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'This (Royal) Life' - Neville Gibb

25/10/2021

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​At the end of the day it was her habit to go over what had happened. She did not keep a diary but she found by going over everything it was more likely that she could remember things. And she could remember where they had been.

After all lots of things were happening.

She had spent the previous night in the sleeping compartment of a luxury train. She had not expected to do this. They had diverted from the official plan. They had been scheduled to stay for two days on a large farm where they could relax and be more or less alone. But it was explained that they were way behind schedule and they had to make up two or more days.

So she and her husband were kept on the train.

The carriage was special and had two bathrooms. So both she and her husband were able to have separate bathrooms. They were at either end of the carriage. This suited her fine. Their bedroom and sitting room was in the middle of the carriage. It had windows that could be made completely private. If required it could could be completely blacked out to simulate darkness. It was truly a luxury carriage and had all the facilities. She could lock the doors from inside. She felt quite safe. This was important to her.

The train had been diverted to a country station and had stopped for them to spend the night in a rural area. She and her husband had been left alone. More or less to rely on their own resources. This suited them fine. Her husband was tired and after a light supper had gone to bed early. She stayed up doing a little reading and writing letters home to her family.

She was kept fully in touch by the people at home so she never felt she was neglecting her family. But she tried to do as much as she could and kept up a daily correspondence to everyone.

Early next morning she had been woken up by hearing schoolchildren singing school songs in the distance. She could not see them but they sounded nice even though they were a little distance away.

They were brought their breakfast from the nearest railway station. Her husband was not fussy about food and enjoyed these unexpected treats. She herself was slightly wary as she was very careful about what she ate and tried to keep healthy at all times. Still she was able to pick and chose and had a satisfactory breakfast.

They were ready to leave by 10AM.

The train would be sent on and would pick them up later in the afternoon.

They were transferred to an open car and driven through the local town. Even out in these rural areas there were large crowds. The car went quite slowly and the crowds milled quite close to the road. She waved to the crowd.

When the car left the town it speeded up and the hood was put up. They had some distance to go before they arrived at the next town. This town was larger than what they had left and there were several things that were scheduled.

They had to alight from the car at the main Railway Station and attend an official reception. There were several speeches from local dignitaries. She had been made aware of the schedule before they left for the morning. One speech went on for longer than it should have. She knew this because she always took note of the times allocated for speeches. She looked into the faces of those attending. She heard people talking but she didn't really pay attention. Not that she meant to be rude. She had heard it all before. She was not scheduled to speak today and no speech had been prepared for her.

She and her husband got back in the car and they were driven through the streets of the town. There were large crowds and they cheered as they went past. Finally went through some gates saying Showgrounds and they ended up in a cricket ground. She could see the pitch laid out in the middle of the ground. She found this somehow comforting. She wondered how often they played here and when they were playing next.

There were crowds of schoolchildren ringing the cricket ground. The car took them on a circuit of the ground just inside the fence. The children waved and her husband waved back. She used her official wave that her father had taught her.

For the schoolchildren it was over very quickly.

But all the children were happy. It was a day out.

And they were given a medallion that said they had attended a meeting with the Queen.

I know cause I was there.

But she herself was not aware of this. So she could not commit it to memory later that night.

Neville Gibb
October 2021
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'This (fortunate) Life'

25/10/2021

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​A Fortunate Life (Apologies to A. B. Facey)

I have been gifted a fortunate life. I was born in 1944 and was thus too young to be aware of World War 2 or the rationing that took place for some years after. I was the second child, which means the parents had a chance at parenting prior to my arrival.

My first memories of family life were in Romsey, Victoria, where my father was the local doctor. We lived there until I was eight, by which stage I was one of six children. Life was good. We had our own pony to ride and the local primary school, where I started my schooling, was a short walk away. My maternal grandmother was a regular visitor and a maternal aunt lived on a large sheep property a few miles distant.

 
In December 1952, the whole family boarded a ship to Italy as my father had decided to live in Ireland. We spent a short time in Rome, then went to Ireland via Paris. My mother was pregnant with number seven child and my father was determined that the child should be born in Ireland. This would enable them to buy property in the child's name. This did not eventuate as there was insufficient work for my father to support his growing family and he worked in Europe whilst also furthering his medical studies. This allowed us to remain in rural Ireland where we continued a relatively relaxed life. It was here we all got bicycles so we could not only ride to the local primary school, but also the five miles to the nearest secondary schools. We also took up tennis and played in various local tournaments.
 
In mid-1956 the family returned to Australia as my father was employed in Tasmania for a few months prior to moving to NSW.  There we lived on Lake Macquarie at Coal Point from where we travelled to Newcastle for our secondary schooling.  This idyllic life, where we swam, fished and mucked about in a dinghy, came to an abrupt end when, once more we moved.  This time it was to Melbourne where, fortunately, the older four of us remained to finish our education. My last two years were spent at boarding school, but once again my maternal relatives came to the rescue and looked after us during the school holidays.
 
Education was a high priority with my parents, so I was able to attend Melbourne University before starting my working career as a biochemist at Wimmera Base Hospital, Horsham. I remained there for two years before my marriage and return to Melbourne.  After our first child was born, we lived in Ireland for eighteen months, where our second child was born. We returned to Melbourne where two boys joined our two girls. In 1977 we moved to Euroa prior to buying a property out of Benalla.

We have moved a few more times, but now we are back to stay.
 
As you can see, I have had a fortunate life. Firstly, I was born into a large family which meant that regardless of our moves we had an inbuilt support group. We are all blessed with good genes and all ten of us are still living. My own family has also enjoyed good health and more importantly, been endowed with
 
‘A Good Sense of Humour’,
 
an essential ingredient for
 
‘A Fortunate Life’.
 
 
Marg McCrohan,
October 2021
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    'This (...) Life'

    "This (....) Life".  The brief?  " Submit a 500 word story of own choice, a story important to you, a story you have often wanted to write about.  After writing the story, develop a title for it using the title 'This (......) Life".  It might be something like, "This (inspiring) Life", "This (entitled) Life", "This (serendipitous) Life" or ‘This (downsizing) Life’,  A recent story in the Australian* was titled - ‘This (Number 8) Life’ - a story about growing up as ‘Number 8’ in a family of nine children.'

    'This (...) Life' has been the topic for October since 2020 when the Pandemic caused the demise of the Benalla Festival's Writing Competition.

    *The topic 'This (...) Life' draws on the concept behind the Weekend Australian's column which publishes stories submitted by readers.

    Stories by ...

    All
    Barry O'Connor
    Betty Milligan
    Beverley Lee
    Bev Morton
    Carmyl Winkler
    Delfina Manor
    Elizabeth Kearns
    Graeme Morris
    Graham Jensen
    Heather Hartland
    Heather Wallace
    Helen Duggin
    James Davey
    Joy Shirley
    Kathy Beattie
    Lou Sigmund
    Margaret Nelson
    Marg McCrohan
    Neville Gibb
    Ray O'Shannessy
    'This (Long) Life'
    'This (Virtual) Life'

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