Gordon Barlow

I can't remember what the crowd did. Tell me. I suppose it was the usual milling around. I was in a state of shock and disbelief, mind focussed on this madman. We kept looking at him throughout the game, wondering how he could keep playing with this useless arm hanging down. He was in the second-row, I think. I suppose there was the usual milling around, at the end. I usually just left the arena without delay - trams to catch and places to go... I might have been on my own, even.

I remember the warm-up match that preceded the big game. It was between two clubs' Under-17 teams. As they ran onto the pitch one by one, one of the audience shouted "He's a bit hairy-arsed for sixteen!" I'd never heard that particular description before, and it's stuck in my mind ever since.

Retirednow

Started barracking for the poms.

Gordon Barlow

OK. Well, I don't remember that! And I don't altogether believe it, I have to say. Still, it's possible. They might have been cheering the man. It was such a mad, mad thing to be doing. I've never seen anything like it. They bandaged him up a bit at half-time, and would have given him a shot of painkiller. Those were the days, eh?

Amazulu

I can't stand Rugby League - although I love Union - but I had a read about that game. What a match - Great Britain won too, which was extraordinary. People pre-1960s were made differently. The only thing I can think of that comes close is the 1974 Lions tour of South Africa, which was incredibly violent, with both sides giving as good as they got

brits1

Lunch break Soon I now know what I am going to read so thank you. I love Bath and visited fairly often I also really like Salisbury/Winchester/York and Norwich I enjoy cities but the smaller more scenic cities suit me just fine. I just wanted to say thank you for your stories it’s lovely to hear them.

brits1

I think when we arrived in Perth 1998 we were just seeing (to my mind) the last of the good days, yes it was a shock at first how quiet the place was but that came with some positives, homes were affordable. easy to get a job, mining was not massive . we actually did not know of anyone who at that time did fly in fly out and no mass home building in “green” areas ie Canning Vale (lots of other areas I could name) I know these bring jobs and mass migration but it did change Perth some for the good (ie nicer shopping centres, improvement to some of the older towns ie Armadale/Midland etc) Jobs but for me the knock on effect for Perth was not the same.

brits1

I think when we arrived in Perth 1998 we were just seeing (to my mind) the last of the good days, yes it was a shock at first how quiet the place was but that came with some positives, homes were affordable. easy to get a job, mining was not massive . we actually did not know of anyone who at that time did fly in fly out and no mass home building in “green” areas ie Canning Vale (lots of other areas I could name) I know these bring jobs and mass migration but it did change Perth some for the good (ie nicer shopping centres, improvement to some of the older towns ie Armadale/Midland etc) Jobs but for me the knock on effect for Perth was not the same.

Gordon Barlow

Gosh, thanks for the kind words, brits. Much appreciated!

Here's a little story Troubadour will like. In London in the 1960s, young Aussies used to advertise on notice boards in Earl's Court for travelling companions. My future wife did that twice. The first ad she answered got her together with four others, who drove around Europe for a month or two in an old London taxi owned by one of them. The second time, she answered a girl's ad for a lone travelling companion, and off they went. Unfortunately, the two weren't compatible, and after a few weeks the deal ended in a blazing row one night in Greece. Linda stormed out at four in the morning and hitched a ride to the nearest Youth Hostel. That evening, there was an English-language movie ("Zorba the Greek" - a great movie) playing at the local cinema, and a bunch of us went and watched it, and sat around afterwards drinking coffee back at the Hostel.

Next day, or the one after, I was ready to hit the road again, in my VW Beetle that I'd bought second-hand in Hamburg a few months previous. I had already promised a lift to two fellows, each of whom stuffed an alarmingly large back-pack into the car. Then some girl from the Zorba session asked if I had room for one more. Well, not really, but what can you do? The boys got out where they wanted, but she and I drifted into Turkey and headed east. We parked the car in the Customs shed in Ankara and hitch-hiked around the Middle East for three months, married in Canada two years later, and eventually ended up here in the Caribbean. It wasn't love at first sight for us, but I was a more compatible travelling companion than Louise, apparently.

BEVS

I agree. I love reading Gordon's words and stories.

Bath will always remind me of the Mineral Hospital. My Mum had severe rheumatoid arthritis and we spent many many months in Bath over many years because there was , then, specialist treatments to try there.

My Mum came under the very personal care of Andrei Calin who came from the USA to the UK . The reason he took on my Mum was that I had written to him following an article I had read in the New Scientist. I addressed the letter to Mr A Calin, Standford University , USA. That was it. I enclosed a surreptitious taken photo of Mum and simply asked him if he could help somehow . He wrote back and stated that he was taking up a position in Bath Min Hospital in the future and would contact again. He did !

