{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th September 1974]

[Redbook2:61][19740919:2130]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th September 1974]

19740919.2130

            … never to be experienced again.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger30042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th September 1974]

[Redbook2:61][19740919:2030]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th September 1974]

Thursday 19740919.2030

            I write in the plane.  The overwhelming sense is sadness: every moment, of course, is a moment lost, but in a place and at a time such as this every instant of experience is, one feels, never to be repeated…

[continues]

[PostedBlogger28for29042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[18th September 1974]

[Redbook2:59][19740918:1134a]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[18th September 1974]

Wednesday 19740918.1134

[continued]

            Today I pack; tonight there is a farewell party.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger27for28042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[18th September 1974]

[Redbook2:59][19740918:1134]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[18th September 1974]

Wednesday 19740918.1134

            It has been a quiet week or so, for which I am grateful.  A week ago last Tuesday W[R] left for Malawi.  Last Saturday KT drove me to Marandellas to meet her parents and her little brother Z [...] and to see Peterhouse [School].

[continues]

[PostedBlogger27042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[9th September 1974]

[Redbook2:58][19740909:0725c]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[9th September 1974]

Monday 19740909.0725

[continued]

            On Sunday, A took [L(J-V)] (an S.A.S Captain), W[R] and myself gliding.  At about 8,000 feet, twisting violently to catch lift (on no lunch, at about 5.30 pm), I felt sick, but wasn’t; it passed.  But my hands lost all blood and became numb – symptoms of oxygen starvation.  W[R] went up to about 10,000 feet, did stall turns and a loop on the way down, and complained of a sore rear from the seat!

[PostedBlogger26042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[9th September 1974]

[Redbook2:57][19740909:0725b]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[9th September 1974]

Monday 19740909.0725

[continued]

            Very early on Saturday A and I took a Rhodesian Air Force Dakota from Sarum to Inyanga (sp[elt]?) Airstrip.  I saw the sun come up over this beautiful Martian landscape, from the Flight Deck.  To land we flew at c.50 feet over a range of hills, circled between two ranges to lose height, flew over the next range and half-circled again to land.  We were the first Dakota (or similarly large aircraft, I think) to land there.

            We picked up about 30 Africans and took them on to Centenary.  A had told me that I was her photographer; this was in fact for the Press’s benefit, but I had a bad conscience for most of the day, especially since we were accompanied by a Special Branch man!

            At Centenary the Africans were given talks by the local chiefs, and were shown the victims and the dead terrorists – by now (4 days) very dead.

            We returned in a Police Reserve truck, with armed and ready Reservists.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger26for25042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[9th September 1974]

[Redbook2:57][19740909:0725a]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[9th September 1974]

Monday 19740909.0725

[continued]

            On Friday evening X and I went to supper with B and R and 2 guests, and afterwards to ‘The Three Musketeers’.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger24042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[9th September 1974]

[Redbook2:57][19740909:0725]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[9th September 1974]

Monday 19740909.0725

            On Thursday evening I saw ‘A Doll’s House’ at the Reps.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger23042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

[Redbook2:56][19740905:1250]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

.1250

            … The Parrot, when he knows (?) that I am in U’s study (next to the living-room in which his cage lives), has taken to calling “Boss [Hunter]!”*, whistling urgently (and piercingly), and making other vulgar noises.  He rarely talks much if he feels he is being watched; but I came in unobserved a few minutes ago and watched him talk for a few minutes before he saw me and became horribly embarrassed.

*but who taught him?  No one else calls me that.

[PostedBlogger22042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

[Redbook2:55-56][19740905:1206c]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

Sunday 19740905.1206

[continued]

            [….]

[PostedBlogger21042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

[Redbook2:55][19740905:1206b]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

Sunday 19740905.1206

[continued]

            On Wednesday W[R]  and I were taken by Mr Stead of the Ministry/Department of Internal Services (?) round to a Tribal Trust Land between Sinoya and Hartley.  What we saw was interesting, what he told us was invaluable. 

[continues]

[PostedBlogger20042014]

A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

[Redbook2:55][19740905:1206a]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

Sunday 19740905.1206

[continued]

            On Tuesday we climbed to the Acropolis and looked out into a Scotch Mist – my kind of weather.  Lake (!) Kyle is beautiful in similar weather.  No pedestrians are allowed on the dam wall between Sunset and Sunrise; it carries the main road.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger19042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

[Redbook2:55][19740905:1206]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[5th September 1974]

Sunday 19740905.1206

            On Monday U drove W[R] and me to Fort Victoria; we stayed at the Zimbabwe Ruins Hotel.  The Great Enclosure (?) – the main walled part – was impressive by moonlight, but not unfriendly.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger18042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[1st September 1974]

[Redbook2:54][19740901:1732]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[1^st September 1974]

Sunday 19740901.1732

            C has gone!  This morning A and I took her to the Airport; and already, after a trip to lake McIlwaine, its Game Park, and the Lion and Cheetah Park, I feel recreated.  Last night I reached a peak of shallow emptiness – (creative?) frustration – which has largely disappeared.  I could now write.

