{ship shape & bristol fashion}

The other day I was recounting the experiences of living in a household run be a sea captain with 5 daughters & one very able mother (who also acted as ship's nurse, first mate, ham radio operator & when on land, SALTS booking manager). What I took for normalcy appeared strange to my companions who were listening. Like a tight ship, my father believed that a well-run household would produce able bodies ready to face the world. Don't get me wrong, he was nothing like a Mr. Bounderby of Hard Times where there was no fun. There was PLENTY of fun, but like the unexpected adventures that came with the sighting of a new landfall, the joys & excitements of  our childhood were conditioned by a stable and well-run family order. First of all, all things were done according to a schedule that was kept everyday. There was plenty of room for spontaneity--anyone who knows my parents knows that they're awfully adventurous, but dinner was on the table at 6 on the dot every night. If it was 1805, it was strange if we weren't all sitting down for dinner. Nonetheless, because children lose track of time, my Mum (or one of my sisters who would be helping out in the kitchen) would ring the dinner bell to signal everyone to muster in the galley...I mean gather in the kitchen. While at sea, the bosun's whistle would sound, at home we had a dinner bell. If it was a Sunday it was sure to be roast beef & Yorkshire pudding, even if we were out at sea.
Our bell was a lovely sounding bell my father had picked up when he was in India as a boy. By doing some research online, I found out that it's actually an Indian cowbell...it looked very similar to this:

{via maryjane art}

Somehow this seems apt as my father grew up in India, but was from Bristol stalk. The phrase, 'ship shape & Bristol fashion' comes from his family's home port city of Bristol. In connection with his British/Indian upbringing, tea was also a ritual in our family (loose leaf only). Every morning, my Mum would wake up first and make her way to every girl's bedside to deliver a fresh steaming cup of chai chanting 'time to wake up...time to wake up...' to the clinging of the teaspoon...or our made-up song we devised in the taxi of Jaya Kumar, our Ooty taxi driver:

chai chai gurham chai, 

hot & sweet & gurham chai

My Mum would then deliver the tea to my Dad, & they'd sit in bed for a 1/2 hour, chatting. I think that 30 minutes together every morning is what has kept their marriage going for 40+ years. If it was a holiday, or a weekend, we'd all pile into the bed as well & talk over tea. This is a ritual we still do today. When I visit my parents on their boat, I still climb into their bunk (sometimes it's hard to fit all 3 of us in) and we sit & chat over chai.

Every afternoon between 330-4 we would also be served tea. We'd gather around, take a moment from our day and drink tea & nibble on some homemade cookies. I think that's the reason why we are still so close. 

Well, here below are some images to inspire you to go out for a sail, or drink some tea!

{the 5 girls in the rigging of Swift from the Australian newspaper, when we sailed down to Australia in 1988}

{my father & his family in India. My grandpa is driving, with my Dad, 1 in from the left}

{my parents drinking tea in the Imperial Hotel--a few doors down to where my Dad lived in New Delhi}

{my parents all dressed up in period style during the launch of the privateer Lynx}

{Passat, the boat my parents currently live on (which is for sale, check out my parents website, Clarks Maritime}

{Esther, me & Christina aboard the Robbie-we spent all our summers on this boat}

{Esther & Christina at the stern sheets of the Robbie}

{4 of the sisters & my Mum 'having tea'}

{the 5 girls}

{me, aboard the grand banks fishing schooner I spent most of my early years, Robertson II in 1985?}

{me, aboard Passat, 2007}

 Inspiration from a nautical life aboard ship:

{stripes & stylin' hat, via sarah is cool}

{via greylikesweddings}

{nautical guest room from apartment therapy (if you click on the link, there are more nautical room inspirations)}

{funky yet classic anchor pillow, via 2modern}

{nautical paper, from ohso beautiful paper}

{via black eiffel}

"He began in a tone of great taste and feeling, to talk of the sea and the sea shore."

