He was a good friend

Bernie and I first met in BH Foyer on 28 September 1957, we were fresh faced TO’s, he came from the GPO and I from national service. We didn’t speak much then but during the first week of our induction course we were in the Crystal Palace canteen when this miserable looking chap approached me, “Can I join you for coffee?” and that was the start of a friendship which lasted for 53 years.

I remember his early studio in his bedroom in Rochester Way, my then fiancée, Carol, made his curtains from Blue Velvet, he had a Reslo ribbon microphone, Vortexion 4 ch mixer and tape machine and we spent happy hours making our own radio shows.

In our early days we would skive off and monitor the Goon Show from 5 PP Control Room, and often went to live studio sessions, I remember specially Steve Race’s “Music about Town” with producer Johnny Kingdon in Aeolian 2, and Skiffle Club with Jimmy Grant, then as our careers developed we moved away from the control room. He became a very skilled XP Tape operator and editor, while I was an SM, frequently we worked together on Sports Report and Thursday Roundabout with Ken Sykora, there we all shared love of folk and country music, recording Robin Hall and Jimmy McGregor, The Spinners, Dot Y Pete, and so on. He was a big fan of Guitar Club and of course Saturday Club. Later we both became producers, I was in Gramophone Department and he went to Popular Music based in Aeolian Hall, Bond Street as Saturday Club producer. He took endless trouble with his recording sessions and this earned him the respect of major artists. Particularly Beatles with whom he became friends, he had a flat in Shepherd’s Market where they would often drop in, John Lennon in Andy Peebles’ interview before he was shot mentions Bernie with affection.

Bernie always inspired great loyalty from his female colleagues, Shirley Jones, Pan Tarrant and Pinky, and his artists, John Peel, Top Gear, Brian Mathew, Anne Nightingale and even Tony Blackburn on Top 40, but he felt resented by some of his colleagues in the Pop music dpt. because he was so fastidious in his work, taking a long time over sessions, often overrunning, and his closeness with the artistes caused resentment. Bernie was never afraid to stick his neck out, there was one year when November 11 fell on a Saturday and consequently the “Saturday Club” Programme had to include the two minute silence in memory of those who had fallen in two world wars. Bernie looked at the audience figures a few weeks later and noticed that, by some statistical freak, it appeared that the figures for the silence were bigger than those for the programme. He wrote a memo to Ken Baines, Head of Popular Music, in it he said,
“I think we’ve hit on a winner here. I am volunteering to produce the omnibus edition of the silence as a complete half an hour as it could get us very good figures! The consequent savings could then be used to increase the meager £220 a week budget which I currently have for “Saturday Club”.
Ken Baines, a man not noted for his sense of humour, was not at all amused and gave Bernie an angry bollocking for his tasteless idea!

Our professional paths separated when I became part of “hated Radio 1 management” which put me in a difficult position, he was not an easy person to manage, very individual and he had an idiosyncratic way of working, sometimes all night not days, in fact he could be very argumentative, an awkward old sod! He once staggered up to the fourth floor wearing flippers to complain to his boss Mark White about the damp in his office.
He even decorated his office himself to get it the way he wanted it complete with an aquarium, he worked as he wanted and was not a great Radio 1 team player and made his feelings about my chaps in their ice cream jackets very public! When reprimanded about broadcasting the dodgy lyric in the Rolling Stone’s “Star Star” he went to street to canvas pedestrians re their interpretation of the words as understood, he never backed down in an argument and never forgave someone who had crossed him. He could certainly be a stubborn old bugger!

In later years one of his joys was to listen to “Give us a clue” and he would record in duplicate on CD and DAT every edition to listen to again and again, he never lost his love of radio despite being a TV addict.

After we had both left Radio 1 we became closer again and shared a love of gardens. He had wonderful red hot pokers which made a super display and he gave me a huge black plastic bag of roots, Sue and I never thought they’d all grow and we planted them all in Skipton, now our garden is full of the things and they are in full flower and whenever we look at them we will always be reminded of Bernie.

