Post by simmo123 on Jun 28, 2018 8:17:51 GMT
Hi members & staff, just another little rambling from Ole Simmo,
Part 1
Firstly we are really copping some really nasty winter weather just at the moment with the past few days ,getting thunderstorms, torrential rain and some really strong winds, a lot of damage all around us, tree’s uprooted, power lines down, plus my garage was flooded as well, lucky I keep all of my music gear, tools etc off the concrete floor in the garage. Its been the worst that we can remember. Roll on spring & summer.
Had a little bit of family history today from my niece & family who came to live over here in our part of the country just a few years ago, she used to live in the UK but is now a permanent .resident in Aussie.
She is doing our family history & found out all sorts of stuff that we did not know.
On my side of the family it appears that my father who passed away when I was just ten years old, I remember this well as it left poor old mum ,god bless her with five children & no dad) Dad who was a Geordie who had been brought up in a place called Benwell near Newcastle.UK I also remember the one time that we all went up from Sussex as young kids to Newcastle via London on a then famous train called the “flying Scotsman” to visit remaining relatives.
We were living at that time in , Littlehampton Sussex so to travel that far on a train was unheard of.
The other interesting thing that my niece found out was the fact that our dad had been abandoned & left on a doorstep as a baby in Benwell (which I think is a suburb of Newcastle) & he had been brought up as one of the family by the folks that found him & took him in.
Part 2 of our family History involves my lovely wife of 57 years Patricia,
Patricia was adopted out as a baby during the war years (1939 to 1944) to various homes of which she now has limited knowledge of. I believe that a lot of this sort of thing went on during this period. She was shuffled from place to place during this period and not all of the places she was put were desirable.
The last place she went to live was the place that we met each other in around the late fifties, I was home on leave from the British Merchant Navy where I was a seaman sailing on various ships including oil tankers, tramp steamers, cargo boats, passenger liners I did my sea training at training school in Sharpness, Gloucestershire, it was called The Vindicatrix From there I can always remember that my first wage as a deck boy was twelve pound a month sailing out of Page 2 KG5 docks in London, the ship was the “Rhodesia Castle” Union Castle line, 17000 tonnes which was huge in those days. It did a regular 4 month run to South Africa
From there after a couple of 4 month trips I decided to go to the Oil tankers & cargo ships,at that time the suez canal had just reopened after the problems at the time.
Next I got with a good company called Port Line who had the Aussie & New Zealand runs ,it was a small cargo boat bringing frozen meat from both countries back to the UK, the trips were between 4 to 5 month trips & the boats were about 7000 tonnes which used to be a reasonable size. We used to go via the Suez Canal & come back through the Panama canal which was really interesting.I did go with other companies including some around the British coast.
Part 3 Moving along through the years,met the love of my life Patricia we are now married & living in a small terrace house in Wick Littlehampton Sussex,our wedding was a very small affair in a registry office in Worthing Sussex, not like all of our friends who had a big flash, expensive wedding then promptly moved in with the inlaws while waiting on a list to get a council owned house,this was not for us so we had a very small wedding in a registry office in Worthing Sussex then everyone came to the wedding reception. In doing this it left us with enough money for a deposit on a very small terrace house, I remember the deposit was 200 pounds & we were paying the huge sum per month of 8 pound on a mortgage.I used to work two jobs just to keep in front. How times have changed.[/font][/font]
The next phase of our life followed with several moves, firstly to Wells in Somerset where after selling our little Terrace house at a small profit we went into a rented flat while we waited for a little 2 bed bungalow to be built in Glastonbury, Somerset I remember the total cost was including land was 2,200 pounds which mean’t that we both had to keep working, myself on whatever I could get ,at one stage I worked for Horlicks Dairies in Somerset, starting at about 4.30 am & finishing before midday,after doing that I would do odd job gardening etc, then driving taxi’s after that,plus helping to dig graves at the local cemetery when needed. I have some amusing stories to tell about that job as well. Patricia also worked at a nearby cheese factory in Wells Somerset for quite a long time.
When we look back at this period in our lives we really appreciate what we have now.
Moving right along, we now have two boy’s & the move to Aussie is sounding very attractive due to the adverts being put around at that time, hey when you think about it that’s good value, ten pound each for Patricia & myself & the boy’ are free, after a little bit of coaxing I get the thumbs up,so its straight to Bristol to get the ball rolling.
PS…I forgot to mention that 3 years prior to this we had gone through all of the processes for
migration to Aussie and got accepted, in fact we had our tickets for sailing out of Southampton on a boat called the Fairsky ,however during this period Patricia was not in a good place after losing our first baby after only having him for two weeks, in fact it was touch & go for Patricia as well, These times were very stressful for us.
Ok once again I have got all of the forms for migration to Aussie, filled them & sent them in & then we have to wait for an interview at Bristol
Within a couple of weeks we have our date for the interview, this will be make or break for all our plans, one thing that we are aware of is for the immigration people not to know of Patricia’s mental breakdown owing to recently losing a baby they were very strict on this sort of thing as in a lot of cases the applicant would not settle in a strange country due to these circumstances.
The rules were in those day’s that new migrants had to stay a minimum of two years,if they decided to return to their old country for whatever reason before the two years was up not only would the person have to pay for their own fare to travel back to the UK they would have to pay back to the emigration the full cost of the fare less ten pounds that was supplied to them to get to Aussie in the first place.
We have seen in our time here many families coming & going several times before the finally decide where they want to be.
One of the standing jokes used to be is that you could always tell when a plane full of migrants landed at Perth airport….
A half an hour after the plane had shut down its engines ,”you could still here the whining”
I guess our family in a small way at that time had to cop a bit of flak as well, but it did not take too long to prove yourself. We certainly have no complaints.
