DAVID BENTATA

  MY LIFE. © Chapter 36 - "A lesson in humility" How does one start a chapter like this one? Perhaps the best way is to make a note that this is a return to writing these snapshots of my life after the onset of the pandemic of the coronavirus that is sweeping the globe. Today – 25 th Aril 2020 - is day number 43 of my self-isolation. For the first 4 weeks I withdrew, not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally. I needed to find myself within the turmoil that C19 has caused in all of us. Now, seeing that we are in the best hands possible with our present government, and that other than self-isolation and prayer there is little else I can do, I have come back to the land of the living, such as it is today. (I am revising this now, July 3 rd 2020…..fully out of self-isolation and we are in stage 3 … or is it 4 … of lifting the C19 restrictions. Like everyone else, I was going “stir crazy” at home where I ended up doing 73 straight days alone. The pseudo- med...

  MY LIFE © Chapter 42 – NO ONE KNOWS HIS LAST DAY Must have been in the 1980s that Menase Massias passed on to me the contact with the European Maccabi Federation. He had tried to start an interest in organised sport in our Jewish community and had contacted the EMF to see what support he can get. By then, and for reasons I cannot even think of, I had started a football team among the young boys of my tribe, and my great friend Abby Suissa agreed to train them. Having two left feet, my prowess on the football pitch was best known for its absence. Abby, a great sportsman at squash, water-skiing and especially rowing...... I thought he would be the perfect choice. To this day Abby is included in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the crew which first rowed across the Straits of Gibraltar in a yola, from Tangier to Gib. Alas, all the rowing, water-skiing and squash do not necessarily contribute to the making of a footballer. If I had two left feet Abby had that as well as ......

  Chapter 35 – 198 RANDOLPH AVENUE   The early 1970s saw me back in London. It was a great time to be there.   London seemed to be the centre of everything that was happening with the youth, at least in Europe. It had started with the Swinging Sixties and continued to lead the way in pop music, art, and definitely fashion. Carnaby Street and Kings Road were the two most avant-garde areas at the time. I was sharing a flat with "Mannix" and "Sonny", two other Gibraltarians, younger than I, but just as swept up in the atmosphere of that time. Mannix and Sonny were their nicknames, and prudence requires me to leave their real names out. Incidentally, the nickname Mannix came from a TV detective series at the time and Sonny was the other half of Cher. All three of us worked in the King's Road. Sonny worked for Ossie Clark, a big fashion name at the time. Sonny was the brainy one between us and he worked his way up, up, up very successfully in that company. Mann...

  Chapter 34 – ANGELA – A MEMORY REVIVED     Sometime in the 1980s I was in London on a business trip. I arrived into Waterloo station, coming off my train, when I saw Angela apparently waiting for hers. I knew her from my old days in London. She was one of the Yanito ex-pats that worked there then, and she even married Max who was, like me, another Yanito in the fashion trade. She was in her late 20s or perhaps very early 30s. Petite, ash blonde hair, pale complexion and signature bold red lipstick.... how could I miss her? "Hey Angela, nice to see you .... " "Oh, Hi David ..." There was something wrong. She was avoiding looking me in the eyes and her discomfort was something she could not hide. This was strange because I had a very good relationship especially with her husband Max. We had shared digs when I was in London in the late 60s and early 70s. "What time's your train?" "Not for another hour....." "Angela, coffee?...