1958-08-12 — Page 4

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THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1958.

Altogether it was a very odd holiday. Nothing worked out quite as the guide-book said it should have done, and there was something definitely peculiar about the hotel.

My wife still wonders why the Italians

-laughed

IT was in the midst of winter that we found it. My wife pointed to the tiny spot on the map and said: "Let's go there. Let's spend our holiday on this little island."

And so we dreamed of Ischia. Of its blue skies, its golden days,

ita lonely, pine-fringed beaches. We real and we planned.

It was in the midst of summer that we arrived. Behind us was the parkling, dancing Bay of Naples. In front of us stood a solitary porter. "The Albergo delin Regina Isabella," I commantled. This is a long-sume, but although my knowledge of Halian is weak. I am proúd of my prominelation.

G

that they silent efflelency expert and The porter, a

rather man, shrugged. He picked up were on duty to see that no une our luggage and plied on walked away with the assets. barrow. The streets island were norrow and cobbled, and at the same angle to the ground as rocket-launching ramp,

nol

was

I decided not to tell my wife. She was standing on the bed- room balemy king at a mag- nificant ancient Roman fortress on the skyline, which cast a the cunt, dark town,

shundow

stand are the stuff of which winter memories are made.

Hour afler hour and day after day

we swam in the

the

terrace over

warm, buoyant whicr of the Mediterranean, blistered on the silent, silvery sands, and sipped aperitifs on over

The spellbound sea,

And tur holiday drifted by, "Other people have found lands before I was saying to my wife one afternoon, as we heavy

BLOWN UP

We fought our way through an escort of dancing, barefooled bambinos,

He was

only

Gslient

I went through every page of. mit unga - porter. He

Dat guide-book on Ichia, but He piled the. fuggage or clous.

scowled I could find no mention of it, dozed on our beds after doorstep, tise hotel

bustle of I was still looking when there luncheon, "But surely there is when I gave him a

to have was o knock at the door and

none so charming as Ischia." re large enough

Olive-skinned Just then the broker's men pered his house, and slunk in walked nu

in. Italian girl with a smile as pute walked

Apparently the mway.

of philosophy was professor doing even worse business than we thought.

AMISS

As soon as we saw the hotel,

som we alised there was

Quiel it may have thing amiss.

sen (rum been, a view of the every bedroom it certainly had. Butte were two immense, uniformed men in the hall and black jockt the receptionist la and striped trousers carefully imprecable servant.

Was

12.0

as an angel's. She was carrying a bucket of water. She bobbed "Sprechen Sle sulet and Deutrah?"

I raid not only that I couldn't, but that I didn't want to. Influence seems thol the

Įt

ot Is

Ke selring's army in Italy rather more dreply rooted than we think.

expert's

She explained that the hotel as a civil drew its water from a well, and

efficiency that the assistant had unhappily kept the electric pump running after The pump the well was dry. and blown up.

As I remarked to my family, staff lite that costs money und it is the Rust who pays. But trade must have been fod, for the men in uniform were drink- ing beer.

the

BUCKET

In the meantine she had

Civilly they put down Klasses and took our luggage found us this nice, clean bucket.

upstairs. But they refused

tip on the grounds that they wire policemen. As I said my Italian is a bit limp and they were simpst out of sight before 1 culled em back.

it

My wife heard none of this. She was still admiring the awe- come ruins,

"What," she asked the inaid, is its name?"

the

That is the gaol," she replied.

that it was Italian version of Parkhurst.

They were very good. They explained that the hotel had. She added gone broke, that the professor of philosophy who owned it was aomewhat inexperienced,

that

11

by the

the receptionist was Indeed civil servant put 10 Italian Government

"Odd," frowned my wife, "it set mentioned in the guide- book."

