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Many of our recreations were very simple ones, for we had little money, but the cinema was one, and there was a particularly luxurious cinema at Double Bay. The shutters would be drawn back and the stars would shine through onto the audience below during the last part of the performance, usually some dramatic wartime romance with Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and Bob Hope or Tyrone Power.
Our other great recreations were of course going to the beach which was nearby, either Nealson Park which had a shark-proof net across the harbour, or out to the surfing beaches of Bondi. We also had a grandstand view of anything that went on in the harbour, including the flying boat base at Double Bay where flying boats of enormous size were constantly landing and taking off.
Robin had a particular friend in Peter Parker with whom he used to go out all day in their home-made billy-cart, rattling down the side streets of the suburbs of Vaucluse. Nobody ever seemed to worry about what would happen to them as they were totally safe according to the lights of the day, no paedophiles or child robbers being then about.
The children of Veryan Stephens (another distant cousin, and the brother of Jack's second wife Jenifer) who was a professor at Sydney University - David holding Roger, Ann Dorothy and Anthony.
Sheila doesn't mention visiting them but these photos are from Barbara's wartime album.
There was no television of course so we either listened to the radio or read books. At one time we had a paying guest in the form of a medical student, and he had some pretty gory textbooks that we enjoyed reading. I am not sure if that is where I gained my taste for medicine - in fact I think it rather put me off.
At school we were kept very busy as the standard was high, and Barbara was taking her leaving certificate in which she eventually did very well. She had a lot of friends and they used to go to Gilbert & Sullivan opera which I remember was all the rage then in Sydney. We also went to the Helene Kosova ballet which was flourishing at that time. There were some very good Australian ballet dancers. This was of course long before the days of the Sydney Opera House which was not built until after the war.
My mother had her small circle of evacuee friends from the old days in the boarding house. As I recall she had very few Australian friends, though we made some through school, and there was quite a large circle of British refugees who attended Kambala School, and indeed the headmistress was the guardian for some of those whose parents were still held captive in Singapore.
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