            During the week I ‘did’ Salisbury – the Kopje, the outside of the Art Gallery (closed until the end of September), and the outside of Parliament, in one morning; and yesterday the Victoria Museum.  I went to a Drive-in.  On Friday S and I flew to Victoria Falls and back, visiting a Crocodile Farm, and taking a boat trip and a light aircraft flight.  Presumably other things must have happened during the week; I recall only a fraught atmosphere.  C left rather ‘agin’ me because I wouldn’t clean her shoes while she made coffee.  [WR] (arrived Friday) did it instead. 

            A new life begins!?

[PostedBlogger17042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[27th August 1974]

[Redbook2:52-53][19740827:0915a]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[27th August 1974]

Friday 19740827.0915

[continued]

            After lunch in the Officer’s Mess at R(hodesian) A. F. Thornhill, we took the coach back – with C!  She has been here ever since, creating a wall of noise and driving everyone underground or away.  A is nearly desperate (C is in Rhodesia till Sept ?2^nd, and again later); X goes away with friends as much as possible, which is a shame; U is quiet and good but (I suspect) not happy; and I am frustrated by this woman who shuts off my Rhodesian family with a flick of her jaw.  Her voice is an electric buzz; she has told the same story about O swimming three times yesterday, and about N’s baths twice (once when he was there).  Yesterday wasn’t too bad, but Sunday afternoon was dreadful; and the evening meal was depressing beyond belief.

[PostedBlogger16042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[27th August 1974]

[Redbook2:52][19740827:0915]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[27th August 1974]

Friday 19740827.0915

            Thursday night’s beer left me (unusually) with a hangover.  By Saturday I had recovered sufficiently to cope with a four or five hour coach trip to […].  Everything was late including our arrival at the church, but we just got there for the vows.

            The party afterwards was tremendous fun—S and S2 enjoyed it particularly.   I sweated out my drink so fast that I never became drunk, despite relatively vast consumption. 

            About half an hour after we had all gone to bed we were woken up again for the next stage of the party, at ?[IR]’s house – not such fun, so left after about an hour, at only about one-thirty in the morning.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger15042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[23rd August 1974]

[Redbook2:51][19740823:1135a]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[23rd August 1974]

Friday 19740823.1135

[continued]

            Yesterday was O’s (second) bachelor party – poor O determined to get drunk (or at least pretend to).  I think in the end, he succeeded. I couldn’t get this beer down fast enough – between six and ten Cape Pints – to get drunk: the bubbles fill me up.

[PostedBlogger14042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[23rd August 1974]

Redbook2:51][19740823:1135]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[23rd August 1974]

Friday 19740823.1135

            On Wednesday we drove to Sinoia; A to speak to farmers, X and [M][a young soldier] to see *Lance Smith’s farm (where M’s father works), and myself to the caves – a most beautiful lake of blue water in a deep crater.  Trying to go down the Dark Cave, I came to a point where I could see neither forward nor back, and could hear only bats squeaking; and the handrail ended.  So I returned to the farmers, to [collect] A; there I met an Old [School]ian whose wife invited us to stay with them on the way to or from Kariba.  At Smith’s farm M’s Afrikaner father gave us a marvellous meal.  We returned late; X and I recovering from sore throats (probably from dust) ever since.

* [A government minister – sometime Minister for Internal Affairs]

[continues]

[PostedBlogger13042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[21st August 1974]

[Redbook2:49-50][19740821:1356a]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[21st August 1974]

Wednesday 19740821.1356

[continued]

[….]

            [PostedBlogger12042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[21st August 1974]

[Redbook2:49][19740821:1356]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[21st August 1974]

Wednesday 19740821.1356

Just before we left Nyanyadzi, we went to the local market.  A drunken African ran past us singing and laughing.  There was an uncertain moment before the crowd of Africans laughed with us; during that moment, some may have been laughing at us.  So what?  How can I convey the unease of the situation?  At Nyanyadzi I felt that we walked a tightrope – but we were the Police, of course, and paid to be suspicious.

A reckons that the same tension exists in Salisbury.  She is pessimistic about the situation.  She plans to stay here, above or under ground.

[continues]

            [PostedBlogger11042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th August 1974]

[Redbook2:48][19740819:0000j]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19^th August 1974]

Monday 19740819

[continued]

            On Sunday I watched them play tennis; then we lunched at Hot Springs.  We [had] left the Police Station at about half past three, arriving back at about a quarter past eight.

            This morning X has a frightful hangover.

            [PostedBlogger10042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th August 1974]

[Redbook2:47-48][19740819:0000i]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19^th August 1974]

Monday 19740819

[continued]

            On Saturday evening we visited the irrigation scheme and African farms – impressive, taking advantage of  *(?insect dropping – arrived from clear blue sky) rich alluvial soil (to a depth of 90 feet, apparently.  [….]

