A BLAST FROM THE PAST.

Some of you will know that Mark, at one stage, has been in jail. Yes, as upstanding and civic minded as he is now, he has been on the wrong side of a cell door - one of Saddam Hussein’s cell doors at that.

Mark was imprisoned in Fallujah, just outside of Baghdad in April, 1990. It is a very long story and for those of you who have heard it zoom down to the bottom of the post and the pictures to see why it is being revisited now. 

Essentially Mark met an American guy, Chris Cantelmi, in Amman, Jordan at The Cliff hotel – a renowned travellers’ hangout. Chris was planning to hitch-hike the 1,000 Kms into Baghdad and persuaded Mark to join him. 

Chris delayed his departure or Iraq by a day so Mark could get an Iraqi visa. Setting off in rain from Amman, they caught lifts on a variety of trucks, driving at breakneck speeds along a highway littered with the burned-out remains of trucks that had either been targeted in the Iran/Iraq war or simply run off the road. Having just met the day before they whiled away the hours trying to chat to their drivers or sharing their own stories of travels and life at home. 

They crossed the border in the wee small hours and caught a lift with a truckie who, at one stage, Mark saw slapping himself to stay awake as he weaved around the potholes and shell blast craters in the road. The next day they found themselves being dropped off on the freeway just 60 kms from Baghdad. As they walked along the freeway to get to the Baghdad turnoff and, with the end so close, they saw a highway patrol car drive past them, slow down, do a U-turn and come back. 

Two hitch hiking foreigners were a slightly unusual sight in Iraq and the boys were walking on the freeway – an offence in most countries including Australia. A cursory search of their bags on the road produced cameras and long lenses. This was enough to warrant being driven to the local police station where further incriminating evidence was found, not the least being a snorkel that Chris had brought with him. There was a series of ‘interviews’ largely in Arabic about who they were and what they were doing. All through this they kept hearing the word ‘Bazoft’ and couldn’t work out what it meant. 

It was all quite polite and calm even though Chris persisted in, unknowingly, offending the station chief by sitting with his legs crossed in a way that showed the soles of his shoes to the captain. A grave insult in the Middle East. Eventually Mark & Chris were ushered into a cell. Up until now they were not too worried more anxious to get on their way to Baghdad. The sight of a large room filled with perhaps 40 men and cell bars caused some consternation. It was only in the cell that they realised what the word ‘Bazoft’ was all about. Click on the link to read what it meant. Bazoft

It was Ramadan and soon food was brought in by the prisoners’ families to break the fast as the sun went down. Mark & Chris accepted their cell-mates' offers to share the food. Around communal dishes some of the men tried to tell Chris and Mark that they were in for murder and shooting down planes. What they were really in for was never found out.

As well as the implications of ‘Bazoft’  the boys were concerned about what may lay ahead for them that night in a room with so many men many of whom would have been in the recently ended Iran/Iraq war and who may not be of entirely stable minds. Both Mark & Chris had seen ‘Midnight Express’ a movie about an American’s time in a Turkish jail. Requests to call embassies were ignored but eventually they were moved into a separate room for the night. Perhaps saving them from experiences they might not have wanted to recount later.

The next day a local English speaking high school teacher was brought in to translate. Two hours of questions followed again all fairly polite and calm but Mark & Chris were becoming increasingly concerned about just when all this would end. It was when the translator got up to leave that they asked him what was going to happen now. As Mark recalls the teacher said "You will be taken to a different district where you will be judged”. With a high degree of trepidation and some reluctance they were put into an army jeep and driven to an army base farther away from Baghdad.  Once in the army base they waited in an office to be questioned further. Now that the military appeared to be involved Mark & Chris were very worried. After a tense wait, through the office door walked a tall casually dressed Iraqi man who smiled and said, in the purest of New York accents, “ Hi guys, what’s happening ?"

This was not at all what Mark & Chris had expected and through sheer nervous tension both cracked up laughing, a move which could have been unfortunate but luckily wasn’t. After a fairly brief questioning the ‘officer’, who had studied in The US, apologised explaining they had just come out of the war with Iran and, of course, Bazoft. He drove them to the local bus station with wishes for an enjoyable stay in Iraq.

Once in Baghdad Mark & Chris decided to inform their respective embassies. Mark was able to get into the US embassy with Chris, an experience in itself given all the security even then. The Americans were suitable ‘impressed’ and concerned, taking copious notes over several hours. By the time they got to the Australian Embassy, it had closed. They walked up the unguarded path and knocked on the door. There was no answer. By chance an embassy officer drove past, wound down his window to see what they wanted. They explained what had happened, he asked if they were Ok and, seeing they were, wished them well and suggested they come back on Sunday when the embassy re-opened.

