Jeff Taylor, John deLauney, Steve Jurd get-together lunch in Sydney November 2024.

Andrew,

Happy that modern medicine is doing its most important job - taking years off your age!!

John deLauney and I met with Jeff Taylor. 

It was like any old Thursday morning in the back row at Bosch. 

Stories were told. 

Some of them were true. 

Minds met. 

I shared my sociological perspective at some length and was tolerated. 

Just like the old days. 

Graham Blom was a late scratching. 

We will meet again. 

Your attendance at a subsequent meeting is eagerly anticipated. 

We are older. But we assisted each other to remember our youths with a rejuvenating clarity. 

I was reminded of the Rathbone’s nuptials. More reminiscences: 

The shocking accuracy of the paper plane that hit the lecturer between the eyes. (OK, it was me)

Seeing Madam Lash perform at the Old Union building. (Now Holme Building)

Many good times had in Bosch (now a hole in the ground). Fewer good times had in the Blackburn Building (now replaced by the Susan Wakil building).

Great times had on the Main Oval (now the Blackburn Oval - did either of them even play sport??). But there was no chance that de Launey and Taylor were going to humour me indulging in memories of our Interfaculty Cricket win in 1975. 

News:Jeff Taylor’s marital bliss, well deserved after the early death of his second wife.  Jeff is experiencing the slow protracted retirement of the anesthetist whose surgeons retire one by one. 

I am fully retired (except for The Sydney Retreat!) and de Launey is retired but pursuing at a high level his passion for archaeology.  

Enough?

Best wishes from Steve Jurd 

Message from Jeff Taylor regarding Three Amigos (inc deLauney and Jurd)

Hi Andrew.

Steve's post was accurate and suitably intellectual in his typical laconic style.

The lunch wasn't our first catch up, and we have found sharing memories and life experiences very easy and enjoyable.

On my walk home to Waterloo, I noticed the Anderson Stuart building was open, so felt compelled to explore its depths for the first time in fifty years. It is as stark and forbidding as ever. When walking past the Vesalian dissection room, I'm sure my hands began reeking of formalin - and I had memories of Philomena McGrath thundering about "respect for the dead". It was vaguely like walking through a Harry Potter movie - the notable change being that the portraits of stern looking Professors adorning the walls, looking menacingly down, now include OUR professors. Blunt, Cleland, Young, M G Taylor and many others.

Then the walk to Redfern station, past the Chemistry school (unchanged), the Carslaw building - still there, but dwarfed and surrounded by new, bigger buildings. Symbolic of much of Sydney. And a new bridge over City Rd to a revamped Wentworth. Similar, but not similar, at the same time...

I am now a South Sydney resident. We live in Pitt St, opposite Waterloo Park. Andy’s old ‘hood! The whole district has changed so much. I used to walk through Erko from the train station on my way to Bosch. Unrecognisable now from how it used to be!

Already looking forward to our next lunch!

I hope you are well, and continuing to enjoy life!

Cheers, Jeff