Aden: Thanks to my unknown readers

At the moment I have no more Aden material, and I would like to thank those of you who have followed me for all or part of the journey. Now I have finished everything and had time to reflect, here a re she musings arising from my Aden blogging.

Blogging on this website provides me as the blogger with statistics. Some are useful. Some are interesting, such as the ability to know where visitors to the blog have come from. This includes some ghastly search engines in Russia which are not really that. I wish I could eradicate these from my figures. 

Nevertheless, on the plus side I am flattered by the large number of visits from the UK, which is really my target audience as I imagine most people interested in my life in Aden would be there.

However, I am very curious about the handful of visits from the Yemen. Here's hoping the interest is from ordinary individuals like myself and not any state or commercial organisation. If it is anther "man in the street", whoever you are (singular or plural) thank you for being intrigued enough to visit my blog. I wish you and your country peace and stability, especially given the recent turmoil. If you are from Aden, then my wishes are more heartfelt still.

My nomadic childhood has left me with more than one place that I think of as "home". In the 50s I grew up in Singapore and Hong Kong, where being surrounded by ethnic Chinese and Malay was a normal everyday experience. On my first return visit to both places after 30 years absence I felt strangely at home. Its not easy to explain to somebody who grew up in the same place how normal it feels to go back somewhere and feel more comfortable as part of a minority of the population. Home is many places to me. Singapore, Hong Kong, Aden, Gloucester, Cottesmore are all my very early homes in my time of childhood and innocence. I have a bond with them all. 

I fear I have lost my opportunity to visit Aden, given the current political and religious turmoil in the world. I cannot adequately express how much I would love to see Ma'alla, Steamer Point, Elephant Bay, Crater and Khormaksar again and see how much has changed or stayed the same. Youtube has been useful, but not all the videos posted are very good. Too many of modern Aden are more about the persons in the video than the place, but such is the vanity of humans! 

I regret very much not returning to Aden before the recent religious divisions between Islam and the rest of the world surfaced. I feel my presence would not be welcome in certain parts of the world, but I do not mean that all Islamic countries are forbidding to me. For instance, when I was in Penang I felt most welcome by the locals I came in contact with. One abiding memory is of school children saying "Welcome to Malaysia" to us. I understand they would have been encouraged to do this, but a child's generosity of spirit is a precious gift, which more adults could do worse than try to rediscover within themselves. Given a less than happy previous experience in Kuala Lumpur, the people of Penang more than adequately made up for that experience.

However, after that digression I shall return to the topic of religious division. To me it feels as negative and pointless as the Protestant and Catholic divisions in European history, or the Christian behaviour of the Middle Ages which effected a superiority it did not deserve. Then the Arab or Moorish culture was far more advanced than the so-called Western civilisation. One only needs to visit Granada and see the palace of the Alhambra and the gardens of the Generalife to realise how more advanced that society was compared with the regressiveness of the regime of "los reyes catolicos". In my blog about Crater I commented on the Cisterns of Tawila. To this day I still think they are a marvel. I can still remember how awesome (I use that word not in its modern guise) it was as I walked around. You really need to be ignorant or blind to reason not to acknowledge the cleverness of mind and sophistication of a society that brought them into being.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and in my case, my absence from Aden has made me realise how lucky I have been to revisit Hong Kong and Singapore more than once. The memories I have of Aden are mainly positive, but the negative memories were due to the British presence outstaying its welcome. I am sure had I been a native of an occupied country my feelings would not have been too dissimilar. Whether I would express my displeasure I don't know. I thank my lucky stars I can express my opinions, which was not always an option open to the Adeni.

Aden: Random Memories 10: Steamer Point

For me Steamer Point was Aden. It is probably the area I liked the most (apart from the beaches and swimming pool at Khormaksar). Most shops were on The Crescent and in the cool of the evening, lights enticed one inside. Here my parents bought a transistor radio from an electrical shop run by Indians (I think they were Sikhs). Until the old thing fell apart from much wear and tear, especially in its latter years when it went with me to college (my parents having upgraded to something more modern, reliable and not falling apart!) it was our radio set. Things were built to last in those days!