Bui, after all, these little dis-

an coveries on a secret, solitary

GREAT SCOT-IT'S HAIG

(Born 1627)

HAIG'S

* 14OTCH MAMA+

GOLD LABEL

JOHN HAIG a Calie

MIN HARRINE LISTENE

1989 UNSER KALMA

URBANE

to make an

They started inventory. Politely, they lifted our feet and counted the sheets, Urbanely they raised our heads and totted up the pillows. They looked under the beds and beeltes, wrote it counted the

all down and bode us a polite goodbye.

That night my wife and I stood on cur balcony and hand in hand looked up the glittering

Martici

thway of the Vine dark nea.

A solitary, silent porter took charge of the tuggage

moon

on the

men

broker's Below us the were counting the potted palms. Ischip was certainly filled to The brim with quaint and strange romance.

It was the next morning that I noticed the tag on my key as it lay on the breakfast table. 1 read "Albergo le Arcades."

LOOK

I remember laughing. “What n joke it would tie," I said, "I staying in the we had been wrg hotel all the time."

sald "Nonsense,"

my wife. "'s just an old key tag."

If hadn't bumped into the tufessor of philosophy straight after breakfast the subject been raised would never have but I did ask him-

"You do not call this the Hotel te Arcudes any longer, do you?"

**Q}z

he sald. no,"

"No longer do we call it the Hotel Arcades. Now we call the Hotel Pit. The French tourists

e Pir better."

"Hole Pl" I said unsteadily. "But we're supposed to be at the

Regina Albergo Fella

Whereabouts x 1" Isabella.

"There is no such hotel on tels Istand," he replied.

"Nonsense, of course there is. Here, look for yourself." I pull ed out the gulde-book from my pocket, and thrust it into his heard.

For a man laden down with being eaten out of debt and house and home by e ormous policemen, the professor bad an od sense of humour.

"My dear sir," he said, trying to replace his spectacles, "My dear sir, you are not only be the the wrong hotel,

you are un wrong Island This is Proscila, The Ischia beat stops here on his way from Naples."

CACKLED

were

ROUND-UP

100-YEAR LİNK WITH CAMERONS

MANY ex-Camerong attended the recent reunion at Dover Callo

of the lat. Battalion the Queen's Own Cameron Highlander, Major-General D. N. Wimberley, D.S.O., M.C., Colonel of the Regiment who took the salute at a march-past, has femily con- nections with the Camerons which go buck 100 years. He brought with him to the reunion a stail qualch made from sliver rupees laken at the Siege of Lucknow in 1858 by his grandfather, Captain Douglas Wimberley, then Adjutant of the 70th, General Wimbor ley'a son was also adjutant of the 78th in 1057 when the regiment was in Korea and Aden. During the day visitors saw the old Coloum which were carried by the regiment during the Crimcan War and the Indlan Mutiny. The reunion was possibly the last be- fore amalgamation of the Camerons with the Seaforth Highlanders. BOWS-AND-ARROWS MATCH

A

TIANS-ATLANTIC archery match has just taken place be- tween bowmen in Nottinghamshire and those in Sherwood, Oregon, United States America, 0,000 miles apart. The American archers--celebrating a "Robin Hood Festival"-beat the Notting- hamshire County Archery Socialy by 10,112 points to 9,909. Not- tinghamshire shot their match eight hours ahead of their chal- Jengers. Results were exchanged by cable.

NORFOLK'S GIANT REPTILE

SKE

KELETON remains of a giant marine reptile of 130 million years ago the fossili of the head and vertebrae of an Ichthyosaurus -has been found at Stow Bridge, Norfolk, by a pumpman during excavations for the Great Ouse flood protection scheme. The bead aisasures 47 inches. Dr C. L. Forbes, assistant curator at the Sedg= wick Museum of Geology at Cambridge says, "It is the biggest head i have ever seen from Kimmeridge clay. He belleves the reptile was 24 feet long.

