My Dad and Mum lived in the old days. Let me explain. I wonder what my parents would have made of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and robots? The fact that processor speed doubles each year? They wouldn't surely have foreseen the frightening the pace of development and the proliferation of technology?
This week, in Robinson's Ramblings #10, I devote to my Mum and Dad. Were they to be here now, they would have been astounded.
The pics were taken in 1964.
My
father looks cool at this Café in Madrid.
Happy in Greece.
It was 1956 and we were on the road from Pretoria to Durnacol (in South Africa), roughly about 320km/200 miles. The name Durnacol (where our new home was to be), is made up from Durban Navigation Collieries. The coal was shipped to Durban (about the same distance) in the early '50's as fuel for the liners and ships.
It was February and I was three. Plus six months. The length of my life was important back then at my youth, because time was measured in months, not years.
We were driving in an Austin A40 which my parents were so proud of. Of course, we also were, and it was magical to be able to drive in our own shiny, brand-new car.
It used to be shiny the day before, but, we were travelling on an excuse of a road. We were now driving in a torrential downpour on a slippery, muddy, dirt route. We had many kilometres to go
before we reached our new home.
Suddenly, the car slewed first this way, then that. Geoff was nearly losing control. He was an excellent driver but I could see that the road was challenging him.
Finally, we arrived at our destination in the dark. The conditions were so atrocious that it took nearly a day to get there.
“Come on, leave the rest of the cases. I’ll get them when it’s stopped
pouring,” Geoff said.
He put the key in the door of our new home and turned it. But, there was another
problem: The lights had tripped. Try as he might, the lights weren’t coming on.
Geoff fetched some food from the Austin in the dark and we had a cold meal. Later, the rain had let up enough, Geoff could get back to the car to get the rest of the luggage.
Very early the next morning, Geoff woke first. He looked around and couldn’t
believe it: The walls were brown. The colour was a shitty brown. He got out of
bed and went to the passage. Those wall were brown, too.
He woke up Maureen. “Look at these walls... ”
She was startled. “Oh shit!”
“My thoughts exactly. We’ll need to paint them a different colour."
My parents were quite disgusted with the colour that they woke us up and showed us. We agreed.
We lived there as a family for the next twenty years.
My parents in Trafalgar Square. The
men wore suits and the ladies wore skirts those days. The two photographers on the left were perhaps thinking who they were going to do next. Maybe they had my parents in mind. Note the presence of pidgeons. They're gone now.
My first book Rough Diamonds is set in the sixties, and this killer read takes you to a mining village called Scallyclare in South Africa. There is deceit, evil, malice, negligence, blackmail, rape, murder. It starts when the three children's Grandfather gives them three uncut diamonds. Along with those, he gives them each a bracelet with their names engraved on. The diamonds and the bracelets become their blessings and their terrifying curses...
This killer read is not for the gutless!
I'm starting work on my follow-up book, which will have the word 'Diamonds' in the title. You can follow progress on Pinterest, where I'll post some mood or theme boards and some excerpts as and when they become ready. You can see the progress on: https://uk.pinterest.com/ianrobinson9655/my-next-novel/
“Big sky.” Athena, my wife, would say sometimes looking up at the vastness above.
“Wow, where did you get that from?” I’d asked the first time she said it.
“I felt it the first time I came to Africa. There’s just so much space and when you look out at the landscape it just seems to go on and on and on to the horizon and up into an endless sky.”
Big sky. What a profound thing to say.
This captures the feelings which we set out to achieve in Horizon's Gourmet Picnics.
It's a true story about Athena's and my business just outside Rosetta in the Midlands of KZN, South Africa. Follows the finding of the property (it wasn't what we had in mind...), setting up the concept for the Gourmet Picnic business, naming the place 'Horizons' (which says 'as far as you can see' and sends a message 'to stretch our guests' expectations'). Selling the business.
I'd like some people to review my books Rough Diamonds and SOME PICNIC! (See below). I'll give you free books to review.
I hope you’ll take time to check them out at Smashwords, where you can sample the first 15% of the books for free.
Here’s the direct link to my book page, where you can sample or purchase the book: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/704634
and https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/706474
Here’s the link to my author profile:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ianrob222
Won’t you also take a moment to spread the word about my books to everyone you know?
Thank you so much for your support!
There's a bonus after the story. You can read the first chapters of my other book after the end of the book.
