STARTED WALKING AGAIN AND LUNCH REUNIONS

 I was so happy a week ago when the pain in my back/leg had diminished to a level where I could once again meet my morning walk buddies and join them in a walk. I did it twice and now the pain is back but hopefully after Christmas and New Year I'll be able to join them again. We walked the Priest Gully walk not in the forest because it was too wet and slippery after days of tropical rain.

My blog friends who have read my posts for years will remember my Birthday Bear Group, where some of the staff from Kuraby State School got together after they retired to celebrate birthdays so as to keep in touch. Instead of giving presents for birthdays we dressed a teddy bear to symbolise something to do with the recipient's life/activities. COVID 19 interrupted our celebrations and then a series of illnesses put a stop to our tradition. However, last week I received an invitation to a Christmas lunch and reunion of the birthday bear group. It was so good to see everyone. Birthday Bear came too in a Christmas hat.

George and Bill chatting to Birthday Bear.

Helen, Ann, Me, Chris and Mary KSS staff in the nineties.

I had another Christmas Lunch Reunion with the Springwood Playgroup mums. We have kept in touch since we met when taking our toddlers to Playgroup 50 years ago. We often have a monthly coffee too.

Springwood Playgroup mums from the seventies.

EAGLE HOUSE

 I was born in England back in 1942. At the time my parents and brother were renting a flat in Eagle House in South Woodford. We lived there until 1949 when we migrated to Australia. 

This is a photo of Eagle House when we lived there. We lived on the top floor, there were two bedrooms, a lounge, kitchen and bathroom. I think it is my mother and brother standing in front of the fence.

This was our little family in 1942. 

It wasn't until 1970  when Bill and I made a trip around the world that I went to see my old home in South Woodford on the eastern outskirts of London.

Bill took this shot of me at the gate in a mini skirt of the 70's. The house hadn't changed. The fence and trees were the same as in 1949.

The house stood on the corner of George Lane and Chigwell Rd. The train station wasn't far down George Lane and we did the shopping there too.

We have been back to England quite a few times because my brother returned to live there in 1975 and my daughter lived in London for seven years, However, I didn't ever visit Eagle house again but other people have.

My brother sent me this photo in the 1990's. The fence had been renewed but everything else looks much the same.

I have a blogging friend who lives in London and has a very interesting blog where she has challenged herself to visit every underground station and walk in a mile radius of the stations and record what she sees. When I saw that she was going to visit South Woodford station, I asked her to check out Eagle House for me, which she did and recorded it here:  These are the photos she took in 2015.

 The fence has been upgraded and the trees have been cut down (that's a bit sad).Traffic lights have been installed.

She asked me if I remembered the stained glass window. And I do, it was the bathroom window. She also explained that when the train line was built out there, wealthy merchants built big houses like this. It was later that they were converted into flats. 

I thought this would be the end of my connection with Eagle House but a few months ago I received an email from a young man saying that he lived on the top floor of Eagle House and he was looking up information about the house and he found my friends blog and through her he found my blog. He was very interested to hear how the place looked in earlier years and who had lived there. I sent him a short story about when we lived there and how close we were to the bombing during the war. He then sent me a video of what the house is like inside now. He was sharing the top floor with a few others. He loved living there..

So the magic of blogging strikes again.

SPECIAL VISITORS

Last Sunday we were invited to Sonya's place to meet some special visitors. Simon, a distant cousin of  Sonya, was visiting from Switzerland. He used to be the grandson's manny in Melbourne seven years ago. He stayed a year, then he returned to Switzerland. Now he has come again for a holiday in Australia. So he is staying with Sonya for a few weeks before heading off to Darwin. He brought a whole load of Swiss treats for Bill and the family. 

Simon on the back deck with Sonya and the boys.

Here are some of the Swiss goodies Simon brought. These are Lebkuchen (gingerbreads) with the Berne Bear logo. While Simon is here he is helping Bernie renovate an old house, which they have bought in Brisbane.

There were some other special visitors too. My son, Steve and his daughter, Evie. Evie lives in Brisbane but I hadn't seen her since she was little. Steve lives near Innisfail, way up in northern Queensland. I had Steve when I was a teenager and I gave him up for adoption. I first met him when he was 30. He is 64 now.

Evie was keen to meet her aunt Sonya and cousins, Fox and Banjo for the first time. It was the boys first time to meet their uncle Steve and cousin Evie.

A lovely family reunion. Me, Bill, Fox, Banjo, Sonya, Evie, Steve and Bernie. Bernie did a great job at catering for us. Simon took the photo.

I love patting our granddog, Chief.

MEMORIES FROM 1986

 Oh my goodness no posts in October at all. Shame on me. Well I have been a bit under the weather and Bill had a stint in hospital but we are slowly getting back to normal. I still am scanning my photo albums and turning them into photo books along with written memories of those times.

In 1986 it was all about the girls and their schooling and extra curricular activities. Carol was in Year Nine in High School and Sonya was in Year Seven in Primary School. Now days Year Seven is in High School. 

Carol-Ann in John Paul College uniform. 14 years old.

Carol played hockey, soft ball and she was in the school marching band and concert band playing trumpet.

Sonya also played softball, hockey and the trumpet. 

Sonya was also in the Jump Rope team.

Bill played trumpet in the Redland Bay Concert Band.

Sonya received a book prize at the Year Seven Graduation night. It was a book of Banjo Patterson's poems. She named her second son Banjo.

We all went to Sydney to visit my Mum and Aunt.

While there we took the girls to Manly, a sea side suburb of Sydney.

They went kayaking on the harbour side of Manly.

They had fun on the water slides too.

I was teaching in a semi rural school called Mount Cotton State School. Sonya came to the same school.

The quality of the photos isn't the best, still they are almost 40 years old.

UNDERWOOD PARK

 We took another walk around the lagoon in Underwood Park. It's Spring and the birds are building nests and laying eggs.

Moor Hens with eggs

Magpie Geese

Water Dragon

That's my man

GET BACK ON TRACK

 Long time readers of my blog may remember that I started writing my life story here in blogland. I also published the stories and photos into books. Well I kept on scanning photos and making books but forgot to write the stories here. So at the risk of boring you I'll try to catch up with the stories of my past. I have enjoyed scanning the photo albums because they have brought back so many memories of many trips away.

So in 1985 we were still living in our second house in Springwood in Wenlock Cr. We were both working, me as a teacher and Bill was employed by a big air conditioning company for commercial buildings. He was a sales engineer, designing and quoting the jobs. The girls were turning 13 and 11. Carol had just started High School at John Paul College and Sonya was in Year Six at Mt Cotton State School, where I was teaching too.

In the school holidays we went on short trips away for a week. We went to Stradbroke Island and stayed in a resort quite close to the beach. 

The board walk went all the way to the beach.

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After this we bought a pop up camper van and started going on camping trips. This time we went to Byron Bay and this was before it became the tourist mecca that it is now. It is south of here on the coast in New South Wales. It is actually at the most easterly point of Australia.

Besides swimming and walking on the beautiful beaches we also talked the girls into playing golf. They weren't keen but struck a bargain with us. They would play golf with us if we went horse riding with them

It was a rough country golf coarse in those days.

I used some horse manure for a tee.

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 Later in the year we celebrated Sonya's eleventh birthday at Dreamworld Tourist Park.

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Last of all a family photo in Daisy Hill Forest in 1985.