PUBLISHED BY: Cranthorpe Millner
I could immediately relate to their rationale as I did the very same with my then husband and two children, aged three and a bit and ten months, when we relocated to Hong Kong in 1980. New adventures abroad were the stuff of dreams and we took the bull by the horns and decided to go for it. I remember the feeling of anticipation as we stepped off the plane in Kai Tak airport as the humidity hit us and we eagerly got into our waiting air-conditioned limousine to take us to our hotel. My experience was slightly different to Andy and Jack’s as I hadn’t left behind a successful career as such, I’d done that once I was pregnant with my first son some years before. And my then husband had accepted a new position with a company in Hong Kong but there were similarities, mainly, leaving family and friends. I can still remember seeing my mother standing alone at the window inside the lounge at Manchester airport, watching us climb the steps onto the plane (a little different to nowadays); she waited for I don’t know how long for everyone to board and get settled before the plane took off and stood waving us off as its engines revved and the plane roared up into the sky. We were taking her two newest grandchildren, who she possibly wouldn’t be seeing for a year or more,to a far, distant place. But we were focused on us and what our new life in a foreign place would hold for us. Neither of us spoke either Cantonese or Mandarin and we had never travelled so far; our furthest travels being to Spain and North Africa. Little did we know how different it would be, but back to Andy and Jack…..
Their memoir is an amusing recollection
of witty incidents during their new life in Puerto de la Cruz, located in the
north of Tenerife. It reminded me of
Gerald Durrell’s Corfu trilogy, relating his family’s move from dreary England
to sun-drenched Corfu in the 1930s. Both relate how they meet unusual characters,
albeit amusing and sometimes absolutely weird, along with the unusual episodes
they encounter.
Their new house, La Rosaleda with
peach and nectarine trees, in the middle of a banana plantation, in between a
cat sanctuary and a glorified gold course, really a pitch and put with
synthetic grass and nine holes, becomes home for them for the next thirteen
years until they up-sticks again and relocate to Portugal.
It is an easy read of the life of
two Brits as they reflect on their dream move to a new life in Tenerife which
is both interesting and entertaining; an almost indispensable insight for those
considering a move overseas and expecting it to be plain sailing!
Having a second home in the south
of Tenerife myself, I had no trouble picturing the places mentioned and imagining
the slightly unusual characters they meet, having had the joys of experiencing
similar situations and people, I could thoroughly relate and smile whilst
enjoying the plights of this pair of spirited adventurers. It is a captivating
tale of their trials and challenges trying to earn a living in a foreign land. It is written with humour and emotion and at
times hard to put down as there is an engrossing incident on nearly every page.
'The Banana Road' is an enjoyable memoir and I’ll look
forward to hearing about what happened next in Portugal or wherever!
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