‘The Royal Janitor’

by

Jon Presco

Copyright 2018

Sabrina Victoria Eastman could not get to Osborne House fast enough. When she got behind the wheel of her 1961 Jaguar she named ‘Grey Cloud’ the young women who picked her up at the airport tried not to show that she had been warned. She was two shades a pale grey when they arrived at the palace built for Victoria and Albert. She tried to keep up on unsteady legs. The blood was returning to her hands now that she unloosened her grip. As they made their way into the basement she realized she had an experience better than sex. She was a virgin. All her blood veins were alive with an energy she did not know existed. She felt adventurous, and nauseous. She knew she would never be the same.

At the stainless steel door, Sabrina stopped, pointed up, and asked;

“What does that say?”

It says……….”I can tell that you are quite left-leaning.”

“Why is it there?” Sabrina asked.

“To remind us to never underestimate anyone. And, never think for a second a whacked-out poet-artist and Bohemian type, is not a true patriot.”

 

A Russian Government hacking operation aimed at the US power grid did not compromise operations at any of the nation’s commercial nuclear power plants, federal regulators and the nuclear industry say.

Corporate networks at some of the 99 plants licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were affected by the 2017 hack aimed at the energy grid and other infrastructure, but no safety, security or emergency preparedness functions were affected, the NRC said in a statement.

US nuclear plants are designed as operational “islands” that are not connected to the internet and other networks. Nuclear power provides about 20 per cent of the nation’s electricity.

 

I whose curl’d hair was as a strong stak’d net
To take the hunters and the hunt, and bind	35
Faces and feet and hands; a golden gin
Wherein the tawny-lidded lions fell,
Broken at ankle; I that am yet, ah yet,
And shall be till the worm hath share in me,
Fairer than love or the clean truth of God,	40
More sweet than sober customs of kind use
That shackle pain and stablish temperance;
I that have roses in my name, and make
All flowers glad to set their color by;
I that have held a land between twin lips	45
And turn’d large England to a little kiss;
God thinks not of me as contemptible;
And that you think me even a smaller thing

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-17/russian-hackers-attack-us-power-plants/9558624

Fleming was born in 1925, reportedly in Switzerland.[1] She was the illegitimate daughter of the painter Augustus John by his mistress Eve Fleming, mother of the writers Peter Fleming and Ian Fleming by her late husband, although most of her life she was raised as the adopted daughter of Eve Fleming as a pretence to hide her illegitimacy and only discovered her true parentage when she was in her twenties.[2]

She went away to school at Downe House in Berkshire, but went up to London every three weeks for cello lessons with John Snowden. In 1943 she won a scholarship to study full-time with Ivor James at the Royal College of Music.[1] She later studied at times under Gaspar Cassadó, Enrico Mainardi, Pablo Casals, Guilhermina Suggia and Pierre Fournier.

She died unmarried in 1999, peacefully in a hospital at the age of 73. The Times reported that “she never became complacent. She sought out the best teachers in Europe and willingly experimented with many techniques, including practising naked in front of the mirror.”

Her half-brother Ian Fleming, in one of his James Bond short stories “The Living Daylights“, has Bond musing about a cellist he observes from his sniper’s position: “There was something almost indecent in the idea of that bulbous, ungainly instrument between her splayed thighs. Of course Suggia had managed to look elegant, and so did that girl Amaryllis somebody. But they should invent a way for women to play the damned thing side-saddle.”

In March 2009 the concert hall of the Royal College of Music, following refurbishment, was renamed the “Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall” in her honour.[7]

Sir Caspar John, the first aviator to command the Royal Navy, died today in a Cornwall hospital at the age of 81, his family said. The admiral was largely responsible for developing Britain’s naval air fleet in World War II.

The family did not give the cause of death.

Son of the artist Augustus John, Caspar John was 13 years old when he joined the navy in 1916. He went on to qualify as a pilot and learned deck- landing skills on the aircraft carrier Hermes in the early 1920’s.

His coolness as a young pilot was demonstrated when he was flying over China and the tail of his aircraft broke. Instead of bailing out, he landed the plane so the cause of the break could be investigated.

In 1941 he was promoted to be the navy’s chief representative for aircraft development and production. He became First Sea Lord, or commander of the navy, in 1960. He retired in 1963.

From 1964 to 1971, he served on a commission investigating breaches of security in the public service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaryllis_Fleming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopussy_and_The_Living_Daylights#”The_Living_Daylights”

https://rosamondpress.com/2018/01/11/the-janitor/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Naval_College,_Osborne#Naval_College

Six ships and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Britannia, after Britannia, the goddess and personification of Great Britain:

• HMS Britannia (1682) was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line launched in 1682, rebuilt in 1719 and broken up in 1749.

• HMS Britannia (1762) was a 100-gun first rate launched in 1762. She was renamed HMS Princess Royal in 1812, HMS St George later in 1812, and HMS Barfleur in 1819. She was broken up in 1825.

