“Some people are like Slinkies - not really good for anything,
but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.”
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Happy Birfday, Mick of GC!
Ya old bastard.
14 comments:
Merilyn
said...
Happy bithday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Mick. Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuu! Kae wouldn't you have thought he could waited one more day, and been born on St Patricks Day! Shall we descend on his "shed" with a birthday cake, and umm some mead?
Well bugger me – how did this scruffy lot find out?
Thank you, thank you.
Twin Towns?
Nah Pedro – Missus Mick is Asian and we live and eat as if she’s 20 years ago back in the village, marvellous Asian tucker every day. It’s even better over there ‘cos the family rather likes that the big white bloke enjoys their food so much and can talk about it with them in their dialect (funny as a circus – at breakfast they talk about what they’ll prepare for lunch, at lunch they anticipate dinner; no-one starts ‘til the guest starts and no-one leaves the table ‘til he’s done; dining and talking together is a respected event three times a day).
Local little Korean at Southport tonight (and Coca Cola, kae – too funny!) – mother (mid 50s) works like a navvy out back cooking, daughter serves tables, son does the cleaning up and lays flooring part time. He’s studying accounting and his sister business studies at Griffith. He’s the only one who can drive them all about the joint.
Every day they do this and smile and rest and back up for more. Their father is dead.
Ask these young adults how their studies are going and they delight that you remember their courses and the name of their uni. Compliment the childrens’ English and ask them to translate this to mother and she beams.
The lass asked tonight why we weren’t celebrating somewhere like the Sheraton Mirage or the Marriott – fabulous places to dine at, fine dry whites from the Margaret River, oh yeah – and I said “Because I like how you cook the food here.” She beamed.
How good is that!
And Merilyn - father Larry, who’d be 115 in April, reckoned I was born in time to be well rested for the celebrations (he maintained St Patrick knocked around Cork a bit). Saw him off when I was 18, we enjoyed our time together.
Pedro, didn't have time to put this in this morning [had to be elsewhere,] but forget the Twin Towns [it's not bad or it wasn't when we went there last year in March for the 5RAR reunion], but the the place for a good meal at reasonable prices, is the South Tweed Bowls Club, [that's the one after crossing the bridge on the Highway to Sydney]. So if you are ever in that area, [if memory serves me correct you are from W.A.] pop in there.
One of my best chinas joined at 17 and went tripping about Asia under the mighty Colin Khan. After that they sent him to PNG for a few years to guard the ice for their beer (and to look for the watch his old man lost on Kokoda).
He retired a few years back after living in lots of SE Asia-Pacific places on the job for the Army.
He flew in to visit Hanoi a couple of years back, reckoning that might work better than walking there with blokes shooting at you. We warned him about retired NVA snipers with good memories and an appetite for the juicier target he now presents. He came back proudly wearing a Ho Chi Minh t shirt.
He enjoys the reunions and returns to tell us all about them.
Merilyn, I stayed at the Twin Towns Resort during the Coolangatta Wintersun Festival.
The town is filled with old rockers, bodgies and widgies and the streets are filled with a dazzling array of hot rods and classic cars from the 40's 50's and 60's.
The Twin Towns is a great club, connected to the resort with a footbridge, so you don't even have to go outside to get to the club
Good meals, cold beer and I even managed to get them to pay for much of my hotel bill courtesy of the electronic roulette wheels
Lunchtimes the place fills with pensioners and the midday charge for the cut price buffet is like watching a herd of wildebeest on the African plains.
I was in 5/7RAR in the mid 70's at Holsworthy. Most of the NCO's were Vietnam vets, and the former CO, LTCOL Colin "Genghis" Khan was a legend to these men.
Pedro I was hanging around that area in the mid-late 70s... wonder if you knew people I knew? I knew Penny and Bill Kruger who used to work at the family store at Holsworthy and at the Partridge Club... I do wonder what happened to them.
Oh wait - maybe closer to 1981. http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i67/Kae_album/my%20album/Familystorebar0001.jpg this is me at the family store. Old photo.
Pedro, Bob was also in 5/7RAR, we were posted from there to W.A. for five years [loved W.A.] before being posted back to QLD, then N.S.W. then back to QLD from where he retired, spent a further 10 years in QLD until ill health bought us to S.A. for a dryer climate, [it worked, ill health vanished]. Stayed at the same resort as yourself, very well run. We shared a suite with some very good friends. Mick, Bob did two tours with 5 RAR, brother did one tour with 5 then another tour with another group. Kae, did you have fun at Holsworthy? Would be good to know if those places still exist. Used to be a largish shopping centre and doctor's surgery at Moorebank too, called Coco's I think it was. Colin "Genghis" Khan is still a legend, and still gets standing overations from his former troops.
14 comments:
Happy bithday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday dear Mick.
Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuu!
Kae wouldn't you have thought he could waited one more day, and been born on St Patricks Day!
Shall we descend on his "shed" with a birthday cake, and umm some mead?
Hmm. I dunno Merilyn.
He might be just a beer bloke, then again, it's his birthday... top shelf!
Happy B day Mick.
