marble32's Blog

I was born in the Coal and steel area of South Yorkshire in England on 2nd April 1939. It was a disgustingly smelly dirty area and I left as soon as I was old enough and I joined the Royal Air Force. They trained me in electronic repairs - at which I became very proficient - and they sent me to many different places. I spent a long time (at least a year) in Kenya, Malta, Bahrein and Gan. I spent shorter periods in Cyprus, Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka. Some time - between my overseas tours - was spent at bases in UK. I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters all living in UK.

For Christmas 1958, I took 30 days leave from our base in Kenya and I drove 1500 miles to Rhodesia and spent the holiday with the girl whom I married in 1991. She did not want me in 1958 and she married another and … (they are now my …

I went back to UK and in 1960 married the girl that my sister had matched me up with. We had … Our … they sent us to Malta, my son, Jonathan was born on 3rd November 1962. Then, whilst we were on my second tour to Kenya, my daughter, Clare was born on 4th December 1965. Jonathan remains a bachelor, he lives in Nottingham, UK and he visits me in New Zealand every 2 years or so, he plans to come when it is cooler here, missing the warmer UK weather. Clare is on her second husband because the first did not … so she married another guy who already had twin daughters and he sired Clare's daughter, Francesca on 30th April 2005. Clare lives in Leicester, UK and they visited us at out Kaikohe house in 2011.

My wife, Margaret, fell and broke her right arm in April 2012 on our way back from visiting her daughter, Shelagh, in Sydney, Australia. Margaret has severe Rhuematoid Arthritis, and because of the medications for the treatment of that condition, she could not have an operation to mend the broken bones until the effects of that medication have worn off. She had that operation in May 2014 and whilst getting better she decided she could walk unaided, fell and broke her right shoulder joint. That has healed but she is in a great deal of pain in her right arm due to tendons which cannot relax.

I served in the R.A.F. for 20 years and they gave me a generous bonus and pension when I left. I started writing computer programmes for the very new technology of the day. (That was 1976) I was extremely successful at adapting the new microcomputers to industrial applications. (Jonathan is in business adapting technology for medical applications.) When Clare married and Jonathan left home, I deserted my first wife and took a mistress. When Margaret left Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and proposed, I disserted my mistress (well she refused to get a divorce to marry me) and Margaret and I went back to Africa and ran computer sales companies - first to Kenya, then to Zimbabwe and then to South Africa. We left each of those countries when the political situation made us uncomfortable and in November 2005 we came to New Zealand. We were not allowed to start our own business here and they made me work for a living. I had to learn some new skills so I became a good "Action Script" programmer. I have been involved in the development of 3 educational computer games.

Zimbabwe is my favourite country and Kenya is my second favourite. The weather is warm (not hot because of the altitude) but the political climate is terrible - too much crime and too much corruption. In Kenya we lived in a "secure compound" - like a prison camp - which kept the criminals and the violence out. In Zimbabwe, we built our own secure compound with electric fence and 24 hour guards. One of the guards turned on us and … our dogs and cat, then his wife killed him. We had cars stolen from the inside of the compound. South Africa was better when we arrived, but it degenerated and we could see that it was going to get as bad as the other African countries.

We bought a house in Kaikohe, New Zealand. It was a 100 year old traditional wooden 'Villa' with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms a big lounge which we never used and a large dining/living/kitchen area. We had 3 acres of orchard with 100 avocado trees plus citrus, peach, plum, apple and pear tress. When Margaret became too much for me to look after at home, even though we employed 2 nurses to help, we transferred her to the Kaikohe Aged Care Centre. That was not very nice. Daughter Shelagh came over from Sydney and reorganised our lives. We found this 'Ranburn Retirement Village' in the town of Waipu, bought one of the cottages which I now live in and installed Margaret in room 12 of the hospital wing. Then we sold the Villa in Kaikohe. The town is 3 minutes walk away from the house and Margaret is 1 minute walk away. The town has most of what is needed but no big supermarket. The big city - Whangarei - is 40 minutes drive away and that has all the major supermarkets and stores.