Jocelyn Lane

            On Saturday morning I finished working out the chords for “Made in China” by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through singing and playing it in French and English so tomorrow I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I went to Freedom Mobile to pay for my April phone plan. Then I went to Vina Pharmacy to buy a tongue brush. I’ve never bought one before but when my mouth was being examined at the graduate school of periodontics two weeks ago and “Dr. Max” was calling out things for his assistant to write down, at one point he said, “Tongue: hairy”. I asked about it and he said that it’s a build up of fungus and that I could prevent it by using a tongue brush. Apparently I can also use a tooth brush but probably not the same one I use to brush my teeth. From what I read today it’s caused by a buildup of keratin, which is what causes hair to grow on the head. 

            I went to No Frills and on the way I made a dumb mistake. Since there was no one heading west on King I crossed over to the middle and then cut over to the south side to ride west. Usually there’s room to do that without going against traffic but this time there was a line of cars turning right and so I was in the way of people in the centre lane. Some angry driver called out, “What are you doing?”

            At the supermarket the red grapes were very cheap. I bought six bags because the ones in the last bag were too soft. I got a pack of raspberries, some bananas, pea meal bacon, a pack of artisan naan, three bags of milk, salsa, baked beans, chili sauce, and two containers of skyr. 

            I weighed 86.4 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been at midday since March 7. I had a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with pumpkin seed butter and a glass of lemonade. Although the jar of organic pumpkin seed butter had been on my shelf for about two years, it didn’t taste rancid. The oil had completely separated though and so I had to stir it for about ten minutes to make it buttery again. 

            In the afternoon before my bike ride I brushed my tongue for the first time. Even though I brushed my teeth and used mouthwash afterwards my mouth tasted bitter. I guess it’ll take a while to get all the hair off. I rode downtown and back. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos at 17:15. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:20. 

            I continued re-reading the novel Pearl, doing research as I went along. The word “Angel” comes from Angelos, which is Greek for messenger; but further back it comes from ángaros, which is Persian for mounted courier. 

            I had half a can of maple baked beans, with toast and French fries. I had it with a beer while watching episode 11 of Amos Burke: Secret Agent. 

            Burke is part of a stake out of a warehouse where black market arms dealer James Ketterback is detailing a mission to some of his men. But Ketterback has intercepted radio communication between Burke and his team and so he blows up the warehouse, including some of his own men. Burke wakes up in the hospital. He then heads for Sicily where at the airport he meets Lola Redmond of American Tours but she is really his contact with MX3. Ketterback is there at the airport. Burke tells Lola that Ketterback is shipping missiles to Latin America. In the parking lot they see Ketterback having a violent confrontation with a young woman. She eventually gets into Ketterback’s car and they drive away. Burke sends Lola back to the hotel and he follows Ketterback to a gated estate. He parks his conspicuous looking Rolls Royce right in front of the gate and then sneaks over the fence. But later when he leaves, the gate just opens easily. He spreads a white liquid across the driveway and then drives two metal stakes into the ground on either side of the driveway a few meters closer to the house. Inside he finds the woman in a fight with one of Ketterback’s men. The man knocks her out, then Burke knocks him out and carries the woman away. The man pursues them but trips the electric eyes between the two metal posts, which sets off the chemical that Burke spread, turning it into knockout gas. Ketterback calls the police chief over whom he has some control, telling him he knows the girl must be brought back. The woman comes to after Burke has been driving for a few minutes. She says her name is Angelina Brassio. Burke is stopped at a police roadblock and knocked out. When he wakes he is drugged and questioned by Ketterback but he gives no information. Burke is taken to his car so he can die in an accident. But once outside Burke is fully alert, overwhelms his two guards and drives away. Back at his hotel he seems doped again and he is met by Lola. In her room he remembers where he saw Angelina before. Her picture was in a magazine five years ago accompanying a report that said her name was Adriana Montavi and that she had been found dead on the beach. She was Colonel Lashi’s girlfriend and had died of a drug overdose. But then a Sicilian peasant woman claimed the body was that of her daughter Adriana. Burke thinks Ketterback arranged this to save Lashi from a scandal. He keeps Adriana prisoner so he can continue to have leverage over him. Burke meets with Lashi to tell him what he knows. He says he can get Adriana to the US out of Ketterback’s reach so Lashi can arrest him without scandal. He can also get the corpse of the other girl to the US as well. Later Ketterback hears from Lashi that Burke bought two shovels and headed for the cemetery. 

            We find Burke and Lola digging up the woman’s grave. They unearth the coffin and Burke attaches a tracking device to it. He tells Lola to go to the Rolls and follow the signal. Burke is captured and taken away but then Lola is captured as well. We see a gun pointed and hear a shot and that’s the last we see of Lola. Ketterback’s men take Burke to the villa and for some odd reason put him in the same room as Adriana. Then Ketterback takes both Burke and Adriana onto the ship he is using to transport the missile. Ketterback finds the tracking device on the coffin. 

            Later Burke sees Ketterback and his men leaving the ship on a small boat. Burke figures that Ketterback has planted a bomb to destroy him, Adriana, the coffin, and the missile all at once so there would be no evidence left behind. Burke and Adriana escape their cabin to the storage area. They are confronted by the captain and his men. Burke explains the situation and the bomb to the captain and he allows Burke to search for the bomb. He finds the detonator by picking up an audible signal after the ship’s engines are shut off because they are muffling the noise. Then Burke diffuses the bomb. 

            Later Ketterback is confronted at the airport by Burke, Adriana, Lashi and the coffin. Lashi says he is under arrest. Ketterback stabs Lashi but Burke shoots him. 

            Adriana was played by Jocelyn Lane, who was the sister of British supermodel Mara Lane. Jocelyn changed her name to Jackie Lane and also became a model, eventually gaining more fame than her sister and became hailed as “the British Bardot”. When she moved to Hollywood she changed her name back to Jocelyn to avoid being confused with the Jackie Lane who acted as the Doctor’s first companion on the original Doctor Who series. Her first film appearance was an uncredited role in The Men of Sherwood Forest. She starred in April in Portugal. She co-starred in the Elvis film Tickle Me. She was featured in the September 1966 issue of Playboy. She co-starred in Robin Hood and the Pirates, The Son of Hercules Versus Venus, War Gods of Babylon, The Sword of Ali Baba, Incident at Phantom Hill, Hell’s Belle’s, and A Bullet for Pretty Boy. In 1973 she married Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and retired from acting to become Princess Jocelyn Hohenlohe. She divorced the prince in 1985 but when she became the successful designer of feather necklaces she called the line The Princess J Collection. Her daughter is known as Princess Arriana Hohenlohe.