Steamer Point was also a commercial centre, since the harbour landing stage was there. Among all the shops, one of my favourites was a book shop, where I bought my own pack of de la Rue Patience playing cards. I also bought some books there, including a Puffin paperback ‘The Little Grey Men’ by the strangely named author ‘B.B.’ I loved that book. Now it has probably fallen apart and is rotting in a landfill site somewhere, if it has not suffered the worst fate of a book, being burned.

‘Melody Corner’ was a record shop. It was an Aladdin’s cave to me. Even to this day I love to seek out good record shops, even the online variety. I loved the sight of the LP covers.  The size of the CD jewel case does not stand up to the larger canvas offered by the LP sleeve to a graphic artist’s imagination. I’m not saying every LP sleeve was a work of art, but I doubt if the many CD covers will be celebrated in 50 years or so in quite the same way.

Presents from there for me included a Chipmunks’ Album. ‘Ragtime Cowboy Joe’ was a favourite track of mine as Alvin rode from one side to the other. The magic of stereo came to life in our new Black Box record player. It was so sleek and up to the minute and now we could buy stereo records and listen to them properly all the time, or, more accurately, this child could sit transfixed as the sound went from one side of the box to the other while my parents more than likely rued the day they bought the LP and wished I would get fed up with it sooner rather than later.

Here are some photos on an earlier blog of Steamer Point.

© 2012 Gwailo54

Aden: Random Memories 7: The Cinema

The cinema was still popular at this time. When we lived in Innsworth I went to the Astra to see films. I especially remember ‘The King and I’ and particularly the scene between the King and Anna as they dance. The rest of the film was not so memorable.

Well, we saw films as a family in Aden at both Astra cinemas, Steamer Point and Khormaksar. This was film going with a difference, we were in the open air. Enclosed by the cinema walls and the dark night sky above, the huge images projected onto the screen, this was unique movie going.

For Tom and Jerry cartoons, I was very good and sat up very straight! The night we saw the Hope and Crosby ‘Road to Hong Kong’ had me laughing until my sides ached. We went to see ‘South Pacific’, my mother had seen it on stage in London and loved it very much. I recall being bored rigid by it and not understanding why the colours in the film went all funny whenever people started singing. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful and didn’t say anything negative, but I felt better when my mother said she was very disappointed by the movie and Mitzi Gaynor was not as good as Mary Martin.

There were other movies, but most have made no lasting impression on me, and I am not intending to turn this into a critical review of cinema of that time for an ordinary child living in extraordinary circumstances. Only one other movie deserves mention, Flower Drum Song. We had lived in Singapore and Hong Kong before, and watching a film full of (supposedly) Chinese people came as no surprise to me. Perhaps, for the first time in my life I felt a nostalgic twinge (of course I didn’t realise that’s what it was at the time), and that home was not necessarily where everybody, or the vast majority, was white.

I have many places I think of as home to varying degrees such as Gloucester, Singapore, Hong Kong, Aden, Cottesmore and Stanmore. My brother, ten years my junior, sadly was never with us on an overseas posting, and although he too led a nomadic life, that was only in Britain. Like me he has an affinity with Gloucester and the rugby and takes great delight when Bath is soundly thrashed!

© 2012 Gwailo54

Aden: Random Memories 6: Steamer Point / Chapel Hill Primary School

Across the road from the apartment I was to get the bus which would take me to take me to my new school.

School was a long way off from our flat. Every day we were collected by bus and driven there. Back in those days, there was none of the modern parental smothering and being driven individually. In those days you had to be there in time for the bus. It was mostly uneventful.

Then one morning, something was different. Armed Military Police were there with the bus. The windows were covered in what looked like chicken wire. When I got home I asked my mother about this (the other kids all seemed to be taking it all in their stride, and I didn’t want to appear stupid). For the first time in my life I discovered that because of an accident of birth, I was most unwelcome to some people. Hatred that drives anybody to kill somebody just because they represent something I have never been able to understand since that day. My mother told me the escort was for our protection (obviously) and the chicken wire was to stop grenades getting thrown inside the bus.

Whenever this happened again in the future, I can’t say I was scared. After all, what does one’s own death mean to a child? I was uneasy, and on part of the route to school we went past a graveyard at the end of Ma'alla Strait. I still remember the sadness I felt knowing among those buried there were service personnel who never went home. I also had morbid thoughts, not something I discussed with anybody, nor have I ever mentioned before now.

