15th September 1991 Day 57

The Diary
Got up early, packed my bags and took the train to Artarmon. Picked up by Gour and my stuff was dropped at his house and then we went to Oxford Street to meet Ken and Lisa, Ken's sister and Simon. We then went to the Sydney Football Stadium to the Major Preliminary Final (or something along those lines). The Canberra Raiders beat the North Sydney Bears.

In the evening we went to a BBQ at Simon's house. South Africans, Kiwis, Poms, Maltese - not an Aussie in sight.


2011

North Sydney Bears - Australian RL foundation club and perennial under-achievers. Just like Boro. As they also played in red they became the team I adopted. Essentially forced out of top-level RL existence during the Super League War in the mid 1990s. They still play at a level just below the top level but unlike the UK where promotion and relegation is common in most sports there is no real way to climb back to the top. 


Most North Sydney based sports teams wear red and black including the team I play for - North Sydney United FC

14th September 1991 Day 56

The Diary (a short entry this one)

Lazy day, wandered up to Fort Scratcherly with Nige and then we climbed all around the rocks and fortifications while he recounted tales of his childhood and plans to open a "theme" pub.

2011
I remember this conversation - I was gobsmacked that the limit of his ambition was to open a theme pub. Nige was a nice guy but it was time to leave small town Australia.


Someone did well with theme pubs....

13th September 1991 Day 55

The Diary
Went to immigration to get papers to say I was entitled to stay and then went to the British Consulate to get a new passport  and voila....they had my bum bag. Yippee as Beth would say. Everything was alright. I hadn't lost my visa stamps. 

Returned to Newcastle for the weekend. They'd heard about the passport drama and had been trying to get hold of David Hall, a friend of theirs at PW, so that he could get in touch with me, because the consulate had found the phone number for Stevenson Place and contacted them. Phew!


Saw Einstein's Wireless again with Nige and Tony at the Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle.


2011
It was obviously a bit of relief to get everything back but I seemed most concerned that I'd lost 3 inter-rail trips worth of visa stamps.

12th September 1991 Day 54

The Diary

I've worked in the big building in the forefront the building at it's foot opposite.

Up early to go to Sydney. Train was late so got to the PW office late. Met Sylvia Hobbs and signed my contract and then went to do a bit of sight-seeing. Down to The Rocks to see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and then wandered through town to Centrepoint and the Sydney Tower. It was while I was up here that I realised that I'd left my bumbag on the wall at Macquarie Place. Unfortunately inside the bumbag was my passport, driving licence, cheque book, diary and new bank details. Oh dear. I dashed back down and so hardly looked at the view and headed to where I'd left the bag. It had gone.



View Larger Map


I went to the police at Argyle Street and gave a statement. I went back to PW to get Gour's phone number but he was there in the office. We arranged to meet at 7:15pm and I set off sight seeing again. Went to Kings Cross, a well-known sleazy part of town. So sleazy, in fact, that all the English and the backpackers head there. Lots of sex shops, sex shows and police about. Met Gour and went to his house to stay the night and met his pregnant (only just) girlfriend Marianne.

2011
Police statement: "I'm an idiot and left all my important possessions on a wall in central Sydney."


Note - no mobile phones so I had to go back to the office to get Gour's number and hope I could call him on a landline. Or fax. Or carrier pigeon or something.


Both of my kids have performed at the Concert Hall in the Opera House - Mia as part of the Australian Girls Choir and Jaden as lead trombone in the Roseville Public School Stage Band (Jaden at 1:03). Who'd have thunk it?


Gour and Mazza have 3 kids (I think) - Carmina, Serena and Ivan. The kids have about 1500 facebook friends between them so you must be connected to one of them. Back then one of them (Carmina ? I forget who's the oldest) was a little foetus thing in Mazza's stomach and the others were future projects. Time flies. One little anecdote I remember was Mazza telling a story of how she told a family member (her mum?) that she was pregnant. "How did that happen?" said her mum. "Well, Gour fucked me" replied Marianne. He he.

