Hawkes Bay entertainment

Looking back on it, our Hawkes Bay childhood was quite rural even though we lived in a town.  There was not much entertainment other than what you made for yourself.  I know I went to the ballet with my mother when I was four and Margaret and I were taken to the ballet in Napier by our aunt on one occasion but I think that was about it.  The ballet when I was four was wonderful as they had some way of illuminating the costumes.  All I can remember is the luminous costumes of the dancers.

We had a car as did many New Zealanders after the War.  Ours was an office car, i.e. it belonged to my father’s employer but he was the inspector who drove around assessing insurance risks.  We were allowed to use the car at weekends so we went out a lot.  My mother did not drive until much later in life.  She had one driving lesson from a neighbour of my grandparents in Wellington but it ended when she trapped Margaret’s hand in the door.  My paternal grandmother drove and often took us out in her Morris Minor and my aunt had a Citroen, as did my uncle. 

At weekends we often drove out into the countryside.  Depending on the time of year, we went looking for lambs or mushrooms.  I now know that we did not necessarily go very far on these trips.  I think a lot of them were across the Heretaunga plain just outside Hastings.  This area is now covered in vineyards but in those days it was sheep farming territory.  We would pull up on the side of the road, get out of the car and watch the lambs frolicking in the paddocks.  In autumn we would keep our eyes open for mushrooms as there were no cultivated mushrooms to buy in the shops.  You found them in the paddocks and then you could take some of the peelings and plant them in your lawn for a repeat crop.  I cannot remember how we got into the paddocks but it may have meant climbing over a fence.

In summer we regularly went on picnics.  We often went to a river, taking a picnic lunch with us.  There were several large rivers near Hastings and we would go to a place called Pakowhai, near where my father had grown up, or to the Tukituki river behind Havelock North. 

Occasionally we would go for a ‘tea picnic’ as my father had some flexibility in his working hours.  

View from Te Mata peak looking across the Tukituki river

 I can also remember going to Rissington which was a bit further.  On one occasion my father backed over a tree stump as we were parking there.  The exhaust snapped off and we drove home with a horrendous noise coming from the engine.  I think this was even worse for us children with our young sensitive ears!  The rivers all had swimming holes although you had to be very careful as they were dangerous and after a storm they would move.  I remember on one occasion my mother had prepared the picnic for the ‘tea’ and we were all ready to go when the neighbour leant over the fence and told us not to go.  We were planning to go the Pakowhai bridge as it was called but there had been a flash flood and there were dead sheep everywhere.  There were stopbanks on the river at that point, at least two of them, and I think the sheep were caught in the ditch between them.  I also remember an occasion when my grandmother and aunt came with us and we went north beyond Napier, possibly to a lake.

We also used to go to the beaches for picnics but beaches in the Napier area were awful.  They were very shingly and had all been thrown up in the 1931 earthquake.  They were not really suitable for small children.  Instead we would go to the beaches on the road that went in the direction of Cape Kidnappers.  We went to Hamoana, Te Awanga and Clifton.  Clifton was the end of the road and had a camping ground.  I can remember going there to a children’s picnic organised by the boy scouts.  My father was a Rover Scout leader so the Boy Scouts were an important part of our life at that time. 

Hasting had its share of festivals and regular events.  One was the blossom festival which took place in September.  It was a whole week of festivities.  There was a competition for decorated shop windows which made trips into the town more interesting.  The week culminated in a wonderful procession of decorated ‘floats’ on the Saturday.  All the different organizations took part as well as businesses.  The ‘floats’ were lorries that were decorated so that you could not recognise them.  They generally had a theme and there were people in costume on them.  The decorations included ‘blossom’ made from crepe paper which we children were involved in making through school, the brownies etc.  One year I was in hospital and I can remember making blossoms all week: crepe paper which you folded and then wound florists’ wire round to secure them into flowers.

