"Although there's been rain and it's coming again
Change has to be here obviously
Though my friend the sun looks well on the run
He's there in the distance if you care to see - see".
But for me the sun can be a friend or an enemy. Granddaughter Poppy summed it up well a few days ago when she said:
"Grandad the sun is nice but I hate it when I start getting sweaty, but I also hate it when I feel cold."
That's pretty much me as well. In the winter I crave the sun. In the summer I hide from it. C'est la Vie.
Certainly the sun's been around the last few days along with the rain and the wind. Listen to me going on about the weather - how boring. Vowed I'd never do that.
Man on the bus wasn't boring. He's replacing five men in the sauna for a time as it's quite a while since I've been in a sauna. We went to Wymondham as it's nice to do something every day and with a bus pass the world is our lobster (well bits of Norfolk anyway). I like to have a look round the Big C charity shop which is massive and on the way to the railway station.
I very rarely come away without buying something. Now you can call me a sad git but on Friday I bought the sheet music for "A Stranger in Paradise" which is from the stage musical Kismet and is based on the music of Borodin. It's a lovely piece of music. Somehow I bracket it when I'm playing the piano with "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "We'll Gather Lilacs". Don't ask me why. Ok you can ask me why but I don't have an answer.
I also got the sheet music to "Answer Me" - yes I am regressing as this one comes from 1953. There's something about these old songs that makes them lovely for the piano. And at 10p each they were bargains. The other four fifths got some wool and we bought a few other things.
Had coffee and one of the best cheese scones you will get anywhere at the Courtyard Cafe, so called because it's got a courtyard but it was too cold to sit outside.
Then got the bus home. Enter one man on the bus.
"Is this the number 14," he said in a broad Norfolk accent. I'll have to leave you to do the accent. I can talk Norfolk but I can't write it and as they say thaas a rummin bor.
"Says so on the front," replied the driver, probably fed up with being asked the question when it has 14 in large letters on the front.
"Cud a seen that," said man on the bus. He then sat down close to us and began to talk very loudly to anyone that would listen'
"Huh it's four minutes to midday but thaas aaright. Don't like the fish shop near mine, they don't do a half portion of chips. When we had Covid these buses were bloody empty. Me an one other one day," he said.
I have to point out that there were only five of us on the bus, scarcely standing room only. I was just amazed at how many unconnected subjects he could mangle together in the same sentence.
"Well here I am, gotta get them fish and chips." And with that he jumped up and got off.
* *
Now I'm going to try something. Some of you might want to stop reading here. A few days ago I mentioned my first cousin five times removed and his shipping line and said I would include his story sometime. Some bloggettes might find this interesting, so here goes. His name is William Howard Smith.
"William Howard Smith, master mariner and ship-owner, was born in Great Yarmouth and was the son of Ormond Smith, mariner, ship-owner and mail contractor for Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Holland, and his wife Kezier, née Edmonds.
At the age of 10, Howard Smith went on his first voyage; he later studied navigation and qualified as a master. He became a partner of his father at 21 and was given command of the steamship Adonis.
For some years he was employed by Malcolmson Bros, shipowners, and sailed to Dutch, Spanish and Latin American ports. His first wife Anna Geil, née Hansen, died without producing a child. in 1854 he brought his second wife Agnes Rosa née Allen, and their five children to Australia.
Captain William Howard Smith sailed into Melbourne from Hull in 1854 on the s/s EXPRESS and commenced regular voyages between Melbourne and Geelong, but returned to England in 1861.
Howard Smith Limited was established in 1854 by Captain William Howard Smith, who began transporting both people and supplies to the goldfields. Originally founded as William Howard Smith and Sons Pty Ltd, the company became Howard Smith Company Ltd in 1901 and in 1914 changed to Howard Smith Limited. The company has interests in distribution of hardware, towage and safety.
With S. P. O. Skinner, a marine engineer, Smith bought the Express, a 136-ton schooner-rigged steamer, and entered the Port Phillip Bay trade between Melbourne and Geelong. After eight good years Smith sold out to his Geelong agent, T. J. Parker, later a founding partner of Huddart, Parker and Co. and entered the intercolonial trade.
In 1862 he and his family revisited Europe. He bought the steamer Kief, renamed it You Yangs, and from mid-1864 commanded it in competition with the powerful Australasian Steam Navigation Co. between Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle.
He returned to Launceston in 1864 with his family and then operated a regular inter colonial passenger and cargo service between Melbourne and Sydney. By 1868 services were extended to Newcastle and in 1880 regular services operated to Maryborough, Adelaide, Brisbane and Rockhampton. Coastal routes rapidly expanded until 1947 when the company's involvement in the inter colonial passenger trade ceased.
