FAMILY FUN FOR A SHORT TIME THEN BYE BYE

We only had four days with our family in LA. It was a busy, loud, chaotic, fun time. Quite different from our quiet life at home. The boys are so lively and demanding, clever and funny, exciteable and emotional just like two and four year old boys are. They have grown so much in a year.

We took the boys to Poinsettia Park where Fox showed Granddaddy how to work out.

Sonya took us to Franklin Canyon Reserve where the boys enjoyed watching the ducks and turtles.

Banjo loves yoghurt.

Taking the family to Santa Monica Pier Amusement area.

Santa Monica Beach in the late afternoon.

Having fun on the pier throwing hoops over the bottles.

Fox was brave enough to go on the big Ferris wheel 

Sunset from Santa Monica Pier.

We went to visit Sonya at work at UCLA (uni of California). It is a beautiful campus.

Our last meal with our gorgeous family for a long time. Bye bye my darlings. Hope to see you in Australia next time. We were off to Nashville the next day.

VISITING FAMILY FAR AWAY

We had smooth uneventful 13 hour flight from Brisbane to LA. Bernie, our son in law picked us up at 6:30 and we arrived at their house just as the boys were finishing breakfast. They were very excited to see us just as we were to see them and especially our daughter, Sonya. Luckily, Sonya didn't have to go to work so we had a nice day catching up as well as a few hours sleep to get over jetlag.

In the afternoon we went to a park to see the ducks and turtles. On the way home we called into the bar where ' Bernie and the Budgie Smugglers' were  entertaining the guests.

The next day Sonya had to work and Bernie Had an audition so we were on baby sitting duty. When Bernie came home he looked after Banjo while we took Fox to the movies. These are all new experiences for us distant grandparents.

Banjo playing cars and stopping for a think.

Banjo chatting up the barmaid while waiting for Papa to finish playing in the band.

Granddad and Fox computer nerds.

We arrived at breakfast time. Mummy and the boys. I wish that I could take them home with me.

(Still trying to blog on my iPad grrrr)

ANOTHER ADVENTURE AND BIRTHDAY BEAR DOG SITTING

It is motivating to see my blog friends are interested in 'My Story" and that some of them are keen to find out what happens next. However, I'm sorry to say I might have to hold you in suspense for a little longer for two reasons. One is that Birthday Bear is nagging me to post about our last celebration and the second reason is that we fly away on another adventure tomorrow.

We are going to USA where we will visit our grandchildren and family in LA. Then we fly to Nashville and hire a car and drive to Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mts for a few days. Then we drive back to Memphis and board "The American Queen" steamboat for a "Thanksgiving" cruise down the Mississippi to New Orleans. I have never experienced a Thanksgiving celebration before. Then we fly home which will take 18 hours flying and umpteen hours waiting at airports after 3 days we should be home. We sure live a long way down under but I wouldn't swap it for anywhere else.

For those interested readers who wanted to know more about Bill's  car floating away in a flood from my last post, he has written about it on his blog. 'Bill's Ponderings" He also has pre scheduled posts of where we will be on each day of our trip if you want to follow along. I might be able to post from my iPad occasionally. Please forgive me if I'm too busy having fun to have time to comment on your posts for a while.  

Okay, Okay, Birthday Bear lets tell about your latest party!

For those new readers who may not know about our Birthday Bear Tradition read more here .

 It is Ann's birthday today but we celebrated last week because we were going away. Ann often spends time Granddog sitting for her daughter and son in law. She spends a lot of her time there reading. So Bear has come to the party ready to help Ann next time she is called on to dog sit.

 Bear has her books ready to go and she shows her love of dogs.

 Mary on the left dressed Bear for Ann on the right.

 Ann, Bill, Mary, Paul, Helen, moi and George waiting for lunch at "The Rare Pear" cafe. Bear was too engrossed in her book to eat lunch but when she saw the cakes cabinet that was different. 

She was over there in a flash checking out the selection . It didn't take her long to point out the one she wanted, the biggest one of course.

"WILL HE STILL LOVE ME WHEN........"

Will he still love me when I get back from leave? (Let alone when I'm 64). That was the question I had in my head as 1968 was coming to an end. 