The procession also had bands and marching girls.  New Zealand’s Celtic origins were always reflected in its celebrations.  This was particularly true in Hastings where at Easter we had the Highland Games.  This was a festival with Scottish, Welsh and Irish dancing.  I cannot remember much else about it but it was held in a park on the edge of town on the road to Havelock North.  It was a national event with bands, dancers and marching girls coming from other areas to compete.  We learnt early about the different types of band, the main ones being silver, although they were often referred to as ‘brass bands’, and ‘pipe bands’ which were Scottish bagpipes plus drums.  My grandfather was very fond of bands.  I think it was probably his military background but there was a famous occasion in Wellington when he took Margaret and me to see the Black Watch band play in the town hall.  I have a vague memory of it but much clearer memories of the song my grandfather made up. 

We went to see the Black Watch band but all the seats were taken.

We had to sit about the floor until our tails were aching.

The most important events in Hawkes Bay were the A and P shows.  These were the showcase for the agricultural industry.  There were two shows: the main one was in October (spring) and lasted two days and then there was an autumn show on a Saturday in March.  The spring show was so important that one day of it was a public holiday.  The showgrounds were between Hastings and Napier in the grounds of a splendid colonial house.  Our family were members of the Hawkes Bay Farmers which meant we had tickets in the members’ car park.  Picnics featured here too.  I can remember the highlight of the food was the bacon and egg pie my mother used to make.  I also remember cold boiled new potatoes.  We took a rug and sat on that.  We did not have picnic chairs and we certainly did not buy food at the show.  There were of course plenty of people selling ice cream and candy floss.

The show itself had lots of exhibits.  These ranged from animals that were kept in long sheds, my main memory of which is the awful smell!  There was farm machinery which was even more boring than the rows of penned animals.  The farmers’ wives also exhibited their produce so there was a large shed with displays of home-made cakes, jam and other preserves and some home dressmaking items.  I found this much more interesting than the stock!   There was also a traditional English range of entertainments.  Our favourite was the merry-go-round which was one that had horses on it.  There were dodgems, coconut shies, a hall of mirrors and lots of other stands.  And people sold cheap items such as kupie dolls on sticks and small wind mills on sticks.  These were aimed at children.  One year it was so wet that we did not go to the spring show but I think my father must have because he brought us home windmills and we ran up and down the drive trying to make them turn.

From the farmers’ point of view, the programme of events was probably the highlight.  This also reflected the UK origins of the population.  Obviously there were all the classes for animals but I have better memories of wood chopping competitions, sheep shearing and sheepdog trials.  I can remember seeing Godfrey Bowen, the country’s leading shearer, in action.   There were also horse riding events because pony clubs were popular.  These activities did not mean much to us ‘townies’ but we could appreciate the show jumping. 

Because Hawkes Bay, particularly the Heretaunga Plain area, had such good soils it was a major fruit growing area.  The idea was to buy your fruit and vegetables direct from the farmer.  We used to patronize a couple of people: our tomatoes came from Mr Frizzell down Pakowhai Road, near where my father had grown up, and our peaches came from Mrs Low, mother of George Low who was a member of the 1953 Everest exhibition.   We were very proud of this indirect connection.  The tomatoes were grown in glasshouses which had the most wonderful perfume from the plants.  I think we may have bought sweet corn direct too, although what I remember about that is that when we moved to Wellington we had to buy it from the greengrocer.  This prompted my mother to say that she thought it was very expensive in Wellington.  The same thing went for asparagus. My memory of Mrs Low’s farm was that it had a cattle stop which you had to cross over on foot.  This used to frighten me because I was afraid my foot would not be big enough to reach across two rungs.  I had bad coordination so any physical activity was a challenge including jumping over streams and climbing anything.

When writing this, I found a wonderful film on Youtube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?

The year it covers is 1952 when we were there.  Do take a look.

Activities on holidays in Wellington

We loved staying with our Wellington grandparents as everything was so different from Hastings.  My grandparents lived in Kelburn which was an established area of mainly large houses. I now know that the area around Upland Road was only developed after the Cable Car was opened in 1902.  The house my grandparents lived in was two-storeyed and seemed old because it was built in a Victorian style with sash bay windows.

As the house was very close to the botanical gardens there were a lot of birds which would visit and I can remember learning the names of them.  They tended to be British birds such as sparrows and thrushes rather than native birds.  In the botanical gardens there were plenty of native species.

