Minutes of Our Meeting of 18th January 2024 Venue: Coral Star Taverna Pegeia Cyprus
At venue: Rick, Mike, Jordi, Jackie, Nicki, Patti, June, welcome to Glenn Collins.
On Skype: John G, Bobby, Bob, Peter and Irene.
Welcome to new member Glenn Collins, an expat Cyprus resident who is well travelled around the world and is writing a screenplay for a historical east London gangster movie.
Irene – Railways
A descriptive memory based story of personal railway journeys around Scotland from her youth.
John G. - Geoffrey and the Chief part two.
Completing John’s tale about the boy who wanders through a storm at night finding an Indian camp with a chief. He awakes next morning to find he is in North America in the prairie. Spending a day riding ponies, seeing a huge herd of Buffaloes, then enjoying a meal with the tribe, before falling asleep. He wakes next morning at home. It was all a dream – but where did the large feather come from?
Bobby – Magpies Ch. 10.
The party reach Scotland, and meet local animals only to find that their story is common knowledge and events back home are unfolding. The young female magpies are to be married off, whereas his mother Odelyn is to be taken by the chief as his wife.
Mike – Railways.
A historical look back at the beginnings of railways and what might have happened…..
Followed by the decline and fall of the railway system in the UK as the rise in personal transport took over, but was it really for the better?
Rick – Cyprus Railways.
Rick looks back at the history of railways introduced into Cyprus by the British at the turn of twentieth century finally closing in 1951 due to the improvement of the road systems. The road from Nicosia to Famagusta is built on the old railway track.
And - A Travelogue video of Tala village, the cats sanctuary and Neofytous Monastery.
Patti – East African Railways
Christened ‘The Lunatic Line’ it ran from Mombasa, through Ugana to Nairobi a distance of six hundred miles it cost around five million pounds in 1900’s. During it’s construction there was danger from man-eating lions killing the workers. The railway provided luxury travel until the 1970’s when independent African nations deported all the asian staff and everything declined from then on.
Nicki – Josiah.
The tale of a disabled railway worker, whose job was to clean the empty trains and collect the debris left behind. Some of which was kept by him and sold. He finds a torn photo, discarded bunch of flowers, and finally the body of a young woman !!
This story was put together from a ‘lucky bag’ of suggestions from a friend.
Jackie – Railways
More of Jackie’s memoirs of early life, A trip to Rhyl, N.Wales with a picnic basket, then returning to her aunt and uncle’s house. The bus ride back home to Manchester local trains that still run today.
June – Steam Trains,
Memories of train journeys where everybody had to dress up, then get covered in soot smuts, progressing on to diesels, then to electric locomotivs. With the opening of the M25 and the channel tunnel, direct journeys to the continent became easier. European journeys were easier than flying and less stressful.
It was a very full meeting and it seemed that everybody had some railway stories ancient and modern. Most stories told of the demise of the systems except June’s European adventures.
NEXT WEEK ‘ CONSTRUCT A GOODIE BAG’
