After 43 years (!!!), I met three of my previous bosses at the ANZ Retired Officers' Club's Christmas function at the ANZ Bank's Headquarters at 20 Martin Place in Sydney.
We all were at the Bank's Canberra branch in 1967 where Graham (then Mr. Wilson to me!) was the accountant, John (then Mr. Burke to me!) was the Head Ledgerkeeper and my immediate supervisor, and Mr. Bradford (even today still Mr. Bradford) was the Assistant Manager.
I was just a lowly ledgerkeeper then on an equally lowly pay (the prepaid stamp duty on my bank account's cheque-forms in those days often amounted to more than the actual money held in the account).
It was good to talk with them - seemingly as an equal now but who knows? - about old times and old colleagues who couldn't make it. Some because they are too far away, others because they are too old, and then those who are still hard at it, such as the ex-teller who now runs the Goldfingers Nightclub in Melbourne - as tellers do after they've left the Bank's service!As for Sydney itself, well, Banjo Paterson was right when he wrote about "the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city". It was not so much 'Hello Sydney!' as 'Hell O Sydney!' and I got it over and done with as quickly as I could.
Early on Monday morning I took the jam-packed commuter train across to North Sydney to briefly inspect the unit at McMahons Point (please note, dear ATO, there will be a tax deduction coming up!). The tenants wanted to know if I would like to sell. Would I? It's pre-September 15th, 1985 and thus pre-capital gains tax and every dollar by which it increases is tax-free!
Back to the Club for a quick shower and change.
Then a stroll up George Street past derelicts ...
... and the ANZ Bank's former Staff Training College where I once spent a week learning all about ledger-keeping. Today it's a pub. I drink to that!
More derelicts ...
... this one with enough initiative to have built himself a whole bedroom suite out of shopping trolleys and milk crates ...
... and past a dyslexic shop.
After stopping for a drink at Central Station where I took a picture to prove to Padma that the only "birds" I had been looking at were of the feathered variety ...
... I packed up to return to "Riverbend" and "the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended.".
P.S. Since my first Christmas lunch with ANZROC, I have become a liitle more involved with them through setting up their blog.