At the time I was living and working in Papua/New Guinea. I had been there four years and enjoying myself except when the love of my life left me early in 1968 and I was heartbroken but by November I had a new boyfriend but I tried to keep my emotions under control, I didn't want to get hurt again. However, Bill was very nice and attentive and appeared to be in love with me but it was that time of the year for me to go on leave to Australia for two months. Would he find someone else while I'm away? In the last weeks of November we continued to enjoy each other's company.

 On the weekends we had breakfast at a restaurant in town.

We drove up to Burns Peak and looked over Port Moresby and suburbs. A new oval was being constructed for the Pan Pacific Games.

We turned around and looked inland towards the Owen Stanley Mountains. 

We walked around  Fairfax Harbour and watched the sailors and boaties having fun. But it was time to say goodbye. Bill drove me to the airport and he seemed genuinely sad to see me go. (I heard later that he went to the hotel with his friends and drowned his sorrows. He awoke the next morning to find his car being swept away in flood waters)

It was great to see my parents again. Each leave they looked older of course but you forget that when you are away. We were invited to my friend, Kerrie's parents house at Urunga Beach for a few days holiday. Its an all day drive from Sydney so mum packed a pinic for on the way.

We spent the days swimming, fishing and hiking with Kerrie's family, her two sisters and kids.

Dad and I have a chat about my life in PNG. Bill had been writing to me every week and he seemed to be counting the days until I would return. Seems like I might be lucky this time. I was looking forward to returning once more and wondered what was in store for me in 1969. 

A LOVE STORY

Continuing the story from last post where my boyfriend of three years dumped me and a new friend smashed up my car:

My girlfriend, Kerrie, who I had been friends with since we were seven, had come to PNG to work. She was still trying to find me a new boyfriend. She didn't like to see me staying home on the weekends just reading or playing sport. She was more outgoing than I was and met boys at the local RSL Club (Returned Servicemen's Club).

One day she said, "I have met three nice boys at the club, you must come and meet them, I'm sure you would like one of them. They are from Switzerland and they are gentlemen. Now she had me interested even though I wasn't that keen on going to the club as I didn't drink. So the next Saturday night I went to the club with Kerrie and was to meet the three boys, Willy, Werner and Willy (called Bill to distinguish between the two boys with the same name). However, Bill didn't turn up because his company had sent him to the other side of New Guinea to do a job for a few weeks. Kerry fancied Willy, so I was left with Werner. He was a good looking young man and enjoyed dancing which I liked too. But there was something about him I wasn't sure about. He was a bit over confident and self assured. After my recent hurtful experiences with men, I was very unsure of this guy. However, in a group he was okay. 

We got talking and one thing led to another and I found myself telling them the story of my car being smashed up by a (married) soldier I had trusted. He promised to have the car fixed by the army mechanics but it had been in their workshop for months and nothing done. The two Swiss boys were shocked to hear the story and said they would sort it out. The next day they went to the barracks, found the guy and I don't know how they did it, but there may have been some threatening going on, and the next thing I know they had my car towed out of the barracks and given to a local car repair garage to be fixed. I started to like these guys very much.

I went to a few parties and beach picnics with them but I still couldn't relax with Werner so I stopped going out with them and back to my books and sport. 

Willy, Werner and Bill were all electricians from Switzerland working for Carrier Air Conditioning. They were sent all over Papua/New Guinea to install industrial air-conditioning. When Bill returned from his job, Kerrie once again insisted that I would "really" like this guy. At the same time Willy was telling Bill, that Kerrie had a girlfriend that he would "really" like. Employees of Carrier Air were having a party and Bill and I were invited both knowing we were "really" going to like each other even though we had never met.

Needless to say our friends were right and we did "really" like each other. But was it going to end in heartbreak again? 

 Kerrie and Willy introduce me to Bill. We spent Saturday mornings in the beer garden of the RSL Club overlooking Ela Beach.

 We "really" liked each other.

 Bill had a Ford Falcon and we used to go on picnics with other couples from Carrier Air.

 We went swimming in Sirinumu Dam.

 We went to Guire Beach where the sand was volcanic black.

 We would share our barbequed sausages with the local children.

 We went to Lalokie River for a swim and picnic. Bill has his steak sandwich and stubby beer.

