My friend Amanda and I went to this exhibition today. This exhibition by Peter Gentenaar from the Netherlands. Everything is made from paper,  but of course they have been manipulated in many different ways and in doing so he has created some magnificent pieces of art.

A very interesting exhibition and if the house was bigger I would like one in the hoose.

An evening stroll to burn off the dumplings, I’ve only walked 6000 steps today so I need to do a wee bit more. As I often do I wander off the beaten track and so today I head for familiar territory but take a different route. I know I’ll come across the canal at some stage but to get there I have to walk through some older parts where they don’t get a lot of tourists.

After walking through a rabbit warren of lanes and streets selling fruit and snacks I finally pass the vegetable gardens on the bank of the canal. There is a foot bridge allowing me to get to the other side. I stop to watch the barges go by on the river for a while as the sun is setting behind me. It’s been a hot day and it’s good to finally feel the temperature drop.

This is like the M1 for barges, transporting just about anything through the network of waterways around Suzhou and beyond. tonight however it was mostly gravel, sand, earth and construction materials being moved, for the most part in one direction and that was towards the city.

Some of the barges are going so slow because they are so low in the water. You can see the height difference as the pass each other. Most of the empty ones are heading west.

As they pass beneath the bridge you a can not only hear the low rumble of the big diesel but you can feel the vibrations come through your feet. Which I may add is very relaxing. To stand here at sunset and just watch the big barges lazily going about there business is very satisfying and good spot to get away from rush hour.

Although overhead today the Chinese Air force is flexing it’s military might. Not sure how far from here the Air force base is but today they have been out playing with their toys.

Not sure how long I stood here just watching the world go by, maybe the locals thought that the foreigner was ready to jump.

There’s a certain fascination with boats and I must admit I would have loved to jump on board one westbound headed for Taihu Lake. I like being on boats but only if I am near the shore. I like to watch the world from a different perspective and at a leisurely pace. Sitting on one of these barges with the big diesel humming in the background sipping a beer watching the world go by sounds great. It brings back memories of going down the Mekong River from Cambodia to Vietnam.

Many of the families running the barges live and work on the barge and this is where they will spend most of their life. Not sure if this is the life for me but I know that I could quite happily spend a few days at least.

Suzhou has many waterways but locals are not allowed to use the them. You can not buy a boat or canoe and explore. This is because the government think that it’s safer to ban all use of the waterways for private use because too many people might die and this is possibly true. The only boats allowed are tourist boats and the commercial traffic. But it would be great if you could hire a commercial boat and explore the back streets so to speak, but you cannot.

PS I ended up walking 24,678 steps. I can have more dumplings…………..

​

My mind is still young and my body is old,

But then again I feel so bold,

The shackles of fear have been left at the door,

I’m free and keen and ready to explore,

But am I in my Prime?

Well in my mind at least.

The skin is old and crinkled,

The muscles are worn and tired,

My flowing locks have long gone,

What’s left is grey and shaved to the wood,

My beard, my eyebrows and chest include.

It’s spreading its way south,

I am in my Prime.

But now I’m distinguished,

Well that’s what they say,

I get young people giving me a seat on the the bus,

I decline and don’t want to make a fuss,

I have my dignity,

I am in my Prime.

The mind wants to do it,

And is very sure that it can,

Mind over matter is the will of man,

But sometimes we fail and the body protests,

But you can always take a pill these days and still act your best,

I am in my Prime

Or maybe I’m just a Prima Donna,

Whose ego is large?

Whose outlook on life is controlled by the scars?

By the failures and successes of the last 50 years,

Which have always been accompanied by drinking a few beers,
But I’ve been fortunate in life although I’ve had some distress,

I can’t solve every problem but I try my best,

I don’t believe in god, but karma seems real,

And I know one thing for sure,

Something that’s real,

I am in my Prime.

A lonely miserable night in China First written 2 weeks after I got here, but I just found it again so I thought I’d share

I wanted a change and I got it,

So I made the break from a boring easy life,

I left my friends, family and my Hoose.

I cut myself free of the shackles of modernity and order,

But not right away, a pilgrimage was done to ma Home.

So now I’m on my way to China you see,

But don’t know what’s ahead of me,

I feel that this is what I must do,

But yet I feel empty and don’t have a clue.

I thought that when I arrived some things would be in place, but instead it’s a bit ad hoc,

There is no job, well not for a while,

That soon made me lose my smile,

I could have travelled for weeks and it would have mattered, but to me.

The picture in my head has been shattered, but I should have known.

My digs are adequate and roommate Simon is fine,

He’s been very helpful and I don’t want to whine, but………………………

I feel that I have been deceived somehow,

So now what?

Do I stay and learn Chinese?

