Lydia and Tom Fernandes celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in Nairobi

Wildlife Safari was founded by Tom Fernandes in Nairobi, Kenya, going on 50 years ago, and we owe our longevity on this ancient continent to sticking to a simple formula: safety, quality, value and service.

Over the years we’ve built our reputation on creating incredible itineraries for small groups of discerning travellers: people, who, like us, appreciate the majesty of Africa’s wild places, wildlife and wonderful people.

While our global reach has grown to service safari lovers from around the planet, we’ve remained true to our humble African roots: we’re still a family-owned and run business, and we’ve never compromised on what we stand for.

Similarly, we value our independence as an autonomous safari operator, and we ensure that we’re as up-to-date as we are objective by regularly visiting all the destinations we recommend. Despite our many years in the business, we’ve stayed curious about every aspect of safari, and we’re always seeking new experiences for our guests.

Wildlife Safari is now managed by Trevor Fernandes who continues the legacy his father created. Trevor also owns and operates Wildlife Safari Australia, a boutique safari wholesaler located in Perth; is a partner in Southern World, a provider of wide-ranging inbound services across the three major South Pacific destinations, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji; and is an investor in a number of African safari specialist businesses.

The Fernandes men!

Leslie, Tom, AP (dad), Silu, Steve, Raul

AP Fernandes with his daughters-in-law: Lydia, Christine, Linda, Ivy and Marjorie

  

When a movie spins your head with memories of yesterday

 

THE OLDER I GET, the more I yearn for the nostalgia of years gone by, especially in the Arts: Music, Television, Movies, People, Places and Events. I guess we are all like that.

The first time I watched Ann Bancroft on the big screed was in 1967 in the brave new world movie The Graduate with Dustin Hoffman. 

Those were the days when we were all relatively peaceful, very safe, with the wind in our hair, and really not a care in the world, not too many shillings in our pockets, but virtually every new experience (the great, good ones anyway) have become the stuff our dreams and the progressive encyclopaedia of our lives. For most of us, it was great to be young. Sure, there was pain and suffering, but we bore that with courage only the young years of our lives can suffer with courage.

All around us, lots and lots of young people were doing amazing things. Not all, some were unfortunate. We remember them too. This is our twilight hour … each day brings us news of a friend’s passing and our hearts ache and ache with every new loss. Similarly, as short-term memory loss continues to erase that which we remember with cinemascopic definition, today some of us can’t until we meet someone who can … and for a few moments at least our minds are set at rest.

Still, bravely with a smile and “chuuch” (you know that sound) here and there, we prepare ourselves for the challenges of the next hour.

Like I said, I am a sucker for old movies. I used to be a dedicated fan of the BritBox, the British streaming service of British cinema and television.

When I watched 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) recently I tried to remember the number of times I had watched it. I forget. But I have never forgotten the impact it had on me: I was always blown away by the brilliance of the writing and, of course, the equal brilliance of Anthony Hopkins and Ann Bancroft. Remember we watch Ann 20 years earlier in the movie that had us all young guys slightly hot and bothered: The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman.

A review by that great fine man Cole Smithey: “84 Charing Cross Road” is about bonds of friendship formed and maintained by a mutual love of literature or, more to the point, books.

Anne Bancroft’s earthy portrayal of real-life playwright and script-reader Helene Hanff (pronounced hell-ane han-f) is so effortless and effervescent that it’s enough to turn a generation of young women into chain-smoking, gin-swigging writers, if not full-fledged admirers of beautifully bound editions by the likes of Jane Austin, George Orwell, Chaucer, or Plato.

Helene Hanff was famous for saying that she never read fiction because she could “never get interested in things that didn’t happen to people who never lived.”

Personally, I know exactly where Hanff was coming from, and I concur. So it is that the nature of this film, directed by David Jones, calmly emphasizes the immediate surroundings and social conditions of its characters from the late ‘40s to the late ‘60s.

Love of poetry and the written word is intrinsic in the fabric of the narrative. Nothing is strained, even when characters break the forth wall after earning sufficient trust from its audience. We are glad to be spoken to directly. It’s a loving gesture that arrives as a reward.  

Helene Hanff lives in a weathered brownstone apartment on 95^th Street off Central Park in Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill. The address is actually on 94th Street between Fifth Avenue and Madison. She frequents an actual bookstore at 1313 Madison that is still in business at the time of this writing. Unable to locally acquire the specific titles that her ever-hungry literary appetite requires, she responds to an ad for Marks & Co., a London-based antiquarian bookseller overseen by Anthony Hopkins’ Frank P. Doel. What follows is a 20-year relationship of loving commerce elucidated by letters written back and forth across the pond.

 

Oh, what a difference casting makes. There can be little doubt that the separate but resonating chemistry between Bancroft and Hopkins rings as a clarion bell of mesmerizing harmony. Through their constant correspondence, we savour Hanff’s lean sense of nearly ribald humour as it rubs on the dry paint of Frank Doel’s heartfelt sense of honest propriety. It should be noted that Judi Dench’s restrained performance as Doel’s loyal but tightly-wound Irish wife Nora adds a layer of stoic resolve to the couple’s marriage.

 

The primary action of the story revolves around Hanff’s written requests for specific books that she augments with gifts of food stuffs meant for the appreciative staff of Marks & Co., located at the address of the film’s title. Hanff always sends cash.

So it is that the seemingly pedestrian story catches the viewer off guard when the cumulative emotional effect takes its inevitable toll in a tear-jerking sequence of satisfying catharsis. “84 Charing Cross Road” is a valuable film for all of the right reasons of theatrical balance and narrative truth. It is a movie that hits you like a live play. I can think of no higher compliment for the source material of soul-bearing experience.  

 

The Glory Goans

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England's greatest gifts to the language

 

1.       

