williamsews

 I was born in Melbourne, Australia , and in 1964, I travelled to London ; "Swinging London" - Wow - or groovy, as we said way back then. It was a rite of passage for young Australians at this time to travel to the UK, as working holidayers.  It would be easy to leave Melbourne behind, it was an uptight town - the bars and hotels closed at six in the evening, hard to believe, but true. People left work at 5:30 and had half an hour to socialise,  no place for young people who wanted to have fun. Leaving on the RHMS Ellenis .  The trip took six weeks and stopped at exotic and wonderful places on the way, eventually arriving at Portsmouth , surrounded by ghosts - the English were so pale! It was a surprise.  Took a steam train to London - what a place London was, colourful and exciting, Carnaby St , Kings Rd , fabulous clothes, wonderful music, and later, Biba , just people having a fab time. Here I was, in a young person's paradise, I was a hairdresser at the time...