I'll pull the photos in a day or so. I am thinking these were taken circa 1986. R is with our then Anglo Indian posh speaking friend (Park Circus, Calcutta) who went on to have a mental break down for reasons not known to us and as a friend he left us in the late 1990s; he wanted be alone and moved to the country. The plant nursery in Hampton where the photo was taken is now expensive housing.
As for me, I like that I am smiling and I look happy. I don't like my hair or moustache at all. My hair almost looks red, and I am not a rangger. I like the term a dirty blond and that was how I described my hair but it isn't that really either.
The wall tiles tell me it was after we renovated the kitchen of 384 Waverley Road, East Malvern. It is hard to believe the work we did to the property and what we also paid for to be done. We began with a toilet almost outside, a gas copper to boil clothes in, a moth eaten carpet and a very old gas cooking stove and only a small lounge room gas heater. Without extending, we made it into a very nice house, with a nice garden and when we sold it, it went for far much more than real estate agent expectations. Lol to the buyer who had to work out the taps on my garden and lawn sprinkler system. Well, I knew how the system worked.
There is something weird strapped around my wrist. It must have a watch. It wasn't my Boy London watch that came later and I still have in a box. I was about 60kg (UK 9 stone 6 lb or US 132 lbs) back then. Now 78 after dropping from 82. 70kg would be good but I would have to give up wine to reach that, a step too far.
Blowing up the photo, there is a newspaper in front of me and a packet of Drum Mild tobacco. I don't remember smoking loose roll your own tobacco back then. I must have been feeling poverty stricken. Some things never change.
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Thank you for sharing these photos. You do indeed look happy. You are right, your hair and particularly your mo do look to have a red tinge. To go with your politics no doubt.
ReplyDeleteStrawberry blonde? my younger son has the same.
DeleteEC, what you sayin' about my politics? I am so conservative.
DeleteThat was then River, now a bit grey but I have it so short it is hard to tell the colour.
It is fun to look back at old pics and see how much we have changed without realizing it. The hair does look a tinge of red.
ReplyDeleteYou may think it is fun Pat. I find it depressing.
DeleteThese photos are precious from the past
ReplyDeleteYes Roentare and even then I was usually the person with the camera, not the subject, so there are few photos of me.
DeleteThe Stalker
ReplyDeleteFunny isn’t it , this is how I imagined you would have looked back in the day..R must be even more handsomešGood wishes
The Stalker….he is even more handsome… and he has beautiful hair
ReplyDeleteStalker, he still has the same hair but it rather greyish now but not completely.
DeleteThat nursery looks familiar but I can't remember where it was. We were living in East Bentleigh then so would have gone there for sure. The mo. Himself had one very similar. The kids call it his porn star mo. You had a nice head of hair. I can see why you fell for R. He is a bit of a spunk!
ReplyDeleteCaro, corner of Bluff Road and South Road from what I can now see on maps. It is an aged care place now. I am well familiar with a porn star moustache but the name came after we had them. Bit of a spunk...love it.
DeleteThese are the first images I have seen of you and the legendary "R" but in a way it doesn't matter what you look like because I have come to know you through your words, Oh and while I remember Andrew, when Little Phoebe comes to our house she now asks to watch "donkey" or "Trotro" which would never have happened without your input. I like Trotro too. When they ask me what I want for Christmas I will say - a Trotro T-shirt!
ReplyDeleteYP, do you walk the Dales singing one line, Oh Trotro? Btw, I am the legend. You would know nothing of R if not for me.
DeleteI'm sorry your friend had a break down. You have a fun smile.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on and stay safe
Dora, we didn't know until later. It hurt us deeply at the time, being rejected by a close friend of twenty years.
DeleteYour friend had the look of a lost soul that day.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I see photos of people when they were much younger, a very old song with a catch tune pops into my head….’Keep young and beautiful’….you two certainly were - hopefully you both still are…even if it’s in your head. (Nice head of hair you had then R!)
Cathy, maybe he was a lost soul but you would never know it until what happened, happened. R still has the same hair, albeit a little grey.
DeleteHandsome devil!
ReplyDeleteHels, I will probably never know if you are referring to me or R.
DeleteYou look very happy. You and R must be closing in on a 50th anniversary. Ps when did you give up smoking?
ReplyDeleteDebby, 43rd anniversary has passed and please don't ask such difficult questions š
DeleteI wouldn't call that dirty blonde, more a dark blonde, which is what you get when you are blonde in childhood and darker after puberty/adolescence. R is definitely blonde. You do look very happy.
ReplyDeleteDo you have before and after photos of the old house?
Got it about the hair in one River. Sadly no we don't really have photos of the interiors of any of our houses. Photos were not to waster then and usually focused on people and nice scenery.
DeleteMy comment vanished! You do look very happy.
ReplyDeleteIt just went to spam River. I check daily at least. Three of the comments here went to spam, so don't think you are special.
DeleteLooking good in the photos and a mischievous look on your smiling face. Always nice to have lovely memories.
ReplyDeleteAs you know Margaret, very mischievous, back then at least. They are nice memories but such a different time.
DeleteDo you ever appear in your blog? I didn't for a decade or so, and do now from time to time.
ReplyDeleteTP, in drag once, at a gay resort called Turtle Cove once and at Sydney's Mardi Gras in minimal dress, all taken in 1990s. Early days of my blog I guess. I may repost them. I am quite different looking now so there will be no connection. I used to be paranoid about being 'discovered'. The video in Little M's visit Pt 2, I am reflected a bit in the beginning of the Zoetrope clip.
DeleteThat's the very first time I see you (not life) but alive. It's strange I imagine somebody completely different but couldn't say how ! That's like voices, sometimes you hear a beautiful soft young voice and then behind the microphone sits an old wrinkled lady !
ReplyDeleteGattina, the resemblance to me then and now is remote. Sometimes you see a joyous and enthusiastic young woman touring Switzerland and then realise she is quite old.
DeleteYou were both so young! And good looking too! I didn't know you are a redhead but the sun will play tricks on hair and so will photo light.
ReplyDeleteStrayer, it really wasn't red. As you say lighting, and a film camera and a cheap scanner.
DeleteOh, a film camera. I forgot how bad the old cameras did lighting and film distortion of color. Polaroids were fun but their distortions were epic!
DeleteOh no! I missed the photo! Put it back! Put it back!
ReplyDeleteSorry Steve. I deleted it and I would have to hunt out the original now.
DeleteSend me an email to andrewhighriser1 gmail
Delete