The venture was successful and two years later he bought another steamship in England, the Dandenong. It was his last command and he remained ashore after 1870.
Establishing himself in the Newcastle coal trade, Howard Smith formed a limited partnership with L. J. L. Burke, who had a large coal business in Melbourne in the mid-1860s; he acquired the firm afterwards and it became one of Melbourne's largest and most efficient coal importers, constantly acquiring vessels because of the growing demand for passenger and general cargo services from Melbourne to all the eastern coast ports.
In the late 1870s he had three of his sons in the partnership and they took charge of the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane offices. The firm became a limited liability company in September 1883, William Howard Smith and Sons Ltd, with a nominal capital of £1 million, paid up to £500,000: all the £10 shares issued were taken up by the family.
In the 1880s William Howard Smith and Sons Ltd [later Howard Smith Co. Ltd] leased the Commercial Wharf on the Town Reach from the Brisbane Municipal Council. Howard Smith was one of several important shipping companies which traded on the Australian coast from the mid-19th century, and was one of the earliest. The business was established in Melbourne in 1854 by Captain William Howard Smith, and in the second half of the 19th century developed as one of the dominant companies in the Australian coastal shipping trade. Initially the firm traded between Melbourne and England, but in 1860 entered the inter-colonial trade, and from 1864 concentrated solely on this. Howard Smith was trading in central Queensland by the early 1870s, and in the 1880s extended its operations to northern Queensland. In the 1890s, the firm entered into a strong rivalry with other coastal shipping companies for the lucrative intra- and inter-colonial passenger trade.
The Howard Smith Wharves were constructed 1934-early 1940s by the Queensland Government to provide relief work during the depression years of the 1930s. Initially known as the Brisbane Central Wharves, the project was undertaken in conjunction with the construction of the Story Bridge, one of the Forgan-Smith government's principal employment-generating projects. Like other such schemes, the Brisbane Central Wharves not only provided employment, but established important infrastructure for Queensland's future development. Brisbane Central Wharves were leased by the Australian coastal shipping company Howard Smith Co. Ltd from the mid-1930s until the early 1960s, and are more usually referred to as the Howard Smith Wharves.[1]
The site had an even earlier connection with Howard Smith, as the Brisbane Central Wharves replaced smaller wharves constructed in the early years of the 20th century by Brisbane Wharves Ltd, for lease by William Howard Smith & Sons Ltd [later Howard Smith Co. Ltd].
He became managing director at Melbourne and his second son, Edmund, at Sydney. Howard Smith retired from active management in 1884 and his sons Walter S. and Arthur Bruce succeeded him. He continued as chairman until 1887.
Smith was a justice of the peace, a director of many commercial companies, a commissioner of the Melbourne Harbour Trust in 1884 and a member of the Marine Board of Victoria in the late 1880s. He was also a committee-man of the Melbourne Sailors' Home in 1874-80 and chairman next year, and a committee-man of the Victorian Shipwreck Relief Society in 1877-80.
Aged 76, he died on 22nd March 1890 in Melbourne, survived by his wife and seven sons and two daughters of their 12 children. His estate was sworn for probate at £137,153.
The business was reorganised under the control of four sons, Edmund (Melbourne), Walter (Geelong), Harold (Sydney), and Ormond (Brisbane) who later acquired extensive pastoral properties near Kilcoy, Queensland. Howard Smith's great entrepreneurial ability had ensured the firm's prosperity in the 1890s.
In 1961 the Melbourne Steamship Co. was taken over by Howard Smith. The company was also heavily involved in the towage, salvage and stevedoring industries. Howard Smith withdrew from the traditional shipping business in 1996 and from the towage industry in 2001 and the company was taken over by Wesfarmers Ltd., Perth.
Wesfarmers acquisition of Howard Smith Limited for $2.7 billion, including its BBC hardware network, doubled the size of Bunnings and transformed it into an iconic national brand.
In the process, it also gained a major industrial supplies business which markets some 400,000 products under brands including Blackwoods.
These enterprises were amalgamated into a new Industrial and Safety Division, becoming a significant Wesfarmers business in its own right."
So there we have it... thanks for sticking with it as you must have done if you are reading this.
Yesterday was a sad day. One of our neighbours has died. It wasn't unexpected as he's been in a nursing home for quite some time. Alan from three days up often stopped by for a cup of coffee or a beer on the table we have in our front garden, We have a standing invitation to sit awhile for anyone passing and a few do.
For a few years myself, Alan and a few others kept the piece of grass opposite our houses clean and tidy.
Tomorrow I'm going to list my top 20 favourite rock/pop artists of all time (oh no not more music I hear you say). See you tomorrow.