Living in Australia brings one in contact with a number of nationalities and often the initial contact changes to friendship. Maureen and I have been fortunate in gaining a
Malay Chinese friend who was married to a Polish lady,
a Ukraine via German, married to a New Zealand lady,
an Australian married to a British lady from Yorkshire, and
an Australian married to an Australian lady.
Our friendship grew out of meeting at our local church.
Unfortunately, our Malay friend became sick and passed away in 2004, which left a hole in our little group and made us all think of our own mortality.
As for me it brought home that Maureen and I were getting ‘on a bit’ and a trip that I planned for Maureen in 2005 might not work out as planned.
My idea was to visit the UK for a holiday, which would be the first time Maureen had returned to her country of birth in twenty-five years. I had visited the UK a number of times due to my work.
When our friend died so quickly after becoming ill I decided that we would visit the UK in 2004 and not wait for the 25th anniversary. 
Something that one might take for granted living in the UK, unless you have become a visitor.
We both came from Merseyside so we had to walk down Memory Lane, although we both thought the Cavern was ‘misplaced’.
Maureen and I had met at a club called The Gas Light, so we had to see if is was still a club – it used to be a converted warehouse with a basement and two floors, but now the basement had been filled in and it had become a small car park, plus the building had been demolished. We still have our memories.
I grew up in Birkenhead,so we had to take the ferry from Liverpool to Birkenhead rather than the underground railway.
After a time, the same song being sung would get on your nerves, but it did bring back memories of when we first met in 1965.
We even managed to visit my old skool (school), it hadn’t changed, iron railings, concrete playground and a feeling of being locked in, but I was content until I was fifteen and had to consider my future.
Many of my classmates left at the age of fifteen (1959), but I stayed on for another year to sit various subjects for GCE (General Certificate of Education) and left in 1960 having gained a scholarship to HMS Conway Nautical College.
From a concrete playground to living in huts with 20 other cadets on the Marquis of Anglesey’s estate in North Wales.
The experience of being at HMS Conway change my life – for the better.
The local railway station close to HMS Conway was Lanfair PG for short, but above Maureen’s head is the station’s correct name.
We hired a car to visit North Wales so that I could show Maureen what was left of HMS Conway, which had closed in 1974 and we stayed in Caernarvon at the Black Boy Inn, which began life in 1522.
It was a pleasant stay.
Just outside Caernarvon Castle is one of the anchors of the last wooden sailing ship that carried the name of HMS Conway.
While in the UK we met up with old friends that we had not seen for a long time, particularly for Maureen considering it had been 24 years since she last visited the UK.
From Wales we moved to Scotland we both wanted to visit the Royal Yacht.
as well as Edinburgh Castle
We had visited England, Wales & Scotland and Scotland but I had one more place to visit before flying home – Belgium, and the location of the Battle of Waterloo, which took place in 1815 where Napoleon was defeated.
Manneken Pis
The statue has been stolen or damaged so many times that since 1965 the one on public view is replica and the original is in the Brussels City Museum.
We took a train to Waterloo and the battle site, and it was raining heavily but we were able to visit the museum.
As you see on our arrival we were due for more rain.
A better photograph of the museum, which I found on-line.
We walked along the road during a slight easing of the rain to the ‘Mound’.
I was hoping to climb to the top for the view of the battlefield, but the weather made this impossible.
There is a story that the lion on the top of the Mound was cast from the captured French guns after the battle.
The lion was cast in nine separate partial casts in iron and assembled into one statue at the monument site. The lion weighs over 28,000 kilos (28 tons) and is 4.45 mtrs (14 ft 6 inches) tall and 4.5 mtrs (15 feet) in length.
Battlefield view from the top of the Mound – photograph found on the internet.
All good things come to an end so we returned to London to catch our plane back to Australia – but I had one last surprise for Maureen – we would be stopping in Kuala Lumpur for a couple of nights, before flying home to Sydney.
I had booked the Renaissance Hotel as a surprise – and on entering Maureen was very happy indeed.
Check-in area
The above two pictures are from the internet today – but they are very similar to our experience in 2004. 
View from our bedroom window.
What more could I want after a long flight?
and Maureen didn’t have any complaints.
A few weeks after our return Maureen & I were with our friends and we commented as to how much we enjoyed staying at the Renaissance Hotel and that we planned to return in 2005 so as to have longer look around Kuala Lumpur.
Amongst our friends the Australian couple asked if we wanted company, so we said yes, at which point our Ukraine/German & his Kiwi wife also asked, followed by the Australian and his English wife – we had now become eight and I was voted in as the ‘organiser’ because I had already begun the arrangements for Maureen & I. 
If you look closely at the sign near Maureen’s right hand you will see the
Mr. Geoff Woos sign. The hotel was either not quite sure how to spell my name or they only had small signs. This hotel was not in Malaysia, but it is one where we all stayed.
silverfox175 