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Seeking old pal, Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction, Sydney, 1999-2000
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18-05-2014 2:00am#1Hi everyone, Mandi from Sydney here. First up, I'm not Irish, well maybe a little I am, my dad is part Australian and Chinese Indonesian, while mum is Malaysian, but dad had a great-grandmother who was born in Ireland, so there you go! I grew up in Sydney, so consider myself Australian!
Anyway this is my first post here, and me and my hubby are looking for some help in tracing an Irish friend of ours, Phil (or Phillip) Reynolds. He came to our wedding in Sydney in July 2000. We came to know Phil at the Tea Gardens Hotel, in Bondi Junction, Sydney in late 1999, early 2000.
In fact the Tea Gardens is our only real connection to Phil. He spent a lot of time there, and seemed to know a lot of the Irish people who hung out, or worked, there. There were two girls working there at the time, called Tine (short for Christine?) and Jackie, or Jacqui, who he talked to, so maybe even if we could trace them, plus anyone else who went to the Tea Gardens, we may be able to find Phil!
Long story short (and sorry, this post will be quite long!), we're trying to contact Phil as we're planning a special bash for our 15th anniversary next year, and would love to invite him.
Now Phil wasn't part of our regular circle of friends, and we really only knew him through the aforementioned Tea Gardens pub, where he was quite the regular! Now the Tea Gardens isn't an Irish bar as such, but a lot of Irish people visiting Sydney go there, and work there also. If you're Irish, and have been to Sydney, chances are you've been to the Tea Gardens at least once!
We lost track of Phil in late 2000 after he travelled to Asia. He didn't have an email (at the time), and described himself as "not being much of a computer person", which is probably why we can't find him on Facebook, Google, etc.
Even though Phil was a very chatty person, he didn't reveal a whole lot about himself! He mentioned his family, but really only in passing. His parents had moved around Ireland a lot as he was growing up, they went where the work was he said, and while he had a couple of brothers and sisters, he said little about them, expect to say he'd phoned for someone's birthday or some such.
All up we probably knew him for about 8 months while he was travelling through this part of the world. He mainly did casual labouring and gardening work while here. Today he'd be about 45. We didn't have any address for him in Ireland (at the time he had no immediate plans to return there), and we were moving house a bit ourselves at the time, so if Phil had tried to write to us, any mail may have been lost.
So unfortunately we don't have a lot to go on, so we thought we'd ask around the Irish community for help.
Basically we're wondering if anyone here might have gone to the Tea Gardens pub in late 1999 to mid 2000 (we're about talking the time just before the Sydney Olympics), or worked there, or have friends or relatives that did, who may have known him. There were Tine and Jacqui who I mentioned before, they are the only other names we remember, but there were others who talked to Phil and may remember him.
In short, we'd love to hear from anyone with any connections to the Tea Gardens from around 1999 to 2000. We know it's all a long shot, but we do want to make some effort to locate Phil!
Thanking you
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@Diddler82 thanks for the suggestion Does the Irish Times have a high readership in Ireland, or is it mainly for Australian based Irish people? We're working on the assumption that Phil, plus most of the people who might have known him in Sydney, returned to Ireland at some point.
Part of our problem is the little real information we have to work with, hence the reason we're hoping we can jog someone's memory. I'm thinking the Irish Times would need far more info than we really have. Still we'll keep the idea as an option if our present enquiries turn up nothing. 0 -
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@Diddler82 thanks for the suggestion Does the Irish Times have a high readership in Ireland, or is it mainly for Australian based Irish people? We're working on the assumption that Phil, plus most of the people who might have known him in Sydney, returned to Ireland at some point.
Part of our problem is the little real information we have to work with, hence the reason we're hoping we can jog someone's memory. I'm thinking the Irish Times would need far more info than we really have. Still we'll keep the idea as an option if our present enquiries turn up nothing.
Irish Echo is mainly for Irish people in Sydney. But the Irish Times is a national newspaper and many peoples first port of call from around the globe. It could be worth contacting them on this section below or via Twitter. This is the "Generation Emigration" Section.