Wellington was a city and so we knew about things that our friends had never seen.   There were department stores which had lifts and one even had an escalator.  I do not think I knew any child in Hastings who had been on an escalator!  There was only an ‘up’ one and we were taught to be very careful getting on and off it.  My grandparents lived just outside the main city at the top of the Cable Car so we got used to travelling on that.  My grandmother went to a butcher and a greengrocer on Lambton Quay in town although there was a local grocer’s shop along Upland Road that she used.  Next to that was the petrol station or ‘bowser’ as my grandfather referred to it.  There was also a corner shop (called a dairy) very near their house where we bought bread and newspapers. 

On Saturday evenings my grandfather bought the tabloid with the sports results (I think for the horse racing results) and a small bar of mint chocolate which was cut into smaller pieces and shared.  Milk was delivered by a horse and cart.  The milk came in glass bottles, some of which were brown (because of the War we were told) which were put out at the gate in the evening with tokens to pay for the milk.  The bottles had cardboard tops.  My grandfather used to follow the horse down the dead-end street carrying something into which he would put the horse’s manure for his roses.

What did we do on these holidays?  There are some old photos which provide a few clues to supplement my memories.  The beach was important.  We used to go to Moa Point at the end of Lyall Bay.  This was ultimately buried under the airport runway but in our day it was a quiet spot with a few rocks.  

The main part of Lyall Bay was very busy and the main beach for training lifeguards so we would watch them running into the water and then someone throwing out a line to them.  We also went to beaches further away.  I have an extremely early memory of sitting on a horrible lumpy surface at Lowry Bay.  I think this is possibly my earliest memory and it has really become a ‘memory of a memory’.  My grandparents had friends who had a beach house at Paekakariki so we went there a few times.

We also spent a lot of time in the botanical gardens.  We used to go to the area next to the Cable car where the three observatories were. 

The main part of the gardens were down a steep hill.  We were not allowed to walk around or go down there, even when we were older, because of ‘stranger danger’.  

We used to go and watch the launch of the 4 pm weather balloon.  My main memory of this is from my 1953 holiday when my grandmother took me and my cousin Ros to see the balloon go up.  Ros had just been diagnosed as short-sighted and could not see what we were looking for.  We did go to the bottom part of the gardens but by car.  There was a small lake with swans and we were taught to steer clear of them because they could hiss.  We used to take bread to feed them.  I remember going in the begonia house but the gardens were much smaller than they are now.  My parents used to talk about glow-worms on the paths up the hill but we never went there.

Pond at the bottom of the Botanical Gardens

My grandfather was always encouraging us to travel when we grew up.  I can remember driving along Oriental Bay past the old swimming baths and him telling me I would go to Europe when I grew up.  He also liked nothing better than to talk his way onto ships.  He would take us down to the wharves, talk to some officer, and then we got the guided tour. I think I went round ‘The Dominion Monarch’ three times.  I can just remember the children’s playroom from those visits.  The ships carried cargo as well as passengers so when they reached Wellington they would stay for three or four weeks while they were unloaded and reloaded.

There are more memories but they can go in another post.

Cats we have had: Maui and Rua 1988-2001

Soon after moving to Oxfordshire we started looking for two kittens, a Siamese brother and sister.  We wanted seal point so we bought various cat magazines and found a pair the right age in Weston-super-Mare.  This was not quite the nightmare it might have been in terms of getting them as we were able to view them on one of our weekend trips to Cornwall.  It was a long way to take them in a covered basket, though, and I can remember a lot of screaming going on between Weston and Warborough.   In the end we bought a cat basket with a wire frame that was much better and we have used that ever since, even though it is now rather larger than we need.  We decided to train them onto leads so they could not escape onto the main road and because it would be easier having them on leads in Cornwall.   Our cottage in Warborough was a very small end of a terrace of three and set at right angles to the main road but the main road was an A road leading from Wallingford to the M40.  There was an unadopted road at the back of the houses which led to a field and we realised this would be a good place for walks.  The first summer we took them out, round the end of house and down the lane to the field.  Maui was quite happy to do this but not Rua because of having to walk round the house on the main road, albeit for about fifteen feet.  Also the field was a very popular dog-walking place so after the first year we gave up taking them there.  Instead we would put their leads on and then sit them on the garden chairs.  The leads gave them room to wander in the flower bed.  There was only one occasion when there was a problem.  One summer Sunday they went into the flower bed where there must have been a frog which attacked Maui.  We found him foaming at the mouth but he was otherwise unharmed.

