatwick airport. My estimate is that there are a minimum of 100 people aboard each car, or somewhere between 1 200 and 1 500 people in total. I am not sure what train it was because while numerous audio and video announcements are made including a listing of all of the stops the train will make, the train itself was not uniquely identified. At no time are we told we are on board train, say 12345 running on route 6789. So we are left with a rather vague time we left a particular station (if it is remembered).

I suspect this lack of a unique identification number is policy. It is a deliberate measure to ensure that there is no opportunity for passengers to summon help. Throughout the journey, we are given a coded message: See it, say it, sort it. Passengers are encouraged to speak to staff, or contact transport police. Yet, I interpret the phrase as a fictitious attempt to compensate for the lack of conductors, or any other personnel looking after the needs of passengers. There were no such personnel onboard many of the trains I was on. On some trains personnel came onboard to ensure everyone had a ticket. In other words, these people were solely looking after the needs of the various owners who operate trains, not the needs of passengers.

Incident 1: a woman with a first-class ticket and seating place, arrives in second-class to have a business conversation with someone by phone. While that someone cannot be heard, her voice dominates the soundscape, and we are given intimate, detailed information that should be kept private. After fifteen minutes, at the end of her conversation, she retreats to the privacy of the first class compartment.

Incident 2: a gang of youth enters the compartment and play Detroit rappers at high volume for their own entertainment and, I suspect, to deliberately make the journey less comfortable for the other passengers. A passenger, possibly aged 30, attempted to silence these youth to no avail. He then sat beside me, and said that he now understood his grandfather complaining about the youth.

… and so back again to the meaningless phrase, see it, say it, sort it. Sort it makes no sense. It is the transport police who will decide if and when they will intervene. When the train reached Gatwick and we left the train, there were still no police or staff available to deal with the youth. They simply carried on, undoubtedly disturbing new passengers for the rest of the journey to Brighton.

I have stayed at Travelodge, for the last time.

While every other place we have stayed at during our trip has offered free WiFi connected internet for the duration of our stay, Travelodge offers one half-hour free, or a surcharge for additional 24 hours of connectivity. This is unacceptable. In the future, I will be checking the fine print about internet usage.

Other complaints with Travelodge have to do with their breakfasts. They offered cold scrambled eggs, and lots of sugar and salt. Nutrition, not so much. I was particularly offended by the oranges. At the theoretical level, I have no issues with oranges wanting to reproduce themselves, but prefer to eat seedless oranges. In the offering from Travelodge every fruit sack had a large seed. In addition, the bread was unpleasant to eat. I have no issues with the bread I eat in Norway. Even in New Westminster, Canada, I grew up with a bakery 4 blocks from home, the National System of Baking. In contrast to other brands, it produced nutritious, edible bread.

Travelodge switches from left to right: Hallway light on, bathroom light off, bedroom light on. At Cliff Cottage all light switches act like the one for the bedroom light, on the right.

Then I read in several sources that Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Elko, Nevada, is adding two fees all guests must pay, in addition to the standard 15% tax: There’s a $12.95 nightly energy recovery fee and a 3% credit card surcharge. It was noted that credit card surcharges for hotels are incredibly rare, used only by rogue hotels. Then one comment noted that H Hotel near LAX airport has a Safety and Protection of their employees fee, at $10.00 plus $12.95 for each day.

I have flown Westjet, for the last time.

Westjet wants people who prefer to sit together to make an additional payment for this privilege. I am uncertain who they are expecting to put up with this policy, because the major carriers have understood that they cannot act in this way. Budget airlines are in a price squeeze, as they see it. They need the same prices as the majors to survive, because they have the same expenses, but want to appear cheaper. Their solution is to offer a cheap base price, and then to charge for addons customers want, so that the end price is about equal. The Southwestern style of humourous commentary, given by some cabin crew member, does not compensate for disrupting a basic primate need of a troop having to stay together. Westjet, Ryanair and other airlines know this. Those who don’t are encouraged to read Desmond Morris’ (1928 -), The Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s study of the human animal (1967).

Language usage

Yes, I am the sort of person your mother warned you about. I use language for dramatic effect. When I write that I have done something for the last time, there is an unspoken condition that clearly assumes this is the situation, unless something changes! What has to be changed is never mentioned.

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My Life as a Closet Anglophile

I was a closet Anglophile. I keep my passions secret. Perhaps this is understandable. My adoptive maternal grandparents had emigrated to Canada in 1910/11 from Gateshead, in County Durham. Yet, my grandmother did not reminisce. The tenements of Newcastle and Gateshead were home to tuberculosis, a deadly disease that had already taken the life of one of my aunts in childhood. She had no desire to return to England.

Gateshead 1910
This is the area of Gateshead, across the Tyne River from Newcastle, where my maternal grandparents lived before immigrating to Canada in 1910-11. (photo: A Gibson, 1900)

It was the English children’s author Arthur Ransome, from Leeds, who presented me with a more positive picture of England with his Swallows and Amazons adventures mainly set in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. My favourite location was in neither of these places, but Hamford Water, Essex, as depicted in Secret Water. My womanly ideal, at least before Emma Peel, was Susan Walker, first mate of the Swallow, or was it Nancy Blackett, captain of the Amazon?