MYSTERY OF ADMIRAL'S UNIFORM

M

TYSTERY of an almiral's full-dress uniform at the National Maritime Museum has been suived. The uniform was found in an old chest by the donor but there was no discernible clue to whom it had belonged. Naval historians, however, noticed there had been alterations to the coat which indicated the owner had been an admirat in 1850, Then they found a label bearing the below from the prison on the word "Earl." A check with the Admiralty records showed that there was only one admiral who was an earl in 1956-the Eart of hill.

Dundonald. A photograph supplied by the present Dundonald family confirmed their theory. In the photograph, the admiral was wearing the same uniform. AMBULANCES' BUSIEST DAY

i was rather grateful when our last day arrived.

LAUGHTER

So grateful tent I didn't even notice until afterwards that the efficiency expert had under- charged us 10,000 lire.

We boarded the boat to take, us across the blue boy to Naples, Behind us lay the quiet days and the laughter,

"What gay people they are." righed my wife, as she looked back over the boat rail. And how wel; you got along with them, But really these tullans!

Their guide-books are so un- reliable they are absolutely useless,"

Winter is not all that distance Happily my wile was out of

And now we have the earshot. But the policemen away.

our of

island to the memories Nelther weren't,

were busy dream of. broker's men, who counting the chairs.

That, unless my wife meets

who spen: Provella is a small place, but someone else

summer holiday on the roman- even so gossip Mes.

chores Old, ok women swathed in the palm-tringed black cocicled en we walked past Ischla. them.

The children giggled from the The surly parter doorways,

And from the quay smirked, there was even an odd sort of

-By Bernard Drew

This is revealed in a survey of the year's RUSIEST day of the week for ambulance, calls in London last

year was Friday. work of the london Ambulance Service, which shows that an average of 207 emergency "99" telephone calls were received cuch day, with an average of 291 on Friday. For every 100 pallents cur- ried by ambulance in 1947, 459 were carried last year; for every 100 miles and 100 Journeys undertaken in 1947 there were 277 miles and 201 journeys last year. There were more street accidents involving young men and women between the ages of 15 and 24 than in any other age group. The average time to reach the scene of street necidents, to which there were 17,704 calls, was 5.8 minutes. ALLOTMENT

IEEPING on allotment on a Durham railway embankment is A Lord Lawson, formerly Labour M.P. for Chester-le-Street who became Secretary of State for Wor. Nearby is his terrace house in which he has lived with Lady Lawson for more than 30 years. Both are 70 years old. He was a miner and she a domestic Lord Lawson has been servant when they married 52 years ago. Lord Lieutenant of Durham since 1849-unpaid. He has no pen- sian.

this GREETINGS TO SAILORS

of RELATIVES of men serving in the Royal Navy who visit this year's Radio Show at Olympia, London, will be able to send Other Navy exhibits will free greeting telegrams to those at sea. cover 50 years of radio progress. Up-to-date air radio equipment will be displayed on a Whirlwind fellcopter. It is just 30 years since standardisation of radio equipment in British warships was achieved..

› THOMAS WISEMAN'S LIMELIGHT MEETS THE ETERNAL IDOL

The very simple art

of keeping

MR

AIC

"THE WINE HOUSE"

GANDE, PRICE & CO., LTD. Tols: 20136, 36361 & 33246

Sunkist

ORANGE

drink

Sunkist

ORANGE in boffles

young- –CARY GRANT, 54,

GIVES A PRACTICAL LECTURE

doubtedly one

people

have

Blacken zú

NO SMOKING NO DRINKING

PLEASE

tou-minute nap

1

Mr Grant at 54. 18 11- Mr Grant said, "Age is not n course many old men are far it is only a matter of being ablo could take a [R CARY GRANT

most matter of age. Despite the fact from maturo, This belief to speed up its action. Perhaps and be completely refreshed has spent a lifetime accomplished leg erossers and that we are bustly polsoning enables him to say I shall con- the use of the term self-hypnosis afterwards.”

