Circular No 124

Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. Caracas, 20 of March 2004. Circular No. 124

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Dear Friends,
Here is a very good resume on Brendan Gurley:

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From: Tony Vieira <tandjv@networksgy.com>
Date: 14 Mar 04:53 (PST)

Las,
Brendon Gurley was in my class at the mount, the class that graduated in 1964, Don Mitchell was in that class, so was Joel Guy Blondin, the picture of the class is in circular 101. We became good friends, it was Edward Lloyd and I who took one look at Brendon and said that his forehead was too big, and so we called him five head. Brendon and I became such close friends that his parents approached mine, and I[as a Guyanese] was allowed to stay with the Gurleys when we were let out for short holidays, wonderful family.
I remember one Carnival, Brendon and I crawled under the fence of the countryClub and we had a ball, I asked him why we don't just buy a ticket, his response was "Nah no fun in that". At this same Carnival jump up at the country club the young lady who won the Miss World title that year, a Trinidadian girl was there, and Brendon and I ogled her all night, we even spoke to her.
Sometime in the 70's Brendon married a Guyanese Girl, who I knew very well, my father was the best man at HER father's [Hilary Gonsalves] wedding, so we practically grew up together, and when Brendon came here for the wedding he asked me to be his best man. First public speech I ever made.
I have not seen Brendon for 30 years but hearing that he died came as a complete shock, accompanied by a great sadness; strange isn't it? I do not see him for 30 years, but when I hear that he had died it struck me with such force, it's as if knowing that he was alive and well somewhere on the planet was enough, even though we don't see each other, now that I hear that he has died, I feel
this emptiness inside and I will miss him, it is a strange set of beings we humans are. Anyone in Trinidad who is in contact with his family please give them my deepest condolences.
Is anyone in contact with his younger brother Christian? or know how I can contact him? in the attached picture which I searched for in the old circulars to send it to David Bratt, look at the back row on the right I believe that that is Brendon [but it could be Simon some thing or the other] then Blondin, then me, then Piton. If that is not Brendon then he and Edward Lloyd are missing from this photograph of the 64 class. I wouldn't know why that was.
Michael Azar has called me twice over the past week he now lives in Portland, Oregon. Same old "big Joe" full of energy.
Puds Laquis and I were discussing the circulars last year in Trinidad he, as I did, thought that it was an incredible exercise and whatever the difficulty we have to find a way to keep it going, you can count on me. I think that you can count on Michael Azar also, from our discussions he knows a lot about the Internet web hosting and so on. What do you say Big Joe?
Tony Vieira
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I have found the following story in the internet when looking for Paul Slinger, who appears in the list as being an oldboy from Grenada. So I am enclosing excerpts of three different articles where the name Paul Slinger appears, maybe some one can confirm if he is the oldboy that went to MSB. The story is about Hash House Harriers, if you want to know more about the sporting? event please look up the internet.
Basically Hashing originated in Malaysia sometime in the early 1930s. British senior officers invented the game to keep their men fit and burn off the excesses of weekend partying. Leaders or hares would mark a trail--and many false trails--through the dense jungle around Kuala Lumpur. The hares were then pursued by teams of 'hounds' vying to reach the finish line first. As added incentive,
there was cold beer waiting for the winning team at the finish line. The name Hash House Harriers was adopted in honor of their beloved Hash House pub, which of course sponsored many of the events. Not much has changed, but today, everyone wins and gets beer.
About our friend, the writer continues, "Two weeks later, I was down at the Portofino Restaurant, in St. George's, waiting with about 60 other eager hashers. The leader or 'Hasher Master' that day was Grenada's HHH founder and premiere hasher, Paul Slinger, who describes hashers as 'drinkers with a running problem.' After getting directions to the hash we piled into cars and headed to Grand Etang National Park, the starting point of that weeks hash."
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Another writer wrote, "Following a brief stop for refreshments, continue to the Tower Plantation House to meet Paul Slinger, the owner of this fully operating fruit and spice plantation located in an area of wooded hills behind the island's capital, St. George's. After a tour of the historic house and a walk in the manicured garden, you may wish to visit St. George's main shopping streets before returning to the ship". B L D
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And lastly the following appears in the HHH internet page, "Paul 'Rigor Mortis' Slinger, Hash Founder. It is said that Paul first hashed around the time that Napoleon was defeated but that is just bragging on his part - we all know he goes further back in time than that. He also claims that his real hash name is "Semper Rigourus", a soubriquet which he boldly asserts has been attributed to him by many a Harriette - and if you believe that you'll believe anything. Paul, one of the original pirates that ravaged this part of the world, brought over the hash from Trinidad with his fellow pirate, Englishman Peter Frearson, who had in turn contracted this disease (and others) in the Far East. Paul is easily recognisable at any hash - both for holding a beer in each hand and for his horribly ugly knees. He met his martyr of a wife, the lovely Victoria "Quick Drawers" Slinger at a hash. He was wearing long pants at the time - she couldn't see the knees. They committed matrimony soon after."
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And now further email received lately.

