View from Toorak

from w
What a difference it was to move from Davuilevu greenery to Toorak in Suva with a view of buildings running all the way down to the sea. This is just a memory sketch of the time when I rented a room in Amy Street (with Mrs Chaudhry's family I believe) and cooking roti and curry on a little primus. Living in Suva in the 60s was wonderful with the mix of people. It was very safe then - no locks, no bars on windows - and there was a great freedom to walk about. There were the calls from the nearby mosque, the choir practices in tonic solfa at the Methodist hall opposite. I remember the lovely meals with neighbours in a cubby under a house, the Brown family, the Chinese shop below. I was a teacher at Dudley High School and a member of Dudley church, though I also went to Centenary. Life was busy, optimistic, secure, and there was a passion to participate in the education of both Indian and Fijian girls.

A song:
Those were the days my friend I thought they'd never end....