I managed to pop into The Hope Café last week and caught up with my friends. Josh handed me a double espresso and I made my way across to Mo, who was looking tanned and relaxed. It transpired she had just had a couple of weeks in Provence in France with one of her daughters.

“Oh!” I said. “My daughter and family are there now, in France I mean; Paris for a couple of nights, Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne and Royan (Note 1) for a week each and then up to the Channel coast near St Malo.” 

“I read your last postcard reporting gossip from here (PC 343) and noticed you added, down at the date, that it was posted on Bastille Day. Why did you add that? You’re not French!”

“Well, that date always makes me think about a sailing adventure. I certainly don’t need to remind you how pivotal the storming of the Bastille Prison in Paris in July 1789 by ‘revolutionaries’ is in French, European and actually global history!”

“Absolutely not, as it led immediately to the revolution and the end of the monarchy.”

“My memory is more recent! In July 1973 I managed to secure a couple of weeks on the Sail Training Association (Note 2) TS Malcolm Miller, a three-masted Staysail Schooner, which offered an introduction to sailing, team work and all that stuff to some 36 young men from under-privileged backgrounds. I was one of three Watch Officers. Let me see, somewhere in my thousands of photos I might have one of the schooner. Ah Yes!

We sailed from Gosport, opposite Portsmouth, and, via St Peter’s Port in Guernsey, arrived on the 13^th July, the day before Bastille Day, in the French town of Douarnenez on the north west tip of France. Our visit was a major attraction for the local population, particularly the young women. I tried to persuade the captain we should stay for the town’s celebrations the following day, but he was unmoved so on Bastille Day we slipped our mooring lines and sailed north west to The Scilly Isles.

After a day or so there we went off to Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel …..

“Where? Lundy? I’ve never heard of it!”

“It’s a very small island off the north Devon coast, northwest of Bideford. Popular with ornithologists, especially those interested in Puffins, and it attracts day trippers from Ilfracombe.

It was given to The Landmark Trust in 1969 by a British billionaire. Anyway, we met up with the Malcolm Miller’s sister ship the Sir Winston Churchill. Looking down from the cliff outside Lundy’s pub, it was a timeless scene, two three-masted ships at anchor. The trip finished in Newport in south Wales.”

The Malcolm Miller’s track

“Lovely memories Richard and I now understand about Bastille Day! Listen, I must dash as I have a dental appointment, but I see Sami’s over there with Lisa.”

“Good to see you. Hope the dentist is gentle!” and I got up and joined Sami and Lisa. She had succeeded in getting an ad hoc agreement with The Argos, the local Brighton & Hove paper, and has submitted a piece about the fire on 24^th July that destroyed fifty per cent of the Royal Albion Hotel here in Brighton, opposite The Palace Pier.

The 208-room hotel was built in 1826 in the Regency Style, popular at the time, and had a 3 star rating. According to those who had stayed there recently, it had seen better days!

Note the sailing painting still in its frame, somewhat untouched!

“That’s great Lisa, I hope it’s the start of a good relationship with The Argus. Now Sami, I imagine you’re up to date about the Post Office scandal but I was moved to write to The Times the other day after Nick Wallis’ piece.

“Why was that?”

“I was mulling over the whole sorry saga again and I thought, have we all missed something? I know the figures are different for you, but to use you as an example, if you had been falsely accused of stealing £10k, ‘falsely’ as in there was no error in your accounts, and charged and ordered to pay the money back – the Post Office is suddenly £10,000 in credit. Multiply this by 736 and you can imagine a conversation between the CFO and the CEO: “We’ve got £7,360,000 in our account that is completely unaccounted for. What should we do?”

“Probably pay out bonuses and keep quiet! But it does beg the question Richard; was the Post Office never audited during this period? How did they explain the huge credits? We will probably never know! Anyway Richard, how are you?”

“Actually very good! But I did get fed up a couple of weeks ago when a friend of over 50 years with whom I had lunch sneered at my addiction to the hot yoga series! Why do people do that? It’s obviously not his bailiwick but I don’t ask in a similarly critical way why he does ‘x’ or ‘y’! Maybe I should? Incidentally I realise it’s your 65^th birthday in October. Are you planning to do anything special?

Lisa gives me a look as if to say ‘I am organising something but it’s a secret and we haven’t discussed it yet!’

“You know me Richard. Not a great party man so maybe a pizza somewhere.” Whereupon Lisa rolls her eyes to heaven!

“I think I’ll have a quiet word with Lisa and see what we can organise – it could of course be just a pizza!! Hey! I promised to pick up something from The Framing Workshop before they close; must dash! See you!”

Richard 18^th August 2023

Estoril, Portugal

www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

Note 1 Royan is at the mouth of the Gironde River; at the river’s southern end is the city of Bordeaux. In early December 1942 six Royal Marine canoes were launched from a submarine off the estuary, for an attack on the Bordeaux docks.  Only two canoes survived to complete the 50 mile paddle but they managed to attach some limpet mines to six ships. Two out of the twelve marines made it back to England, although Operation Frankton was judged a success.

Note 2 Now the Tall Ships Youth Trust, based in Portsmouth