Why are you looking so blue?
Are you thinking of someone so far away in a beautiful place called T I?
Old T I my beautiful home
It's the place where I was born
Where the moon and stars that shine makes me longing for home
Old T I my beautiful home
Take me across the sea, over the deep blue sea
Darling won't you take me back to my home T I
Old T I my beautiful home
T I my home sweet home
I'll be there forever, the sun is sinking, farewell.
You are looking at a pair of sandals which are 33 years old!
(and a pair of feet almost twice that age)
They are my old TI-sandals, so named because they were the footwear de rigueur of all and sundry who lived on Thursday Island in the 1970s.
They were cheap, indestructible, and protected the wearer against what was known in those days as "TI coral": the broken bottles that covered the beaches of Thursday Island.
I never saw anybody wear those sandals when I revisited Thursday Island in 2005 - see my travel log at dearall28.html.
Perhaps they didn't go too well with mobile phones and iPods which every self-respecting dole bludger on the island seemed to carry.
