befriending a Negro boy ( or African‐American in today ’ s politically correct language ). As social segregation was then in force the adult lead actor ( African‐American ) was barred from attending the film ’ s premiere ! We also learnt about Coco Chanel , Molluscs , Hippocampus and others with many more amazing facts .
July came with our much anticipated Crazy Whist evening with 3 tables of 4 battling it out . After every 2 rounds ( 10 rounds in total ), the 2 losing players at each table swap with other tables so that everyone has different partners all the way through . Being a card game where you play with a partner , table talk ( ie hinting to the partner ) is frowned upon , but it ’ s amazing how people get around this rule . It was a great evening and supper thanks to Janice ’ s efforts .
Our August meeting was at Lorraine Budai ’ s house . Lorraine read to us a selection of talks she had given in the past to other groups .
At first she read a piece that Christine Hardy had written after she had been to Okinawa Island in the South China Sea , with her husband , who is involved in karate . Okinawa is the largest island of the Okinawa Islands and was annexed by Japan in 1879 . It is closer to mainland China than it is to Japan . The people from Okinawa are the healthiest and live the longest of all the people in the world . They have the most centenarians per head in the world due to a combination of diet and lifestyle . We learned about the history and the vital role it played during the Second World War .
Another piece was called “ Sandy ’ s story ” and was about the amazing journey of Lorraine ’ s husband from Budapest in Hungary to eventually arriving in Australia . It was 1948 and Hungary was under communist rule and Sandor ( Sandy ) supported an illegal movement against the communist regime . One afternoon when he came home from work , a neighbour told him not to go in , as the secret police were waiting for him . He decided to flee the country with his friend Bela and after 3 long weeks of walking by night and hiding during the day , they reached Vienna . On arriving in the American zone they were arrested and thrown in jail . They were interrogated to see if they were true refugees . They found work on a farm in Linz . After some time Sandy joined the French Foreign Legion and within weeks he found himself in Algeria and after that in Indo China and after suffering a gunshot wound and severe malaria , he was transported to a Paris hospital . From there he went to a refugee camp in Hamburg and eventually ended up in Australia in 1951 . He started working at the steel works in Port Kembla and after a while ended up in Sydney where he met and married Lorraine in 1957 . It was 1980 before he could go back to Hungary for the first time . What a story !!!!
Most of The Hills group at our Crazy Whist night
At our last 4 meetings we ’ ll have a book / movie review , attend a play , have a guest speaker , and our final meeting will be of course our Christmas party .
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