He was always careful with his money and loved to shop for a bargain, his favourite stores being Aldo and Lidl. It’s a little known fact that on the stock market shares in Lidl dropped ten points on the news of Bernie’s death. Not sure if they will ever recover! We even found one in Spain as you can see above.

We shared a love of Spain, where he had tried several times to settle but had always become frustrated with Spanish practices and the manana attitude to getting things done, like Telfonica not coming to repair his phone line quickly and he desperately needed a friend to share with but found it impossible to find anyone willing to put up with him, maybe because he was somewhat fussy in his habits. How fussy was he? Well put it this way, he owned a toaster but never used it and always did his toast under the grill because the toaster it didn’t cook both sides exactly the same.

However, he came to stay with me for several years running and at the airport I would push him in a wheel chair as we laughed about looking like Lou and Andy from his favorite TV Show Little Britain, “I want one of those!” Pointing at some silly unobtainable object. In Spain he became popular with my local friends in Estepona, Dennis, Barbara and Michael Roche, Roger and Sue Westoby, Jan and Mike and Tony and Vivianne. His favourite meal was a dorada on the BBQ with salad and loads of garlic.
He always intended to go back to Spain on a semi permanent basis, but like many of Bernie’s ideas he never quite got round to it, but he said to me in the Spring that he would not spend another winter in the UK, that proved to be only too true!

Last few years have been difficult, Jeff and Rita visited more than me but mobility problems were making life increasing difficult for him and it was apparent to us that he needed a helper and he found this concept hard to accept. His stubborn nature made him cling on to his independence to the end. Even a few weeks ago when I went to see him I discussed what would happen when he came out of hospital and he was reluctant to accept his need to sell up and go into sheltered accommodation. The prospect of packing up and moving overwhelmed him, he knew he couldn’t manage in on his own so maybe that’s why he gave up mentally and finally let go. As I said earlier he was a TV addict, particularly of local news and Jeff and I knew his illness was serious when he said he had not looked at TV for a couple of weeks, nor shown any great interest in the General Election.

Where ever he is now, the struggle is over, he had a fascinating life, it’s a pity he never got round to writing the biographical book it would have been a great read. We shall all miss him very much. He was a great old bloke, a friend I could share anything with and I know my phone bill will be halved now I can no longer call him for a short phone call of an hour or so. Bye Bye Bernie.

In Estpona there’s a community of ex pat friends who meet socially on a regular basis. Some live in Andalucía permanently while others come and go with the seasons but over the years we’ve all come to know each other pretty well. Two special people in this group were Ron Storey and Janet, “Jan”, Garlick, both in the latter part of middle age, whatever that means these days, who had been together as a couple for the last four years. They were particularly popular due to their willingness to join in enthusiastically with any of our social activities, especially if it came to dressing up for a fancy dress part. One year Ron arrived at our house with a third leg announcing to the bemused Spanish taxi driver that he was “Jake the Peg”.
We were all delighted when a few weeks ago Ron announced that he and Jan were going to get married in Southport on May 8 and Sue and I made plans to attend the wedding along with two other neighbours, Anthony and Vivianne, who decided to surprise them by coming with us.
It was an awful shock when, one week before the ceremony was due to take place, we heard the tragic news that Ron had suffered a major heart attack and died. No more a celebration of a wedding but a celebration of Ron’s life at a funeral.
We will always remember this typical Yorkshireman, with his cry of “How Much” whenever he was presented with a bill and his twinkling eyes as he regaled us with the latest joke. He had a great sense of humour, loved comedy and on one occasion sat us all down after dinner to sit through a complete Dave Allan DVD that he’s picked up at a jumble sale for 2€’s. He couldn’t wait to share his enthusiasm with us all.
On the serious side he was a committed Christian with a love of the church and no mean performer on the electric keyboards. All of us will miss his straight talking and his love of life and our community is the poorer for his untimely departure. Our thoughts are with Jan at this awful time and we hope when things have settled down we will still see her back here as part of our community.

