The Desktop Time Machine

On the desktop of my office computer sits a magical device: a screensaver loaded with pictures downloaded from WEBSHOTS. Now generally I am not given to calling software, however cool, magical, but in the case of my screensaver, it becomes, when my computer is inactive for five minutes, a time machine. In twenty second segments, it shows flashes of my life.

Flash: looking down from the mountain café overlooking Bergen harbour. In the fall of 1963 HMCS Bonaventure visited Bergen. Billy Nickson, Neil Parent, Dave Edgar, Mike Arnold and myself got up one Saturday night and sang “Tom Dooley” at a local wine bar. The crowd considered it a welcome respite from the house band, who mostly did Spanish music. We took the funicular up to the top of a mountain overlooking the city, and drank chianti on the patio, overlooking a city that sparkled below us in the crisp autumn air, like a diorama for a god’s Christmas tree.

Flash: the harbour in Mousehole, Cornwall. Terry and I visited in, I believe, 1988, driving down from Heathrow and visiting Stonehenge, “Jamaica Inn,” and Plymouth, enroute. We had small room in a hotel that was composed of various old fishermans apartments overlooking the beauty of Mousehole Harbour. We visited Land’s End, nearby, and viewed a presentation on the death of Arthur.

Flash: the waves breaking in a cove at the Tangalle Beach Hotel in Tangalle Bay, south coast of Sri Lanka -1986. Terry and I could sit on the deck at night and watch the lanterns, carried by the night fishermen in their dugout canoes, with outriggers. The myriad lights, bobing on the night water looked like some of the stars in the southern sky had decided to go for a moonlight swim.

Flash: the Corniche at Cannes - 1964. HMCS Bonaventure was visiting Toulon, and Moe Turmel, Mike Arnold, Neil Parent and I rented a car and drove along the fabled Cote d’azur, visiting Monaco, Cap d’antibe, Cannes and Nice.

Flash: the beach at Grand Anse, Grenada, where Terry, Geoff and I had an absolutely horrid several days in 1992. The air conditioner did not work, the meals at the hotel were too late for Geoff’s schedule, and the humidity was unrelenting. Geoff fell down a cement step and crashed our one attempt at eating at a reasonable time.

Flash: the dunes of Ras al Khaimah -1985. Jack, Mary, Terry and I drove through this lunar landscape on our way to the Holiday Inn at Khor Fakkhan.

And on it goes....every 20 seconds a scene comes up showing an actual place that I have stood, breathed and wondered. And for a magical 20 seconds, I am transported back to the sights, sounds, and feelings of there and then.

The time machine is available for download at daily.webshots.com. The searching for locations takes a lot more time, but, at least in my case, has been well worth the effort.