When young, these two were very keen climbers.  Typical Siamese. Their idea of fun was to get onto the roof of the garden shed.  They also climbed inside the house and up me if I was standing cooking.   Shimming up the curtains was another favourite.  At great expense we had double French doors put between the kitchen and the sitting room so we could keep them off the good furniture but if we shut the doors we had problems with smoke from the fire not being able to circulate so we had to abandon that.  In the end they completely destroyed the upholstery on the suite by scratching it.  They also climbed a lot in Cornwall.

They were latch-key cats as we were out at work all day.  Initially we had solid fuel central heating.  As we were often out for twelve hours, John used to get dressed in old clothes and stoke the boiler before he put on his work clothes and went off to London but at least it meant they were warm.  They managed quite well being left on their own for long periods.  As kittens they may have got bored, though, and there was a famous occasion when I got home to find wool draped all over the upstairs, down the turning staircase, which led into the kitchen, and around the kitchen!  They were introduced to trips to Cornwall (a six hour journey) very early and managed well with this.  They seemed to enjoy Cornwall where the garden was long and untamed.  We would sit them in the front garden and take them into the much bigger back garden although we did not generally leave them unattended.

Rua on the garden wall in Cornwall

In 1995 we moved to Blakesley in Northamptonshire.  The house was much bigger and situated on a dead-end lane in a village.  However, there was no gate and we quickly realised that we could not let them run loose as they had no road sense.  Instead they were put on their leads in the garden and often sat under the large apple tree.

Maui, however, continued to fancy wandering so I used to put him on his lead and take him a short way down the lane to a field that he could walk round.  There were other cats there, though, so it was a bit risky.  He also enjoyed exploring behind the house across the road which had a positive junk yard behind it.  On a couple of occasions he untethered himself and made his way across the road but of course he then got stuck and had to be rescued as his lead would become caught up in the rubbish.

Maui in Blakesley

In November 1999 we had a terrible house fire.  Our first thought was to rescue the cats who were very frightened by the smoke alarms and started running all over the house, which had three storeys.  Then we realised that the cat basket was in the garden shed!  Ever since then we have kept it in the house, no matter how inconvenient.  With the aid of one of the neighbours we managed to catch them and put them in the basket.  Then we took them across the road to his house.  It was Saturday afternoon so could have been much worse but we had to find somewhere for them to stay immediately as the house was uninhabitable.  Fortunately I had a colleague who lived around the corner.  She and her husband were cat lovers but our two were not used to other cats.  My colleague took them in and managed to shut her cats in one part of the house and ours in another.  However, it was not going to work. On the Monday my sister arrived from Shropshire.  She very kindly offered to give them a temporary home so off they went to her house.  She commuted and was at work all day.  One day she inadvertently locked Rua in her bedroom.  I am afraid the result was a ruined sheepskin under blanket.  Fortunately at that time we had an excellent cattery where these two had spent two long ‘holidays’ while we went to New Zealand.  They were able to take them at short notice so after a week we removed them from Shropshire and took them to Henley until we had settled in a rented house.

We were in this house for over a year.  The cats were now twelve.  At May bank holiday we brought them down to Cornwall as usual.  At this point Rua took ill.  We went to town one day and returned to find blood on the carpet.  Of course we did not have a vet in Cornwall but she was taken straight to the vet when we got home.  The ultimate diagnosis was cancer of the pancreas.  She had surgery before we went on our summer holiday but we realised that she would not survive long term.  In fact she kept going until the following January.  We therefore started looking in cat magazines for Siamese kittens to be a replacement sister for Maui.  We came to Cornwall for Christmas at which point Maui took ill.  Again we could not do anything until we got home.  He was very ill although he kept perking up so neither we nor the vet could identify the problem.  (It turned out to be feline anaemia which can only be diagnosed post mortem.)  We were still in the rented house which was fully carpeted and there were accidents.  Not what we would have wanted.  Finally he died overnight while in hospital.  He never made it back to Blakesley.

