Monthly Archives May 2017

Recently, I lost my friend, Robyn. She died in Bali after a suffering a very bad stroke. Although she had had a rather bad time recently with a few problems, they seemed under control, and I was looking forward to seeing her on my next trip.

I first met Robyn when we were both in our late teens. Robyn shared a flat in Kings Cross with her cousin Jennifer, her friend Ellen and Ellen’s brother Paul. They were all from Casino in the North Coast of NSW. I met Paul, who was a journalist on the Sydney “Sun” newspaper, at a city bar and we starting dating.  In those days their flat in Tusculum Street was always a busy with Paul’s friends popping (particularly his male friends to meet the attractive and young women living with Paul).

Later Paul and I married and we moved away from Sydney. Robyn married dashing advertising guy, (Dick) and moved. My sister in law Ellen kept in touch with Robyn and kept me in informed about her life (and vice versa). We occasionally met up for drinks or dinner when were both in Sydney.

When I retired about ten years ago I moved to Bali to live with my daughter Sarah. She told me Robyn had just moved there to be near her daughter Hannah and grandsons Silas and Otis. We met up and we just took off as though it was only months not years that we had been apart.

We met up at the various social spots for drinks and talks regularly and shared many of the same friends. We also shared many of the same memories of those days in King Cross and caught up with the years since.

Although it might be a few weeks between seeing one another, almost daily around nine o’clock we were on the phone together. There was always some gossip to impart or a chat about our daughters, our problems of getting older or maybe the latest things that were happening.

After our chats (which could last up to an hour or so on some occasions), Sarah would always ask me what ever we had to talk about. But we enjoyed these chats and never ran out of something to talk about. I am now back living in Sydney and Robyn has been in Bali, we have been on Email or phone calls to keep up.

I really miss her and there will be a large part of me always wishing she was around.

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By Robin

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My three daughters, like many little girls wanted to be models. When we were living in Hong Kong, they got their chance to star. They were invited to do a photo shoot for Lane Crawford, the leading department store.

The girls, Suzi, Sarah and Bridget, thought all their Christmases had come when they were offered US$100 (remember this was the sixties) for the job done at the Hilton Hong Kong Hotel pool area.

The shoot took a few very boring hours to do. During the afternoon most of the money was consumed with endless Shirley Temple cocktails and a hamburger or two. Afterwards, they reasoned that modelling was not going to make them a fortune and it was hard work– and they didn’t even get to keep the swimming costumes. But they could show off the advert and tell their friends about their short career as models.

When they were older they did have short careers doing some modelling  but later on went off to other careers.

Sarah is a journalist and writer in Bali. Bridget has just finished a PhD and lives in Wollongong. Suzi has had a career as an actor and has lately been on the TV as “Cheryl” in “Home and Away” and a major part in the “Kettering Incident” on Foxtel.

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By Robin

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