11th September 1991 Day 53

The Diary
Oz upped and went to Melbourne. Does he realise Melbourne is colder than Sydney? Will he get ripped off? Will he make any money? For the answers to these questions and more tune in to next weeks episode of Soap. Or alternatively keep watching this space.

Went running again today all the way to the far end of Nobbys. It was a bit cold in the strong wind. Runs of 10mins, 6mins and some drills.


2011
Excitement was dwindling, diary entries getting shorter. Just hanging around. It was time to head to Sydney. 


I've no idea why Oz took the job he did and why he didn't wait until we got to Sydney when there would be many more options open to him. It was easy for me to pick up an IT contract but I don't think he had any idea what 3 years in marketing at Boots was going to help him find. I've a vague recollection that he went on the train as well, but I could be wrong.

10th September 1991 Day 52

The Diary
Oz spent the day learning his lines and I did very little. It rained a lot and the weather seemed more like England than Australia. In the evening Nige and I went to see Terminator 2. As senseless violence goes, it was bloody good senseless violence. The fx were the best I've seen. Shame Oz doesn't appreciate it. 


Did you know they have different stars in the sky here ? Orion the Hunter (I think) is very clear.



2011
Oz had to learn some set patter in order to flog his encyclopedias. Another business that surely doesn't exist in  this modern age. See my constant links to wikipedia.


Oz was a bit snooty about the sorts of films he would watch. I'm sure he's the same today. The same Oz that laughed at King Ralph.


I hadn't realised that the night sky would be different. I sort of gradually dawned (no pun intended) on me.

9th September 1991 Day 51

The Diary
Woken up early by Ross and his mate working on the house. Went into town, stood in the bookshop for a while, cashed my travellers cheques, bought food and papers and it was still only 10am. Wandered aimlessly round Nobby's for a while. It was today that I realised how bored I'm getting now that we're not travelling around or sightseeing. It's time to start work soon or get moving again.

Fortunately Oz got a job today. What he's going to do we're still to find out. It sounds like a door to door salesman to me. We went out and kicked the rugby ball around to celebrate and Oz continued his run of luck by falling down a hole in the field. had a pint at The Brewery, kicked a hackysack around in the dark wih Phil, Nige and Bradley before returning to the house to discover that the water was off for the night. Anne had damaged a pipe.

As we couldn't cook our usual gourmet meal (or more precisely, Bradley couldn't) we went to Pizza Hut and had a very spicy pizza. We rounded off the night watching Division One on the telly. And Boro are top of Div Two and I'm on the wrong side of the bloody planet. 


10 successful companies or organisations - Coca-cola, McDonalds, ICI, BP, Reebok, Tetra-pak, Kodak, Reuters, Rupert bloody Murdoch and Worldwide Information Network.


2011
The house was damage in the Newcastle earthquake a few years earlier and still needed lots of work. 


Who was Phil ?

• Bookshop - a place where people bought books and sometimes bought coffee. Superseded by the Kindle and other tablet devices
• Travellers Cheques - archaic form of pre-paid cheque to allow travellers to purchase local currency. Almost entirely superseded by plastic cards with magnetic stripes and chips. soon to be further superseded by smartphones.
• Food - not yet obsolete. Watch this space.
• Papers - replaced by the internet, PCs and tablets

Division 1 - football before the advent of the Premier League. Which is, of course, the point at which all current records start. Div 2 - currently known as The Championship.


10 Successful companies - we were obviously a) bored b) inspired by Oz's new encyclopedia sales job for the Worldwide Information Network. Some of these companies are less successful now and Rupert is in the poo. I sat in a seat behind him once on  a flight from Tokyo to Sydney. He was amazingly pleasant to all the staff on board. Not like some people in business class that think they own the plane. 

