You'll always meet someone who knows

Today was laundry day and shopping. We walked around all the shops then went to woolies to top up the pantry. Then to Harvey Normal to get a USB hub and back to the van via a fuel stop Diesel is $1.49 a litre. But if you don't have it you don't move. Tomorrow we will take the Guyra road to Armadale and hopefully get a van park that we can stay at until Easter is over. Today in the park a gentleman asked me what unit I was in and he said that he was a New Zealand Veteran from 161 Artillery and we talked a bit about the army and Vietnam. Then we got onto where he lived and he has a house on Clevedon Road near the shops on the left as you drive out of Papakurs to your way to Clevedon. When I said I lived for a start on Creightons Road he said that his daughter or a relation married David Beard and for those who know was the son of Roy who was the chief operator at Ardmore Filters looking after Aucklands water. David is now separated but he also said that his daughter / relation was still in contact with Virginia and that he would find me her address in Mt Gambier. We intend to go to Mt Gambier while on this trip so it will be quite something to catch up with Virginia after probably seeing her prior to 1965. So you never know who is going to be just round the corner. The other interesting thing is that Brian also knew of Ozzie Young. In the Cockscomb Chronicle Sept 07 I wrote a story about Ozzie who was an Australian on holidays in NZ and who joined the NZ Army after being called up for national service in Australia. He later married a NZ girl and has since died in Chritchurch you can read the story at http://chroniclecockscom.tripod.com John Webber will be interested in this bit. Whilst in Tenterfield a Vietnam Veteran put his head in the door to introduce himself and I asked him if he was in Engineers. He got quite a surprise. He turned out to be Graham McFazden He and wife Jill were on thier way home from a National Service reunion. They were traveling with another Veteran and two 1970s National Servicemen