They didn’t.

Mark & Chris went on to have a great time in Iraq. They found the Iraqi's to be friendly, honest & generous. At that stage they were eager to re-start their lives after the previous disastrous years of war. Of course they were all just a few months out from the 1st American war and the consequences that would be so disastrous. Mark & Chris also made use of the favourable street exchange rates by going to the Sheraton hotel for what amounted to $2 breakfasts as well as attending Easter Sunday church service. They visited Basra ,and its Sheraton, in the south and what would become Kurdistan in the north. Although they considered catching a bus back they hitched out again a few weeks later. This time uneventfully.

So why all this story and the post title A BLAST FROM THE PAST ? 

Chris was briefly in London and, after 20 years, came around for dinner last night. Having 'dined out' on this story for so many years it was great to actually relive it with Chris, to see that most of what had been remembered was accurate and to be reminded of things forgotten.

Below are some pictures taken after their release and more recent ones. Don't forget you can click on the pictures and they will open up at a higher resolution.

How could they have suspected
 these two of no good ?

 Catching up on local news
at the Baghdad Sheraton, 1990.

Chris, in Baghdad,
with the offending snorkel.

Like good whisky, 
they really have aged incredibly well.....

Catching up on local news in East Finchley, 2011.

As a teacher Mark has used all sorts of stimuli to get students to write. Early in his teaching in Canberra he motivated his class by earnestly informing them he had been to jail with an American called Chris. 
They had to imagine why. 

Here are a few of them that were scanned and kept.

The Hottest Spring Ever !

SHOCK !

There was almost a whole day of drizzle on Wednesday last week. A whole day ! Drizzle !!

It was the first time we had taken our umbrellas out in almost 2 months.  With talk now of almost certain water restrictions and possible crop failures I actually uttered words more commonly heard in Australia, “You can’t complain about the rain, we need it.”  Have a look at the BBC weather story below. Essentially southern England has had only 12% of the spring rain we should have had a total of just 15 mls. BBC WEATHER VIDEO

 This newspaper article talks about a spring average temp of 9.2 C …”the hottest since records began” Somehow putting 9.2 degrees and the word ‘hot’ together doesn’t sound quite right. Of course it is all relative. Many people are predicting that a warm spring means a cool summer. We are hoping not but graziers and farmers may feel differently. 

A radio report yesterday had experts predicting crop failures if there is no significant rain in the next two weeks. It seems South East England suffers a similar problem to Canberra, which sits in a rain shadow. It can be raining all over northern and central UK and not here.

It certainly is strange though having had stories on receding dam levels in Australia for the past 10 years (Canberra’s dam levels are 97% full and Sydney’s are 75% as they head into winter) to now have them here in England. After years of saving and reusing water at home we are now doing it here ! The up side of course is great sunny days and we haven’t had the heating on for over two months.

The unseasonal good weather was a bonus for the recent May Day celebrations held at Whiteland's College. Sally's mum and her Grandma went to Whiteland's teacher training College as did Jane, Mark's landlady from 1991. In a tradition that goes back to th elate 1800s, each year the senior students in the college choose either a May Queen or king. It is a job for life and each year a reunion is held and former monarchs return to the college in their specially made robes. maypole dancing and Morris dancers are highlights of the day. 

May Queens from previous years

Morris dancers

William & Aisha
join in the Maypole dancing

More recent May Monarchs.

Jane was the secretary for the college alumni for a few years and received letters from ex -students from all over the world. Not long after Mark moved into Jane's place in Earslfield, and almost a year before he would meet Sally, Jane received a letter from Tasmania. Jokingly she asked Mark if he knew anyone in Tasmania. No he didn't. What about a 'Margaret Eldridge' did he know her ? No, he didn't. 

Little did he know...  

Jane, Mark & Margaret
at Whiteland's College May Day

Sally’s mum went off to Jersey for a few days to catch up with old friends, she returns today. Sally is, as I write, flying off to Moscow today Wednesday 25th. The latest Icelandic ash cloud looks as if it is not going to be a major problem. We had hoped to meet her there however a combination of delayed visas leading to delayed bookings and then very complicated flights has meant that we have decided not to go. 

