Last night our Guest Speaker was Judy Greenway who gave a very colourful insight into her experiences in Lake Jackson, Texas, Taipei and Bangkok in all of which she spent four years. When she was 8 years old her mother strongly advised her to take up tennis which she said would stand her in good stead to make friends if she ever lived in the country. This proved to be excellent advice although neither of them had any idea what travels would actually transpire!
 
With a great Texan drawl Judy related how on arrival in Lake Jackson she was met by a neighbour with an apple pie and an offer of babysitting (although her two children were yet to arrive then!). There were frequent community shrimp boils and clambakes followed by pecan pies in the town square and the locals were very friendly indeed. A Sherrif with  two guns, a 10 gallon hat and a rifle in a pick up proved a daunting experience when taking her driving licence. In Texas tornadoes and hurricanes were a way of life. It was a dry county and Fosters and Mateus Rose had to be smuggled over the border.
 
Four years later in 1986 Judy and her family moved to Taipei, Taiwan where the Airport was heavily guarded and there was a strong military presence everywhere. The President had just died and one funereal type tune was played continuously on radio and TV for three days. Snakes proliferated and Judy had one slide over her feet and found another in her swimming pool. There was an earthquake on her second day there. A local tourist spot was Sun Moon Lake and a terrible tragedy occurred when one evening on a crowded boat almost everyone moved to one side to see the sun set and it sank, drowning 84 people including entire families from BP who worked there.
 
The last stop was Bangkok where the traffic was incredibly congested and it took Judy 2 hours to travel 7 kms to play bridge and cars often had portaloos in them! She lived for four months in the Bangkok Hilton (no, not that one!) whilst her home was being built and on occasion there was a major road crash nearby necessitating everyone in the Hotel to immediately evacuate, including many hookers. Prices were a great deal cheaper then Taipei an this was her favourite stay.
In both Taipei and Bangkok business deals often included a local girl for the night and an extraordinary 85% of marriages were broken due to this.
 
Judy finished by saying that her next postings would have been Holland, Argentina and Oman but they were to be for another wife and another life and her best years were yet to come.

 

We were pleased to have present at our meeting Barbara Wheatcroft who is the Chairperson of the District Australian Rotary Health Committee. The reason for her visit was to present Peter Griffiths with a Gold Award for his ongoing generous support for ARH. Pictured here is Peter receiving his award from Barbara.