Hogan plus Vowles

Every year about Christmas parents get the annual school photograph and then send them out to Grandparents etc. We have received five out of eight - and here they are - hopefully we will get the rest later. The first picture is Talan, the next two are Grace and Jack, the third photo is Devon, and the fourth Niall. Tina is an only child ! and here we have eight grandchildren - to recap they are as follows:- Rachael , the eldest who is 20 on April 30th. She is currently at Lincoln University doing an Arts Degree in design etc. Niall who is also coming up to 20 on May 21st. He's at University in Ottawa and hoping to enter the legal profession. Michael , Rachael's younger brother, who is 19 on November 18th. He's doing an apprenticeship in the motor trade in Somerset and doing well. Devon , 16 years of age on Mar 5th. The biggest of the lot over 6ft.4ins. just shading his brother Niall, and at High School in Ottawa. Brishen , she is 8 years old and at junior school in Ottawa....

We often hear the term - "The Better Half"- meaning of course one's wife. I was reminded of this one day recently when going through some memorabilia and came across Tina's old passport issued in Capetown and a picture of a tug. The tug was the Suid Afrikanse Hawedienst vessel "Otto Siedle" - here pictured off Cape Town. I was in the SA Harbour Service as a Marine Offcer based in Walvis Bay in the mid 1960's. Walvis Bay was then in Suid West Afrika and had been taken from the German's after WW1. It is now Namibia and greatly changed [for the better.] We went there at the time of the Seamen's Strike. In 1966 Tina was 28, Greg was 5, and Gerard was 3 years old. It was tough - the troubles were starting in Angola and Apartheid was gathering momentum. In August 1966 the tug was scheduled to go to Capetown for refit and to do this via a call at Luderitz to pick up a bucket dredger. The tug was a coal-burning steam tug with twin s...

Before returning to Ireland we went up to Lincolnshire to celebrate Greg's Birthday with him. It was a good evening - Mum cooked Chickhen Tropicale with Michelle and Michelle also produced a wicked Banoffee Pie with a really nice Lemon Cheesecake. Greg & Michelle's friends came with their son, and Elaine helped polish off a really good repast rounded off with a good parlour game and lots of laughs. See the photographs. Here is where I was in 1961 when Greg was born - on passage from Japan to South Australia to load a full cargo of wheat for Europe. I had left Tina in Leith, the port for Edinburgh, late evening on Friday, 3rd June 1960 and sailed for Cuba to load sugar for Japan. Tina was not really sure that she was pregnant. By July we were bound to Tokyo and Kobe across the Pacific. August saw us heading from Japan to Wallaroo in South Australia to load wheat for Iraq and by October we were in Basra discharging. We went from Iraq to Goa in India and loaded manganese ...

This is Orville with Keith Harris.