8th September 1991 Day 50

The Diary


Got up late. Anne and Ross took us for a drive to Lake Macquarie and through the suburbs of Newcastle. They've even got a Gateshead here. We had a close look at a couple of shopping centre car parks and noted the big aerials on the houses. Ross - "I'll shout you"  (trans: I'll buy the round or pay for you) - bought us all dinner. I had a lovely pot of English tea complete with tea cosy, tea strainer and extra pot of hot water. One day somebody will tell the rest of the world we all drink from mugs - usually with a logo or a silly saying or picture on the side.



In the evening I decided I'd go for a run. 15min jog, stretches, drills and a pretty brisk 60sec sprint. Legs seem to be getting slowly better as my calves were not too stiff at all afterwards. Watched RL on telly again.

2011
Why were we looking at shopping centre car parks ? No idea. Ross may be the only person that knows and I heard yesterday that he'd died a couple of years ago.


Some familiar names from Newcastle, NSW. I wonder where the early settlers came from.
Lambton
Wallsend
Stockton
Gateshead
Hexham


Here some Newcastle TV that confused me. When I returned to Australia in 1995 I could recall Big Dog going to bed every night on TV. No-one in Sydney knew what I was talking about. A few years ago the company i work for bought NBN (Newcastle's Channel 9 affiliate) and the first thing I saw when I entered the building - Big Dog. I soon realised that it was a local Newcastle thing and that I hadn't imagined it.


Another alien in Newcastle - this is very close to where we stayed. Nige would take us to this beach (past the brothels in the street behind us) 


I was still slowly recovering from my back operation in Oct 1990 and was trying to get back to full running fitness. 

7th September 1991 Day 49

The Diary
Just for a change, we got up late. Oz hunted for jobs in the Sydney Morning Herald, we kicked a rugby ball about and went for a walk to Nobbys. Not what you would call a wild day, even by Tricia's standards. Mustn't bitch. In the evening, tried out one of the local bars for a quick schooner, went to the flicks to watch City Slickers and watched a bit of rugby league on TV. Actually we only went to the pictures to watch the Pearl and Dean section and to see if cinema adverts in Oz are as bad as they are in Britain. They are. Disappointed at the lack of the "Taste of the Orient" or "Taj Mahal" or "Koh-I-Noor" adverts.

2011
Looking for jobs in the paper ? How old fashioned. This is where you'd do it now.


Tricia - One of Beth's flatmates from Uni. Not noted for her wild ways.

A pic I should have added yesterday !!

6th September 1991 Day 48

The Diary
Got up early, dashed round the shops and bought a suit, shirt, ties, socks and shoes and caught a train to Sydney. Went to PW and met Gour, Stu Holdsworth and office partner. They were all very enthusiastic and they talked about how to extend my visa. I think they want me to work full-time but that's not really what I'd planned to do. I've only been in Oz 3 days so it's a bit early to think about emigrating here!

Neil Stewart, the partner, said he'd give me a ring on Monday with more details. I had a couple of tinnies of VB and dashed for the train back to Newcastle.

By the time I got back everyone except Dave Creevy had gone out. He gave me directions and I hopped on a bus to the Uni. Found the Union building and then found the others inside. Didn't have to wait long for Einstein's Wireless' turn on the Battle of the Bands. Despite being really good they didn't win. This put a slight dampener on things for a while as Tony Tony's girlfriend Kelly was the bass player. Then we all went back to Kelly's place and made our own entertainment with a 5-string guitar, a few kid's puzzles and some songbooks.



2011
PW - Price Waterhouse. I'd worked for them for 3 years in Leeds and London since leaving Uni in 1988. I met Gour and Stu Holdsworth in PW London. I would work for them again on my return to the UK in 1992 before transferring to PW USA and working for them for a couple of years over there. When I returned to Australia in 1995 I joined PW again but finally baled out for good in March 1996.


Dave Creevy - one of Anne's sons I seem to recall. The less favoured son.


For a very bad photo of Einstein's Wireless see here. I found a list of the band members and Kelly was the bass player. What are they all doing now ?

Lauren Freidman (v)
Tracey Johnston (v)
Campbell Fry (v, g)
James Gallaway (k)
Jake Sietsma (guest sax)
Bruce Clark (perc, flute)
Kelly Honeybrook (b)
Shawn Sherlock (d)


Note that I'd now been to and through Sydney twice in 4 days and hadn't done any sightseeing at all.