Another day another blog
We were planning to be in Spain for Easter. Sue was already there and I was due to return from a week skiing in Italy to join her when a phone call changed everything……
The call was from my agent to ask if we would like to go to Africa with me as Guest Celebrity Speaker joining the P&O Aurora for part of its Grand Voyage which had been going since January 6. We were required to fly to Walvis Bay and leave at Madeira after stopping at St Helena where Napoleon was imprisoned. The offer was a good one, a vip cabin with a balcony and decent money so I said “yes” and we both had to make our separate ways to Skipton to sort everything.
We flew out of Manchester on Sunday April 4 to Heathrow and then overnight to Johannesburg, were we picked up a South African Airways local flight to Walvis Bay, until then we were under the impression it was part of South Africa but it turned out to be in Namibia! As we flew in for the last hour all we could see was desert! What were we coming to and would our luggage have made the various connections?
We landed in what looked like a giant sandpit, a couple of huts were the airport building s and luckily our luggage was there. A driver met us and another passenger, Colin “Fingers” Henry, who was also entertaining on the Aurora and we were driven 18 kilometres across the dessert to the town, lots of very tidy bungalows and our hotel. By now it was Easter Monday and pretty much everything was closed, not that there was much in the first place, a few supermarkets and big banks and lots and lots of sand. It wasn’t even very warm as there was a continuous high wind off the sea chilling the air.
We took a walk to the esplanade and walked along the seafront, lots of flamingos and pelicans but very few people, it was deserted. We found a very nice bar, The Raft, on a sort of pier over the sea and had a drink and a snack. It was delicious and we were reminded of Florida as we watched the pelicans fly in as the sun set. So good was it we went back for a very good candlelight dinner in the restaurant, and it turned out to be the best place in town.
The hotel was very comfortable and we slept well having been up on the aircraft all night and next morning over breakfast met up with Colin as we waited for our 10.30 collection where the P&O Agent was to take us to the ship. 1045, came then 11.00 and no sign of a taxi. This did not look good. I made a call to the agent, “Sorry the ship is delayed in Capetown and you won’t be going until 10.30 tomorrow!!” What? We were stuck in this awful place for 24 hours with nothing to do.
All the local seaborne excursions had already gone out so we phoned around and found a company that took people out in four wheel drive vehicles to explore the dessert so we booked it for the afternoon.

It proved to be one of the best things we have ever done. A totally new experience seeing things and sights we had never seen before. There are no roads as we went about 50 kilometres south of the town where our experienced guide showed us the salt pans, the wildlife, jackals and springboks, and did many exciting drives up and down the dunes. It was beautiful and culminated in us “sandboarding” like sledging but faster, down the dunes. Only problem was that my knees were dragging in the sand which wore two holes in my jeans. You can see some pictures of what it was like and altogether we spent five hours in the desert only returning as it got dark. A really wonderful day.

Dinner with our new friend Colin in the other decent restaurant, and next morning we eventually joined the ship.
The Aurora is very pleasant, around 2,000 Passengers and a warm welcome from the Cruise Director, Nigel Travers and a cabin with a private balcony. If this is the life of a Guest Celebrity lecturer I’m all for it. The only problem is that because of the time lost in Capetown, it was strong winds which prevented the ship getting out of harbour, we have to miss out St Helena which we were really looking forward to seeing, all we have now is nine days of cruising to Madeira where we get off, but it’s a comfortable ship and good entertainment and my lectures are in the main theatre which seats 650 passengers so plenty of opportunity to shine. The sea is calm and the weather pleasantly warm too so not much to complain about really. More when we arrive in Madeira..

