#9.05 Barcelona here we come.

It’s been a long time and it was a long way still to go and I forget whether or not we stopped somewhere but I don’t think we did, on reflection. Montpellier was the next large city we passed through. We had reached the Mediterranean and for the next 120 miles we stuck as close…

#9.04 So long Scotland. Hello Spain.

I really wish that we had made more use of Morag’s car and been more particular about where we stayed and what we looked at. I loved London and returning there almost fifty years later didn’t change things. But I am always a lot more interested in the landscape and the seascape rather than the…

#9.03 Scotland and loving it.

We had not planned on Scotland. I’ll say that again. We had not prepared. For seasoned travellers it is probably beyond comprehension that one could travel from Durham all the way to Inverness and still claim not to have gone to Edinburgh. But that is the truth. My first actual recollection is that we stopped…

#9.02 England and still loving it.

We were in a bit of a pickle. If I didn’t find some work then the money would start to run out. I spoke to people here and there and the general feeling was that the need for a work permit was a good idea on paper but that when someone needed a person to…

#9.01 Peter Pan and The Rasta Man.

Life goes on. The children grow up. Robin marries and she and her husband go to Ethiopia. He is a doctor. I marry and move on. David marries and moves away and so does Fiona and so does Michael. This series is specially directed at my two grandchildren and so it is my story from…

#8.04 After the Aftermath.

I have tried to be honest and the truth is I spent the years after the accident concentrating on rowing and school and girls and study all in that order. School was one of those places where sport was compulsory and even to this day I don’t know what David did. I do know he…

#8.03 The Aftermath.

How did mother cope with the injuries she suffered? Initially she was withdrawn and depressed as very few of us could have imagined. I will mention some incidents rather than try to work it all together. I will leave you to do that yourself. Mother had the very best neurosurgeon in Melbourne. But every great…

#8.02 The Accident.

In the family the whole incident and all the ramifications is known simply as The Accident. In the writing and the recalling of it I have begun to think of it in a different way; I will explain that later. I am fully aware of how I coped. I have absolutely no idea how anyone…

#8.01 Moving to the city.

As I told you earlier Dad was offered a teaching position at Caulfield Grammar School where had taught before we went bush. The process of selling the farm and moving to Melbourne and buying a house was made a little easier by Robin going to Adelaide to complete Matriculation and by my spending a year…

#7.10 The last years in The Bush.

It was 1957 and I was at first year High School. Back then in South Australia Primary School went to year Seven. Just across the border in Victoria Primary ended at year Six. I don’t remember much about the first year of High School. Some things only. The first thing was a nasty teacher who…