JOE'S BRISBANE VISIT - DECEMBER 2013



I had a wonderful trip back to Brisbane and caught up with my family and also made time to see many of the people I played Squash with and some of them I had worked with at the Post Office many years ago.

The first day out I had was the December Lunch at Fishlovers. There were 47 ex squash club members at the lunch; some of the blokes were first timers, namely, Wayne Williams (my Brother), Mike Shiel (who came down from Bundaberg) and Barry Fry. There were also several ex members there that only go a couple of times a year. There were too many there for the space that was available and Mike Muirhead, who took the photos, did well to get as many of the lunch attendees as he did (photos are on the Rosalie page). The few he missed were Barry McPhee, John Smerdon, Tom Connor, Vince Grisaffi, Paul Finch, Joe McKenna, and Mick Mulcahy. Before the Lunch finished I managed to give a quick presentation of a Sunflex racket to Alan Griffiths, it had no strings but as most of us knew Griffo very rarely hit the ball with the strings.

One day I was able to visit Griffo and Mike Elliott at the Gold Coast one day and had lunch with them at the Tugun Surf Club and on another day I had lunch with Alan and Di Eaton. I also fitted in a day at Crabbies' place with Alan Frost and Ken Fraser. We had a great day recalling some sporting stories from events that occurred over the years.




Joe at Griffo's house.




Joe and Griffo at Tugun Surf Club.




Joe with Alan Eaton.




Joe with Di Eaton.


On Thursday of the last week, Alan Frost drove me up to Alexandria Hedland Surf Club as there were a few blokes that had lunch that day including Bob and Paul Finch, Greg and Craig Browning, Barry Ashby, Noel Messer, Brian King, Brian Clarke, Neil Brooking, Alan Frost and me.



The Sunshine Coast Lunch Group.




Craig and Greg Browning.




Noel Messer and Neil Brooking.


Another day, Wayne drove me out to the Pat Rafter Centre to have a look around and I got a photo of myself & Roger Federer (actually it was a cut out of Roger).



Joe and his hitting partner, Roger somebody.


On the First Sunday I was in Brisbane, my Sister Anne had some Christmas Shopping to do in the City and while she was doing that, I went and saw Richard Arnold in the Brisbane Private Hospital in Wickham Terrace for an hour or so. Richard tried to jump too many steps at the one time while going down Jacobs Ladder, in the city, a couple of days before I arrived.



This silly old bugger thinks he is 18!!


One other thing that I really enjoyed was a trip up to club member Wal Telford's property just outside the town of Esk. Kev Baisden drove me up to Wal's place and we made a stop on the way out of town at the Esk Bakery where we had a coffee and something to eat. If anyone is ever going through Esk and is feeling a bit peckish I would recommend a stop at the bakery. I am not sure of these figures but I think Wally's property is about 1000/1200 in size (not sure if its hectares or acres) and I think Wal said he runs approximately 300 beef cattle on the property which includes bulls, cows, weaners and yearlings. He also had some horses there. Wal told us that he had just bought another bull but it failed the sperm count and sadly was sold to be made into hamburgers, I am glad that doesn't happen in the human race.



Joe and Kev Baisden on Wal's Esk property


Wal took us for a trip around the property in his ute to check on a few things, for example, that fences were still ok and also to check how many new calves were born during the week he was not at the property. There was only room for 2 in the front so Kev drew the short straw and had to stand up in the back. He had to hold on for dear life when there were a few bumps and also dodge a few low trees as there were no roads on parts of the trip. At one stage I hopped out and was going to take a photo of one of the new calves, but changed my mind as mum got a bit cranky and looked as if she was going to charge, so I quickly got back into the ute.



Wal's cattle


Wal still lives in Brisbane but has a house on the property for when he goes up each week to do the jobs that need to be done. Wal seemed to enjoy showing us around, and he should be very proud at what he has set up there but I am sure there would be a lot of hard work to keep it up and running. If Wal ever offers to take anyone up there for a day for a look around I would advise them to say yes. It was an interesting and informative day and Wal does a great job as a tour guide.

Overall I had a great trip to Brisbane, but have decided Brissy is to big for me and its now a great place to visit. However, a couple of things took the gloss off the visit, especially that I was again unsuccessful in locating an ex team mate of mine, Bob Ford, and I heard that a couple more of my team mates, Santo Coco and Bob Eyles are battling serious health problems.

Joe Williams