Madeira

After a pretty rough couple of days at sea we arrived in Madiera just before mid day. It was Thursday April 15, a fateful day in aviation history as we now know, sadly we didn’t realise then how bad things were going to be in the Northern hemisphere.
The weather was unseasonably cool with rain showers and it was soon apparent that UK flights in and out of Funchal, the airport for Madeira were pretty well non existent due to the heavy discharge of lava from an Icelandic volcano. We offered to stay on Aurora to replace the new celebrity lecturer but that offer was declined and as we had previously decided to stay on the Island for a couple of days we were not too worried. We guessed things would be back to normal by the Sunday when we were scheduled to leave.
The ships agent arranged transport to a decent hotel and we settled in to look around Funchal, dodging the heavy showers. There were masses of flowers and floral exhibitions to see as it was the start of the Island’s flower festival. You can see some of these in the photos.

Friday was no better weather wise so any thoughts of going dolphin or whale watching were dismissed and we watched with some feelings of trepidation as we saw Aurora, our last link with the European mainland, sail away for Southampton. What to do then to fill our time? We took a local bus to Camara de Lobos, a pretty fishing village where Winston Churchill used to paint. It was however very cold in the wind so eventually we had dinner in a restaurant named after the great man, excellent fresh fish then it was another bus back to the hotel.

It was however very cold in the wind so eventually we had dinner in a restaurant named after the great man, excellent fresh fish then it was another bus back to the hotel.

Saturday, the children of the island gathered at 9.00 to participate in a children’s flower parade through Funchal to the town hall where they were to build a “Wall of Hope” Sadly the weather was so bad at 9am that the start was delayed and eventually 1500 of them trooped off, following a horseman and woman, carrying their somewhat bedraggled bunches of flowers.

They made the best of it as you can see on our pictures.

Sunday was the day of the big parade and luckily for this the weather relented and the sun came out. Having had our picnic in a nearby park at 2.30 we found ourselves a good viewing position. We were surrounded by thousands of other people, locals and visitors stranded on the island. It was well worth waiting for, our few pictures don’t really do justice to the spectacle of all the floats and wonderful costumes on a floral theme. Hundreds of participants of all ages dress in a range of costumes dancing along or riding on the floats. It took over two hours for the procession to pass us. As it was some thing Sue had always wanted to see we didn’t feel too bad at being stranded for a third day.
By Monday we were getting twitchy. There was no sign of flights resuming, it was costing us over 100€ a day for the hotel and meals as we began to wonder if we would ever see Skipton again. As readers will know thousands of flights all over the world were affected and we were at the mercy of P&O’s travel bookers.
We spent the next two days exploring the island by bus, but my heart wasn’t in it, the weather had reverted back to cold and wet and one place we went to was so high up we were in the fog of the clouds.
By Wednesday we had enough and asked P&O if they could arrange for us to fly to Lisbon where we proposed to hire a car and drive down to Estepona where we had left Sue’s car. We thought we could drive from there to home in the UK.
At two hours notice the travel company came back with an offer to fly us to Lisbon, from Lisbon to Madrid and from Madrid to Malaga. It was not too hard to arrange for someone to pick us up at 1 am on Thursday and drive us to our home in Estepona.
We were so glad to be free and ironically the next day the flights did start slowly to get back to normal. We took a few days off in Estepona and eventually Sue flew to Manchester where our car had been racking up parking fees, kindly capped at £30 maximum.
That concludes the tale of our nine day cruise on Aurora which turned into a month away. You never know what’s around the corner.
Estepona, May 3 2010

We set off aiming to stop at Lake Taupo for our picnic, but there was a huge cycle race there on a par with the Tour de France and as crowds lined the streets cheering on the sweating riders there was nowhere for poor tourists to park to enjoy the lake. We explored some local falls then decided to go on to Rotorua where there is another lake and picnic in more peaceful conditions. After leaving there we were on route to our last Farmstead B&B when I upset the local mobile “fuzz” who clocked me at 119 kmph! “Did you not know the national speed  limit is 100 kmph, Sir?”