An asset today no doubt,

And of course I should be pleased,

But no, I’m not happy………

Is it also because I’m behind the big Firewall and can’t see Facebook or Google?

My phone doesn’t work and I’m getting sick of noodle,

So now what? What will I do? I don’t know……………..

Well there’s always a plan B,

But what will that B be?

Plan B will be better for sure and at least I have options,

So don’t despair, it’s better to have tried and failed, so they say……………..

But now it’s time for a single Malt,

I’ll open that the duty free,

A nice old Bowmore from Islay,

That’s the drink for me………………

Slàinte.

I wanted a change and I got it,

So I made the break from a boring easy life,

I left my friends, family and my Hoose.

I cut myself free of the shackles of modernity and order,

But not right away, a pilgrimage was done to ma Home.

So now I’m on my way to China you see,

But don’t know what’s ahead of me,

I feel that this is what I must do,

But yet I feel empty and don’t have a clue.

I thought that when I arrived some things would be in place, but instead it’s a bit ad hoc,

There is no job, well not for a while,

That soon made me lose my smile,

I could have travelled for weeks and it would have mattered, but to me.

The picture in my head has been shattered, but I should have known.

My digs are adequate and roommate Simon is fine,

He’s been very helpful and I don’t want to whine, but………………………

I feel that I have been deceived somehow,

So now what?

Do I stay and learn Chinese?

An asset today no doubt,

And of course I should be pleased,

But no, I’m not happy………

Is it also because I’m behind the big Firewall and can’t see Facebook or Google?

My phone doesn’t work and I’m getting sick of noodle,

So now what? What will I do? I don’t know……………..

Well there’s always a plan B,

But what will that B be?

Plan B will be better for sure and at least I have options,

So don’t despair, it’s better to have tried and failed, so they say……………..

But now it’s time for a single Malt,

I’ll open that the duty free,

A nice old Bowmore from Islay,

That’s the drink for me………………

Slàinte.

April 2009

In 1981 my apprenticeship was finished and my contract was not renewed

At the same time my girlfriend Marie left me. That’s us in the van together

But the hardest thing to cope with that year was the loss of my Ice Cream Van of 3 years. It was a way of life that was magic.

It was so hard to get a van and I had one of the best runs.

You had to know someone or be very lucky. But I got Van 1

You would usually start as a relief driver. Most often Saturday nights. And if you went OK you would work the whole weekend. This meant you had to be out all day Sunday. Stopping only for lunch.

It was a long day but worth it.

We got paid by commission and the rate was 7p in the pound. Doesn’t sound much but in 1978 that was a lot of money.

A week night you could make $5

Saturday would be at least a tenner sometime more

Sunday’s were just great 20 pounds easy

I got the van from Matt. Local Entrepreneur and bouncer whom I knew well.

He had some business to take care of and he asked me to look after the van in his absence.

How could I refuse?

It was great

Drive around all night in a van that was loaded to the gunnels with sweets and meeting girls at every stop. I could take what I wanted and didn’t have to pay for anything.

I tried everything on the van at least once and never got sick.

We sold

Crisps

Pickled onion was my favourite. We had salt & vinegar cheese & onion, tomato smokey bacon and for a short time Hedgehog.

Chocolates dairy milk

Too many to mention and a few that you don’t get here.

Drinks

Lemonade, limeade orange and a few local tastes………Irn Bru , Tizer and Dandelion & burdock

Which was ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING

Cigarettes

At least 20 different types.

We sold them to anyone. None of this over 18 malarkey. In fact some of the kids were our best customers. We even sold single cigarettes with two matches, just in case the first one went out, that’s how generous we were.

At the front window of the van we had all the stuff for the kids, just at the right height.

Penny things.

Toffee, Chocolate bananas jellies, snakes, liquorice. Flying saucers, Chelsea Whoppers

We also had the fridge which was full of ice cream and Ice lollies.

We sold cones

Double nougats

Oysters

Wafers

You could even buy condoms and or Hash. Paki Black, Moroccan Gold, RedLeb or Cannabis Resin

I rented the van from The Parducci dynasty for 20 pounds a week and we had to do was buy all our stock from them..

Parducci Ice cream was the best

My run or territory was my very own council estate. Corseford.

Which you had to defend believe it or not.

It’s a mile in circumference with streets and cul de sacs all named after rivers.

I lived in Tay place.

In the 80’s there were turf wars between rival van companies all over Scotland.

The amount of money to be made was staggering, either legal or illegal

In fact thirty years ago, criminals realised that ice-cream vans could be a perfect front for drug dealing and moving stolen goods

Andrew Doyle was 18 and was a van driver for the Marchetti brothers in East Glasgow.

He tried to venture into new areas and increase his territory.

Mr Doyle was threatened and shot one night.

