|
- Joined Eagle Oil as a deck apprentice. Left as 3rd Mate in late 1951 to join P & O and enjoy 'a gentleman's life.'
- Met my late wife Brenda when she was a passenger bound for UK on a working holiday. We went skiing in Austria in Jan '56 and came back engaged.
- Later in 1956 we rode a scooter from Copenhagen to Barcelona – a total of 7000 miles in nine weeks. We arrived in Perth, W. Australia, in February '57. Brenda was a pharmacist, so I went to pharmacy school, and we were married in December.
-
In '62 we sailed across the Pacific, calling at Auckland, Fiji, Hawaii, Vancouver, San Francisco, Panama, Jamaica, Miami & Bermuda. We landed at Le Havre, where we bought a Renault and took it to UK for five months before finally shipping it out to Perth.
-
In 1974, things in Pharmacy weren't brilliant so I went back to sea for a couple of months and stayed until I retired 20 years later. I sailed on the coast and on the Japan run, switching to oil exploration in 1978. I worked on supply vessels and on the rigs, sometimes doing long tows (including Singapore/Sydney, which took four weeks).
- We also bought a small farm where I bred coloured Corriedale sheep in support of Brenda's craft enterprise as a hand spinner and weaver. Sadly, however, Brenda died on New Year's Day 2002 following a long struggle with ovarian cancer, and the farm is now up for sale.
- I now play petanque twice a week and cycle every morning, or go to a gym, to keep at bay the effects of Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
-
Until now I have always yearned to finish my life in the Dordogne or the Yorkshire Dales, However, after 45 years I have finally decided that Perth is home, but I hope to be back in UK for a few months next year.
|