From: "Roger Henderson" <rhenderson@tstt.net.tt>
Date: 15 Mar 14:07 (PST)

Ladislao,
From time to time I will write a few short articles about Mount memories. Nothing spectacular like Wayne Brown or Lawrence Scott but just about the simple things we did while there. Here's the first of an irregular supply.
Roger

(thank you for your help in keeping the Circular alive. Ed.)
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From: Manuel José Prada Padovani <manjosepra@hotmail.com>
Date: 1 Mar 12:30 (PST)

Ladislao
Mandame por favor la dirección de Tony Vieira, ese carajo era excelente jugador de football y era de Saint Lawrence sino me equivoco, me gustaria escribirle.
Love you dearly,
Manuel prada.
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From: "Don Mitchell, QC" <idmitch@candw.ag>
Date: 14 Mar 10:54 (PST)

Hello Ladislao,
I have been out of touch travelling and working in Tortola and St Kitts. I am now back in Antigua after an absence of 6 weeks, and settling back down. I have been getting the circulars and reading them with much nostalgia. Starting in April I hope to begin a one-year sabatical from court work. Maggie and I shall be returning to our home in Anguilla and giving up the government house in Antigua. We should have completed the move by August. I hope that I might be able to do something about the website then.
I am going to take lessons so as to be able to help in a practical way. We may have to start from scratch if we have not heard from Tony Johnson as yet.
All the best,
Don
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From: Anthony Cintra
Date: 28 Feb 18:43 (PST)

Dear Ladislao,
I know it has been said and written many times but good things are worth repeating; many thanks, you are doing an excellent job. It is always very refreshing to receive the circulars.
I have to be in Hamburg for sittings of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on 15 March. My return date was 6 April, but it seems as though my stay in Hamburg will be longer because we shall have to sit and determine an important matter between Guyana and Suriname. The fact that Guyana has filed an action is in the daily news in Guyana as well as here and in the other Caribbean countries. Barbados has also taken Trinidad and Tobago to ITLOS. The Venezuelan Ambassador has asked and I have accepted an offer to deliver a series of lectures to the International academy in Caracas. I am looking forward to the visit which had been arranged for the middle of April but in the light of what I have written above it will most probably be in May.
I think I mentioned that you can access information of ITLOS at www.itlos.org if you are "adventurous" you can click on judges and scroll to the last name click and see a photo and C.V. of a past student of the Abbey School complete with a photograph.
With best wishes, God bless.
Anthony Lucky
(hope to see you here in Caracas. Ed.)
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From: "eden hutton" <edenhutton@hotmail.com>
Date: 22 Mar 11:08 (PST)

Dear Ladislao,
Please take my name off the list, I am getting inappropriate spam.
Best wishes,
Eden
(Has anyone had similar problem???, if so please write me as this is the first time that I been told of the problem. Ed)
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Dear readers,

you might wonder how I send the Circular. In the next few lines, I am going to tell you on how I treat your mailing addresses.
I do not use any of the automatic mailing devices, such as Outlook or others. You addresses are stored in WORD and then get copied to the email, in bunches of 15, a rather tedious fashion. I do not know if this is a good practice, but I want to make sure that your addresses do not get interfered by virus or copying devices. Also I do not use material direct from your email inbox copy. The material is copied from your email and placed in WORD files, which I then edit, not in material but in format, as sometimes the letter and spacing is not in the Circular´s format. The photos get a similar treatment, copied to Photoshop where I re-dimension the photo, repair imperfections and place a number, so that you can place names on the faces. I have high hopes that this has and would avoid my placing virus into your machines and that this would minimize that someone would copy your address files. Some might think that I do not want you to have the listing or addresses! but they are wrong, I have always provided classmate addresses when solicited. With the sole idea of keeping your addresses from Spam providers. Of course, I cannot vouch for the alumni CPUs, please be careful!!!.
God Bless
Ladislao

If any one recognizes the alumni in the following photos, please write!

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Photos: Paul Slinger?? From Roberto Bodington: file0001a3, file0001a4
Wayne Vincent Brown's column can be seen at www.Jamaicaobserver.com,
Column: dbratt , sorry but I missed the latest, last Saturday.
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