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From the past:
“I look forward to spending the rest of my life with my beautiful girlfriend, Anne and of course my dog, ‘Titch’.”
2004
When I left school in ’64 I was approached by a neighbour to come and work for Burroughs Ltd as a technician in the Decimal Currency changeover. I agreed & worked in Broadway for about 2 years converting all the LSD accounting machines to Dollars. I must have done a good job as they offered me a position in their Wellington NZ branch during their Decimal Conversion. Then back to Oz and then off to Fiji for their Decimal Conversion. Back to Oz then in 1970 off to Burroughs Amsterdam for about 18 months travelling all over North Holland as a Field Engineer. Hitchhiked around Europe with Margot, whom I met on the ship to Europe, visiting Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy. A great experience!
Back to Oz. Wait for it!! Got married to Margot and then went in with my brother to build an intensive piggery on the Central Coast of NSW near Wyong. 1973 saw me join the local Hardware Store and quickly work my way up the ladder, BUT, my old boss in Holland offered me another stint in Holland this time in Utrecht which is in the centre of Holland.
So, off to Holland again, this time with Margot, (who was born in Germany) and we worked in Holland & toured around Belgium, France, and Germany for 18 months.
Then my old boss from the hardware store offered me a manager’s role back at Wyong Hardware, which he informed me, was about to be bought out by a new Hardware company called BBC Hardware. So back to Oz. I then managed many stores from Central Coast, NSW, and Area Manager for MLM Timber (later to be bought out by BBC) then Hamilton, Newcastle to WA which altogether took about 23 years. During this time I divorced and haven’t re-married but have had a couple of girlfriends.
Came the change of the century and I decided I needed a change too and I left BBC and started a specialist high-end cane furniture store on the Gold Coast with my brother from WA. Unfortunately, he developed Melanoma cancer & passed away fairly quickly. He was the cane specialist and after struggling on for a while I decide to close the business.
Since then I have been acting as part-time GM for my other brother’s company www.cairnscorp.com in my spare time and taken up a new position as Store Manager at Fernvale Thrifty Link Hardware, hopefully passing on any helpful knowledge I have gained. I guess this will be my last challenge, work-wise at least. I look forward to spending the rest of my life with my beautiful girlfriend, Anne and of course my dog, ‘Titch’.
13 March 2018
Nope! New challenge arose. In 2006 I took up a new position as GM of a Hardware and Paint Retail business in Caboolture and Bribie Island working for 2 great bosses – very honest and ethical. This was a bit of a change from corporate life, much more pleasant work environment.
In 2008 after Colin Henry dropped in to visit me on his way back South and he told me about his fight with Bowel Cancer I decided to have a colonscopy and lo and behold I had 2 large tumours. Thanks Colin for the suggestion. After the op to remove most of my Colon I had a post-op infection and spent another 10 weeks in hospital fighting this infection. Came through the other side about 20 kgs lighter and much weaker but I’m still here 10 years later! Can’t complain.
I managed this last business until I retired in 2012 and bought a 5 acre property in Greens Creek near Gympie in QLD. Went there with my new partner Janice and spent about 4 years there till Janice didn’t like me anymore and we went our different ways.
Spent the next couple of years travelling in my caravan down as far as Victoria. I am not intending travelling in the van anymore so I will probably sell it and the Tug and get a smaller car.
So now I have moved to Bribie Island back to where my friends still live and having a great time going out to lunch, dinner, movies and shows. Should have moved here a couple of years ago.
I guess I’ll probably stay put now but who knows as I haven’t spent a long time in any one spot. I think it comes from having started travelling and working overseas early in life from 1967 onwards.
A new adventure coming up is aex-Army Land Rover trip to Cape York in June with No Limits 4x4. Have a look on Facebook. These are friends of mine and their new business is really flying. After that I am off to South America – Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in October with my Spanish student friends from U3A, Ipswich. Eight of us are going for a month. It’s a great opportunity for me as our South American Spanish teacher is going with us. He knows S.A. very well so will be great to have him to help us if we get stuck with language etc.
Currently I am enjoying not having too many plans.
Cheers,
Howard
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