In the meantime Rua continued to go downhill.  When I went to work I used to leave her on the sofa with my childhood teddy bear for a companion.  She outlived Maui by just ten days.  On the Friday we moved back into Blakesley.  We were able to carry her round the house and show her the huge changes but she was being fed liquids only and I now think she should have been put out of her misery sooner.  Over the weekend we had a visit from a young friend who had known her all her life so she was able to say her farewells.  On the Monday I took her to the vet for the fatal injection.  We were then faced with the realisation that we could not replace the cats until my redundancy took effect as we would not be at home to settle them in.  So it was several months before we acquired Nui and Iti.

Te Awanga holiday 1950

I only remember ever once having a holiday from Hastings that was not to either Wellington or Taupo.  My memories are a bit hazy but I will try to give a flavour of it.  It was Easter 1950.  My parents rented a house at Te Awanga, a beach south of Napier on the road to Clifton and the gannet sanctuary.  The house was unique as it was ‘round’, i.e. octagonal, so the angles of the rooms were very odd.  Years later someone told me it had been demolished and of course there are no photos to be found.  Te Awanga was a small village so it did not have the facilities of Hastings.  I remember the milk was delivered but in a billy.  I can also vaguely recall going to buy things at a general store.  My main memory, however, is of my mother building a ‘car’ in the sand.  This was like a giant sandcastle but designed as an open-topped car.  Margaret and I were able to climb onto the ‘seats’ and take imaginary rides in it.  The sand was very firm so I assume it was built below high tide mark and that it disappeared when the tide came in.  I also have a feeling there was no electricity in the house.

We returned to Hastings on the Thursday.  The next day was my fifth birthday and my treat was to have lunch in the restaurant of the Hawkes Bay Farmers store.  This was a small department store aimed at the farming community.   It was mostly very boring for children but had an X-ray machine in the shoe department where we used to have our feet measured before buying a new pair of shoes.  These machines were banned years ago of course.

I think I went to lunch with my parents, Margaret, paternal grandmother and my aunt.  The restaurant was upstairs and it was seeing a photo of it that has reminded me of the whole holiday.

I remember having ham salad and the salad dressing (it would not have been proper mayonnaise in 1950) came in little individual jugs.  Margaret remembers the lettuce which she says was cut very fine.

There are more photos of the Hawkes Bay Farmers store to be found at Hawkes Bay Knowledge Bank,  https://www.knowledgebank.org.nz/  This is a relatively new website with some wonderful items for those of us with Hawkes Bay connections although you may have to enter some search terms.

Tiki: Part 2

Tantallon Road

In 1978 we moved to Balham.  We lived there for ten years.  Tiki was still with us and still capable of having adventures.  His first trick in the new house was to climb up inside one of the fireplaces the day after we moved in.  Fortunately he managed to get out again.  We now only let him out of the house if we were at home.  The house was bigger than the Tooting one but still terraced and on a grid.  This meant it had a smallish garden at the back and opened straight onto the street at the front.  In the summer we could open the French doors from the dining room and the kitchen door and he could walk round and round.  He also liked to climb up the fence and then roam in the nearest couple of gardens.

There was one occasion when on a sunny afternoon in November we thought we had shut him in but we had left the front upstairs window open.  There was no noise from him which was unusual.  I was working in the upstairs front room (the study) and suddenly I heard him shouting.  I went to the window and there he was hiding in the bin stand of the house opposite.  I rushed downstairs, across the road and rescued him.  I was very glad he had had the good sense to stay there and not to try getting into another car.  In the end we realised he had rushed inside from the garden, straight up the stairs and out through the window!  Fortunately he was not hurt.

In the mid-eighties both John’s parents died so Tiki lost his holiday accommodation.  We went to Cornwall for the Easter and left him with the cleaner who knew him well.  When we returned she told us he had howled incessantly and she had been reduced to taking something to help her sleep!  However, we had solved the holiday problem because we bought a cottage in Cornwall and took him with us.  The first time we made the journey there was an ‘accident’ in the car but we then developed a system of taking the cat litter and having a stop where he stayed in the car but was let out of his basket while we went for a coffee, lunch or whatever.  This system worked well with all our subsequent cats.

