Seeking old pal, Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi Junction, Sydney, 1999-2000

If Tine lives near Bondi junction maybe you could leave notices for her the bus stop, directing her to this thread?!?! Just saying.....

MandiT wrote:

As I remember it, Tine was quite popular with the boys, I always heard guys calling out her name!

I remember that to! I'd have thought you'd have heard from at least a few people who knew her, if no one else.

roaming_jen wrote:

If Tine lives near Bondi junction maybe you could leave notices for her the bus stop

Talk about leaving no stone unturned!

MandiT wrote:

Something like that happened in a movie didn't it? An American guy left notes around Vienna I think it was, for a French girl who he was meant to meet there.

You're thinking of a film called "Before Sunset" directed by Richard Linklater, with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. He said he'd put notices up at the railway station, after she failed to show up for the meeting they'd arranged six months earlier.

MandiT wrote:

It could be something we could ask VeBe to do, but I'm not sure what he'd think of that idea!

Lol, well, it's a fun idea, that's for sure. If circumstances were a little different I'd be up for giving it a go. There's not really any places to leave notes though just there, it's all mainly shops and private property, no bus shelter either, so I expect anything put up would be taken down pretty quickly. In the meantime I have to go and collect a lamp from BJ now, so I'll keep an eye out while I'm there.

And it's hello again from me, but nothing new to report here either. As I said before, I'm over at the junction about once a week, and keeping a look out. Quite interesting really, earlier on I'd be there for the shops or whatever, and not really paying attention to who else was around. I'm a bit more alert now, and in these last 7-8 months have run into several people I knew from sometime ago, including a former work mate from London in the 90s, who it turns out has now lived in Australia and the BJ area for the last 15 years! Prior to that I rarely saw anyone I knew, despite going over there for years! Yet these people were probably around and about back then, just I never noticed.

So, yeah, totally keep a look out for Phil in future though, you never know, he might be living right on your doorstep so to speak!

And Tine, if you are reading this, and I walked passed you before; sorry :$

Say Mandi, when's your anniversary anyway, must be close by now?

First up, a BIG thanks to Niamh and the admin team. I had a real job getting this account set up, I tried joining during the recent DDOS attack, couldn't get my login to work, or get activation emails to arrive, and then on top of that my webmail went on the blink for days in the middle of all! But, 2 weeks later, I'm here now!

So, yeah, anyways, hi MandiT, sorry in advance that I can't help you with finding Phil , BUT I was at the fine establishment that is the Tea Gardens Hotel during the time period of your interest, and I did know a certain beautiful blonde feisty young Irish lass who was working there! You see like other people I get onto google every now and then to see if I can find out what happened to people I once knew from those days. Look, I'll cut to the chase and say that I had a MASSIVE crush on the aforementioned girl. But she was out of my league, even if she was the very down to earth girl next door, and not the next Miranda Kerr in the making, or should I say Kirsten Dunst, since her very name has been spoken here before!

Ok, so, I say she was out of my league, but the truth is she just wasn't into me as much as I was in her . It didn't stop me trying for her because I was well blind to that glaring realisation at the time. And I was a spelt in capital letters D-A-G! Do you know I used to sit at the bar of the Tea Gardens, late on a Saturday night, reading a book!! How bad is that? I read novels in the boisterous old Tea Gardens on rowdy Saturday nights like I was an old man in an neighbourhood pub on a Sunday afternoon! Did you ever notice me MandiT? I must have stood out like a sore thumb :rolleyes:.

Well of course you're all right, I wasn't REALLY reading those books, well I was a bit, but all that time I was bidding my time, waiting for the best time to make my make or break move on the blonde Irish lass. But would I wait until what any other sane person would think was the right time, as in a quiet time? OH NO, NOT ME!!! Naturally I waited until anything but the best time, and make my case for the girl to be my girlfriend one Saturday night, when they were at their busiest! There I was going for it while she was trying to serve other customers who I magically thought couldn't see or hear a thing I was saying and doing when they WERE RIGHT BESIDE ME!! to make it worse, after she had already very gracefully declined my offer, I sort of kind of pleaded with her right there in the bar on a Saturday night with @#$#% knows how many dozens of people looking on Can you believe it?

It's fair to say I learned some harsh lessons about life very quickly and I'm cool recounting this story by the way because this is also happens to be an anonymous public forum!! . I felt bad bad bad about it back at the time but it was a long time ago now. I didn't do myself any favours being so public about it. I learned to be more discrete later on. To her credit the blonde lass was totally dignified about the whole thing, she never got angry, she just politely kept saying no. Look, I moved on, settled down, happily married, with a family, and probably buy coffee at the same cafe as half of you here , except you'll never know who I am .