Mark is currently planning the alternative to a week in Moscow – a week back in Somerset and then to Southern Wales. They'll leave the day after Sally gets back from Moscow. They'll be staying with Valerie in Glastonbury then a swish farmstay near Cardiff for one night then on to a couple of nights in a youth hostel in the Brecon Beacons National Park. They'll be visiting a chocolate factory in Swansea, going down coal mine near Monmouth and hopefully taking a trip on a steam train as well. Sally will take a train to Cardiff to join them next Friday.

This week marks the end of the first half of the summer term and, of course, another week off school before coming back for five weeks and then two months off. Here the kids have 35 weeks of school while at home it is 40 weeks. It certainly seems as if it is an endless round of getting over or getting ready for holidays. Mark is considering a change in career from teaching to travel agent !

Sally's world famous Pavlova - now with a chocolate version. 

Aunt Mary came around to help celebrate Sally's birthday and to meet Margaret.  The kids are getting a lot out of time with each of our relatives. Mark's mum, Elizabeth, is planning a trip here in August this year. It is all such a contrast to our time in Jakarta. Then, quite understandably given the economic crisis and riots, only Sally's intrepid, fearless, brave and, by the time they got to us, sweaty, scruffy and quite thin aunt Joan and uncle Dick Worsfold visited us very early on. They had been backpacking around Indonesia and S.E Asia and were in dire need of a comfy bed & hot shower !

Last week Margaret and Mark along with another spouse, Simon, went to the Borough markets by London Bridge, a favourite of Mark’s, where he stocked up on some very good pesto, olives, feta and exceptional parmesan cheese. They went into the George Inn for a small drink after the rigors of marketing. 

Mark resisting the urge to haggle.

Mark & Margaret also went to one of the final performances of ‘The End of The Rainbow’, a theatre production on the last months of Judy Garland’s life before she died in London in 1967 at just 47 years old. It was an immensely powerful performance by Tracie Bennett.

Aisha is in the middle of the first major exams she has ever really done. She has done a great job of organising her time to study and is pleased with how they have gone so far.  She has been topping many of her classes as well as being a human torpedo. William continues to also do well and is making many new friends. It is a bit of a daunting prospect that each of them, after just 6 months in year 7 and year 4 respectively will move up to years 8 & 5 in the new academic year starting in September. 

AISHA 'STUDYING'.

We are quietly hoping that, by the time we leave in December 2013, they will have high paying merchant banking jobs.

Thanks to all the people who have posted comments or sent E-mails, and especially the five 'followers'. Not sure what 'following' actually means though.

THE JAM ARRIVES !

Thanks to everyone who has emailed us or commented on our blog. It is nice to know it is being read.

This week has brought a bit of a change to the weather with cloudier and definitely cooler days. We are still without significant rain and there have been reports on the lower than usual reservoir levels as well as mutterings of ‘hose pipe’ bans. It has struck us that for most of the ten years we were in Canberra there were water restrictions, the spring of 2010 was quite wet. As we packed up to leave it poured for three days straight and apparently, on the Friday after we flew out Canberra had 80 mm in one day. Since we have been here there have been the huge floods in QLD , NSW and Vic and the drought seems to have been broken. Since coming here the Poms have had the coldest but driest December on record as well as the driest and warmest March, April and possibly May too.

Is it all our fault ?

HERE'S TO STREHLOW PLACE !

At the start of this week former neighbours from Strehlow Place came to dinner. Tricia & Laurie, who are up here visiting their son, lived across the road, sort of, from us and have been surrogate Grandparents to Aisha & William. They had a little dog, Zoe, who Aisha loved as a toddler while William received his first chocolate, at 18 months old, courtesy of ‘Uncle Laurie’ – a practice that secretly continued for years after.

We are happy to have the jam AND Nanna !

This week has also seen the long awaited arrival of Sally’s mother’s homemade jam which Mark collected from Heathrow on Thursday. Sally’s mother, Margaret, came with the jam too. Getting her priorities correct, Margaret carefully packed the jam away in her suitcase and it arrived safely. To fit other things in she inadvertently overfilled her hand luggage and ended having to sweet-talk her way out of a $500 excess baggage charge at Melbourne airport ! Margaret will be staying in UK for about 8 weeks although not all of it will be spent with  us. She is heading off for various trips to Europe while she is here.

Sally had the kids up until almost midnight last night watching the Eurovision contest. We have watched the delayed broadcast in Australia several years in a row but this time, not only were we able to watch it LIVE, but we were also able to exercise our constitutional and democratic right to vote as well. Sadly the kids’ choice, Finland, was beaten well & truly with, as we are sure you all know, Azerbaijan winning.  