“Please don’t book me officer I am used to Europe where it’s 120kmph and we are leaving the country tomorrow”

Common sense prevailed and we had a good chat and parted on good terms without a ticket which was lucky. He said he knew I was a tourist as when he flagged me down I turned on the windscreen washers instead of the indicator, it being the “wrong way” round on our hired Datsun.

We drove on at a more sedate pace. Our last stop was at a very rural chestnut farm, run by an ex Yorkshire man and his American wife. They cooked an excellent dinner for us and two other Canadian guests and we had a super last evening only to be woken by what sounded like an air raid siren. Next morning it was explained to us that it was the only way of summoning the volunteer fire fighters, we were worried in case there was a forest fire and we were about to be burned in our beds.

That was it, an uneventful drive to Auckland airport next morning and a great flight to Bankok, too long at 11 hours then an overnight in a nearby hotel before flying home.

In summing up we had a wonderful time, we drove 4258 kilometres or in English, 2661 miles, probably too much in 14 days and we should have had three weeks to give more time for relaxation, fishing and golf. The scenery is wonderful so are the people though it does look as if they have a passion for well kept hedges, even out in the country where they are 15 or 20 feet high they all appear to be well pruned. One other thought, it’s a bit like England 20 or 30 years ago with many of the better aspects of what we had then in terms of politeness but we did notie that their toilet rolls are very thin, at least they have toilet paper not torn up copies of the Daily Mirror!

Until we go again, goodbye from World Travellers, Johnny & Sue. March 8 2010.

We had a very restful time at Gorbay, walking and painting then it was time to move back to North Island. We set off early, stopping on route to see seals basking on rocks beside the side of the main road just past Kaikora, Sue would have stayed all day watching them play but we had to catch the mid day ferry from Picton. We had an excellent lunch on board eating fresh caught crayfish, well the locals call them crayfish but they were huge, more like lobsters as you can see in the photo. The weather was absolutely perfect, not a cloud in the sky all the day, the was scorching down and it was a pity when we landed that we had another 200 miles to do to reach our next B&B near Napier. It was something of a nightmare drive after the peace and quiet of South Island. We found ourselves in horrendous traffic jams as the evening rush hour was starting and we drove northwards on the main road only covering 80 miles in the first two hours so it took us until nearly nine in the evening to arrive in Napier. It was too dark to see our surroundings but it turned out to be a whole two bedroom cottage so plenty of room to spread ourselves. But our view of North Island is coloured by the greater density of population and the concentration of housing. Everywhere is so neat, trimmed hedges and lawns and nearly all the homes are single story bungalows.

When we woke on Friday we were able to see better where we were and get out to enjoy the delights of Napier. We started by driving up to the top of Te Mato ( was this the Maori for tomato?) the highest local mountain from where we could see about 40 miles in every direction. A local who had cycled to the top, they are fit out here, explained that in 1931 there had been a huge earthquake which destroyed Napier and Hastings. Unusually the whole area had been rebuilt in 2 years in classic Art Deco style which was well preserved today. We drove there to see for ourselves and found a delightful town with many beautiful buildings in excellent condition. We hired a bike for Sue and a strange electric powered scooter device for me with which we explored the seafront footpath. After all that excercise it was time for a late lunch and as Hawkes Bay is the home of New Zealand wines we went for a tasting as one of the better wineries, Clearview, which has the unique situation of being right on the beach. I enjoyed one of their best bottles of a wine called “Old Olive Block” which was great but sadly not available in the UK, all the wine from Clearview being sold in New Zealand. That was our Friday, now we have to move on during Saturday to be near Auckland and the flight home on Sunday.

Jet Ski ride

Up early as we had a longish drive and wanted to get a good look at Mount Cook from this side in the early morning sunshine, it looked just great as you can see, inspiration for a future watercolour painting when I get more time.

We had another great scenic drive and the highlight was a high speed trip on a Jetski power boat up the Rakaia Gorge with driver Blair who really showed off for us in a ride that lasted 45 minutes, a really thrilling ride culminating in a 360 degree high speed spin on the fast moving Rakaia river which drenched us but we really didn’t care.

