I have just returned from a gathering of Papua New Guinea expatriates
held at the Airforce Association estate at Bullcreek, W.A. The estate
has a number of multi-story units housing retirees as well as a
comprehensive aircraft museum. Today’s gathering had a couple of
guests; the Papua New Guinea Consul General and his wife as well as the
President of the PNGAA (Papua New Guinea Association of Australia).
I
arrived early and noticed a Papua New Guinea couple looking lost, so I
greeted them and we had a look at the aircraft museum whilst waiting for
the gathering to commence.
The Consul was fascinated by the planes
and had stories about those which were common in PNG aviation. That
gave us time to talk at length before he had to perform his consular
duties at the gathering. Interesting couple! I would love to talk more
to them about our time in PNG.
The Consul brought a lot of
presentation neckties emblazoned with the PNG coat of arms. I haven’t
worn a tie in 25 years, but I thought I’d take one for an auspicious
occasion....if ever I go to one.
Lots of very old people there
and it made me feel positively spritely at 74 years. The lunch was OK
and the drinks were ‘club price’. Not a bad day!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
KEV: is the 2014 president of the PNGAA still Andrea Williams?
She used to be Editor of the Una Voce magazine. You might not be a regular reader of it but it has heaps of interesting yarns from Back In The Day in PNG.
Alternatively, you can browse back stories on the PNGAA website. As many of us do these days ---- browse stories on the web, rather than waiting for hard copy stories to come out.
As an old print (and radio) journalist I'm a committed Internet junkie these days, reading on-line yarns hours and hours --- sometimes, days --- before they appear i print.
Nice tie Kev. Paul Weaver.
Richard,
yes,the lovely Andrea was here for the gathering and I have been a member for years and get Una Voce both in hard copy and online. I despair at the lack of articles from members, but realise they are all getting very old. At 74 I was among the youngest at the gathering.
Please email me so I have your email address. kalock@iinet.net.au
Post a Comment