Part 1
Firstly we are really copping some really nasty winter weather just at the moment with the past few days ,getting thunderstorms, torrential rain and some really strong winds, a lot of damage all around us, tree’s uprooted, power lines down, plus my garage was flooded as well, lucky I keep all of my music gear, tools etc off the concrete floor in the garage. Its been the worst that we can remember. Roll on spring & summer.
Had a little bit of family history today from my niece & family who came to live over here in our part of the country just a few years ago, she used to live in the UK but is now a permanent .resident in Aussie.
She is doing our family history & found out all sorts of stuff that we did not know.
On my side of the family it appears that my father who passed away when I was just ten years old, I remember this well as it left poor old mum ,god bless her with five children & no dad) Dad who was a Geordie who had been brought up in a place called Benwell near Newcastle.UK I also remember the one time that we all went up from Sussex as young kids to Newcastle via London on a then famous train called the “flying Scotsman” to visit remaining relatives.
We were living at that time in , Littlehampton Sussex so to travel that far on a train was unheard of.
The other interesting thing that my niece found out was the fact that our dad had been abandoned & left on a doorstep as a baby in Benwell (which I think is a suburb of Newcastle) & he had been brought up as one of the family by the folks that found him & took him in.
Part 2 of our family History involves my lovely wife of 57 years Patricia,
Patricia was adopted out as a baby during the war years (1939 to 1944) to various homes of which she now has limited knowledge of. I believe that a lot of this sort of thing went on during this period. She was shuffled from place to place during this period and not all of the places she was put were desirable.
The last place she went to live was the place that we met each other in around the late fifties, I was home on leave from the British Merchant Navy where I was a seaman sailing on various ships including oil tankers, tramp steamers, cargo boats, passenger liners I did my sea training at training school in Sharpness, Gloucestershire, it was called The Vindicatrix From there I can always remember that my first wage as a deck boy was twelve pound a month sailing out of Page 2 KG5 docks in London, the ship was the “Rhodesia Castle” Union Castle line, 17000 tonnes which was huge in those days. It did a regular 4 month run to South Africa
From there after a couple of 4 month trips I decided to go to the Oil tankers & cargo ships,at that time the suez canal had just reopened after the problems at the time.
Next I got with a good company called Port Line who had the Aussie & New Zealand runs ,it was a small cargo boat bringing frozen meat from both countries back to the UK, the trips were between 4 to 5 month trips & the boats were about 7000 tonnes which used to be a reasonable size. We used to go via the Suez Canal & come back through the Panama canal which was really interesting.I did go with other companies including some around the British coast.
Part 3 Moving along through the years,met the love of my life Patricia we are now married & living in a small terrace house in Wick Littlehampton Sussex,our wedding was a very small affair in a registry office in Worthing Sussex, not like all of our friends who had a big flash, expensive wedding then promptly moved in with the inlaws while waiting on a list to get a council owned house,this was not for us so we had a very small wedding in a registry office in Worthing Sussex then everyone came to the wedding reception. In doing this it left us with enough money for a deposit on a very small terrace house, I remember the deposit was 200 pounds & we were paying the huge sum per month of 8 pound on a mortgage.I used to work two jobs just to keep in front. How times have changed.[/font][/font]
The next phase of our life followed with several moves, firstly to Wells in Somerset where after selling our little Terrace house at a small profit we went into a rented flat while we waited for a little 2 bed bungalow to be built in Glastonbury, Somerset I remember the total cost was including land was 2,200 pounds which mean’t that we both had to keep working, myself on whatever I could get ,at one stage I worked for Horlicks Dairies in Somerset, starting at about 4.30 am & finishing before midday,after doing that I would do odd job gardening etc, then driving taxi’s after that,plus helping to dig graves at the local cemetery when needed. I have some amusing stories to tell about that job as well. Patricia also worked at a nearby cheese factory in Wells Somerset for quite a long time.
When we look back at this period in our lives we really appreciate what we have now.
Moving right along, we now have two boy’s & the move to Aussie is sounding very attractive due to the adverts being put around at that time, hey when you think about it that’s good value, ten pound each for Patricia & myself & the boy’ are free, after a little bit of coaxing I get the thumbs up,so its straight to Bristol to get the ball rolling.
PS…I forgot to mention that 3 years prior to this we had gone through all of the processes for
migration to Aussie and got accepted, in fact we had our tickets for sailing out of Southampton on a boat called the Fairsky ,however during this period Patricia was not in a good place after losing our first baby after only having him for two weeks, in fact it was touch & go for Patricia as well, These times were very stressful for us.
Ok once again I have got all of the forms for migration to Aussie, filled them & sent them in & then we have to wait for an interview at Bristol
Within a couple of weeks we have our date for the interview, this will be make or break for all our plans, one thing that we are aware of is for the immigration people not to know of Patricia’s mental breakdown owing to recently losing a baby they were very strict on this sort of thing as in a lot of cases the applicant would not settle in a strange country due to these circumstances.
The rules were in those day’s that new migrants had to stay a minimum of two years,if they decided to return to their old country for whatever reason before the two years was up not only would the person have to pay for their own fare to travel back to the UK they would have to pay back to the emigration the full cost of the fare less ten pounds that was supplied to them to get to Aussie in the first place.
We have seen in our time here many families coming & going several times before the finally decide where they want to be.
One of the standing jokes used to be is that you could always tell when a plane full of migrants landed at Perth airport….
A half an hour after the plane had shut down its engines ,”you could still here the whining”
I guess our family in a small way at that time had to cop a bit of flak as well, but it did not take too long to prove yourself. We certainly have no complaints.
