My Father: Derek Frederick Cook 1945-2014

At my masters graduation - 2009

Dad was born in Brentford on 1st October 1945, to Fred and Betsy Cook. He had an older sister, Daphne and enjoyed his childhood, particularly the beach holidays they went on to Chesil Beach with his aunts uncles and cousins. 

Cousins Dave & Ray with Dad in 2013

Dad grew up with a large extended family around him in West London and in his teenage years was very close with his cousins Dave and Ray. All three were keen athletes and all joined Thames Valley Harriers. Dad was a quick sprinter and his personal best for the 100 yards was an impressive 10.2 seconds * which he told me on many occasions, was “faster than any woman could run Steve” at the time. Why he was trying to run away from women is unknown. I’ll never forget how he leapt from his chair once when Linford Christie’s coach Ron Roddan was being interviewed on the television. Ron had also been dad’s coach.

Dad was a very intelligent man and earned a place at Grammar school where he performed well in his ‘O’ Levels. After school he started working in accountancy, a profession that he continued in until his retirement in 2010. 

On a night out at The Byron in Greenford when he was 19 years old he was approached by a mysterious 17 year old young lady who asked him for the time. Mum reports that his reply was a typical Derek response of “well if you have the inclination”. According to mum she had told her friend she was going to “speak to the next bloke who came around the corner”. The formidable partnership of Chris and Del and later Mum and Dad was formed. They courted for two years, were engaged for two years and in 1969 got married in Ruislip Methodist Church.

Mum & Dad 2012

Soon after they relocated to Shoeburyness and settled in Raphael Drive. I was born in 1973 and Debbie arrived in 1976. Dad worked hard to support mum, Debbie and I and was incredibly proud of Debbie and my achievements. Dad was always there for us with advice or help with anything. He also loved our friends and I remember Christmases so fondly especially Dad polishing off a bottle of whiskey with my mate Ricki when the rest of us had gone to bed. 

Mullets 'r' Us

He travelled the ‘misery line’ for nearly 40 years working for various companies in London. His final job was at ABTA – The Travel Association. For a while Debbie and Dad travelled together to London which they both loved and Dad was very handy when it came to tube strikes – he knew London inside out. Mum said he could probably have gone on mastermind with a specialist subject of bus routes in London, as could cousins Dave, Ray & Michael. On his retirement day I was able to arrange for him to sit in the drivers cab for his last day of work. C2C presented him with some flowers too.

In Spain 2001

Dad loved his holidays and was able to visit Australia with mum on a couple of occasions as well as a couple of family holidays with Jackie, Steve and Michael in Spain and in recent years Turkey and Centre Parcs. He also loved most sports but with the ankylosing spondylitis in his back in later years, he was purely an armchair fan. Before his back condition became too severe dad and I were able to watch an England rugby game at Twickenham and even walked on the pitch afterwards. I will always treasure that memory. As a family we watched numerous Olympics, World Championship Athletics and World Cups around the television. He also loved a quiz night and I remember team Cook being champions in many pubs from Southend to Leeds. 

Dad loved his music and in his youth played the piano. I understand the cousin’s had a band for family parties. I don’t think the Beatles were too worried though. Debbie and I remember a childhood of music, normally Cliff Richard or the Beatles. 

Debbie and I are so pleased that he was able to see us both get married in 2008. He revelled in his role as father of the bride for Debbie and was bursting with pride as he walked her down the aisle and gave her away. He also delivered a brilliant speech. 

In 2009 Mum and Dad celebrated their Ruby Wedding anniversary with a fantastic black tie do at the golf club. It is a great testament to their love that they celebrated nearly 45 years of marriage – something so rare nowadays. 

Ruby Wedding Party - 2009

In 2010 Dad became Granddad to Thomas and last year to Maisie. He idolised the children and was so proud to be their granddad. Dad loved doing puzzles & playing with lego with Thomas and reveled in his starring role as Father Christmas a few years back. 