5th September 1991 Day 47

The Diary
Again got up in the arvo. Oz had decided it was about time he started looking for a job, so I decided I'd phone Gour. The conversation was along the lines of 
"do you need a job?", 
"yes", 
"when can you start?"


Easy! The economic recession hadn't really hampered my job search. This would mean moving to Sydney but I hadn't planned to stay in Newcastle, even if all the place names were so familiar that it seemed like home and the people were really nice. Sleeping on a mattress on the floor in a room with Oz was alright for now but what was I supposed to do when Beth turned up ? Sleep on the floor downstairs ?

Went for a walk around the bay and encountered an enormous cockroach. Big, big, oh yes. Had a haircut (me, not the cockroach) and about time too. The evening was spent in the house watching TV and eating Bradley's lamb dish and various fruit pies.


2011
Gour - Gour Lentell. Worked briefly with Gour in London just before he emigrated to Sydney. He wrote a letter back to the project team and said that if anyone was ever down under they should look him up. I wrote back to tell him I was going to be back-packing there and he told me he would help me find a job. Over the years he's helped me with a couple of jobs. Lost me a couple too !! A big part of my backpacking story down under.


Bradley - Anne's son and budding archaeologist and chief cook.

4th September 1991 Day 46

The Diary
Awoke after noon (this arvo in fair dinkum aussie parlance) but was disappointed not to be greeted with a g'day mate. Opened a bank account with $2 and a passport. Fancy having to prove who you are just to deposit some money. Oz got stroppy when they appeared to know what my form was for transferring money from England. They had been ignorant of the form when he'd been in and he was not HP.

Wandered around the mall while waiting for a few photos to be developed and then headed back. In the evening it was the Newcastle University Classics Society's Roman Orgy Night. We dressed in sheets and pretended to be Romans, sat on the floor of the drama room, watched fights between Romans and Picts, drank mead, Tooheys Draught, VB, ate a ploughman's lunch and some stew and various fruit pies and custard, watched Nige bait Tony who was dressed as Boris the Dancing Bear (Foxtrot, Charleston etc.) and who also did animal impressions (monkey, goat etc.), talked to various fair dinkum Aussies and an evil looking fat-bastard and then went home.


2011
Phew. Crazy students. We didn't do funky things like this in the Engineering Dept at Loughborough.


HP = happy


Nige - was a family friend who was hanging out in Stevenson Place. Walked around in bare feet and a singlet all the time.


Tony - Anthony Anthony I seem to recall. Tony Tony to his friends.


Stevenson Place, Newcastle, NSW

View Larger Map

3rd September 1991 Day 45

The Diary
A wonderful plane journey to Sydney via Adelaide and Melbourne that lasted 16 hours. By the time I got Sydney I was the only international passenger left. It was all a bit quieter than Tokyo. Where had all the people gone?

Nobby's, Newcastle

I got on a train to Newcastle and when I arrived I was greeted by an answerphone message (not literally, I had to phone the house first) saying that "if I was a lost Englishman looking for somewhere to live then the address is....." That was no good, I already know the address but where is it? I hopped in a taxi and was charged $2.95 for the privilege of being driven round the corner. Never trust a taxi driver. Fortunately Anne and Ross had just popped in and heard my message and where there to let me in. Everyone else had gone to watch A Midsummer Night's Dream so I settled in to watch TV and await the others.


When they arrived Oz and I swapped photos and stories of New Zealand (cold, like England, sheep, Rotorua etc.) and Tokyo (karaoke, busy, 4x400 etc). Then it was time for bed. I hadn't slept much in the previous 48 hours.


2011
Tokyo to Sydney direct is 9 hours. I was obviously on a very cheap ticket.


I must have been the only British backpacker ever to fly into Sydney and go straight to Central Station and leave town without ever looking at Sydney at all. Oz's (distant) cousin Anne had many moons ago offered us accommodation in the house she owned that her sons lived in. It seemed like a good idea to take her up on the offer until we found our feet in Australia. I don't think I had much idea of the geography and only knew Newcastle from the summer pools and the earthquake they'd had.