In IN the 1400s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence, we have the rule of thumb.

2.       Manu years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was for “Gentlemen Only”. Ladies Forbidden … and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

3.       Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a king from history:

Spades: King David

Hearts: Charlemagne

Clubs: Alexander the Great

Diamonds: Julius Caesar

 

4.       In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured to the bed frame by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattresses tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase: goodnight, sleep tight!

5.       It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

6.       In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts …. So, in old England when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them “Mind your pints and quarts’ and settle down. It’s where we get the phrase “mind your P’s and Q’s!”

7.       Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used to whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle” is the phrase inspired by this practice.

8.       In 1896, William III of England introduced a property tax that required those living in houses with more than six windows to pay a levy. In order to avoid the tax, house owners would brick up all the windows except the six. (The Window Tax lasted until 1851, and older houses with bricked-up windows are still a common sight in the U.K.). As the bricked-up windows prevented some rooms from receiving any sunlight, the tax was referred to as “daylight robbery”!

 

Now there you have the origins of these phrases. Interesting, isn’t it.

 

God Bless whoever put all these gems together.

My Father's Brain: Brilliant, must listen to

 

Please have a read of this: My Father's Brain by Andeep Chauhar

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct4qg3

ANGELO COSTA-BIR: A life of a million miracles

 

PLEASE SHARE THIS

Probably being read in the service right now

Eulogy

Read by Elizabeth (Lizzie) 

Costa-Bir

Angelo’s life was made up of a million miracles

 

Antonio Angelo Costa-Bir was born in Goa in 1938 and travelled to Kenya with his parents and elder brother, my father James in 1941 by ship. He studied at the White Sisters Convent in Mangu which is now known as the Mangu High School. His secondary education was at Dr Ribeiro’s High School.

At a very young age, he took on holiday jobs to help his parents raise his siblings. His first job was at Donholm Farm which is now Donholm Estate. This is where his passion for farming and Agriculture started. The Watson family sponsored him to study at Egerton University where he qualified in Agriculture and Veterinary Science. He continued working for the Watsons, helping rearing beef and dairy cattle. He took great pride in showing them at The Agricultural Show of Kenya. He even had a pet pig, ostrich, vervet monkey, dik-dik and a variety of snakes.

In 1964, he was offered a job as manager of Kabuku Farm/Ithangi Estate Tigoni belonging to Major and Mrs Buxton. He started by clearing the forest in order to plant pyrethrum. He introduced dairy cattle, building a herd of more than 800 head. He then went on to develop a piggery which held over 3000 pigs. The farm had over 100 horses and Shetland ponies. The farm would be recognised as one of the best in Central Province, hosting veterinary and agricultural students from various parts of the world.

A family man, Angelo married his soul mate Teresa in 1969 at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Limuru. They went on to have three children: Natasha, Heathcliff and Nadya, whom he was thoroughly proud of. His legacy will live on through them.

In 1986, unfortunately, his farming career ended and he moved to Nairobi where he changed his profession to building executive homes. After a few years, the stress took its toll and he suffered a heart attack and had to travel to India to have open heart surgery where he was given 10 to 15 years of life but he outdid it and lived for 32 years.

In 1997, he was hospitalized again having suffered another heart attack, and arrangements were made to travel back to India. However, three days before he was due to travel, Pastors prayed over him and he received total healing from Jesus. He experienced God’s hand of protection at all times in his life. He never feared man, but he feared God.

This is when he dedicated his life to doing God’s work. He was instrumental in building the ICC West Campus acquiring 15 acres of land for the Imraa ICC Church. He helped build an orphanage for street boys in Kitengela and in Garden Estate.

When Angelo retired from his church projects, he retired to his home in Rosslyn where he planted avocados, bananas, mangoes and guava trees and took up beekeeping. He went on to add a vegetable shamba during the Covid pandemic and the produce was shared amongst family, friends, staff and those in need.

Many of you will know Angelo was skilled in so many different areas, and up to his last day he was repairing the lawn mower and other machinery. He was multi-lingual, speaking English, Kikuyu, Kamba, Masai, Kiswahili, Konkani and a little Portuguese. His hobbies included fishing, hunting, outdoor life, barbeques, safaris, in fact, he had already planned a safari to the Masai Mara next month to celebrate his 85^th birthday. There are so many examples and stories to tell but time does not permit today.

Angelo was a dedicated Son, Husband, Father, Brother, Uncle, Godfather, Cousin, Friend and Mentor. We will all miss him dearly.

Eternal rest grant unto Angelo, O Lord, and perpetual light shine upon him.

May you rest with the Angels, until we meet again.

July 8, 2023

Family  tribute: Teresa (Toots), Natasha, Heathcliff, Nadya

Jealous of the Angel ... sung by Donna Tagart

I didn't know today would be our last

Or that I would have to say goodbye to you so fast

I'm so numb, I can't feel anymore

Prayin' you'd just walk back through that door

And tell me that I was only dreamin'

You're not really gone as long as I believe

There will be another angel 

Around the throne tonight

Your love lives on inside of me

And I will hold on tight

It's not my place to question

Only God knows why

I'm jealous of the angels 

Around the throne tonight

You always made my troubles feel so small

And you were always there to catch me when I'd fall

In a world where heroes come and go

Well God just took the only one I know

So I'll hold you as close as I can

Longing for the day: when I see your face again

But until then

God must need another angel

Around the throne tonight

Your love lives on inside of me

And I will hold on tight

It's not my place to question 

Only God knows why

I'm just jealous of the angels

Around the throne tonight

Singin' hallelujah

Halellelujah

I'm just jealous of the angels

Around the throne tonight.

Messages to: casaquieto@gmail.com

Goan Voice: Opening of Pangani Goan Estate

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