In 1988 I got a job in Oxford and lived there during the week while we sold the Balham house.  Tiki was about thirteen by this time and we reckoned was a bit deaf but he would still come if you called him.  We developed a trick of taking the carving knife into the garden and rubbing it with the sharpening steel.  That always brought him back.  It was summer during this move so John would let him out until he was ready to go to work and then get him in again.  One day he failed to reappear.  We were back to the problem of trying to find a cat in inner London.  We began by printing ‘lost cat’ notices and getting our nephews to post them in all the houses in the block.  As the houses were large and many were in multiple occupation this was almost all we could do.  The house immediately over the back fence was on the market so I phoned the estate agent and made him take me through the whole house in case he was stuck there.  And we asked all the neighbours.  We did the usual trick of looking under all the parked cars as we thought he could have got into one again.  I still think this is probably what happened as we never found him.  We also realised that as he was older, in theory he could have just gone off to die, as cats do.  It is the only time we have lost a cat and it is not an experience I would want to repeat.  Not knowing what happened to him was terrible as there was no ‘closure’ as we say these days but when we moved we found ourselves living on a main A road, even though we were in a village, and we realised he would never have survived as he had got used to a certain amount of freedom.   In due course we got two new kittens and trained them onto leads so they never had the same degree of freedom.

Cats we have had: Tiki Part 1

We named the first cat we had Tiki and ever since have had Maori names for our cats.  Because I knew I was somewhat allergic to cats we decided to get a Siamese as I had heard somewhere that, because they were short-haired, it was unlikely I would have an allergic reaction.  In those days it was extremely difficult to have either pets or a baby in rented accommodation so it was only when we bought our first house in 1973 that we realised we could have a cat.  We started to look for a Siamese although we knew absolutely nothing about the breed.  When we lived in Turin we had friends who had a Siamese but that was the only one we had ever known.  However, I did know I did not sneeze when we visited them, unlike our friends here with a moggie cat who used to have to clean everything before we went there.   I seem to remember we moved into our new house in September.  We were very broke as John had returned to university and we were basically living off my salary.  We decided that one way of saving money would be to spend a fortnight over Christmas with John’s parents in Derby as this would mean we could turn the heating off.  The heating was storage heaters.  We did not drive so went to Derby by train.  As we had not expected to acquire a cat, we did not have any equipment for bringing one home.  One evening I was looking at the local newspaper when I saw an advertisement for a litter of Siamese cats so I contacted the breeder.  I was told the kittens were still very small but if we waited until just before we returned to London, they would be eight weeks old and we could have the largest.  Following my father’s advice from my childhood, we insisted on a male but fortunately the one the breeder was willing to part with was male.

Tiki

We only have two photos of him because of the fire

Please note the 'boz-eyed' look'

The breeder lived in Codnor, a village up onto the moors between Derby and Sheffield.  It was possible to get there by taking two buses but remember it was the middle of winter and Derbyshire is famous for fog.  The breeder kindly said he would drive us back to Derby if we came by bus.  There was no way we could go and inspect the cat.  We waited until New Years Eve as we were returning to London on New Year’s Day.  We knew Tiki would have to spend one night with us in Derby.  The house was tiny and my brother-in-law was sleeping on a camp bed in the sitting room because John and I had the second bedroom.  There was also a largish dog but he turned out not to be a problem and for the rest of his life he and Tiki got on very well.  Both animals slept downstairs that night.

We made the outward journey without any problems.  My hazy memory of the house we went to is that it was full of animals as in addition to the litter of kittens there was also one of puppies.  We were told the cat’s pregnancy had been unexpected and we never did get Tiki's pedigree although I think that may be because the breeder did not have our address.  While we were there the fog began to descend and the return journey became something to remember.  It was not helped by the fact that the ring road in Derby was being rebuilt so there were various diversions.  The breeder had a small van and I think I must have held Tiki on my lap.  When we got to Derby the fog was incredibly thick.  We started driving round the ring road but missed the turning for the London Road south (off which John’s parents lived) three times.  We kept hearing the cathedral bells, sometimes louder and sometimes further away.  Finally we found the right turning and completed the journey.