Ross - partner of Anne at the time.


The company I work for bought Newcastle NBN tv about 5 years ago, and it just happens to be around the corner from where we stayed. I get up there from time to time. It's still the way it was in 1991!


The taxi fare seems ridiculously cheap in this day and age but back then I remember being outraged at being charged that much to go a distance I could have walked in 5 mins. The exchange rate for a quid back then was:

1991-09-03

September 03, Tuesday

2.17324 AUD

2nd September 1991 Day 44

The Diary
Wandered down to the stadium to try to get a program and failed miserably. Sweated a lot though. Tried to go to the top of the Metropolitan Building but it was closed on Mondays. Bumped into Dave Barnett and he had some programs. Caught the Airport Limousine Bus which took the obligatory 2 hours to travel the 40 miles to the airport. Chatted about athletics with an American and Lisa Martin (Mrs Yobes Ondieki) who was sat in front of me with her baby daughter. Talked about Yobes' storming win.  At the airport saw Dave Buzza again (20th in the marathon). I think he was going to Australia too. Can't get away from him.

Phoned home and then headed for the plane. Another overnighter. Sitting down. Great for the back.


2011
Must have said goodbye to Bop sometime on this day. 

1st September 1991 Day 43

The Diary (this looks like a long entry)
David Coleman probably said "You can't ask for more than that" a lot on this day. Even if he didn't Graham and I did. We made a lot of Ron Pickering-isms and various other cliches but unlike the Americans we didn't need to stay focussed. It all came naturally. We also discovered today that Coleman and Stuart Storey  are the BBC Sport porn kings - a little inside info from Ian our freelance vision mixer.


Japan won the marathon. I think the other countries agreed to let them have a token win and also decided it had to be the ugliest person at the games (give or take a few of the women discus throwers - and Sally Gunnell). Dalton Grant broke the British record in the high jump and only missed a medal on count back. "You can't ask for more than that". Yates was crap in the 1500. Merlene Ottey finally got a gold medal in the 4x100m as Krabbe's halo slipped a little and the German's botched the last change. No vorsprung durch technik this time. The British men's 4x100m team got a bronze but no-one was going to beat the US team that included the 3 fastest men of all time. New world record. "You can't ask for more than that".


Yobes pissed on everyone in the 5000m. The women's 4x400m team came fourth and broke the British record again. "You can't ask for more than that". Well, you could, how about a face lift for Sally Gunnell (or a medal). 

And then, the one we'd been waiting for. Regis was in and for some reason Black was running the first leg. It all went perfectly. In the lead after the first leg and then always on the Americans' shoulders. Everett couldn't shake Regis and Bop screamed "we're still there, we're still there". The British contingent was going absolutely apeshit. The last leg and it was Akabusi against Pettigrew. Akabusi stayed within inches of Pettigrew's shoulder and then passed him with about 50m left. The Brits were hysterical and I think the rest of Europe was cheering. Pettigrew couldn't fight back and we stormed in with a new British record. Even the French cheered.  "You can't ask for more than that". On a par with David Platt's goal. We had the best lap of honour of the games and they followed this up with the only lap of honour after a medal ceremony. 

In the morning a British supporter's team had lost the park relay to an American supporter's team. We said it didn't matter because we would win the 4x400m. They laughed. They must be laughing on the other side of their faces now. Maybe they didn't stay focussed or maybe Pettigrew was distracted by a camera lens (the worst excuse ever).

British Supporter's team

The 4x400m team had smashed the British record again. "You can't ask for more than that". Everyone wanted to know two things a) what were the splits and b) what had David Coleman been saying ? "Britain take gold" perhaps or how about "1-0". I bet he set a new PB for the greatest number of verbal cock-ups in 2:57.53. and probably "You can't ask for more than that". etc.