            [continues]

            [PostedBlogger09042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th August 1974]

[Redbook2:46-47][19740819:0000h]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19^th August 1974]

Monday 19740819

[continued]

            At Nyandzi’s Police Station I met […] V – a likeable bloke, and an able Section Officer, likely to go a long way [….]. 

My only slight doubt […] is about his police work.  He is clearly a good policeman, and a policeman’s job must involve classification.  But once or twice, especially at Hot Springs, he expressed dislike of particular kinds of people who passed – something distantly approaching the ‘hippy’ type – which made me uneasy.  When an able and ambitious young policeman starts to classify and condemn, one begins to wonder how far he will take on himself the function of judge as well as those of policeman and (in this case) public prosecutor and ‘executioner’ (not literally, but as imprisoner).

            [….]

            [continues]

            [PostedBlogger08042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th August 1974]

[Redbook2:46][19740819:0000g]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19^th August 1974]

Monday 19740819

[continued]

            On Saturday morning, X, [CG] and I set off to drive to Umtali (for Nyanyadzi, where R’s [V(T)] is stationed). C talked of cars most of the way, drove about one-third of the way, and tried to complain about family – once successfully.  She was relatively easy until we arrived at Umtali, to discover that [D] and [N] had already left.  (In fact, having expected us at 12 noon, they passed us as we came down from Christmas Pass into Umtali at about 2pm.)  There she and [O] quarrelled from the moment they met, and were all set to go on doing so when we left for Nyanyadzi.

[continues]

            [PostedBlogger07042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th August 1974]

[Redbook2:44-45][19740819:0000f]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19^th August 1974]

Monday 19740819

[continued]

            On Friday morning the [J]s? took me on their tour round Harare and parts of other African townships.  The hotel, art school, commercial sculpture and weaving, cinema, swimming pool, expensive quarter and railway village were interesting.  I felt particularly embarrassed as we cruised round a crescent of expensive African houses where families sat in their gardens – perhaps because I could identify with them. In the poorer areas, we in our white(?) mini-bus labelled ‘African Administration’ were simply out of place. Lovemore Ashasha(??), from the Ministry of Information, who came with us, told me more than our European official, Mr. Milton – a decent chap but with the appearance of the typical thick colonial administrator.  But I suspect Lovemore A’s information had a somewhat African slant, just as Mr. Milton and one of the other [white] Rhodesian’s on the tour were pretty tactless about Africans, in his presence.

            A library we visited had a shelf on Africa containing only books such as John Biggs Davison’s (or purely factual works).  His is a view with which I largely agree, if I understand it right (not having read it), but it is not the only view.

[continues]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th August 1974]

[Redbook2:44][19740819:0000e]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19^th August 1974]

Monday 19740819

[continued]

           

            On Friday evening we went to the circus – the best I have ever seen, it travels (apparently) round Southern Africa.  The juggler was superb.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger05042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th August 1974]

[Redbook2:44][19740819:0000d]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19^th August 1974]

Monday 19740819

[continued]

            On Thursday evening R, K[T], ‘T’, and her fiancé[…] took me to a piano recital at […] school, given by an old-girl-made-good.  During the first piece, someone started a whistling snore, and I don’t altogether blame him.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger04042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th August 1974]

[Redbook2:43-44][19740819:0000c]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19^th August 1974]

Monday 19740819

[continued]

            I have bicycled and driven locally a certain amount.  During the week I bicycled down to the University – no dust problems until I reached it – to sit in on a tutorial by [U] and to have lunch with him and [N].  I have been to the Archives, extended my air ticket by a week, and been with A and [X] to have tea with [C] and N in her room.  They really are difficult – not then, but at the Ballet on Wednesday: when, during the Interval, [R] and I went to talk to them, they turned their backs and walked away!  What it is to be in love.  I am told not to be offended – this is usual; but how sad that everyone says how difficult it is to get through to them.  Together on the sofa on my second evening, they cast a pall over the whole gathering, squirming and getting their legs mixed up and pretending to sulk.  But in a strange way I think they may be well suited.

            My biggest clanger so far was not recognising N.  She has lost weight.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger03042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19th August 1974]

[Redbook2:43][19740819:0000b]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[19^th August 1974]

Monday 19740819

[continued]

            It must have been on Saturday or Sunday that [A] and I went to lunch with the (?) Director of Programmes – a slightly spiteful but amusing man: an ‘amusing’ but slightly dangerous? lunch party.

[continues]

[PostedBlogger02042014]

{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[14th August 1974]

[Redbook2:42][19740814:0000a]{A Trip to the Colonies [continued]}[14^th August 1974]

Wednesday 19740814

[continued]

Salisbury is an attractive place, a riot of colourful trees and quiet bungalows dotted between them (-- this is white Salisbury).  Dozens of people visited on Saturday, including KT, [PM] Ian Smith’s personal secretary, with whom I talked government (non-specifically).

            [continues]

[PostedBlogger01042014]