Timeline

Jan 75
Fly to Johannesburg from Heathrow
Start work at OK Stores, Commissioner St., Joburg
Braai at Paul Sumner’s house
Move into Kensington house

Feb 75
Derek and his gun (at work)
Impressions of Joburg and South Africa
The ‘black problem’
Sunnyside Hotel, Parktown

Mar 75
Rosie arrives in Joburg
Rosie gets a job in Oz Boutique, Hillbrow
We move into ‘Houghton’

Apr 75

Party at ‘Houghton’ Meet Irish Lucy (‘Freks’)
First encounter with South African ‘dakka’

May 75
Joshua is caught behind the bar drinking
Garden boys at the weekend
Rosie has her portfolio photographed by Peter

June 75
Braai in the highveldt
‘Freks’ does some modelling poses for Peter and I

July 75
Bar Night at Jubilee Road
Braai at ‘Houghton’
Blue movie “Behind the Green Door” at Chateau Chunder
Police road block

Aug 75
Gaye springs surprise on David!
David and Gaye move out of ‘Houghton’
Rosie and I move to Tyrone
 

Sept 75
Joe serves dinner with white coat and gloves.
Party at Rachan.
Movie Nights and Bar Nights at Tyrone

Oct 75
Horse riding at the ‘Saddle Up Ranch’ near Heidelberg
Johnno moves into the outside room beside the pool

Nov 75

Saturday afternoon braai/party with Oompah band
I buy Mini Clubman
Joe runs illegal shebeen at back of the house.
Rosie and I go to Kruger Game Park 

Dec 75

Camping weekend at Sodwana Bay, near border with Mozambique
I become Pool Attendant responsible for the pool cleaning etc
Python snake discovered in pool filter

Jan 76
I buy 3 A-H ‘frog-eye’ Sprites for restoration
Party at Cyril’s Six with Gayle and Julia
Camping weekend at St Lucia, north of Durban
National Service and guys from OK Stores go to war in Angola
Pat Myhill moves into Milner Loo

Feb 76

Johnno plays tennis with Peter and Tony at Jubilee Road in Parktown
Party at Jubilee Road
John and Michele Shanahan’s wedding at Tyrone.
Richard moves out and Paul Overton moves in

Mar 76

Keith and Julie, English hitchhikers, stay in the lounge

Bryan builds Bar in the garage

Mega-party at Tyrone to celebrate opening night of the Bar

David Forrest moves out and Maggie moves in

Mike Sterne takes over as Treasurer

Apr 76

Bryan repairs the mains electricity to the house

More holes in the roof and buckets are needed when it rains

Bryan and I get trail bikes.

Weekly Bar Nights in the garage.

Incident at the central railway station.

May 76

Tyrone gambling and blue movie “Emmanuelle 2”  

Weekly roulette nights

The South African police pay us a visit

Nick O’K gets a trail bike

Trail bike riding in the veldt. Wheelies by the pool

Maggie moves out and Carol moves in

June 76

Weekly Bar nights in the garage; one of the ‘patrons’ fires a few rounds in the garden

Soweto uprising. Deaths and more unrest in Alexandra

Carol moves out and Marlene moves in
House Olympics at Gasworks in Kyalami.

Overnight support of computer systems at OK Stores

July 76

Party at Jalis Inn

Bryan, Nick and I get lost in Soweto on our trail bikes

The Irish ‘troubles’ in England

Mike visits America and meets US president Gerald Ford

Drakensburg Mountains and Blyde River Canyon

Aug 76

I sell Mini and buy back VW Beetle I previously owned

3-day strike in Soweto of 150,000 - 200,000 black workers

Violence spreads to Cape Town - 33 people are shot dead

 

Sept 76

Michele’s 21^st birthday party and the Pavlova

The “Rocky Horror Show” with Bryan W's brother, Tony

Sporadic outbreaks of violence continue to occur in Soweto

Rioting breaks out in Johannesburg
Mike and Belinda spend a weekend at Londolozi Game Reserve

Rosie leaves the house and joins Kiwi Estate in Bryanston

Oct 76

I meet Helena who is 40!