play remantle roles is deceptive; it is really a matter Of course, Mr Grant is quick perfecting the art of clinking whisky drinkers in ourselves in every way possible tinue to

the business. He has practised and taking every opportunity to until I am dowd if not longer. of relaxation. It is the ability to point out that these ablitio

They being himself. which is the ait of concealing art no kill ourselves off man is living The advantages which tho which Napoleon had of being are not casy to acquire.

mature man has over hi able to relax completely in the are all part of learning to bo perhaps more difficult successfully and for so long that a lot longer. Someone who was

of a battle. Churchill yourself come to an old man before is not an old unmature rival in the matter of middle,

which can be a lifes

J than one would at first regard him as art-less. This is man now; in the samÜ way appealing 50

are hnd this ability, In the middle work. someone who is young in years apparently considerable.

He of the most strenuous

(London Express Service). suppose. To be yourself to under-estimate both the man

can be an old man at foot and gys Mr Grant has stopped a man who is old in years can being exclusively interested in you have got to know

in reality be young”,

imself arul can therefore dis- who you are, and that

play some interest in the woman takes some doing.

he is with, He has accepted himsel

and his abfütles,

That subject

1 said that this sounded JUR- pleiously like that old bronde,

Critics whỏ conpink that on

As a man, he is a good deal "You are as young as you feel

Mr Grant said, "I am always the screen Mr Grant is always deeper thin his pollshed per- very

suspicious of belloving the same-charming, debonair, formances suggest; he is inter- something would like to + relaxed tend to forget how ested as few movie stars of my belleve. But in this case I have diMcult it is to be charming, pequaintance are, in finding out the proof I also used to think. debonair and relaxed.;

what life is all about. His latest when I saw a young girl with a "When eri les say I am always aim is not the be-all and end- much older man, that there was -me." retorts Me Grant, "I don't all of existence. His latest film, something strange in this.

understand what they are acidentally, is called Indisereot, getting at. Who else should I and Mr Grant mado only a bc? Marion Brarkio?" I con nominal attempt to plug it in coded that might

be overdoing the course of our interview, things.

which is another reason why I like the man.

No misgivings

women

'Looks' control

Nor does Mr Grant concede that baldness, fatness and phys- cal decline are necessary con comitants of maturity. "Plenty of young man, he said, go to Dood That has nothing to de with age. The man who cats too much drinks too much and "But I have discovered that generally goes to pleces doesn't thewo things have nothing to do do it because he is getting older, with your actual age in yards he does it because he is still the young girl and the old man Immature, We can all, to alerge may be the same bioteɣical SEO oxfent, control what' we look To be remebody eloc, accord- cerbed with more mystical andherefore really waited to like." ing to Mr Grant, is pretty easy: matters than movie making. But elch other. A young man and to hide behind # mask, it began with the inescapable a young girl may be of different grlinaco, a character is not half subject of Mr Grant's age. The biological

No noise

The conversation' WAS CON-

ago and

"This business of being able to therefore control your own body has been

un dimcult us to cross your legs, subject is inescapable because totally unsalted each other." carried even farther by Mr as yourself, with a certain he has contrived to look a good degree of gracefulness,

deal younger than his age for As for taking o' denk in such longer than I can. remember.

Gra who can hypoolise him- Grant self 'not to feel pain, For this reason, Mr

"to a dentist" and "I can go misgivings about con- feal no a manner that the leg doesn't This is an accomplishment for tinuing to plan romantic roles hypnotise myself not to feel any- elink in the glows and sound like which no Oscars are awarded. on the screen. In any case he thing. I can make wounds boal a thunder-clip on the sound but it is even more envied than track, that can only be achieved those shining trophies by other very after years of hardt pruedes,

in convinced, that women are in half the time that it would much attracted by normally take, The body maturity in a man though of postmos restorative powers and i'

day ho

ZANIES

Bany

"It's for you!"*

1