From Melbourne 17.9.85

From Melbourne

17.9.85

Dear Alan,

                Just a letter to wish you happy birthday. I didn’t even look for a card this year after the results of the last few years I decided not even to bother looking. I am enclosing           football notes from last weekend. Dad went to the Saturday match so he didn’t see Footscray play but we heard it all Sunday afternoon. The week before they were beaten miserably but hey were a different team this week. What they will do next week is another matter again.

                Lois has just come back from visiting Pamela for the school holidays.  Things didn’t go quite as smoothly as they did we were there. You would know better than we do living and working with people whose culture is quite different is not easily. And Pamela lives right in the middle. There are very few white and some who are there shouldn’t be there. They are just the wrong type. Some are very good and do understand the way Tongans live. I think Lois had a holiday she won’t forget easily. Some of the time Pamela and Lois were actually living on different islands. I think they each went their own way. Lois at least learn what it is like to live in a third world country.

                The more Pamela writes about what happens there and what the people want the bigger the problem seems. And they are such a small country. Total population less than the city of Sunshine. Total budget much less than the city of Sunshine.

                Would you believe that we have been hearing and reading about South Africa that it is becoming a little boring. But last week I saw a very interesting interview. On a current affairs program of the ABC. Mr Tr… the leader of the Conservatives in South Africa was interviewed in Sydney. A lot of people who know South Africa well have been saying that Mr Botha is a radical and very enlightened to many other South African politicians but I don’t think  a  lot of people believed it. After seeing and hearing Mr Tr… they would realise that Mr Botha is a very reasonable man compared to him. Later tonight our foreign minister Mr Bill Hayden and your foreign minister are going to have a debate on the TV. I am going to watch it. Everyday we hear something more from South Africa.

                                                                                                                                                                                                Love from Mum