After just going back to school we are now just two weeks away from another mid-term break of one week. Once the kids have gone back there will be just five weeks before the end of the English academic year and a whopping 8 weeks off.  Unlike Australia, the Brits still have a 3 term year with lots of holidays. Their school year is just 35 weeks compared to our 40.  Once the new school year resumes in early September Aisha will go into year 8 and William into year 5, both after doing only 6 months of a new grade!  Whilst there are broad similarities between the systems the British seem to be particularly fond of quite difficult maths and homework. Aisha, being in high school, has nightly work as well as assignments and essays. William has weekly homework but was given some over the three week end of term break ! He neglected to inform us of this work until a few days before the start of the new term and, unlike his weekly work, we were disinclined to make him do it.

Our house is semi-detached which means we share a wall with people on one side but not another. The people we do share a wall with, James and Helen, are very nice people of a similar age to us but with grown sons. They are keen environmentally minded gardeners who have chooks. The people on the other  side, Laura and Justin,  are younger with smaller kids. They celebrated Laura’s 40th last weekend. They invited us and a couple of other ‘street people’. At the party we met Carl and Emma from down the road, whom we had seen in passing but not actually met properly. It turns out Carl had grown up in #19 Shakespeare Gardens, moved away as a young adult then been able to buy back in a few years ago down the other end of the street. He loves the street and the area with his kids going to the same local school he did.

Yesterday we went to see The Lion King. It was a very impressive performance with amazing costumes and life sized puppets. 

Afterwards we took Margaret to the High Commission for a quick look and some photos. 

Margaret, Sally & kids outside the Hi Comm.

Being in London gives us endless opportunities to see quality theatre. Before Christmas we went to The Hackney Empire to see a pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk. This show had all the audience participation associated with English pantos. We were lucky to get tickets for ‘Oliver’ just before it closed and of course we saw ‘We Will Rock You’ a few weeks ago. A few nights ago Sally and a colleague saw ‘The End of The Rainbow’ a musical about the last year of Judy Garland’s life when she tried to make a comeback in London in 1969. Sally was so impressed she recommended Mark & Margaret to see it also which they will this coming Thursday.

Spoilt Sally !

Sally’s mum arrived in time for Sally’s 47th birthday on Friday. Sally's colleagues made her feel very special and gave her some beautiful flowers, chocolates, 'bespoke' perfume as well as a lunch out. 

We had a small dinner and presents at home on Friday night and today Mark’s aunt Mary is coming around for a lunch. While we haven’t been away the last few weekends we have been entertaining each week. Having perfected a pavlova years ago for various wheat intolerant friends’ birthdays she has tried a chocolate version today.

THE END OF THE FIRST WEEK IN MAY

It has been a long time since we have put finger to keyboard and updated this blog. As you might notice a great many entries have been put up in the last few days. The formatting is a bit inflexible and temperamental so forgive the huge gaps between sections and alternating lines of photos.


It has been another busy week (when aren’t they busy ?) with the Royal Wedding at the end of last week, ANZAC Day 2011 at the start of it and school resuming after a three week break and four consecutive weekends away.

Next week will be the first full week the kids will have had at school in 5 weeks what with school holidays, Easter and Wedding and bank related holidays.

There is so much to catch up on – Sally has scolded me for not keeping this up to date so I will endeavour to strive to aim to do fortnightly updates starting from …soon. 
In general everything is going well and we are happy and healthy.

Both kids have done well at school with Aisha in particular topping many of her year 7 classes. 

William was elected as his year's Student council reperesantative and Aisha blitzed the high schol kids in her swimming carnival and the headmaster referred to her in the relevant newsletter as 'Aisha Strutt, the human torpedo'. Click on the link below and scroll to the 2nd page with the pool photo. On the first page, next to the picture of the violinist is a picture of a group of made-up boys. Will is on the left of the group as you look at it. .http://www.nlis.org/sites/default/files/documents/News%20DRO%2031st%20March%202011.pdf

WILL'S SRC LETTER 

The weather has been the main topic of conversation with what seems to have been endless dry warm clear days. We have had about 6 weeks of consistently good weather, almost unheard of for the time of the year. Our neighbour commented the other day that he no longer wonders each morning what the weather will be he just expects it to be good. since about mid-March that the days have been so good. Today (May 5th) was remarkable in that I looked at the window to be surprised (!) by overcast skies and ...spits of rain !