The closing ceremony was far better than the Italian's dismal effort in 1987 and the athletes ran amok. The British flag was first round the track - just where it should be all the time.

And so to the evening. Six of us went out to celebrate and headed back to the bar where Glenn had done his initial rendition of My Way. Unfortunately we were remembered. Just to show how confusing Tokyo is, it was at this point that we realised that the other karaoke bar we'd been in was directly opposite. We thought it was hundreds of yards away. Glenn was soon on stage, this time murdering The Beatles. At least the Japanese had an equally bad singer with them this time. By the end of the evening Graham had duetted on Jumpin' Jack Flash with Glenn and then, Graham, Andy Elleker (who Glenn introduced as the man who wrote The Beatles' songs) and I did a rip-roaring version of Yellow Submarine as an encore. 

It was all over.


I almost forgot the Aussie girl who wanted my address. Pity she asked Barry the rep rather than asking me directly. 


2011
David Platt's goal - ok, this is the real goal.


It's worth mentioning that years later Pettigrew, the individual 400m gold medal winner, admitted to taking steroids. Black potentially should have been the World Champion as he took Silver. In 2010 Pettigrew committed suicide.


For more about the 4x400m - in their own voices see this links: (This is fantastic)
Roger
Derek
John
Kriss


For more about Redmond (and some Sally Gunnell) - see here


Apologies to Sally Gunnell - I'm sure your husband and kids like you.

31st August 1991 Day 42

The Diary
Some pretty dismal performances by the Brits in today's finals but the relay teams got going and looked pretty good - with the exception of the women's sprint quartet. A British record by the women's 4x400m team and the world's fastest time of the year by the men. Quicker than the Yanks, with two second string runners. It was time to reflect on Michael Johnson's quote about not being picked for the USA 4x400m squad. He said "I think we're underestimating the strength of the opposition." At least one American knew what he was talking about.

In Rome we had to rely on the wheelchair finals for our world records but this time they let us down. Maybe they should do the steeplechase and the pole vault. On the way home I was mistaken for an athlete again (is Tom McKean still an athlete these days ?) but the Japanese girl didn't seem to understand that I was just a spectator and seemed disappointed that we wouldn't sign autographs. Glenn said "OK then" and signed for a joke, swiftly followed by Bop and me. Next thing we were surrounded by loads of Japanese kids wanting autographs. We made a quick run for it before things got out of hand. They probably thought we were rotten not signing any more autographs. Anyway one of mine is worth 10 of Katrin Krabbe's.

2011
It's been interesting writing all this at the same time that the 2011 World Championships have been on. There were many Tokyo performances that surpassed this years performances. The British 4x400m teams of 2011 are a shadow of the 1991 teams. 


Wheelchair athletics was seldom seen and I don't recall seeing or knowing about the Paralympics until years later. In 2011 athletically challenged (my mate John McLean doesn't like the use of the term "disabled") Oscar Pistorious won a silver medal as part of the SA 4x400m team. 

30th August 1991 Day 41

The Diary
The day history was made. Bob Beamon finally disappeared from the record books and Carl Lewis lost a long jump. And we were there. 

Whilst all the fuss about the long jump was going on Liz McColgan was tearing the field apart in the 10,000m.

We got to sing the national anthem after all. It makes you proud to be British. We stayed so long at the stadium to celebrate that we missed meeting up with the other lads to hit Roppongi for the big night out.

We met the GB team chaplain in McDonalds and he filled us in with a few bits of inside information about the team. Apparently Regis is to run in both the 4x100m and the 4x400m. Earlier today we took some photos of some of the stars by the warm up area. Krabbe fwhooar.

Lisa Martin (Aus) and Yobes Ondieki (Ken) - Husband and wife

2011
Roppongi - didn't get out there this time but in later years spent many a drunken evening there. Usually ended up at Starbucks at 3am trying to sober up.


The greatest long jump competition ever. Even to this day nothing has come close. Read this for more. Even Katrin Krabbe gets a mention. Fwhooar.