On a much brighter note, there were two individuals at Chapel Hill I remember with great affection. The first is a teacher, Mr. Bounty. I really enjoyed his lessons. The following year when I changed class and we were on the next floor up and at the other end of the building our teacher was Miss or Mrs. Wright. I realised what a difference a person can make to learning and understanding. I shall say no more about my time under her care!

The second person who meant a lot to me was Colin Birch. He was my best friend ever. Nobody could ever be as great as him. He showed me the word ‘fart’ in the dictionary. We made up crosswords together. We were at a birthday party at the other end of Ma'alla to where I lived, and everybody apart from me and him were doing the twist. I thought it was rather a silly thing to do and was very embarrassed when a grownup encouraged me to try it. That sort of thing has never been of much interest to me since, making a fool of myself, as myself, in public. Making a fool of myself other than as myself is a different matter!

© 2012 Gwailo54

Class photograph. I am on the back row, fourth boy from the right.

My school badge.

Aden: Random Memories 5: Swimming.

Life went on in its usual way. Dad had to go to work, I had to go to school, and Mum stayed behind at home doing what mothers do, but there were some differences now we were in Aden. I had to go to school REALLY early in the morning, but the upside was about lunch time I wasn’t in school for the rest of the day! How those free afternoons were spent in the early months I cannot recall, but as a family we used to go to the beach a lot. Our two haunts were at first Elephant Bay and the Lido at Steamer Point. Elephant Bay got its name from the eroded rock jutting out into the sea because it looked like the head and trunk of an elephant.

To get to Elephant bay was not easy. It wasn’t in the middle of bustling Steamer Point. The road down to it was wide enough for only one way traffic, and if you got there just as the lights had turned red, well, you had to wait for ever and ever before they changed to green. And why did they change when there was no car coming up anyway, especially, as my father assured me, there was a man (who, mysteriously enough, was invisible) controlling the lights from a little tin shack just beyond the topmost lights?

When we got down there, the sea that looked calm from higher up was not so placid. Sometimes the sea would come crashing in with big waves (nearly any wave is big if you are only 7 or 8 or 9). We were safe anyway, as there was a wall and a shark net. Nevertheless, I always kept an eye open for sharks, just in case the net wasn’t in perfect condition. It never hurts to be cautious.

It was in Elephant Bay I had my first swimming lesson, and a very big lesson in life. Never believe a word your parents say, they are the biggest fibbers, ever! We went until I was really out of my depth, a sense of security was given by letting me sit on our green Li-Lo. My parents in turn held me while I practised doggy paddle strokes. This happened over several days, and then one day, my mother let go of me and I had to paddle like crazy to get to my father. I was swallowing gallons of sea water. The taste was disgusting. I swear my father kept backing away from me, and of course they thought it was all very amusing.

Despite the fact I had been let down by my parents (and I haven’t even got round to talking about Father Christmas, the biggest adult deception ever), I learned to swim and I have enjoyed it ever since, but swimming in the sea between the tropics (or at a pinch a heated swimming pool) is preferable to anywhere else!

Well, after that, I also spent time in the pool at RAF Khormaksar, getting proper swimming lessons. They always took place late in the afternoon, and most times it was dark, or almost dark, by the time I had changed out of my trunks and back into my ordinary clothes.

I was able to return to Elephant Bay and swim with greater confidence, so much so I could get to the built up part at the far end of the enclosed area. Locals would fish from there and their catch would make a meal. The sight of an angel fish always reminds me of Elephant Bay where they were caught in abundance, and dispatched swiftly and efficiently by the Arab fishermen.

As the time to leave came closer, it seems to me I spent more time at the pool on the base at Khormaksar. Not only could I swim, but I jumped and even dived into the pool and this was from the top board as well! My mother used to sit in the shade knitting jumpers for us. We were due to return in April, Eliot's 'cruelest month'. My mother wasn't going to take any chances!

© 2012 Gwailo54

Aden Old Photos 11: Me again!