                                                                                           -Jane Austen

{Travel & Leisure}

I was recently notified of an exhibition on LV luggage in Paris. I was immediately taken in by the advert:

{From October 13th to February 27th, the Carnavalet museum in Paris is showcasing the Saga of Louis Vuitton Malletier, gathering together for the first time the iconic trunks and luggage which have embodied the Art of Travel for more than 150 years}

In 1854 Louis Vuitton opened his first store in Paris. I am not a big name brand person, but I do love the idea of trunks and old things...& travel.
Who couldn't love these cool old trunks, whether they have LV on them or not? I love the look of them:

{From decouvertes, featuring info on the LV Exhibition at the Musée Carnavalet, Paris}

They remind me, indeed, of many trunks we had around the house growing up... and no, they were not LV, but they were cool & old nonetheless. My sisters & I used to fill them up with all our dress-up clothes and I remember them all being marked CLARK.

This was because my Dad had acquired them when he immigrated to Canada at age 13. My father was born in Peshawar, what is now Pakistan, but what was then India. They used to travel back to England on the P&O (Peninsula & Orient) liners and they would pack their stuff in such trunks.


{my Dad and his family on a family trip}




{My father (furthest left) and his two brothers with my Grandpa (note the old camera in hand),  in India, c. 1950s}

 I don't have any photos of our trunks, since they are all in storage, but they were black, and heavy-duty, and cool--warn around the edges from their travel 1/2 way across the world. They looked similar to these:

{From Fullerton Civic Opera}


I think I love the idea of these trunks so much because they bring back memories and in my case, imaginations of a time when travel was much different.
It was much slower, the journey was part of the adventure, and it didn't involve busy, crazy, stressful airports, with line-ups in security, invasive metal-detectors, restrictions on liquids etc.. etc... and though the luggage was more cumbersome, it was so much more fun than the black 'rollies' we use today.
I remember my father telling me stories of how much fun they had on their journey to England on the ships--perhaps this is where his love for the sea began.


{An advertisement placed by Mackinon Mackenzie & Co. in Colombo in the mid 1930's promoting its newest ships the 'Strathaird', Strathnaver' and the slightly older 'Viceroy of India'. From De Fonseka}



{You can purchase prints of P&O posters here}

I was recently in an antique shop on the Sunshine Coast when I came across some old menus from the P&O liners. I have it tucked away in storage, but  this one gives you an idea of how they did things differently back then.



{a 1938 menu from the Orwell Diaries}


Check out this cute postcard I found online:


{This was written in 1959 by David Hill}

 P&O travel is most likely where we get the word posh from. As the tale goes, 'Posh' derives from 'port out, starboard home' supposedly printed on tickets on P&O passenger vessels that travelled between the UK and India in the days of the Raj.

Another version has it that PO and SH were scrawled on the steamer trunks used on the voyages, by seamen when allocating cabins.
The port (left-hand side) berths were mostly in the shade when travelling out (easterly) and the starboard ones when coming back. So the best and most expensive berths were POSH. The belief was widespread enough in 1968 for it to have been included in the lyrics of the song 'Posh' in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:

O the posh posh traveling life, the traveling life for me
First cabin and captain's table regal company
Pardon the dust of the upper crust - fetch us a cup of tea
Port out, starboard home, posh with a capital P-O-S-H, posh

{Chitty Chitty Bang Bang--always a favourite with the nieces & nephews. Image from Collector's Quest}

 So can we recapture that old-fashioned form of travel? Well, I don't think you'll recapture it by going on a modern-day P&O liner, which is now the flashy cruise ship trip...but perhaps we can try to relive it in other ways. Trying to enjoy the journey rather than getting from point A-B... Placing importance on the 'here & now' rather than on the 'what next'...& trying to enjoy every moment of the trip, in a more slow-paced atmosphere. Turn off that computer or that phone, detach yourself from your email and your texts, & sit out & enjoy that glass of prosecco concentrating on savouring that moment & its tastes. & why not carry this cute pink suitcase rather than the black hunky one on wheels?

{For Love, Yvette Inufio Photography}

Here is some inspiration from Yvette Inufio Photography:

{Living in the Now, Yvette Inufio Photography}

{Europe je t'adore, Yvette Inufio Photography}

{Sea of Love, Yvette Inufio Photography}

{With our Hearts, Yvette Inufio Photography}

oh & refrain--PLEASE--from wearing your sweats or your lululemons and travel in style. take it from Audrey:

{LBD--suitable choice for travel on a mottorino}

{note the LV bags--we've come full circle.}