Don't get between a pensioner and the prawn cocktail at the Twin Towns buffet.
Serious danger. :-)
Well bugger me – how did this scruffy lot find out?
Thank you, thank you.
Twin Towns?
Nah Pedro – Missus Mick is Asian and we live and eat as if she’s 20 years ago back in the village, marvellous Asian tucker every day. It’s even better over there ‘cos the family rather likes that the big white bloke enjoys their food so much and can talk about it with them in their dialect (funny as a circus – at breakfast they talk about what they’ll prepare for lunch, at lunch they anticipate dinner; no-one starts ‘til the guest starts and no-one leaves the table ‘til he’s done; dining and talking together is a respected event three times a day).
Local little Korean at Southport tonight (and Coca Cola, kae – too funny!) – mother (mid 50s) works like a navvy out back cooking, daughter serves tables, son does the cleaning up and lays flooring part time. He’s studying accounting and his sister business studies at Griffith. He’s the only one who can drive them all about the joint.
Every day they do this and smile and rest and back up for more. Their father is dead.
Ask these young adults how their studies are going and they delight that you remember their courses and the name of their uni. Compliment the childrens’ English and ask them to translate this to mother and she beams.
The lass asked tonight why we weren’t celebrating somewhere like the Sheraton Mirage or the Marriott – fabulous places to dine at, fine dry whites from the Margaret River, oh yeah – and I said “Because I like how you cook the food here.” She beamed.
How good is that!
And Merilyn - father Larry, who’d be 115 in April, reckoned I was born in time to be well rested for the celebrations (he maintained St Patrick knocked around Cork a bit). Saw him off when I was 18, we enjoyed our time together.
Regards,
Mick
Great stuff, Mick. Enjoy the day.
Looks like you have a good mob around you.
You are a very good man Mick.
Oh Lord no, Merilyn, not by a long shot. I just see stuff with my eyes and say so.
Your comment is very kind but I have a long way to go before I can polish that badge.
Pedro, didn't have time to put this in this morning [had to be elsewhere,] but forget the Twin Towns [it's not bad or it wasn't when we went there last year in March for the 5RAR reunion], but the the place for a good meal at reasonable prices, is the South Tweed Bowls Club, [that's the one after crossing the bridge on the Highway to Sydney]. So if you are ever in that area, [if memory serves me correct you are from W.A.] pop in there.
5RAR reunion, Merilyn?
One of my best chinas joined at 17 and went tripping about Asia under the mighty Colin Khan. After that they sent him to PNG for a few years to guard the ice for their beer (and to look for the watch his old man lost on Kokoda).
He retired a few years back after living in lots of SE Asia-Pacific places on the job for the Army.
He flew in to visit Hanoi a couple of years back, reckoning that might work better than walking there with blokes shooting at you. We warned him about retired NVA snipers with good memories and an appetite for the juicier target he now presents. He came back proudly wearing a Ho Chi Minh t shirt.
He enjoys the reunions and returns to tell us all about them.
Merilyn, I stayed at the Twin Towns Resort during the Coolangatta Wintersun Festival.
The town is filled with old rockers, bodgies and widgies and the streets are filled with a dazzling array of hot rods and classic cars from the 40's 50's and 60's.
The Twin Towns is a great club, connected to the resort with a footbridge, so you don't even have to go outside to get to the club
Good meals, cold beer and I even managed to get them to pay for much of my hotel bill courtesy of the electronic roulette wheels
Lunchtimes the place fills with pensioners and the midday charge for the cut price buffet is like watching a herd of wildebeest on the African plains.
I was in 5/7RAR in the mid 70's at Holsworthy. Most of the NCO's were Vietnam vets, and the former CO, LTCOL Colin "Genghis" Khan was a legend to these men.
Pedro
I was hanging around that area in the mid-late 70s... wonder if you knew people I knew?
I knew Penny and Bill Kruger who used to work at the family store at Holsworthy and at the Partridge Club...
I do wonder what happened to them.
Oh wait - maybe closer to 1981.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i67/Kae_album/my%20album/Familystorebar0001.jpg
this is me at the family store. Old photo.
Pedro, Bob was also in 5/7RAR, we were posted from there to W.A. for five years [loved W.A.] before being posted back to QLD, then N.S.W. then back to QLD from where he retired, spent a further 10 years in QLD until ill health bought us to S.A. for a dryer climate, [it worked, ill health vanished].
Stayed at the same resort as yourself, very well run. We shared a suite with some very good friends.
Mick, Bob did two tours with 5 RAR, brother did one tour with 5 then another tour with another group.
Kae, did you have fun at Holsworthy? Would be good to know if those places still exist. Used to be a largish shopping centre and doctor's surgery at Moorebank too, called Coco's I think it was.
Colin "Genghis" Khan is still a legend, and still gets standing overations from his former troops.
Happy Birthday, Mick, tho it may be kinda late...no matter what you say, you are a Good Man - the more polish they have, the less 'good' many men are.
Ya got a fine bunch of mates, Kae! Thank you all for cheering me at the start of my day today, I am so glad you were here.
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