 Local natives in their dug out lacatoi canoe.

 Bill was keen on photography especially movies. He had a Bolex professional 16 mm camera. I was impressed.

 Bill paddling what they called the "Carrier Queen". I thought he was cute. He thought I was cute.

(Oh boy to have a figure like that today, I wish).

At last my car was fixed after seven months without it. Bill liked it too.

We drove to Ela Beach to watch the locals have model lacatoi canoe races.

At the end of the year (1968) I proudly took my new boyfriend to the Korobosea School Staff Christmas Party. (One got a good sun tan in the tropics.)

I was happy but would it last??

A BROKEN HEART

Another post in the series "My Story". 

By 1968 I had been teaching in Pt Moresby, Papua/New Guinea for four years. I had a great time and made lots of friends. I had a steady boyfriend for three of those years. I was very much in love with him and hoped he would pop the question but alas it wasn't to be. Early in 1968 he had got bored with me and was playing the field behind my back. Rather than face up to me with the truth he got himself transferred to another town in PNG. I stupidly still hoped there was a chance as we hadn't said good bye for good. We wrote to each other and he came back to Pt Moresby for a visit after a few months but I knew when I saw him that there was no more love left in him for me. He flew back and out of my life forever. I was heart broken. I felt pretty depressed as this had happened to me before. It was before I had gone to P/NG. I wondered what was wrong with me why can't I keep a guy interested?

The heartbreaker and me.

 To overcome this disappointment, I threw myself into sport and my job.

 I played hockey, squash and tennis. I made new friends. I met a nice guy at squash and I started seeing him for a while until I found out that he had a wife back in Australia. Another botched romance.

 At least I loved my job at Korobosea School (above) and I did well at it. I had good reports from the District inspector.

 When the position of Senior Assistant, Education Officer Grade 11 became vacant at my school, I was promoted. So things were looking up.

 I was still teaching and teaching two classes together. That was a challenge but I soon got the hang of it. The kids were great to teach.

I met a girl who was happy to share her donga (2 man little house) with me in Boroko a suburb of Pt Moresby. So I had moved out of the hostel and enjoyed living in a house. We were able to employ hausbois to do house work for us at a very cheap rate. At first it felt odd to have servants but I soon got used to it.

 They did the ironing,

 and washing 

 and gardening. They would do the cooking too but we preferred to do that ourselves. They enjoyed posing for the camera.

I had a letter from my best friend, Kerrie, in Australia saying that she was coming to P/NG to work. I was very excited to have her arrive. While she was waiting for her own accommodation to be sorted, she stayed with me and my donga mate. She was impressed with having hausbois to do the work. The bois often had lots of friends visiting them called wantoks (one talks-- one who speaks the same language -- but it means friends)
Kerrie encouraged me to go out with her to the RSL club for dancing, talking and drinks. I wasn't keen as I didn't drink at all in those days but I did like dancing. She had made many friends at her work and at the club and she kept trying to find me a new boyfriend.
One morning she arrived home after an all night ball with a rope over her shoulder and a fellow tied to the other end around his neck. She called out to me, 'Diane look what I brought home for you." Needless to say they were both a bit under the weather. He was in the Australian army and was very charming when he sobered up. We went out a few times but I was a bit reluctant to get involved again and get hurt again. One night he asked if he could borrow my car to drive back to the barracks as he didn't have a car and it would save him getting a taxi. He promised to bring it back the next morning. Silly me did lend him my Triumph Sports car.
The next day he didn't arrive until late and he was on foot. I had a feeling of panic sweep over me. "Where's my car?" I asked
"I'm sorry but I had an accident and its in the army garage. Don't worry the boys will fix it for nothing in their spare time." I was not impressed. Days passed, weeks passed, no car. The excuse was the boys are busy and haven't had time to fix it. The truth was  that he had been speeding-seeing how fast it would go--then hit a culvert and bent the chassis which was near impossible to fix. Then I also found out that had a wife in Australia too. At least I hadn't fallen for him so I wasn't hurt but very angry about my car. Months went by, the promises kept coming but still no car. I had to buy another scooter to get to work.

Next post I'll tell how I got my car back and finally found happiness.