Surely you’ve all heard of the Poodle with a Pearl Earring… very famous in the dog world. The lace down the left hand side is the genuine article, embedded in the acrylic paint, and the earring is a genuine plastic fake. The painting is quite old now, and hopefully is still snuggled up with its owner, sister-in-law of Sharon if I recall correctly, who received it for her birthday.
I belonged for a year or so to an online writing club, and a member who seemed to enjoy writing porn a bit too much called himself Lancellot – with two ells. I couldn’t resist writing a cheeky poem to him, which he liked a lot but the stodgy committee didn’t. Anyway, here ’tis…
What's What, Lancelot?
To have a shot at Lancelot.
Do you live in Camelot?
Does your war horse prance a lot?
And do you flash your lance a lot?
Were you noble from a tiny tot?
And though the girls thought you were hot,
Did you stay pure and polish your lance a lot?
Did you meditate, smoke some pot,
And did you at last forsake your cot,
So now you use your lance a lot?
THE UNLIKELY ONE - conclusion
By 1945 it became obvious that the Japanese were losing the war in the Pacific. The ‘comfort ladies’, with their accumulated wealth, left on a single ship which was sunk with all on board. More of the same paper money, a special Japanese war issue, remained with the Chinese and proved to be completely valueless.
An extraordinary amount of ordinance was dropped on the site of the old township during the three years of occupation. The total human casualties of this determined and prolonged attack were cynically said to be one Tolai and one Chinaman.
Rabaul was rebuilt and the rows of identical little trade stores were restored, differentiated from each other only by names such as Mary Chan Store, and Seeto Kin Store. No pre-existing survey pegs were found, so that when people returned and re-established their homes, they sometimes discovered that their gardens contained buried household treasures and the like that they had never seen before.
Chin Hoi Min ran a very successful photography shop in the main street of the reconstructed town.
The previous occupiers had so enjoyed themselves that Rabaul Clubs were formed all over Japan, their members making annual return trips, until a major volcanic eruption in 1994 which resulted in the burial of the town under several metres of volcanic ash, and its final abandonment.
~END~
