An unexpected visit

Reminiscing about Bougainville after a hard day's work on the cottage

I was kneedeep in the renovation work on our little guest cottage, when a car drove up, and a chap got out, cast his eyes over all the activities, and casually remarked, "This looks interesting." Annoyed by this intrusion, I briefly looked up and asked, "What is it to you?", suppressing at the last minute a muffled "Dickhead".

Undeterred, the man continued, "Roy is the name. Roy Goldsworthy. How are you, Peter?" Roy Goldsworthy? The Roy Goldsworthy a.k.a "Goldfinger" from my time on Bougainville? I gave the man a second look and, yes, through the ravishes of time I could detect the old debonair, easy-going Roy of almost fifty years ago when we were 'inmates' across the hallway at Camp 1. He'd emailed me some years before - see here - but I hadn't seen him 'in the flesh' since 1972.

 

Camp 1 on a rainy Sunday afternoon; the guy in yellow was with Ericssons - what is his name? ; the chap in the lower right corner is Roy "Goldfinger" Goldsworthy fixing up the shoelaces on his thongs!

The always debonair "Goldfinger" - the only man with two dongas: one for himself, one for his ham radio (by the looks he ought to have had a third for his girlfriends!)

 

What a pleasant surprise! Roy had flown from his home in Kuala Lumpur to Perth for some medical treatment, then across to the east coast to visit his brother in Canberra, after which he'd hired a car to come the 120km down the mountain to surprise me!

Roy fixing the wiring

Roy on the right, and my other helper, Troy, on the left

And, being the same old easy-going Roy, he immediately gave me a hand with the renovations. As an - albeit retired - electrical engineer, his expertise was very much needed for the electrical work and the tricky wiring of an overhead fan. He even fed the not-so-wild ducks in the morning!

With the guest cottage far from being habitable, we bedded him down in the library, but even after his departure three days later he still gave me much-needed advice by email - see here.

The guest cottage is all fixed up now and ready for another visit, Roy! Next time come with Pearly and stay longer so that we can show both of you our beautiful South Coast!

 

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P.S. Since Roy's visit I've had a close look in the mirror myself and I must confess those fifty years have left their marks on me as well. They are a result of living so long and every wrinkle and scar has a story to tell which would be a bestseller if it was ever written down. Lucky for Roy, he still recognised me by my thick German accent.

 

Sepik - Adventure in Style

To stay alive, this blog is undergoing a slow transformation from being a voice for those who built the mighty Bougainville Copper Project in the early 70s to a general collection of 'New Guineana'. Why? Well, many of those who worked on the project are already dead or - if past performances are anything to go by - in the process of drinking themselves to death. Some others who could still write can't because they never learned how - and you better believe it because as a tax agent in Camp 6 and later in Camp 1 I also became something of a scribe for those who wanted to communicate with their wives and sweethearts but couldn't. They came to me to read out their letters to them or to pen their replies - and I believe I kept many out of mischief by toning down their replies by several degrees! Anyway, here we go with another piece of 'New Guineana':

Click on image to enlarge

 

This should bring back memories:

... and so should these old photos: