During this Covid imposed sailing hiatus, in the absence of stirring yarns of us battling the high seas, avid blog followers will know I have drawn on the experiences of the past, harking back to my youth, to bring you amusing and heart warming anecdotes to help while away the lockdowns.

Anne's told me to stop. "Nobody's interested in stories of your childhood". I'm not so sure, people are interested in the Royal family, Beyoncé and the like so, brace yourselves, here comes another.

Earlier today, walking along the trench we've now worn in the beach over these last many months aimlessly plodding back and furrit' into town, I spotted a guy whiling away his last few hours of freedom under the present Movement Control Order. The MCO is due to be tightened up later today as, after opening the gates to internal tourism, Malaysia has hit something of a spike. A spike of some magnitude with Covid now scoring two thousand five hundred cases a day as opposed to the eighty we've, "enjoyed" most of the year. You might remember I said this would happen just a few posts ago. But as usual, did anyone in the government think to ask me?

Our new best friend was amusing himself sketching one of the pseudo Arabic towers in one of the nearby hotels. "That's pretty impressive" I said, and we got to chatting.

"Where you from?" he asked. "Just over there" I replied pointing over his shoulder at our island home. "No" he replied, "where are you FROM?".

"Scotland" we said. Then, with a slight look of exasperation, probably much like you're feeling just now, he kind of said, and certainly implied, "Aaargh, NO - where are you FROM?"

"Stirling" we replied, half uttering "between Glasgow and Edinburgh" which we normally add to help folk who've done the usual tourist, lightning tour of Scottish castles and/or golf courses. Before we could get it out he says, "I spent seven years in Dundee".

I was too polite to say, "Oh, which prison was that?" as that's about the only reason people go to Dundee, but instead said "that must make you a doctor or a dentist" as the other gothic fortification in Dundee is the university.

"No" he says, "I'm a crazy cartoonist". Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather., or indeed a large weight that says "1 ton" on it.

So, there we were, on the other side of the world speaking to a local Malay who brought Desperate Dan, cow pies and the like to life every week in the Dandy. The staple reading diet of kids in the sixties.

It's where I learned my literary skills.

(If you want to see the modern version, click here;

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