Post by simmo123 on Mar 14, 2016 7:04:19 GMT
Hi all, just to touch base with you all again, been pretty full on with various projects, music & home plus a few family health issues just to make sure that the Simmo's don't get bored.
On my last posting several months ago bringing the forum up to date I unfortunately got just about zero response which was a great pity as apposed to the early days, when the forum was full of interesting stories on a host of subjects, not all music related but still great fun to be a part of, I guess that we all tend to lead busy lives these days myself included.
Below is an article I wrote a good while back telling a bit of our families life & experiences downunder after arriving in W Aussie in Feb 1968.
I would like to share these memories with the forum members.
.........................................................................................................
Hi all forum members ,I just came across these little ramblings which I am not sure as to whether I posted on the forum..................
Rambling 1
I guess that you could not get a more multicultural society than what we have in Australia, starting from the hordes of migrants that emigrated from the UK & Europe in the late 50's & 60's ( including myself & family ) all with high hopes of starting a new life for themselves, unfortunately in Australia at that time there was a bit of a backlash against new migrants by the Aussie population, one good reason was that after arriving & spending the compuIsory two year ruling that was in place at that time there would be shiploads of disgruntled migrants heading back to there homelands full of stories about the Australian way of life etc & how they could not wait for the two years stay to arrive which mean't they would be able to leave, paying there own fare of course.. If you could not wait for the two year ruling then you could leave sooner but the catch was that you also had to pay back the original fare that you arrived on which had been subsidised to 10 pounds.
On many occasions we have seen friends neighbors workmates & families leave the country to head back to the UK,some before the two year ruling while others would be counting the days off until they could head back to the mother country. In a lot of these cases we would run into them in our ;local shops etc within months after seeing them leave the country, in other instances these families would do this several times before they decided where to settle. Naturally this was a very expensive exercise.
For myself,Patricia & the then two boys we never even got close to heading back to mother England, even when I used to spend long periods away from home with whatever job I could get that paid the bills etc, we realised that it was the best choice for our family. Patricia never saw her mother after leaving & it took us almost twenty years before we could afford a trip back,& that was just the two of us. Gary our middle son who was just ten & a half months on our arrival has never been to the UK in the 48 years we have been here, but he is a big Man United supporter, eldest boy Neil went back for a short stay , he was based in Birmingham,he went for 6 months but stayed for 12 years, he had a record/cd shop in a shopping centre in a place called Yardley.
I do hope to be in touch with my many good mates once again & apologise for my recent absence.
Very best wishes to all....Simmo
Ps I have to cut this post short as I have to go out but will continue asap.
Ole Simmo
Ps Patricia & myself are still having little health issues,hence the lack of contact with the forum
On my last posting several months ago bringing the forum up to date I unfortunately got just about zero response which was a great pity as apposed to the early days, when the forum was full of interesting stories on a host of subjects, not all music related but still great fun to be a part of, I guess that we all tend to lead busy lives these days myself included.
Below is an article I wrote a good while back telling a bit of our families life & experiences downunder after arriving in W Aussie in Feb 1968.
I would like to share these memories with the forum members.
.........................................................................................................
Hi all forum members ,I just came across these little ramblings which I am not sure as to whether I posted on the forum..................
Rambling 1
I guess that you could not get a more multicultural society than what we have in Australia, starting from the hordes of migrants that emigrated from the UK & Europe in the late 50's & 60's ( including myself & family ) all with high hopes of starting a new life for themselves, unfortunately in Australia at that time there was a bit of a backlash against new migrants by the Aussie population, one good reason was that after arriving & spending the compuIsory two year ruling that was in place at that time there would be shiploads of disgruntled migrants heading back to there homelands full of stories about the Australian way of life etc & how they could not wait for the two years stay to arrive which mean't they would be able to leave, paying there own fare of course.. If you could not wait for the two year ruling then you could leave sooner but the catch was that you also had to pay back the original fare that you arrived on which had been subsidised to 10 pounds.
On many occasions we have seen friends neighbors workmates & families leave the country to head back to the UK,some before the two year ruling while others would be counting the days off until they could head back to the mother country. In a lot of these cases we would run into them in our ;local shops etc within months after seeing them leave the country, in other instances these families would do this several times before they decided where to settle. Naturally this was a very expensive exercise.
For myself,Patricia & the then two boys we never even got close to heading back to mother England, even when I used to spend long periods away from home with whatever job I could get that paid the bills etc, we realised that it was the best choice for our family. Patricia never saw her mother after leaving & it took us almost twenty years before we could afford a trip back,& that was just the two of us. Gary our middle son who was just ten & a half months on our arrival has never been to the UK in the 48 years we have been here, but he is a big Man United supporter, eldest boy Neil went back for a short stay , he was based in Birmingham,he went for 6 months but stayed for 12 years, he had a record/cd shop in a shopping centre in a place called Yardley.
I do hope to be in touch with my many good mates once again & apologise for my recent absence.
Very best wishes to all....Simmo
Ps I have to cut this post short as I have to go out but will continue asap.
Ole Simmo
Ps Patricia & myself are still having little health issues,hence the lack of contact with the forum