We awoke yesterday morning to an assessment of the consequences of the ship collision in the North Sea. A container ship containing some deadly cyanide crashed into a stationery oil tanker containing jet fuel which immediately exploded creating a fireball which was visible from space. The consequences for the great variety of wildlife off the Yorkshire coast are incalculable and perhaps it is going to take the full light of day to assess the actual damage and its likely consequences. At least the aviation fuel is lighter than crude oil and some of it would either evaporate, be burnt off or could, in theory, be contained by booms. But the cyanide compounds could be the greater problem, and it is unclear as I write how many of these containers were split open or spilt into the sea. But, at its worst, we are facing one of the greatest ecological disasters that the country has ever experienced. Wondering how this collision could occur, come commentators have pointed out that both ships have radar and could have detected each other some 24 miles apart. On the other hand, it is possible that the container ship was on autopilot which meant that there was nobody actually on the bridge keeping lookout which seems almost impossible to comprehend. I have a memory of other disasters that occurred in the North Sea, and this was when I was employed in my first job as a clerical worker in a small company in Harrogate called Skanda Wallpaper Company which imported wallpaper principally from Germany,. In the pattern book, there was a particular design (No. 469) which was wildly popular and decorators and new house builders being desperate to order it. But then Sod's Law took over ('If anything can go wrong, it will') and there was a fire. in the mill in Germany. When production was started again, supplies were laden onto a cargo ship in the North Sea (HMV Fountains Abbey as I recollect) which then itself caught fire. As a young 16 year old teenager, I was left answering the phone to irate customers all over the country who, quite frankly, just did not believe that these two events could have impacted upon their favourite wallpaper and young couples all over the country wanting to move into their first, decorated dream home being left distraught. I was only employed by this company for about four months but in those days, January 1st was a public holiday. and I started work on 1st January, 1962 but my first exposure to the commercial world was not a happy one. I was dismissed because I was ill and needed to go into hospital to have an operation and the company did not want to have expense of paying my wages (which started at £3.17s.6d a week, £3.88 in decimal currency which is less than 10p an hour). Later I was to wash dishes in a local hotel where my wages were 12.5p an hour which was an evident improvement.
It was with some trepidation that I approached the task of getting Meg in her wheelchair in a good and upright posture, but I supplemented the raised seat swabs with a back support to help to keep her back more vertical and, thus prepared, set out down the road a little gingerly. But she seemed to survive the trip down the hill OK so I popped into Waitrose for a flagon of milk and our daily newspaper before journeying onto Wetherspoons where I was delighted to see our two regular friends (the elder one having made at last) Whilst I was ordering breakfast at the bar, I bumped into 'Seasoned World Traveller' from my walk-in-the park days and I gave him a quick update on Meg's progress. Then it was the consumption of an egg and bacon crumpet with a mug of hot chocolate where I realised too late and to my dismay that I was breaking my self-imposed Lenten ordinance of avoiding fast cars, loose women and chocolate. Then it was the acid test of whether I get Meg up the hill safely again. I did extra care to avoid any of the especially 'rumbly' bits of pavement and went to the roadway when I deemed it safe as the tarmac is so much smoother there. In fact, a delightful young woman saw me making my way slowly up the hill and, very kindly, volunteered to help me push Meg some of the way home. I do not normally decline help, but I did so on this occasion because I was going so slowly up the hill not because the task was particularly arduous but because I was going slowly to keep the journey as smooth as possible. I got Meg home with no problem and was delighted that Meg's posture had been kept more or less intact so all of my little adaptations seemed to have worked. I treated Meg to some pea-and-mint soup and then we were joined by the young male Asian carer who we know particularly well. He and I made Meg comfortable and then I prepared my Tuesday meal of a mackerel risotto and as I made plenty of this, I had two portions left over one of which went into a container for our domestic help tomorrow and the other as a little offering to our young carer. He, in return, as he was here for a 'sit' session ordered some doughnuts from Greggs so Meg and I indulged in one of these. We had a couple of female carers turn up but Meg had already been made comfortable so I treated the migraine of one of the carers with some paracetamol and off they went. So Meg and and I had a very pleasant early afternoon as we chatted with our young carer who was telling us about the plans he is making to move into new accommodation in the Spring. As he is a bit of a 'foodie' himself, he is going to share one of his signature pasta dishes with us which he has done before and which is exceptionally good. Then we settled down to a peaceful afternoon with good weather outside and an MSNBC tirade against the iniquities of Donald Trump's lies playing on YouTube in the background.
© Mike Hart [2025]