• HMS Britannia (1820) was a 120-gun first rate ship of the line launched in 1820. She was a training ship after 1859, and broken up in 1869.

• HMS Prince of Wales (1860), a 120-gun first rate ship of the line renamed Britannia in 1869, as she replaced the previous vessel in the cadet training role. She was broken up in 1916.

• HMS Britannia (1904) was a King Edward VII-class pre-dreadnought battleship launched in 1904 and sunk by UB-50 in 1918.

• HMS Britannia Royal Naval College was the name given to the Naval Shore Establishment formed from the earlier Britannias. It retained the name until 1953, when it became known as HMS Dartmouth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Naval_College,_Osborne#Naval_College

 

Octopussy and The Living Daylights (sometimes published as Octopussy) is the fourteenth and final James Bond book written by Ian Fleming in the Bond series. The book is a collection of short stories published posthumously in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 23 June 1966.

The book originally contained just two stories, “Octopussy” and “The Living Daylights“, with subsequent editions also carrying firstly “The Property of a Lady” and then “007 in New York“. The stories were first published in different publications, with “Octopussy” first serialised in the Daily Express in October 1965. “The Living Daylights” had first appeared in The Sunday Times on 4 February 1962; “The Property of a Lady” was published in November 1963 in a Sotheby’s publication, The Ivory Hammer, whilst “007 in New York” first appeared in the New York Herald Tribune in October 1963.

The two original stories, “Octopussy” and “The Living Daylights”, were both adapted for publication in comic strip format in the Daily Express in 1966–1967. Elements from the stories have also been used in the Eon Productions Bond films. The first, Octopussy, starring Roger Moore as James Bond, was released in 1983 as the thirteenth film in the series and provided the back story for the film Octopussy’s family, while “The Property of a Lady” was more closely adapted for an auction sequence in the film. The Living Daylights, released in 1987, was the fifteenth Bond film produced by Eon and starred Timothy Dalton in his first appearance as Bond. “007 in New York”, meanwhile, provided character and plot elements for the first two films starring Daniel Craig as Bond, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

Plots[edit]

“Octopussy” [edit]

Secret Service operative James Bond, code name 007, is assigned to apprehend a hero of the Second World War implicated in a murder involving a cache of Nazi gold. Bond appears only briefly in this story, which is told mostly in flashback from the perspective of Major Dexter Smythe, the man Bond has been sent to bring in. Smythe remained in Europe after the war, found the gold with the help of a mountain guide, and killed him in order to keep it for himself. Bond was put on the case after the guide’s body fell out of a glacier and he recognized the man as a ski instructor and father figure from his youth. Smythe is now a melancholy alcoholic living alone on the beach, interacting mainly with the residents of its coral reef – including the titular Octopussy, a beloved ‘pet’ octopus that Smythe feeds and talks to.

Bond chooses not to take Smythe into custody immediately, but leaves him to contemplate his options – suicide or a court martial. As Smythe hunts for scorpion fish to feed Octopussy, he suffers a sting which triggers a fatal heart attack, during which Octopussy pulls him under. Deciding to spare Smythe’s reputation, Bond classifies the death as an accidental drowning.

“The Living Daylights” [edit]

An unusually morose James Bond is assigned sniper duty to help British agent 272 escape from East Berlin. Bond’s duty is to safeguard his crossing into West Berlin by eliminating a top KGB assassin codenamed “Trigger” who has been dispatched to kill him. Bond takes up a position on the western edge of the border, in a hotel overlooking the no man’s land of broken, brightly lit ground that 272 will have to cross. On each of three nights, he sees a female orchestra arrive for rehearsal and leave, taking particular notice of a beautiful blonde cellist. Once 272 starts to cross the border, Bond sees Trigger get in position to kill him and realizes that it is the cellist. He adjusts his aim at the last moment and shoots her rifle instead of killing her, allowing 272 to reach safety.

Afterward, Bond admits to his spotter that he did not try for a kill shot only because Trigger had been a woman. He muses that even though 272 is safe, the mission will be considered a failure because he did not kill Trigger, and he hopes that M will fire him for it.

“The Property of a Lady” [edit]

The Secret Service learns that Maria Freudenstein, an employee known to be a double agent working for the Soviet Union, has just received a valuable item of jewelry crafted by Peter Carl Fabergé and is planning to auction it at Sotheby’s. Bond suspects that the Resident Director of the KGB in London will attend the auction and underbid for the item, in order to drive the price up to the value needed to pay Maria for her services. Bond attends the auction, spots the man, and leaves to make arrangements for his expulsion from London as persona non grata.

“007 in New York” [edit]

A brief tale in which Bond muses about New York City and his favourite recipe for scrambled eggs, during a quick mission to the titular city to warn a female MI6 employee that her new boyfriend is a KGB agent. It is notable for including a rare humorous conclusion and for its mention of Solange, a young lady of Bond’s intimate acquaintance who works in a shop, Abercrombie’s, “appropriately employed in their Indoor Games Department”.