Then we had to face the fact that we had no cat litter and no food.  I know we found a cardboard box lid and tore up newspaper as a loo, although Tiki was not keen on the idea of using it.  There was a lobby between the front room and the room where the cat, dog and John’s brother were to sleep so we put the ‘tray’ in there and shut the doors.  I cannot remember what we did about food.  Our train was not until the afternoon and we realised we would have to take a taxi from St Pancras all the way to Tooting, not something we could normally afford but there was no way we could have taken a kitten on the underground.  And all the shops in Derby were closed by the time we returned from Codnor and not open on New Year’s Day.  We found a cardboard carton and put the cat in it but he objected and soon got out.  John had a jacket lined with false sheepskin so we put it on my lap and the kitten was happy to sleep on that.  It was bitterly cold as we used to have much colder winters than we have now.  When we reached St Pancras we had to join the queue for taxis, still with Tiki on the sheepskin coat in my arms, but after waiting some time, we did make it back to the house in Tooting which of course was freezing cold.  So Tiki spent his first night in the bed with us.

We were quite strict with him initially.  We used to lock him in the sitting room when we went to bed and then hear him knocking a ping-pong ball about.  He was not allowed in our bed after the first night but I am afraid that stopped because John used to get up much later than me and would let him into the bed after I had got up.  We fed him on a mixed diet.  There was tinned food but also things such as heart because Tooting had a good covered market with very traditional stalls.  We did not know about dry food which in the early seventies was somewhat dubious and was said to cause kidney problems.  He was a very fussy eater, though, and we were forever having to change the brand of cat food we fed him.

From the beginning he never went to a cattery.  Our holidays were strange affairs.  One year we had to holiday separately because of work commitments.  My first boss arrived from New Zealand and stayed with Tiki for the three days when our holidays overlapped.  Otherwise John’s parents looked after him.  Initially they would come to London and housemind.  Later we used to take him up to Derby, drop him off and then continue to our holiday destination.  We did not go abroad much.  We heard of one occasion when John’s parents let him out and he nearly got lost but otherwise the system worked well.

In the very hot summer of 1976 we lost him.  We lived in a terrace of two-up, two-down houses.  It was just off a main road (the A24) with lots of traffic and the area was very built up.  We used to leave a window open at the back when we went to work and we knew that occasionally he got out a window at the front.  One time John and a friend were in the sitting room when they saw him descending past the window!  He had got out the upstairs bedroom window.  When we lost him in the summer of 1976 I spent ages hunting under all the parked cars.  Then John walked round the corner from the main road and he fell out of the engine of one of the parked cars.  What relief!  However, John was wearing a white shirt and white jeans so he was very dirty.  So was the cat. We phoned the vet and asked what we should do.  The advice was to get as much of the oil off him as possible.  We had to start by rubbing him with butter.  We were then told to shower him.  Not something a cat fancies but we managed to hold him in the bath and use the shower head.  He emerged very bedraggled and very angry and retreated to the top of the stairs where he sat trying to clean himself properly.

He was a cat who had many adventures.  He also was not insured.  On one occasion he got in a fight and ended up with an abcess.  I cannot remember if that was the occasion that prompted us to change vet.  He had to be admitted to the second vet.  He was put on a drip for several days and of course refused to eat.  In the end I cooked chicken on the recommendation of a colleague and took it to the vet.  He still would not eat.  Finally the vet said we could take him home for twenty-four hours to see if he would eat there.  He held out for nearly the whole time but then did start nibbling so we breathed again.

Then there was the time when we took him to Guildford to stay with my sister while we went to Heathrow for some reason.  When we returned there was no sign of him but then we discovered he had got INTO the mattress and was hiding under the scrim that lined it. We even took him out to tea to friends who lived in a flat.  This was not a success so we did not repeat that sort of excursion.  Nor did we train him onto a lead, although we did do that with the next pair.  We were beginning to learn how far you can push a cat to do things it does not want to!