Then, on 16 April 1984 someone set fire to his tenement home in the middle of the night. He and five members of his family died that night. And this was all over Ice Cream Van territories.

In 1986 in Glasgow Thomas Campbell and Joe Steele were convicted of murder after killing six members of the Doyle family. The deaths coincided with the targeting of ice cream vans in Glasgow as a front for moving stolen goods and drugs.

After twenty years the pair was released. This was one of the more dramatic incidents that made the headlines and the main stream media and there have been movies and books written on this subject.

When I started the van in the late 70’s we had turf wars and they were taken care of pretty quickly.

When a new driver took over area news travelled fast. Matt was a hard man and nobody dared to come near him. But now it was my turn.

It was first of all the Pollombo van that did a few hit and run ventures into my turf. Mind you their ice cream was good. But you couldn’t allow this to happen.

Luckily Matt had left his crack young team to protect his investment. His young team looked after things well and in return some booze was bought to help them along.

Other companies would give it a go and even some of your own Parducci drivers. But after a couple of weeks when everyone realised that the protection was still in place, they all backed off……….. thankfully.

I wasn’t one for fighting. Although we did keep a large stick in the front of the van just in case.

Tony was the van boy that I inherited from Matt. He came with the van. He was 15 and absolutely nuts. He had obviously been watching Matt’s diplomacy at work. The idea of hit first and ask questions later was his style. Most nights he would jump out the van and chase some other kid that was getting a bit lippy.

We had a few heated discussions, but soon we got down to making money. That was one of the main reasons we were there. The more money we took in the more we got paid. Tony was on commission also. 3p in the pound. For this he would make sure that the van was ready for me to pick up after my work. And at night we would stock it up and get it ready for the next day. He loved the van more than me.

It becomes a way of life.

And being 15 an on a van, the other kids treated him like a pop star, well most of them.

I would take a Saturday night off and get a relief driver. Had to make sure Tony approved of course.

On the Sunday morn if I was feeling a bit rough and couldn’t quite face the day till I had my greasy breakfast, then I would let Tony do a circuit of the scheme, which would take bout an hour. For a 15 year old he could drive really well.

Our chimes were “Strangers in the Night” and I must admit I never got sick of them. You were allowed to play the chimes up to 7pm and then you were supposed to blow a whistle which we rarely did.

I got caught one night by the Police.

I had managed to get away with it before, but this night I got caught fair and square.

I went to court and got fined 10 pounds for breaching the Anti pollution act of 1976 sub section B. This was a criminal offence which has haunted me for years.

When I applied to come to Australia I had to tell them I had a criminal record. When they asked me what for I said in a quiet voice………”Playing my Ice Cream Van chimes after 7pm” I wished that I could have told them something more exotic.

There was only one way to drive the Ice Cream van and that was flat out. You could go round the corners pretty fast in the van, but sometimes if you pushed it too far……you paid the price.

All the crisp boxes that sat on top of the crates of lemonade on the floor would come crashing and spilling out.

Can you imagine how sticky the floor would become, when all these sweet drinks mixed with chocolate and penny things from the front kids shelf. Although we did recycle as much as we could get away with. You just had to bury some of the sweets under something else.

Hail rain sleet or snow we would be out in the van. That’s if we could get to the depot and then get back up the hill.

The depot was in Miller St at the bottom of a hill. If we did get out then you could have a ball.

You could put your foot flat on the floor and then hold the wheel on full lock and you could have the van doing a pirouette while the van chimes played Strangers in the night

Don’t see many vans doing that

It didn’t matter how cold it got we still sold ice cream. In the middle of winter we would have a gas heater up the front in the cab so we were cosy. The Gas bottle jammed into the foot well. Let’s see the Health and Safety allow that one these days.

I made the mistake the first winter I worked of leaving a bottle of lemonade in my car overnight. When I got into the car the next morn there was glass and ice all over the driver’s floor. The floor was so sticky. It was so cold that the bottle exploded.

The van was like a bank on wheels. If I was short of cash and I could help myself.

The van bought me my first flash car. A Ford Capri S It was only 3 years old and I was 19 and the girls loved it.

I loved it I used to pass this car on my way to school and now it was mine.

We went to Majorca on holiday. Two weeks in the sun when most kids my age were going no where.

Life was good…………no life was GREAT.

Then along comes 1981 and it all disappears. I lost the van due to an argument over money with Roy Parducci. He said I owed him 400 pounds. I told him to shove it.

That was a mistake and I was the one that got shoved.

It was all gone,

It was all over,

The first night after losing the van I heard the chimes play as the van roared up my street.

That was my Van

That was Van 1

I have so many memories and good times, more than I can impart to you tonight. It was a very special time in my life.

It was certainly was the end of an Era.