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/generationemigration/
Best of luck and keep us updated 0 -
Phil UGC wrote:It is a long shot, but maybe someone would know someone who knew the barstaff
This is partly what we're trying to do here. Phil talked to a lot of the Irish travellers at the Tea Gardens, some of whom were staff. He especially had a soft spot for the Irish girls working there (a bit of a lady's man was our Phil!!). Two whose names I do remember are Tine (maybe short for Christine) and Jackie, who I already mentioned. They'd be about 35 to 40 today I guess. So if you know anyone by those names and ages, please send them my way
I contacted the management to ask if they could help me get in touch with ex-staff, but they were unable to help. Both the staff and clientele are very transient and quite young. It's not really your neighbourhood local sort of place. It seems to me people hang out there for a time and then move on. We've tried looking there and now it seems we have to look elsewhere, such as here 0 -
@Diddler82 oops, sorry, I got my wires well crossed there. I went referring to the Irish Echo as the Irish Times, but see there is in fact an Irish Times!
I've no doubt a media/news article would be a great idea, but I fear we really don't have much concrete info we could give to a media outlet for such a story. It's no doubt part of the reason we're having so much trouble tracing Phil today! Still, we're keeping the idea open as an option 0 -
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@6541, thanks for that. I found the "Irish People Living in Australia" FB page the other week and posted there, but will also look at the "ClanNa Gael-Bondi" page also 0
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@roaming_jen, thanks for that Hubby found an Irish photography forum a week or three ago and was wondering if we should post something there (we haven't yet), but parenting forums sound like an awesome idea. Thanks again 0
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Lost love story? Whatever happened there? Do tell!
In answer to your question, no, we haven't heard from Phil, or anything from anyone, or from people like Tine & Jackie, who might have known him.
You wouldn't have any idea what town Tine was from? If we were somehow able to trace her, we might find Phil, and obviously find out how she is at the same time!
You think Tine looks like Kirsten Dunst?? Interesting!! 0 -
Sorry Mandi no idea location of Tine, aside that she was from Ireland. Story's a shocker I'm afraid to say! Always feel really guilty (yup, all these years later) because of what happened. Lol, I google her every few years. Last time was when I thought work was sending me to London & Dublin in 2011, trip never happened
This is the first time I've found any reference to her online whatsoever! Should I even be thinking about this stuff at all?! Nah probably not, but do they say? C'est la vie. Anyhoo, good luck finding Phil. Sorry, don't remember/know him at all, though it sounds like I should! 0 -
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Hey Mandi, you know it's funny, I thought I saw Tine at Bondi Junction last Sunday! She was at a bus stop across the road from where I was, and looking my way. I crossed over to get closer, thinking it couldn't possibly be her, to "check" the bus timetable. She kept looking at me with a half smile on her face. She wasn't exactly alone, and I happened to be on the phone, but now I'm kicking myself for not figuring out some excuse to talk to her!! Still, I couldn't be sure it was her, but couldn't be sure it wasn't, know what I mean?
Mind you, I just might've been able to find out something about Phil, so yes, kicking myself again! Sorry, I sort of forgot about him for a minute there 0 -
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Lol, @roaming_jen, I may be unforgettable, but usually for all the wrong reasons! And, yup, I guess I had expected a cooler reception if I were ever to see Tine again. Not that I was. However, I do try to account for every possibility, sadly just not the ones that actually occur, it seems. So sure Sunday was a bit of a double whammy. It didn't help either that I somehow convinced myself it wasn't Tine I saw, but I was soon asking myself who the hell else it could have been.
@Mandi, what went wrong? Hmm. Stuff was wrong, my life was a mess. WAS? Ha! STILL IS!!
All sorts of stuff. Well, two main things really. I felt I had to keep my distance, but you know, what happened was still bad! So have you heard from anyone who knew anything about Phil? There were stacks of Irish people there, I'm surprised you haven't from at least a few people who were there. I will most certainly tell Tine about this thread if I do see her again though 0 -
Things couldn't have been that bad in your life surely?? It seems like a strange reason to keep a "distance" from a girl to me.....
Ok, sure, I don't know your story, and we have no idea what battles the next person is fighting, but Tine, and this from the little I really do know of her, seemed, or should that be seems, like a down to earth, easy going, person to me. If she liked someone in particular I'm sure that's all that mattered to her? It's the way it works for me.