Mike and Belinda are a couple

Marlene goes out with Dan Archer from Rachan

The township of Soweto flares into violence again

Mike and the waterbed episode

Freks and I get friendly

 

Nov 76

JP is seeing Mary Lion, a nurse from the Florence Nightingale Hospital

Hangi in the garden, Kiwi-style

Spit-roast at Freks house

Proposition at the Rand Inn hotel

 

Dec 76

TV introduced in South Africa (Tyrone gets a colour set)

SABC TV produce an episode on the Joburg commune scene

Hillbrow nightlife (Shiaparelli’s dance club)

Bongs, pipes and gourds

An attractive stranger visits the house on afternoons

Jan 77

Leah, Marlene’s friend from Cape Town, stays at Tyrone
Servants – washing, cleaning and housework 24/7
Tyrone weekly shop at Checkers supermarket
John S. falls asleep at dinner
Johnno moves out (to Durban) and Steve Hoppe moves in
I move to the outside room by the pool
Bureaucracy – the Langlaagte Traffic Department
Terry flies John S. and Michele to the Kruger Game Park

Feb 77

Nick gets ‘tick-bite fever
Mary Lion and I are going out
Stripper and bar night at Tyrone. Glenda Kemp and her pet python is a ‘no show’
Mary and I visit Johnno in Durban.
Beach episode in Margate, south of Durban

Mar 77

Nick O’Keefe sets off by bike on his trans-African adventure
Dawn moves in
Paul is going out with Pat Myhill who works with John S. at A.C.Nielson
I trial the first IBM program library system in South Africa
ANC rebels are being trained in Rhodesia, Botswana and Mozambique

Apr 77

Dinner at a local restaurant – we all change tops with each other
Braai in the high veldt with house members
Casino weekend in Swaziland.
Michele heads home to NZ to finish her nurse training

May 77

Paul Overton and I visit Johnno and Sarah in La Lucia, Durban
Gerry Barker goes for a training run with Julie Angel
Alan Barker is going out with Lesley Henley
Johnno’s room is flooded in a storm
Party time in Durban
Surfing at Umhlanga Rocks, North Durban.

June 77

Paul Overton and Pat Myhill holiday in Rhodesia
Johnno drives the Eastern Cape surf route to Cape Town
Johnno and I stay with Leah in Cape Town – Hout Bay, Table Mountain, Stellenbosch
District Six is demolished and renamed a ‘whites-only’ suburb
Plan to leave South Africa – overland from Joburg to Cairo

July 77

Formula One Grand Prix at Kyalami, Joburg
I see Rosie for last time
Paul O. moves out of Tyrone (to work in Lusaka) and Pat Myhill moves in.

Aug 77

Blue movie “Deep Throat”, with Freks, at Eton Arms in Parktown
I am going out with Jenny, my boss’ secretary at work
I secretly check out my personnel file at work

Sept 77

The death in detention of Steve Biko
Johnno and I plan our trans-Africa trip
Tyrone is auctioned for R1.5 million; more holes appear in the roof and upstairs gets flooded

Oct 77

Steve Hoppe and I go camping
Dinner at Jenny’s house
Lake Hartbeespoort Dam for lunch in the A-H Sprite

Nov 77

Urban Legend at the Carlton Hotel in Joburg
Passports, injections and exchange controls for our trip
The guys at an adjacent house build a concrete-hulled yacht

Dec 77

New passports arrive
Final farewells

Jan 78

I sell Beetle to Marlene for R50 – a steal

Feb 78

Time to leave - Johnno and I go overland to Cairo via Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and Kenya

Mar 78
Michele returns to South Africa after her final year of nurse  training in NZ
Tyrone is disbanded; to be re-developed for a townhouse development