Bill died a two weeks later. He died bravely. The nursing staff told me he had undergone a lot of unnecessary pain rather than call them before the pain got out of hand. He didn't want to make a nuisance of himself. The nurses loved him and some cried when he died. Two days before [...]
Every day Bill would see a doctor. I don't think he saw the same doctor twice. I don't even think he saw the same nurse twice. He would tell his story, they would take notes and say we will do X-rays and ultrasounds (they never did). And he would ask yet again to be transferred [...]
I just read an article about a woman trapped in a public hospital trying to transfer to a private hospital for which she had full cover. I decided to write about Bill's experience shortly before he died. Before I do I should remind you that Nurse Ratched is Jack Nicholson's nemesis in "One Flew Over [...]
Kevin and the Golfing Surprise. On the Sunday of the weekend we stayed at the Grand Hotel in Mt. Victoria some of us decided to have a round of golf at the Leura Golf Club and a round of drinks afterwards at the nineteenth watering hole, the Fairmont Hotel. The maggies were stealing the white [...]
Kind of a Fawlty Towers weekend, but also tragic. I have a very dear friend Kevin. We met when I was 27 and he was 17 - at the old convict gaol, East Sydney Technical College - studying Day Matriculation for the Leaving Certificate in 1964. He went on to study Law at Sydney University [...]
Stanley Ashmore-Smith was the Assistant Registrar at U.T.,S. and was affronted by the rather sleazy affaire another senior member of staff was having with one of his subordinates. Stan seemed to take it personally because of the immorality (the man was married with children) but mainly because of the conflict of interest and consequent unfairness. [...]
Ross nominated Paul Keating and I think John Howard as the other two best Treasurers, Keating for floating the dollar and Howard for not letting the banks loan money to people who had no chance of paying. That was what the rest of the world did, particularly the United States of America, bringing about the [...]
Ross's speech was humorous and very well received. He has certainly come out of himself since his more reserved U.T.,S. days. He has always been extremely even-handed politically, but writing even-handedly for the Sydney Morning Herald marks him as more left than right-leaning. He began by saying how nice it was to be in a [...]
At some stage during the morning Ross appeared in the doorway, one of what I call my three magenta moments at U.T.,S. That is, his face colour was somewhere between scarlet and purple. Accusatory words like censorship, attack on freedom of the press, poured out of his outraged mouth. He fumed and gesticulated, but it [...]
This is yarn No. 2 after A Night to Remember: U.T.,S. Student Services Unit was originally located in the old Anthony Hordern's building, Brickfield Hill, where World Square is today. The building was broken down, rat-infested and a fire hazard. People had previously died there in fires, either by jumping out of windows or from [...]