The matron of the Min Hospital was not best pleased as we were from outside the area however Mr Calin was firm . I will always thank that man for his work . Mum was a kind of rheumatoid celeb up there because of the severity & the very early onset of the condition. Took part in several clinical trials + agreeing to be present when he gave his lectures and findings.

We had tough days there did Mum and I but we also had glorious days.

So Bath to me is a beautiful place.

Gordon Barlow

What a wonderful story, BEVS! So many questions... What year was this? And where did you stay/live when you and your Mum were there? How long were you there? It's good that you have such warm feelings towards the specialist. Are you still in touch?

I had to look the Hospital up on the map - it's got a different name now - and I never visited that part of Bath. We lived up on Combe Down for the whole of 1977, and my Dad's cousin lived in Bathampton, so we kept mainly to that side of Bath. Loved going over the little toll-bridge there! I did some family-history research and found that a maternal grandfather had lived in Widcombe, where he was a Police Constable before emigrating to Queensland. And Bathwick was home to some of the cousin's ancestors; some of them were married in the church there. Bath is a beautiful place in my memory, too.

the troubadour

Lovely tale that led to a life of marital contentment by the sounds of it Gordon. I bet that Earls Court notice board was on the Earls Court Road beside a supermarket. I used to look at it often . Either in search of flat shares, single rooms, or looking for flat mates. We bought a 68 Commer Van from memory advertised there as well. Where going to travel to Greece but took the bus instead. A wise move as it turned out , as the Aussie that bought it off us had the wheel come off in the middle of a buzy road.

How great to see Zobra after it came out and in Greece. I can relate partially as saw The Beach (set in Thailand) in Thailand not long after it came out close to where it was filmed. But Zobra is a classic. Even have it on DVD.

It sounds like you could have retired anywhere, but still you went for England. Any particular reason?

brits1

One of my mums favourite movies was “Zorba the Greek” as she loved just loved Anthony Quinn hence why I have a love of watching the older movies especially starring Anthony Quinn lol. Was it fate,chance,luck you met your wife? So he’s a tale I have to tell….when we sold our home in England to move to Australia our neighbours whom had bought their property a few years before we did asked where we were moving to, we said “Australia”, they replied “they guy we bought this house from moved to Australia” we said “do you know where” “no” was the reply just that it was Australia … well a huge country what are the chances, fate,luck …that we would meet…but we did lol about 3 years later we had by then moved to a new suburb of WA and a last min decision for my dad to visit us at Christmas saw us change our plans and to have a meal at a local restaurant, half way through the evening my DH had disappeared inside to buy drinks when he came out and said he’d met someone from near to where my dad use to live as a boy, long story short he was the neighbour who had migrated to Australia (whom our neighbours had mentioned) and that also his childhood home was next door to my dads very best friend which was also just around the corner to where my dad grew up, a small world indeed.

Retirednow

Union is a very minor game in Australia and shrinking.

Gordon Barlow

In post #38 above, I told how Linda parted with her travelling companion Louise in a huff one night in Greece. I never met Louise, but her name remained in our family for decades. According to Linda, Louise had a deathly fear of leaving anything behind, when leaving a place, and insisted on checking every conceivable place in their room, no matter how obscure and unlikely. So when Linda and I joined up, we adopted the practice of "doing a Louise", jokingly looking on the tops of wardrobes and behind curtains for anything we might have hidden there by accident. And for the whole of our fifty years of marriage we kept it up, even for stuff that went missing here at home. Infuriatingly, we sometimes actually found something.

It's always interesting (to me) how families adopt silly expressions that mean nothing to outsiders and have to be explained. We couldn't see a spider in our house without labelling it a "highly deadly black tarantula", from a 1950s Harry Belafonte song - or, rather, the Stan Freberg satirical version. Some time I'll explain how the term "two tuppennies" came to mean "spare no expense" in our household. We have passed that one on to our son, so it won't be lost to civilisation when I go. In the meantime, it would be interesting to know what other family expressions exist, and how they came about. You know, the kind of nonsense that would normally be bandied about around the barbie...

Gordon Barlow

You got that wrong, troubadour. We only lived for a year in England, while sorting out our future. We went from there to Cayman, where we gradually drifted into retirement. That's a long story - and probably a boring one. I quit my job after three years; Linda kept working and I was a house-father for the next six years - "the parent of first resort", as I put it. At one time it looked as though we would have to leave here, and we had England pencilled in as our next stop. Nothing against Australia: we just liked England better.