With Thomas - 2010

With Maisie - 2013

Dad was a Christian and was strong in his faith. He was baptised at Shoeburyness & Thorpe Bay Baptist Church in 1987. While in hospital Laura and I were able to speak to him about his faith and I was so pleased that I was able to tell him that Laura and I will be a missionaries from September. 

Sadly, the last couple of years were not kind to him in terms of his health and if we are honest, 50 years of smoking caught up with him. He fractured his spine in a fall in May and although that surgery went well and he was talking positively about the future, unbeknownst to any of us, he had more serious health problems which ultimately defeated him. Thankfully it was quick and he didn’t know anything about it. It is so comforting to know that he is in a better place with our Lord. 

We have been overwhelmed with the love shown by our friends and family in the last few weeks. In his tributes the same words keep coming up, KIND – GENEROUS & FUNNY. Dad was a joker until the end. When he left for the hospital in May in great pain he still managed to joke “it’s a fair cop boys” as he was was helped to the car by neighbours Roger & Sean. When recovering from the spinal surgery he was so excited at the prospect of having mobility scooter grand prix’s with Brian from next door around the close. And on the way to intensive care just before his last operation he carried on joking on the way. 

As a family we are so blessed to have such great family and friends and I know you will all support mum and show her the enormous love you have for her in the coming days, weeks months and years. They were best friends for the best part of fifty years sharing a wonderful life together. 

But there are two more things that we should all learn from dad as well as being kind and generous to everybody he ever met. He never complained about his unfortunate health problems and also he never had a bad word to say about anyone. 

He really was a true gentleman until the end. As my mate Mike wrote on his facebook wall. 

We'll miss you terribly Dad. Until we meet again.

Derek Frederick Cook 1945 - 2014

* According to Dave and Ray, Dad was yanking my chain about 10.2 for the 100 yrds dash. A joker 'til the end. Good old Del-Boy! 

Watching the Mighty Spurs in Sierra Leone

One of the great benefits of living in Africa is that most Premier League games are shown live. This means that I have seen almost all of Tottenham's games this season which has had its' expected share of ups and downs so far.  

To a certain extent I live under the radar of care from the locals in Tombo as there are very few Spurs fans here. However, this has meant on occasion I have become a very minor celebrity when wearing my Spurs shirt in town. Actually what I mean to say is that I have often been the white man to humiliate.
Most people in Tombo support Manchester United, Chelski, Liverpool, The Woolwich Wanderers, Barcelona or Real Madrid which has been my experience in many African towns and cities I have visited over the years. Due to Manchester City's recent success they have won a few fans too which demonstrates the fact that these guys are the worst kind of glory hunters you'll ever find.

Our security guards on site are lovely fellows and mad keen on football like most men here. 
"Mr Steve - Tottenham" they shouted excitedly at me recently and followed it up with "Are they the best team?" to which my reply was "of course we're not". This perplexed and disturbed them deeply. I saw it written across their faces. The look said 'but why would you support them then?' This is a question which I am sure Spurs fans ask themselves over and over again along with 'why do we put ourselves through such misery?' We all know the answer, it's because we love them unconditionally but this made no sense to my Security friends. 

The journey to the local 'football cinema' comprises of a 15 minute walk, 5 of which are to get my from my front door to the main gate of our compound. Then you are into bandit country. Well not really, unless you count 6,7 & 8 year olds shouting "Oporto" (white man) as bandits. Recently I've noticed they've even gone to the trouble of translating their cries to "white man" or "white man give me 10000 leones" (approx £1.50) which is very kind of them although I knew what oporto meant. Maybe they are doing better in school.
As they try to verbally mug me I often ask them for 10000le instead which confuses them nearly as much as the security guards had been when questioning me about Spurs.

On the day of the Arsenal cup game, and after my first altercation with these young bandits I soon had another group to walk past, this time a group of 9 children. They didn't ask for money but rather took great pleasure in shouting "white man" at me. I tried to turn it into an impromptu English lesson by identifying them as "black boy" and "black girl" which just confused them and made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

Disappointingly my normal 'cinema' was not open for the Arsenal cup game which meant I needed to walk a further 5 minutes down the high street to get to "BMX", the premier football venue of Tombo. 

Tombo High Street

On the way a topless middle aged woman with very droopy boobs tried to make me buy some of her wares but I passed on her kind offer and moved on. Finally I reached BMX, paid my 1000le entrance fee and trod on a number of toes as I tried to secure a spot on one of the wooden benches. 

'BMX' - Tombo's premier football cinema

Without another Spurs shirt in sight I felt this place was a little hostile so I did what every other Spurs fan would do and starting singing. As it turns out nobody sings in the cinemas except for me apparently so the looks I exchanged with locals suggested they thought I was stark raving mad. Eventually a few smiled at me mid-way through a long C-O-M-E... O-N... Y-O-U...S-P-U-R-S but it was too late, the floodgates had opened and the glory hunting Arsenal fans started to shout at me. "We will beat you today" (some offered a scoreline) to which I replied "yes I think you probably will". This of course caused more confused looks. 

There are many similarities between Arsenal fans at home in UK and in Sierra Leone, firstly that they obviously support the wrong team but also that they seem very uptight and lack a sense of humour. I batted away their aggressive scoreline guessing with many smiles and a few laughs. I did get some support from other locals though who turned out to be Man Utd or Chelsea fans who hate Arsenal too and were supporting Spurs. 

At half time I swapped the 35 degree heat inside for a cool 30 degree outside and started having some banter with a few Arsenal fans. These guys seemed alright and one happily posed for a photo with me.

Just before I punched the Gooner's lights out. Not really. Good natured fun outside BMX

I watched most of the second half and my heart sank when their second goal went in. I have to admit I nipped out of BMX as it got to injury time and couldn't really complain about the score. We'll fight to live another day I thought as I started my walk back up to the Academy. 

COYS!  
   

The Gambia: Relaxed Africa

Laura and I spent an enjoyable and restful three weeks in The Gambia for Christmas and New Year 2013/14.

The Gambia is one of the smallest countries in Africa and is essentially the strip of land running both sides of the River Gambia within the larger country of Senegal. 
It is definitely more geared up for tourism than many of its' neighbouring countries and has some areas like the Senegambia Strip which could actually be in Southern Europe.

We stayed in brilliant accommodation called "The Plantation". As with all places we stay, we trawled through www.tripadvisor.com and the reports were 5*. We were not disappointed and would recommend this place for any adults. An en-suite room is £20 per night and full board brings it up to £32 per day. Airport transfers are also included and while we were there they also got wifi (£25 per room for the whole duration of the stay). Incredible value and brilliant service. We will be returning. The Plantation is a ten minute walk from the beach. 

With it being such a small country, places worth visiting are not far away. We visited:

1. Monkey Park (Bigilo Forest)      

Running parallel with the Atlantic coast is Biglio Forest which is home to a couple of species of monkey. It is a lovely place to visit and walk around. 




  













2. Kachikally Crocodile Pool, Bakau.    

This place was unsurprisingly very touristy and thankfully the crocodiles had been fed (or drugged). We declined the photo touching the crocs, after all these are wild animals. 

3. Banjul

Banjul is the capital city of The Gambia and it's worth pointing out straight away that there isn't much here. Our trip took in the 22nd July Arch (which celebrates the military coup that took over the country 19 years ago) which in all honesty has seen better days, we saw the lovely cricket pitch (that doesn't see much cricket), the three day long queues at the port to try and get across to Barra and north of the river (queues so long as two of the three ferries are broken) and the museum which wasn't too bad. 

The view from the top of the arch. To the right, The Atlantic Ocean.

4. Serrekunda 

We took a trip to the bustling Serrekunda and spent time in the markets. 

5. Roots Tour - Albreda/Juffureh & Kunta Kinteh (James) Island.

One of the best trips out was the Roots Tour which involved a boat ride to key Gambian slavery sites. 

For £30 we spent most of the day on the local boat to get to Albreda and then James Island. It was very still on the river and we were able to get onto the sun deck when we wanted to. 

At Albreda/Juffereh we got off the boat and visited the museum.  

Next up was Kunta Kinteh (James) Island.