Pole Pole

This beer mug was my father's, another thing which my mother, and then I, kept through all the moves we have made. It's a little battered: some of the glazing is crazed, and the handle broke off and was stuck back on. Since having an unreliable handle on a full mug of beer isn't a good idea, it hasn't been used for drinking purposes for many years.

'Pole Pole' is appropriate wisdom for the side of a beer mug. It's KiSwahili, and it means 'slowly' - hence the tortoise. It's how good beer should be drunk.

On the bottom of the mug it says that it was made by Gray's Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent, in the English Potteries area, but was designed by Peter Medway in Nairobi. However, the manufacturer's stamp is overprinted in green. This is difficult to read, which is a pity as a search of the Gray's Pottery website - here - makes no mention of this mug or of Peter Medway.

I know it's at least sixty-five years old as I can remember an 'April Fool' which my brother and I played on my father when we lived in the second house in Cliff Avenue, which must have been before I left for school in England in 1954. We filled the beer with sud-filled water and presented it to him when he came home for lunch, hot, tired and thirsty. Unfortunately, the 'April Fool' worked too well and he was consequently furious.