As for myself, I was happy to sell out on the day at 40 cents, well short of the subsequent peak of 50 cents (before it dropped back to yesterday's 35 cents) but glad to have finally got rid of this losing horse.
28 November 2019
Hope springs eternal in the hearts of the BCL shareholders
24 November 2019
Wishing you all a very
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
We have outsourced this year's Christmas Greetings to keep costs down. Refer to our Christmas card from last year for a translation.
Please take some time out from all the merry-making and reflect here on the many things you can be grateful for! And ponder again the age-old question,
"Why is a Christmas tree better than a man?"
Here at last is the answer:
Stays up for 12 days and nights,
Has cute balls,
And even looks good with the lights on!
A very Merry Christmas to you all!
(This Christmas I'm putting Mistletoe in my back-pocket
so all the people who don't like me can kiss my ass!)
And here's one for all you hopeless romantics out there to get you into the Christmas spirit of things:
A couple were Christmas shopping. The shopping centre was packed, and as the wife walked through one of the malls she was surprised when she looked around to find that her husband was nowhere to be seen. She was quite upset because they had a lot to do and she became so worried that she called him on the mobile phone to ask him where he was.
In a quiet voice he said, "Do you remember the jewellers we went into about five years ago where you fell in love with that diamond necklace that we couldn't afford, and I told you that I would get it for you one day?"
The wife choked up and started to cry and said, "Yes, I do remember that shop."
He replied, "Well, I'm in the pub next door."
23 November 2019
Laua Avanapu, an entertaining novel of plantation life on Bougainville Island
The author, Nari Elspeth Hamilton WATKINS (née Campbell), was born in Rabaul where her father, Cam, was the manager of the first Commonwealth Bank there. After two years the family moved to Raua Plantation, an isolated property in Bougainville, where she was the first white child ever seen by many of the people. Nari was eventually sent to boarding school in Melbourne. She was 17 when war came to Bougainville. With the Japanese invasion expected, Nari found herself heading south on the MV Macdhui, with other expatriate women and children being evacuated, leaving her parents behind on the plantation.
On arrival in Australia however, Nari heard a radio report that the Japanese had invaded New Britain and were expected to move on to the Solomon Islands. She decided to join the war effort instead of going to school; but a girl had to be twenty-one, or have her parents’ permission to join up. Nari ran into the engineer of the old steamer who used to visit the plantation every six weeks and got him to convince the draft board that she must have been easily 21 and she was in. In the service Nari learnt to drive trucks, eventually driving around important personalities, most notably Bob Hope.
Because of her knowledge of Bougainville she was drafted from the WASBEES for a time to service in intelligence in Townsville to help with the battle of Bougainville, during which time her parents escaped the Japanese by American submarine. Nari was then sent to India with the WASBEES where she met and married an Englishman, Captain Peter Forster. With her parents they returned to Raua to rebuild it after WWII. A son, Michael, was born but unfortunately Peter was killed in an accident a few months later. Later, after her father’s death, a family home was set up in Moss Vale and Nari returned to Raua to run the plantation.
Farnborough, a dairy farm, was later bought for the family in Moss Vale. Nari travelled between the two but eventually returned to live full-time on Bougainville. She met Les Watkins and they married in 1960, with Diana born in 1961. During this time Nari wrote this semi-fictional and quasi-autobiographical novel, Laua Avanapu. Nari and Les contributed to developing PNG as independence approached, with Nari very involved in matters cultural. A home in Moss Vale meant that time could be divided between the two places. Nari returned to Bougainville for one last time after Les passed away in 1982. She spent the last two years with daughter Diana and her husband Toby on a farm in Wallendbeen, near Cootamundra. Nari passed away in 2004, aged 78. She is survived by Diana, Michael and four grandchildren.
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