About Zeek

( Artist /Author/Researcher of "The Art of Shen Ku" )

ZEEK WAS ISSUED A SENTENCE OF NEAR ULTIMATE DOOM AT AGE 15 BY THE VERY TOP EYE SPECIALISTS ON TWO CONTINENTS ..."Immediately adopt a sedatory lifestyle & you MIGHT retain some vision for up to two years !!!...WHAT A THING TO SAY TO A KID, & to make it a thousand times worse THE TWO OF THEM WERE TOTALLY WRONG!   PART 1 (Preamble)                 AUSTRALIA 1968 Zeek( (23) building the 8 meter cutter " Ghost Rider"( one translation of Shen Ku) 12 months before setting out to circumnavigation (the world) singlehanded......  against  forecasts of doom & disaster from almost all sides.... " If you go Zeek! ... You will surely die!"

            It is now(1968) 8 years since he was condemned by the worlds TOP specialists in Harley St ( London) & Macquarie St (Sydney)  to TOTAL sight loss within 2 ( that's TWO) years, & strongly advised to adopt a "SEDATORY" lifestyle (yeah right!) immediately ( to avoid it happening before 2 years!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 PART 2 (Factual Account )    UK/NIGERIA (1958-62)       

            For the possible interest of others who might have been "issued with a sentence of INEVItABLE  doom" (in whatever catagory) by the medical establishment, here follows a brief account by Zeek 

            "In the late 50s (my age 13) I was sent to  a well known "Public School" ( that means in the UK that you have to pass an entry exam to get in, & thereafter pay for tuition)... I was sent there ( God only knows how I got in) because my Father (Captain at that time in the British Military)  was shuffled around mainly Europe & Africa like the joker in a pack of cards, & as I had been sent to 13 different schools, acheiving almost zero academic qualifications as a result! )

            So Mother waved  a tearful goodbye & set off to find the next flight out to pre Biafran War Nigeria to join Father .... ( I was to stay at boarding school with STRICT instructions to STUDY HARD, like my older half brother [ who HAD graduated from Sandhurst & Cambridge  as one of the youngest colonels in the British Army .... OK, that was good, VERY well done Bro] ....& I was to travel out & return [alone] 3 times a year to Lagos [Nigeria] for school holidays (3-7 weeks each).

             During my first term in boarding school  ( that was on a diet of instant mashed potato & cream cake from the Tuck Shop ( yes, nutrition was widely believed to be a study for crancks & boffins in those days)  I began to notice random white flecks on my finger nails which slowly migrated down  & were then cut off.....

           Being a meticulous sort of kid in a strange way, I could not tolerate this, & thus went to the "House Matron" (a trim young lady with very short hair, in starched whites, who watched we lads srtip naked at bath time with a blank face, (or was I missing something???).... who took me to the School Doctor ( & God help you boy from then on! )

               This worthy practioner of the medical proffession after some 7 years in relevant studies in institutes of higher learning  proclaimed in a knowledgable & lofty voice to my ears ... " Oh, my boy , don't worry, you have caught your nails in a door jamb, or cupboard door whilst larking around .....Nothing to worry about .... Next Please!"  ... " But, but Sir , Matron ( who was there) I did NOT catch my nails in a door, & please sir , anyway they (the white flecks) keep coming back!"..... " Off you go Lad & take more care next time !!!"

              So, after this brilliant diagnosis from that qualified expert I returned to my status of near nutritional starvation in almost total ignorance [ a very dangerous combination] & in due course (at terms end) set off from the pristine streets of that medieval English town for  the precariously balanced "civilization" of the frantic  West African city of Lagos.

               As I was at that age (15) already semi hooked on the ocean ( & my VERY kind Dad ( God bless him) had built me a small catamaran (with an ancient 10 hp  Johnson outboard for power), it was of course every lad's  "dream come true" to  (with mixed parental bessings) "captain" this own vessel (named "El Gato") alone from my parent's dinghy racing club  (in Lagos Harbour) to a remote British Army owned  series of empty bungalows looked after by the statueque local fishing villagers (particularly the two skinny [but always  giggling] Nigerian girls, Princess & Adamma [13] who were sent to keep the bungalow clean ....  but did much more to & for an innocent English schoolboy .... Thank You.]

           It was named Tarqua Bay & was sheltered & protected, BUT it adjoined (by foot & derelict railway track) a far more dangerous, deserted & totally wild open surf beach that stetched for hundreds of  mles. along that coast previously named "The White Man's Death"(maleria) ... & so with the innocence of only 15 years I would set off for that hazardous & near primative mist & spray shrouded endless beach with a battered old belly board & quite stupidly attempt to ride that 20 ft banzi pipeline thru the shark & stingray infested  100m break to that lonely hazy beach ... (PLEASE, put that stupid  kid away in some kind of an institution IMMEDIATELY)..............(to be continued as time permits)

 

STORY NOT FINISHED YET( too busy at Big Gym City)

 

 

----------------------------------------------

     

Zeek age 64 (2009) caught off guard @ Big Gym City 

.... hundreds of thousands of "hard school" travel miles  & 49 years since  the original "specialists" imminent doom prediction of up to 2 yrs (with a sedatory lifestyle )

So, all of you suffering from "illness, persecution, circumstance or despair"  .... (even if you are 99).... get off that nice comfortable settee & "GO KICK BUTT"

         "Say Zeek, could you give us a smile please?"    

Signed Woo Chin