Alan Bruce

2004

The Bruce Clan left Scotland and arrived for the first time in 1948 - we kept this up x 4 and so I lived with my 3 brothers in Melbourne ,Sydney Melbourne Adelaide and then Sydney...arriving the last in 1962.I, like all you guys remember the days of 43 beans in a cup, 3A and was introduced to ABHS by John Machon pointing out ,at Mr Gs request, “all the morons in the class” We were on our way.! “Pick and shovel artists, I’ll cane you immediately at the end of the period” etc etc. Looking back it doesn’t seem that 40 years have elapsed until I go to the mirror-then reality strikes home. The Beatles, surfing, basketball with JR ( I was shocked to hear the news) -beat the Zone; undefeated x 2 years. The good teachers, Wheels, Sleepy Nancy Patterson, Wardrop -for Pugh, Danny Dicklish at the Stomps.The Harlem Globetrotters, the Surf Movies - Waterlogged, Angry Sea. The graveyard at St Johns in Gordon!, Patsy Aspinals dancing Class,Jerry Cahill on the Gordon Suspension bridge, Teaching the Pymble cops to rollerboard. The first Honda 4, GTOs I passed LCert then sat the State Matric at Sydney Uni to get a Uni level pass and spent the next 4 years pretending- Arts at NSW with a 4 yr spell in the Regiment-represented the CMF in its first Cenotaph Guard - jeez the polishing really got to me ...but I can still do rest on your arms reverse. Then Law at Sydney. During this time there were many contacts with ABHS old boys -Footy for St Ives , music-the blues, jazz and Dylan and guitars and lousy singing at 44 Warrigal Rd and Killcare with Cactus Coates or Big Dick as we all affectionately knew him, Bo-diddily and Bernado-when we werent regrinding plastic. We had graduated to 175cc Bridgestones and were a liability to everyone we knew. The Roundhouse featured as a venue with “Gloria” played over and over.

We travelled in 72 after laying a slab of concrete -thanks Randle for digging the trench and ”mates rates” for steel and sharing Wilhomena the wombat with us and of course the usual crew and 4 doz beer on the day we laid it. Travelled with Richard as far as Leningrad -he boated in to chase Anne Marie-...a Very French lady - and crashed as I still do on Joan and Angela Adderley - God is she tolerant of the reprobates we were. We were guests of the Burmese Government on the way home - I even had a hair cut for the occasion then back to OZ after a year on the move. 5/7/75 was the arrival of my twin sons Stephen and Michael-at Hornsby in a flood -now there’s a story(!!), and I was lucky in that I worked on the place for about 2 years with them with me all the time....and then a death –Judi’s dad -a rearrangement of the property and some unpleasantness from Judi’s family and we moved to Wahroonga - lasted a year....and back to LP. Over the next 30 odd years I have worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry -with time out for a Brewery Truck -in partnership with Newlands a Bread Run -finished at 9am so as to build the house on the new place we eventually bought in Lower Portland.

I wore cars out at an amazing rate-doing 100kilometers a year was a lean one....and I surfed on Sundays! The travelling was a wee bit wearing as I commuted daily to the city and after 20 years of marriage I walked away.

I lived in Dee Why and supported my family while Sand M romped the HSC and then romped UNi - Both Engineeers - and happy to return to LP which I ironically had had to return to due to $$$ look after as a base until they graduated .

The next phase in my life started when Annette and I fell in lust and it has reached its highest level of intimacy - we share a bank account. I chased her to Melbourne and then she went and got a job in Sydney so I returned where we bought - cheaply in retrospect - in Stanmore (probably 200+ restaurants) within 10minutes and great place to live.

She’s a dynamo -its like living with a volcano - great fun!! She said” I don’t want to go to another ABHS reunion – I’ve heard enough fart jokes”. This came out of an attempt to share some of my past with her. Thanks guys!!

John Adderley had a rotten task to ring me to tell me Judi had died and Steve and Mick were critically ill in Egypt - I was not in the phone book and John found me via the travel agent in Egypt who Judi had used . Needless to say I was on my way and arrived in Egypt to miss the air ambulance -TRAVEL Insurance is essential folks!!! pay by your gold Amex -it was worth about 900K US to them...so on to UK...where John and Angela picked me up and took me to the hospital...but that’s not where it stopped. Johns a pro and he and his brother Peter used their knowledge to give closure -their mums funeral was held in OZ by the wonders of the net - an audio from the boys to the funeral service and a video to the boys hours after the event. Annette got the job of coordinating all of this with a family who she did not know at a time that was awful and I was not really persona grata with them.

Michael walks today with a limp and is hopeful he will be driving a manual car again -he broke his back and had a temporary stoma for 8 weeks while his back fixed . Steve had the same internal injuries -its a miracle they lived. I stayed until Michael stood and then fearing I may have to return for vascular surgery returned to OZ. I cant speak highly enough of the Consulate service Australia gives all its injured.

Life events change you and so shortly after I left the comfort of the large multinational and went to help a Consultant reorganise his Travel Medicine business. The Boys returned to OZ in August and started rehab - for Mick learning to walk, exercises and slow progress. Steve refurbing the family home - the bushfires had burned the verandahs and they had lost a house on the property in the prior January. They have since gone back to the same company, Symbian, and think they will hack one more UK winter.....before returning to the land of Steak and Sunshine

My mum hung on til she saw them again and passed away in December. Annette and I have travelled x 2 over the last 2 years and spent time with John and Angela but will always owe them for what they did for my family.

In work terms I have just fallen out of the frying pan - in Aged Care and boy its not nice to see how we manage old age - into a start up biotech that’s being strangled.

Update 2016

My sons both working in telephony ...Michael for Vodaphone and Steve for Optus.....Steve married Gina produced Ella 6 and Lucas 4 .......Michael married Vanessa had Will 7 and Poppy 5

They sold the family property up the Hawkesbury and bought in West Pymble and Pymble respectively doing all the family things

Married Annette ...after 15 years and continued to celebrate life with a Veuve emphasis......Sugar Mummy as Alwill calls her as she is a) is younger than me and B)continues to fight the good fight in IBM... thought I was going to be in Boston in Feb but it all fell apart...very happy to be here still!

Have been retired for 5 years as a self funded retiree.... pursuing my passions music /cartoons/walking my dog Jacksta ......we lost Rascal a year ago and she's lost without him/travel /keeping in touch with my friends and having fun ......... happy to share anything The "GROAN In Wisdom" logo featuring AB@HS has made its way on various music Cds to a few of the ABHS crew ....I count myself lucky to have enjoyed putting these together for y'all.

As a small comment on the ...er....state of play ...I thought a track may be fun for y'all a Paul Thorn tribute to Viagra