Well this thread has been edumacational I must say, the lass in question had her eye on someone there present! I should have known! :eek:

If the aforementioned blonde Irish lass is around Boards.ie, I'd love to hear how ya. Are you still living in Sydney or Bondi Junction? It sounds like it! Please say hello if you are around!

Hey Magoonosee, quite a story, I doubt I could retell that, even behind the anonymity of a discussion forum! Tell you what though, I do remember someone sometimes sitting at the bar reading books, and don't get me wrong, as it was a little unusual for Saturday nights. Did you wear glasses, and have a short back and sides sort of haircut? I was thinking you might have been reading while waiting for friends to arrive, but not the easiest time or place for reading books I thought

I'm sorry to hear you weren't able to find Phil, Mandi. If I'd been a bit more with it the day I saw Tine at Bondi Junction, maybe things might have turned out differently. I was having a four way brain snap when I saw her though. I was on the phone to a friend in Europe, and we'd been playing telephone tag for the last week or so, but needed to discuss a serious property issue. I was also late to meet someone else, and then when I saw Tine, for the first time in 15 years, having only asked about her here a few days earlier, I think my brain circuits overloaded (and it doesn't take much for that to happen!).

It seems I was babbling incoherently, my friend was asking why I was saying things like "I don't know if it's her, but it might be, her eyes look the same". I don't even remember saying that! Dufus or what. I think I was out of it for days after, I've just re-read the posts here I made at the time, I can't think why I wrote what I did now.

Also, she was alone. I said "not exactly alone". I think I was trying to be metaphorical. I work as a writer so maybe that's why.

Coincidentally, I had been called up for jury duty that week, and was thinking I'd not be to focus at all on the case after that. As it happened, my panel was called into a trial room, a fraud matter, but my juror number wasn't called, so I missed making the jury. Just as well on that occasion I think!

Sorry all, I forgot to reply this point yesterday=

VeBe wrote:

Did you wear glasses, and have a short back and sides sort of haircut?

Lol, on my lawyer's advice, I invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment not to answer, on the grounds I may incriminate myself!! Lol, but seriously sir, good memory.

VeBe wrote:

and don't get me wrong, as it was a little unusual for Saturday nights

Lol, I got some weird looks, but what can I say, I needed an excuse, any excuse, to be at the Tea Gardens on a Saturday night!!! What could be better than a chance to read books!!!

MandiT wrote:

Apparently he pointed you out to Phil, who said something like, 'oh yes, it's a very Irish thing!'

Lol, Phil would know, by the sounds of it!! Either you're very Irish by sitting in crazy busy pubs on Saturday nights reading books, or chatting up Ireland's finest lasses!!

Do you still go to the Tea Gardens these days MandiT? May be we should organise a reunion, in which we all meet each other for the first time in real life, sometime there Lol

A reunion of people who've never met, but were at the same place, at the same time, years ago? I like it! I'm not sure if this fits in with the timeframe anyone else had in mind, but I'll be in Sydney later in the week, and could drop by the TGs for a quick one, a VB of course, this Thursday at around 9:30PM. Not exactly a family friendly time I know, especially on a school night, but I'll be in the usual place, main downstairs bar. They seem to discourage sitting at the actual bar these days, but I'll be as close to it as I can. We can always arrange another time, but if you're about on Thursday, you know where to find me, for half an hour or so, at least PM me for contact deets if you want.

Lol Vebe, I didn't mean right away, I thought it would take months & months to arrange something like this, even if there is beer involved!! But it sounds like you were going to be there anyway. I gotta get myself back over County Bondi way one of these days first!! When I know when that might be, I'll let you know, and we can fix something up!!

No problems there Mandi, it was a long shot at such short notice. What are you going to do now that your anniversary has been? Will you keep looking for Phil? He'll probably come to light now that's too late, it seems to be the way these things work!

I still reckon you should leave a note at whatever bus stop that you saw Tine. She's about the only person there's any sort of link to I reckon. What's the worst that can happen? Nothing!

Hi Mandi. I once knew someone called Phil, he was Irish, and we knew him at the Tea Gardens in 2000. As we recall it, he left Australia in about September 2000, around the time your friend left I think. We don't have direct contact info for him, but we know heaps of people who are in Ireland who knew him here, and might know where he is now! You said you don't have a photo of him (nor do we) but do have a general description of him?