Er, and I hope you don't mind, we've telling some of our friends your story. You ask in here about Tine, having not seen her in 15 years, and then see her a week later in Bondi Junction. You wouldn't read about that sort of stuff. Ok, you would, I know that, but how rare is something like that?!?
Oh, and @roaming_jen, we took you up on that parent forum idea you suggested earlier on. Obviously we heard nothing, but did meet some helpful people. 0 -
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Hi Bruschi, I'm sorry to hear that. It's awful when something like that happens. I think back on the people I once knew, and have lost contact with, even in these days of facebook, but always assume they're out there somewhere and are well and happy.
Even though we've found no trace at all, yet, of Phil, we try not to think that he may no longer be with us.
Despite the circumstances, it's interesting you were able to trace your old friends with a first name search in google! Phil only ever told us his surname the once, when I wanted to mail him a wedding invitation, so I'm hoping I even heard or remember it correctly!
And as you say, it's always great to reconnect with people you knew from a long time ago, we remain hopeful we'll hear from Phil, one way or another. 0 -
Hi Bruschi, I'm sorry to hear that. It's awful when something like that happens. I think back on the people I once knew, and have lost contact with, even in these days of facebook, but always assume they're out there somewhere and are well and happy.
Even though we've found no trace at all, yet, of Phil, we try not to think that he may no longer be with us.
Despite the circumstances, it's interesting you were able to trace your old friends with a first name search in google! Phil only ever told us his surname the once, when I wanted to mail him a wedding invitation, so I'm hoping I even heard or remember it correctly!
And as you say, it's always great to reconnect with people you knew from a long time ago, we remain hopeful we'll hear from Phil, one way or another.
yeah I was glad I made the effort to find them again, it was just a shame it was not how I had hoped things worked out. They were just 6 months married and she was 3 months pregnant when it happened, and on Christmas eve, so it was an awful tragedy. It was more due to the accident that I was able to find them as quickly, but I'm sure I would have been able to find them one way or another.
If you know Phils surname, or even his hometown in Ireland, it would make it a lot easier to find. Even his home county would be a good help.0 -
That's terrible. Imagine the child growing up never knowing their father. I'm really sorry to hear that as well.
Phil's surname is Reynolds, or that's what I thought I heard him say. That point really only ever came up the once, in regards to sending out a wedding invitation. Otherwise we were always on first names. He said "Reynolds", I said "Reynolds", he said "yeah, yeah", almost as if to say it were close enough.
As to a hometown, or county, this has always been an issue. He told us his family moved around as he was growing up, his parents went where the work was he said, so, in his own words, he was from no one place. He did mention some of the towns, but I'm afraid after 15 years we've forgotten those details.
With so little to really go on, we've pinned our hopes on finding people who may have been at the Tea Gardens, who knew him. He was very outgoing and talkative, and seemed to know everyone who'd walk passed us. This includes the staff, particularly the Irish girls (he was a bit of a lady's man!), Tine & Jacqui (who I mentioned earlier). There were other bar staff, but those are the only names we now remember.
Our friend @VeBe here in this discussion also, who I believe found this thread 3 weeks ago through a google search himself, apparently had something going on with Tine, and was asking if we might have heard from her.
By bizarre twist of fate he then saw Tine, 15 years later, right there in Bondi Junction, where the Tea Gardens is located, like 2 weeks ago, but had trouble believing it was actually her at the time of this encounter (look a few posts up).
Needless to say, we've got our fingers crossed that @VeBe runs into her again, as this is may be the best link we have right now!0 -
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Sure did, hubby's a Linkedin member. We tried all sorts of social networks, even Myspace, and ICQ (which I was surprised to see was still going) plus the current ones of course, google-plus, ello, you name it, not to mention some quite weird and wonderful google search terms on web and image search.
Obviously there were lots of name matches, and lol, lots of people using a photo of their cat or something as an avatar, but no one that looked like him, or whose profile really matched what we knew of him. We messaged some of those people with the same name who we thought might be him, and some of them replied, some didn't.
In his own words he wasn't "much of a computer person" so that might explain why there's no trace of him online. I assume he'd be on email today (he wasn't 15 years ago) and maybe FB, ( I mean who isn't?) even if he isn't very active.
After a year of looking, we feel we've exhausted many of the online search options, so that's why we're hoping we might run into someone who was in Sydney at the time he was, who might just be in touch with him today. 0 -
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