When a relative dies, it's instructive to see what they have in the way of old jumble and to try to piece a life that you thought you knew. I didn't know, for instance, my mother's sister had a few slides of me from the time we were in Aden, so here are two photos of yours truly on the beach in Aden. I think they were taken at the Mermaid Club aka the Lido. I have to admit I was happier in the water than out of it.

There's not much context to it, but it makes me happy to remember those days. I hope it may give pleasure by proxy to anybody who was out there too. 

Aden Old Photos 8: Steamer Point

I loved Steamer Point. For me it had a hustle and bustle that Ma'alla lacked. It was like life back home where we lived at RAF Innsworth and went into Gloucester for our big shopping expeditions.

Steamer Point was where all the good shops were. I bought books and even started my, then, modest record collection in Aden. The first photo is looking towards the rocky remnants of the crater which outside Steamer Point and the clock tower was known as "Little Ben". The other photo, looking the other way, is the Crescent Hotel where Queen Elizabeth II is supposed to have stayed in 1954. According to an entry on Lonely Planet, this is now defunct and was guarded by a surly soldier. Even in our time I think the Crescent was a throw back to the past. The Rock Hotel was the place, but I guess that has dated and is now a thing of the past.

If only things were better in Aden, somebody could revitalise the Crescent Hotel and, as with the Raffles in Singapore and the Eastern and Oriental in Penang and bring colonial past into the present era but in a new way. I have stayed at the E&O and while I found it strange to have a butler, it was a level of service that gave me much enjoyment. The butlers we came into contact with were very polite and professional, though I fear some other white people do not treat them with the respect professionals in the leisure and catering industry deserve.

Aden Old Photos 4: Ships at anchor

I make no apology for continuing until this reel of 36 photos is exhausted!

This next pair are reminders of the glory days of Aden as an active harbour. On the web there are many stories of when the liners were at anchor the shop owners would open their shutters any time of day or night and sell their goods at, ahem, "bargain" prices! We saw military and civil vessels of all kinds. I am pleased I have these two photos. The first is the SS Oriana (I have been advised via a posting elsewhere on the web), and the second is the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Now it's time to nail my colours to the mast.

I was stunned when it was announced Britannia was to be decommissioned. As a child of a service family it meant to me Britain was renouncing her naval ambitions. Britannia was never a vessel of naval aggression, but her very existence was a symbol (something politicians never understand, it seems to me) of Britain's belief in her naval forces.

That was under a Labour government. This was trumped by the Conservative policy of depriving the British Navy of any aircraft carriers.

I accept all the austerity talk has to be talked, and the politicians have done a fine job of it. I also accept the need for certain types of vessels changes over time, but Ark Royal was sea worthy. The politicians said we wouldn't need to worry about not having a carrier. Within months the politicians were proved wrong, in my opinion. I would argue that militarily, supporting the civilians in Libya (and I am not going to argue the moral rights and wrongs) would have been better served from a carrier.

Just in case you think I am a child of Empire and miss its existence and believe in British military supremacy (a fallacy if ever there were one), I would like to put you right on that. Britain is no longer an important country. Britain is a small country (and always has been) whose history was of Empire, but where is it now? We have dismantled it.

Just like the Venetian, Dutch and Portuguese glory days, Britain's place in the world has been eclipsed (or usurped?) by greater and younger powers. It's sad but true. And if you replace the world Britain for England in a few places, the sad truth is even more obvious.

This line of thought is leading off into other areas which I don't think I will explore here. Maybe another time when I have more time and can marshall my thoughts better.

The Nomad

If there is one part of British society that seems not to have been made part of a so-called "reality" TV show, or mini-season tucked away on BBC4 it is the families that lived overseas as the Empire shrivelled and Britons were not so welcome in parts of the world.

One such place was Aden. BP families were in Little Aden, and the service families in Crater, Khormaksar, Ma'alla and Steamer Point (as we called in those days). In Ma'alla we lived almost cheek by jowl with the locals. We had the posh flats on Ma'alla Strait, they lived in the back streets.

Since the British were unceremoniously expelled from Aden, it seems little has happened to improve the lot of the native population. Of course they have enjoyed advances in modern society. So has everybody else to a greater or lesser extent. Since the British left Aden, it has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons. Like many other Britons, I am proud to say it once was home to me for a short time.