Drove on after our riverside picnic though the Canterbury Plain which is much less spectacular than the remainder of NZ, very reminiscent of the UK, fenced fields, trimmed hedges and plenty of sheep and cattle. We were not sorry to get past that 100 or so miles and motored north to Gore Bay, a lovely B&B by the sea where we shall stay for a couple of nights.

Bungy Jumping , Ugh !

The start of a new month and a change in the weather, we woke to torrential rain and set off across country northwards, aiming to get to Kaikora in two days. On route we passed a wonderful fishing shop, “Stu’s Fly Shop2 quite orgasmic for a fisherman as you can see from the photo, but sadly closed as Stu left a note on the door “Gone guiding!” We stopped next at Queenstown, a lovely town by Lake Wakatipu. In the sun it would have been wonderful, reminiscent of Lake Garda in Italy, beautiful shops to interest Sue and very nice cafes and restaurants. We bought a few souvenirs then on the way came across a “Cheesery” by some vineyards and enjoyed a baked brie with lovely French bread. We also stumbled by accident on the birthplace of “Bungy Jumping, at Arrow Junction where mad people throw themselves off a very high bridge with only an elastic band for support! You wouldn’t get me doing it for a million pounds but they seemed to enjoy it at 125 NZ$ a time. We drove on in the rain and stopped at the oddly named Twizle for an overnight, as we had supper the rain stopped and there was a rather good sunset.

What a fabulous drive. Sue and I left Fox Glacier early as we had a long way to go to the south of South Island, over 300 miles, but the scenry we saw and the lack of cars on the road made it one of the most memorable drives either of us had ever undertaken. I can only put in a few photos so you can see for yourselves what I am talking about. I suppose it’s the lack of people too which makes it so spectacular, it’s so unspoiled and we are seeing it pretty much unchanged since the 1800’s, it’s just wonderful and two weeks is not nearly enough time to see it all. We arrived at Te Anau where we are stopping on Saturday and Sunday and using our B&B as a base from which to explore Milford Sound, one of the great Fiords. We booked a trip on a small cruise boat, only around 40 people on board and we were somewhat apprehensive as the weather has turned very wet and windy. We needn’t have worried as the rain resulted in a multitude of fantastic waterfalls coming down off 700 meter high cliffs into the water. What a sight, again I’ll let the photos speak for me.

We arrived back at the B&B for a shower and dry clothing on Sunday evening, then off for a pizza in town, a great way to end February. Tomorrrow, Monday we start our return trip northwards as we head off for Auckland next Sunday.

We had a super stay at Wakefield in a fishing lodge where we cooked our own supper and ate it on the veranda looking over the fields, watched over by a herd of cattle. So peaceful and we were made very welcome by the owner Peter Warren, sadly no time to fish with him as we  had nearly 300 miles to drive to Fox Glacier. On the way we passed many wonderful views, Bullers Gorge and as you can see some odd things too at the entrance to a local scrap yard.

We stopped for coffee at Reeftown, a pretty mining village, pretty much unchanged with a couple of old time miners still working as you can see. We stopped for our picnic at Hikataki, luckily the sun came out too then at around 6 pm we arrived at Reflections Lodge where there is a pond in the front garden and you can actually see Mount Cook peeping over the Alps. A few photos but it’s hard to do justice to the place. It was cloudy the night we arrived but next morning bright sunshine and we were able to see the mountains with snow on the top sparkling in the sun. We set off to explore the Fox Glacier, which is very impressive as you can see but not a mint in sight! More walking and a picnic filled the day and it’s early to bed as we have another long drive tomorrow to get to the Fiord Country.

Approach to South Island from ferry

Picton from the ferry

Up at 0530 as we had to catch an early ferry from Wellington to Picton, the most beautiful ferry crossing in the world, followed by a spectacular drive along a coastal road from Picton to Nelson, too many stunning views to include them all here.