House painting – now and then

Yesterday was painting day at Ro’s brother’s new investment house.  They are rehabbing it for renters and the first renters wil be Ro’s son and family – so, it’s all in the family!   Anyway, we have pulled down wallpaper and scraped walls and then we painted.  Back again today for the second coat in the living room and first coat in the main bedroom.

It reminds me of when I first came to Australia in 1969 as an “immigrant.”  I had been in East Africa for four months camping with a a girlfriend with whom I had worked on The Guardian newspaper in London (many adventures to relate from that trip, but another time.)   When I returned from Africa I was not content to just “be back home” and get another job, so I was looking for another place to travel – which wouldn’t cost me any money, since I had none left!   I hit upon immigrating to Australia, because at that time the Australian government were paying for anyone in the Commonwealth to go there and be useful – they needed workers and people spending their money.  Anyway, it cost me 10 pounds for admin fees and the flight was free.  Since my Godmother, Ro’s mother, was living there I “landed” on her and spent the first three months staying at her and her husband, Dudley’s, lovely farm.  Because I was there so long, I earned my keep by wallpapering and painting several of Thelma’s rooms.  I had been trained pretty well in those skills by having helped my mother many times and also by learning from a friend of hers in the building trade.   I really loved being in Australia and it was super to be with family also.   Ro was married by then and she and husband Keith had a small farm of their own in the same town of Canowindra where her parents farmed.

Our two families got together during the war when my mother and three of her friends from the WACS rolled up one weekend to Dudley’s farm in Lincolnshire looking for a place to stable a horse belonging to Diana, one of the girls.  Diana wanted to get the horse away from the London bombings and they literally just chose a farm to knock on the door and ask.  They were greeted kindly by Dudley and Thelma, invited in to drinks and the rest is history.  Everyone became firm friends and my mother would often go down and visit Dudley and Thelma in Lincolnshire, so when she got married and got pregnant she asked Thelma to be Godmother to her child, me.  She also asked another of the original girls, Mina Tedder, to be a second Godmother to me.  (I suppose in the war you never knew who would be there for the long haul.)   Mina was also asked to be Godmother to Thelma’s younger daughter, Ro – with whom I am now staying!  Ro and I knew Mina as Teddy and she was the only daughter of Lord Tedder, who was a mucky muck in the armed forces during the war, and who knew Eisenhower pretty well.   Teddy always thought her father was the forgotten hero of the war and finally managed to get a book written about him (after his death) about ten years ago.