Hamford Essex

The Scottish children’s author James Lennox Kerr, writing as Peter Dawlish, introduced me to Cornwall, in a series of adventure books about an abandoned French crabber, Dauntless, and her crew of English boys. Here, there were real dangers to be faced, both natural and human.

At school, British authors dominated the curriculum. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treaure Island will always be remembered, as will Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake, where there are references to St. Fillan’s Spring. St. Fillan is where McLellan takes its name. Those unfamiliar with the work are encouraged to read it in its Classics Illustrated (comic book) version, #75.

While I have read, and enjoyed the works of many other British writers. I will only mention one more, Robert Gibbings. I was particularly fond of his book on the River Wye, Coming Down the Wye (1942), as well as his first river book, Sweet Thames Run Softly (1940). Both of these books are in our personal library. More than the writing, I found Gibbings’ wood engravings especially attractive. At some point after I have finished my apprenticeship as a furniture maker, I will be undertaking a new apprenticeship as a wood engraver. Bibliographical information about Gibbings can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gibbings

 

Enterprise

Throughout the 1950s, my parents would spend a week of their holiday living in fairly primitive conditions in a rented cabin at a fishing camp. They loved it. Most frequently, this was at Dee Lake, not far from Winfield, in the Okanogan. This pattern changed about 1960, when we shared a summer house with the Coombe family for a week, at Blind Bay on Shuswap Lake.

The most important asset of the summer house was its boat, Blitz, an agonizingly slow wooden boat, powered by a 5 hp outboard motor. We would use it to visit Copper Island, in the center of the lake. In addition, I would use it to visit the boat builders, who lived on the other side of Blind Bay. They built Enterprise dinghies from kits, and allowed me to borrow one from time to time.

Peak-2-768x477
Tim Sadler and Richard Sault sailing a modern fibreglass E

The first time I sailed was with Robert De Roos and his father on a 12 foot (360 cm) dinghy imported from the Netherlands. This was on Okanogan Lake. At the time they had two sailboats. The other was a Pirat, which was less than 240 cm long. This one event encouraged me to build my own sailing dinghy, a Sabot, that I had made when I was thirteen and fourteen.

The Hillman Minx and other fine cars

I have always liked small, cheap, reliable cars. Even today. Even if cheap and reliable is a contradiction in terms. If I had known just how unreliable the Mazda 5 was going to be, I would have followed my heart and bought a Fiat Panda or a Fiat 500L or a Peugeot 1008 or, most likely, a Citroen Berlingo. Today, I find that an attractive vehicle is one that is practical, but not necessarily the reverse.

One of the first practical vehicles that I appreciated, was a Hillman Husky. A neighbour, Alf Fenton, at 310 Ash Street, New Westminster, owned one and kept it for many years. I cannot recall him owning any other car. My first car, was a Hillman Minx convertible. In contrast to my current opinions, it was definitely not practical. I remember that the canvas roof was not waterproof, and the engine would stop if driven through puddles. One learns from experience.

Hillman Husky Series II
Hillman Husky, one of the first practical vehicles I admired. (photo: redsimon)

While I liked the Hillman, In the 1960s I preferred its more up-market sister brand, Sunbeam. My school mate, Harry Wilson, owned a Rapier coupe (it was also available as a convertible). These cars were part of the Audax range of cars, designed by Raymond Loewy (1893-1986). Loewy also designed some of the most influential Studebaker models, such as the Avanti, and the Greyhouse Scenicruiser bus. I also found the Morris Minor extremely attractive, particularly its Traveller station wagon. My friend, Terry Godfrey, owned one of these.

At times I liked some larger English vehicles, in particular a Landrover 88, a Rover 2000 and a Triumph TR4A. When I look at these cars today, they hold little appeal. A Subaru Forester holds much more appeal than a Landrover. The Rover P5 is much more attractive than a Rover 2000. My preferred British sports car is no longer a Triumph, but a softer lined Sunbeam Alpine, once again designed by Raymond Loewy. I am content not to own any of these vehicles. Any future vehicle will be electric.

Television

Perhaps my favourite television series of alltime is The Avengers. While I have all of the available episodes, I still have not found time to watch them in any quantity. The reason of course, is that television programs that provided entertainment in the 1960s, do not offer the same value in 2017.

How real is the England that I purport to love? Probably as fake as The Avengers. If one examines the episodes carefully, the show is extremely racist. Not a single, non caucasian character appears in any episode. A crime of omission. Yet, in many ways, The Avengers is more Canadian, than English. Sydney Newman (1917-1997), who created both The Avengers and Doctor Who, was born and died in Toronto.Even my womanly ideals have changed. Of the four intelligent, stylish, assertive “Stead” women, Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), Tara King (Linda Thorson), Purdey (Joanna Lumley), I now prefer King-Thorson, born in Toronto, Canada.