tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65103800950829870292024-03-05T02:39:10.070-08:00This Colonial LifeGrowling Geckohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08047024701261814380noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6510380095082987029.post-3520408319725218582010-06-03T20:03:00.000-07:002010-07-06T03:52:31.363-07:00Singapore - the early days<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nw7toyYrqjs&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nw7toyYrqjs&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><div><br /></div><div>So this is how we would have arrived in Singapore and provides a snapshot of the type of life my parents would have enjoyed in the 1950s.</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjkQ-Meu2vSNy51DjZIe376YyYr8kYA9JFf40BW0yHLOY9kny0pyUaKfUhICNHka2BIyJ73I67p1AemGCVkyKY44gymLLnCSY1Na87fLOa6W6f2Ae9pLx9Lu1jH-ncSrtMgeAyZbGVgPk/s320/Mum&Dad001.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479144635701693410" style="cursor: pointer; width: 239px; height: 320px; " /></div><div><br /></div><div>Our first residence was a flat at Fife House in Grange Road, which was off Orchard Road, one of the main thoroughfares out of the city.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 216px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx-PdTV1SRGIVcIRnIrWfSzup2lONOnKUMuVUQKAsfgWbPZlIpcMHphVuMPhgaI9VbBLRRAOOFO9JKUZrUtiDlDyu1aZ7zrckeMC1-08JA9vz0tVMuaPBNIj8KEnlyB_eTwI40sc7IAws/s320/FifeHouse001.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479145532245073298" /></div><div><br /></div><div>This is the view from the balcony looking up Grange Road and as you can see below, I really was quite young to have travelled so far at such an early age.</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEqev09KsvfpfeN6CK2zrrjs8UXe-kNO2F3iTFd90WaMUhSH_nA3hVpNDmnUXrKpLLKErFBTVeLEZ_jdgdDKhcFJ1PL0YXDCIIuXGuQhbWsnR1ZiTZvzwKu2EbT1DBAWJ5vNTUbTbBYs/s320/Robin001.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479145539659453394" style="cursor: pointer; width: 246px; height: 320px; " /></div><div><br /></div><div>And I have always loved to be in the water!</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrdb75ZjQfvjXknnlWOHZj-ZIyTC6w83obapytuuVHEwc5-sIzux0F-J26Ux19vdu_TrjIXQVJGLUyaZ5LNnnYDGs9BACCgQvXN9ny5RJB2f8uXmKUNVSgMnbkRdL5cwQYJnDr_QVMn8/s320/Robin002.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479187671684138578" style="cursor: pointer; width: 265px; height: 320px; " /></div><div> </div></div>Growling Geckohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08047024701261814380noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6510380095082987029.post-61825843111310790912010-06-03T18:51:00.000-07:002010-06-05T15:53:34.283-07:00I was born in..................<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUoT9Q34pw-l-u7j9SIFOu0ivW__KPbaxVi5JkzON_EomlsnAsWFFAdGnTL_Mkp1PZtwyH_ZTPS_Gt2vuNeGKIrl6M-d57r00lv0iaPlEwpET81yq1peUn38eoCWUrMIVaKoHbo5kuUi0/s1600/TGSE00700_m.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUoT9Q34pw-l-u7j9SIFOu0ivW__KPbaxVi5JkzON_EomlsnAsWFFAdGnTL_Mkp1PZtwyH_ZTPS_Gt2vuNeGKIrl6M-d57r00lv0iaPlEwpET81yq1peUn38eoCWUrMIVaKoHbo5kuUi0/s320/TGSE00700_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478751354266616066" /></a><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUoT9Q34pw-l-u7j9SIFOu0ivW__KPbaxVi5JkzON_EomlsnAsWFFAdGnTL_Mkp1PZtwyH_ZTPS_Gt2vuNeGKIrl6M-d57r00lv0iaPlEwpET81yq1peUn38eoCWUrMIVaKoHbo5kuUi0/s1600/TGSE00700_m.jpg"></a><br />Glasgow, Scotland at 1pm on the 4th of April 1953. <div>Just myself, my mother Amy and the hospital staff in attendance, as my father Jimmy, who was an outstanding amateur golfer, was out on the course apparently.<br /><div>He was a qualified Chartered Accountant who had married Amy, a Registered Nurse, on the 18th of December 1951 in Glasgow's All Saint's Church.</div><div>Dad had spent most of the war in Asia and had decided that there were excellent opportunities for a young accountant and his family there, so, 8 months after my birth, </div><div><br /></div><div> <img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwh9tddfUuAIZWaFCe3h-JD730f_mNg3TAOqIeEeBPmSRHwFl5YPkeCUD0-g2XPFjTSJbzhWwAs9vXNJHanHVvP5f0fjg2yD4A52d3pswAWMvajenWNXtNWvgfET4LgVXupeTgjiGrTgw/s320/l049-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478750842041761186" /></div><div><br /></div><div>the three of us boarded a Lockheed Constellation at Heathrow in London for the long flight to the first colony to figure in my life. This was to be the first of many flights that I was to undertake up until I was 18.</div><div> </div></div></div>Growling Geckohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08047024701261814380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6510380095082987029.post-41205164938441378912010-06-02T23:20:00.001-07:002010-06-03T19:52:48.424-07:00Somewhere in the middle of my first 18 years!"Ahh!" I exclaimed out loud, as in my anguish I had flung my hand against the wall next to my bed and accidentally bent my fingers backwards. <div>Pain was now added to the sadness and grief, I was already experiencing, having found myself left in a new and unfamiliar world dominated by concrete, steel and crowds of boys and people I did not know.<div>From the dark, in the direction of the bed crammed up against the bottom of mine drifted,</div><div>"It'll get better Robert, you'll see, everybody feels this way at first". </div><div>These kind words, that sent me off into a further round of heaving sobs, were offered up by fellow nine year old Christopher Venn. </div><div>Kip, as he was known, had been instructed to look out for me, as he was an old hand, having survived in this seemingly alien world since he was 5 years old.</div><div>And so the turbulent start of another life in a new colony.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Growling Geckohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08047024701261814380noreply@blogger.com0