Bob Bowden. That’s me. Spent my entire working life in Shipping and Forwarding, from the late fifties in Imports at the then busy port of Bristol, through the inception of containers and on into project shipping, which involved huge, often time sensitive, shipments of plant and equipment to construct a factory in Thailand, build a motorway through a remote and challenging part of Iran and, God forgive me, moving containers of advertising items throughout Russia, including Siberia and all the stans, for Coca and Pepsi Colas.
I have written for my own amusement for years and when my wife and I decided to give up our jobs in December 1999 and move to the Greek island of Karpathos in January 2000, I commenced writing snapshots detailing events in our everyday life, to inform and entertain our family and friends. Our intention had been to spend one complete year on the island to enjoy the seasonal changes but circumstances and a simple lust to continue our (often fraught) idyll extended this to four years, at which point the cash ran out. We returned to England and work until I retired three years later and we dashed back to Karpathos for another eight years, the final six in the remote village of Diafani, and the snapshots continued.
But we are ageing and medical facilities on the island were severely lacking so we regretfully returned to the UK in January 2015. I continued to write bits and pieces until in summer 2016 I had this idea of passing on the thoughts that drifted into my mind during my daily walks in the park near our home. Not every day but on days when I might return home with what I and maybe others could find of interest still rumbling around my head. I leave it to you to decide, be entertained or bored. Infuriated. Anything as long as you react. But above all I hope enjoy.