Sally works long hours but enjoys working in London. She still gets a blast from walking past and through some of the historical landmarks that surround her. 
Having been an integral part of the kids school in Canberra, she stepped foot in Aisha's campus for the first time a month ago for a student performance evening that Aisha was a part of.  She met for the first time various parents of children Aisha and William have been having play dates with.  

Just this weekend Mark has had both ovens going, and later both dishwashers going, as he produced a roast leg of lamb with Yorkshire puddings ( as you do). His first attempt at Yorkshire puds in maybe 20 years was declared an outstanding success, which he attributes to use of goose fat (!). 
Mark will start looking for casual teaching work in the next couple of weeks. We are staring down the barrel of Sally’s mother and her suitcases full of her excellent homemade jams arriving in a week as well as British summer holidays in just over 10 weeks from now.  

Most recently we have managed to finally sort of overcome the constantly collapsing Olympic ticket website to go in the running for a bunch of Olympic tickets.  
It’s a really odd system wherein you 'book' the tickets you want - indicating either a specific price or, to increase your chances, a price range you are prepared to pay. Those 'bids' are put in along with credit card details. At some stage in June or July this year they will allocate tickets, maybe all you have asked for, none of them or some of them, deduct the cost without any consultation on whether you wanted to pay the top of the price range or the bottom of the price range,( so you have to make sure there is enough money in your account to cover the FULL cost of all the tickets you have bid for).Then closer to the games ...in 2012 we are told what they have given us. By simply selecting those events that we would like to go to Mark’s list of possibles was running at £6,000 at one stage.  We whittled it down to a somewhat more reasonable level but have no idea what, if anything, we’ll get nor how much we’ll end up paying

Anyway, hopefully we get something – just heard the opening ceremony is oversubscribed by 10 times so I doubt we’ll have any luck with that.  Perhaps we’ll get the badminton on a Wednesday morning….!

THE WEDDING !

Who would have thought 6 months ago, that two proud left wing, Australian republican’s would get their kids up at 5:15 and head down to The Mall. and,along with bazillions of others and end up with a fantastic view of the Royal wedding Procession, waving Union Jacks, singing ‘God Save the Queen’ and cheering at every sight of a family of, at times, debatable purpose ?

Well, that’s what we did. Last week saw the return to what is more usual April weather and, for a while, Friday had heavy rain and storms forecast. There was no rain and it turned out to be a good combination of cloud, a bit of a breeze and sun later in the day. We expected most of the good spots to have been long taken with news reports of people camping out two and three nights before the wedding day. Thanks to a good suggestion by one of Sally’s staff, we ended up at 6:30am, on the corner of The Mall and Horse Guards Road standing with people who had camped overnight. It was not until 10 am that anything really happened but from there on until 1pm we stood just two metres from the barricade with the kids right on the barrier. 

OUR FRIENDLY BOBBY.

LOYAL FLAG WAVING.

We had a good view as first the cars came from the palace to Westminster then the carriages came back. It was great to have the band playing directly opposite and amazing to see the precision that the Palace guards were paraded. In the 30 minutes or so before the return of the carriages various sergeants stamped up and down adjusting soldiers’ uniform and position by a few steps or at times mere centimetres.

Later, we very slowly made our way down The Mall we and ended up standing just behind the Victoria monument in front of Buckingham palace. The crowds were huge at this stage and we were quite unable to move amidst the crush. The kids could see nothing at all while Mark managed a glimpse and a few blurry photos. The sun started to come out and we were glad not only to have scored the great spot we did earlier, but that it was not the fairly warm( 26C ) bright sunny day of the previous Friday.

By the time it was all over we realised we had stood for 8 hours with no toilet breaks ! The kids did really well, especially at the end.

Sitting down that night to watch the highlights was a strange experience, especially the footage from the Abbey which we had all been at just a few days earlier for the ANZAC Day service. Aisha was one of several Australian & New Zealand kids chosen to read a prayer on the High Altar. She was in her guide uniform, William in his scout, and she did a fabulous job – it was all very short, but calmly and clearly read. She stood where the Dean of Westminster stood; went through what was described in the highlights as ‘the most sacred section of the Abbey’ - the shrine of Edward the Confessor where William and Catherine signed the register. 

A GENEROUS VIENNESE.

A HUNGRY QUEENSLANDER

A HAPPY POM

KATE HEADS OFF 

THEY COME BACK

THE QUEEN HEADS OFF TO THE SERVICE

LOOK ! LOOK!

Charles, Camilla and the Middletons in the Australian State coach