This is the photo of the Queen I got when I was a hundred. I was very honoured, of course. I mean, she doesn't personally do it all, because there's too many of us. But it's nice to get one. And most people are interested, you know, all want to know... The first thing they ask me: "Did you get a letter from the Queen?" I say, "I got a photo of the Queen and a card". Oh, my parents were great. Mum was Scottish, she came from Selkirk and, ah, good cook and Dad was a gardener. We had all our own vegetables and chooks and ducks. And then we had the holiday place and they were great fisherfolk. But my parents did a lot of fishing. Dad was a lifesaver at Freshwater before the First World War and then he was a stretcher bearer in the Fifth Field Ambulance. Went to Gallipoli and Europe. He never talked about the War much actually. And in his diaries, he never spoke about all the blood and gore and everything, you know, some people when they wrote diaries, they mentioned, you know, all about the wounded, but Dad... He might say, "I've been on duty so many hours" or something, but he didn't say what the cases were, how bad and the people were, you know. But his father was interesting. Thomas Power. He interviewed Ned Kelly and he was the first journalist to reach Glenrowan when Ned was on the run and he actually interviewed Ned when he was caught but he told Dad, Ned had nothing to say. Shorthand, typing and bookkeeping and English, because I remember we had spelling, a lot of spelling. But I was always a good typist. At school, the headmistress used to get me to type stencils because I was accurate. I didn't make mistakes. So when I was at Business College, if you had the highest speed, and correct. No errors. You wore a brooch. And I won it one time and I didn't say anything to the family. We were just having dinner one night and my father spotted it and he said, "What's that you've got on you?" And I told him. But I only go it the once but at least I did get it. A Jewish lady asked for volunteers. So I was the only one in the office that volunteered. So after work we'd take orders from the servicemen, what they wanted to eat and then pick it up and bring it to the tables. And then when the meal was finished and we'd washed up, that was when I first saw a dishwasher, and we went into another room and we'd dance. So we ended up dancing with the servicemen that were there. Rae and Zara Isaacs. Zara, I think, was the boss that ran it. It was a big building in Hyde Park and it had the big room, big kitchen and this other room where we danced. So it must have been pretty big, but the food was pretty good. It wasn't very varied but it was good quality. I remember the corned beef was very, very good. And of course, sausages, curried sausages, was one of them I remember. I wasn't terribly good at remembering whose order was what. I'd bring the trays and they'd have to sort out their orders, half the time. I wasn't meant to be a waitress... But it was something... and then another job we did. In Bridge Street there was a place where you just entertained them. You played table tennis or you danced with them or you just talked to them. Yeah, I'd forgotten about that one, yeah. I've forgotten what that was called now. I think they were just... needed company, someone to talk to them themselves, the servicemen. And during the War I met up with an American one up at Coolangatta. Another girl from work and I, in 1944, we went to Coolangatta. There were a lot of Americans and one was staying in the guest house where we were, and they asked me to show them how to surf. They were watching me in the surf apparently. And so I had a platonic friendship with that fellow. I can't even remember his name now. Up at Coolangatta they had this "Jazzland" I think they called it. Watching all the Americans do all that dancing they did. You know? Remember? I could never do it. So I like to work. Doing shorthand and bookkeeping. Typing. But during the War I worked for the Department of the Interior and I was secretary to the accountant there. But then when the War ended, all married women got a letter saying we all had to leave on the 31st December, unless we were already a War Widow, which I wasn't then, of course. So that's when I left, at the end of 45. And when the War ended, a lot of people had been in the streets and rejoicing and dancing and everything. But I felt the opposite. I felt, sort of, not cheerful exactly, but glad the War was over, you know. I have a cousin, prisoner of war, who actually died before the War. We didn't know until after the War. And my brother, my husband and my brother-in-law were all in the army, you know. So I went on the roof. That's where we were. I just was up there for a while. I don't know what I was doing but that's where I.... Then I went home to Mum, be company for Mum. Then afterwards, the others in the office were dancing and singing in the street but for some reason or other I didn't feel like that. I just... Just felt I should be with Mum, you know? But as it turned out, my mother-in-law has a heart attack and Noel was still in the army. And I went down to Greenwich and I did the cooking, running the house for six people. And then Noel was discharged in February and I got pregnant straight away. But luckily my mother-in-law was back on her feet by then. Yeah well the first real date was to see "Four Feathers" at the State Theatre. Front seat of the dress-circle and a box of chocolates and ice cream. And that continued all the time. We still got my box of chocolates and ice-cream in the interval. As I say, we both were the same kind of people. Well, my mother was like that. You know, you're careful with money, not mean, but careful that you didn't waste it on... Like we never went out for dinner and things like that because we were saving up to build. I've still got the plans of the house actually, but of course we never got around to building because of him dying. His name was Noel, Noel Tanner. Noel Clifford after his father. And that was our wedding day on the 16th of January 1943. Leaving Stephen's Church only to drive King Street where the reception was at a place that the guests could all walk to because of petrol rationing. People didn't have petrol for their cars, so that's why we were married in the city. I remember they had big gladioli in the church and my bridesmaid was carrying pink gladioli as though it was all arranged, but it wasn't. And when I was going, there were soldiers on guard outside State Government and the soldiers saluted me when I was going along to the wedding. Then an uncle of mine put a boot behind the car that took me down to the reception. He tied a boot behind it... the car going along . So we went to Newcastle for our honeymoon. We were staying in a hotel that overlooked the beach. So when I was first going I'm thinking Newcastle, BHP and things, you know. But instead of that, we were overlooking the beach and we swam in the beach and so we liked it so much when he got leave 18 months later, we went back again to the same hotel. We knew each other a long time before we started going out together and we were friends before we fell in love with each other. He fell in love with me earlier, apparently. So I think that had a lot to do with it. We were friends before we became husband and wife. And he was easy to get on with. We never had an argument. We didn't agree on everything, especially politics. He was a bit of a socialist when I met him, whereas I was always just following my parents voting. 'UAP' I think it was called in those days. But we never fought about anything. We never arguments or fights or anything like that. Maybe if we had been married longer, we probably would, but only being married those few years, you know, because he came back in 1946 and he died in 49, so we didn't have long together, but he was so easy to get on with and as I say, no fights, no arguments or anything. I have friends that argued before they were even married, they'd have fights and not talking to each other. I couldn't imagine it. They weren't even married and they had fights, you know. So that's why I never was interested in anyone else... because I had such a happy marriage. A good marriage. Now what happened first of all? His testicle filled with blood. And he went to the doctor and had it drained and then he said he'd have to cut the testicle. So in November they cut the testicle off. Then he went in the Sydney Hobart yacht race. Then he went again in Easter in a yacht race to Jervis Bay, on Mistral. And then he had a backache and then it turned out in May, when he vomited, and had pain, it turned out to be a tumor in his stomach. Bu they treated him for six weeks for a stone in the the kidney before that. So in October he died as quick as that. At Gloucester House. I rake up the leaves every so often too. They're very slow this year. I've always done something. Rollerskating, ice skating, a lot of walking, in the summer we swam, in the winter we walked, tennis, vigaro, hockey and I did try skiing, snow skiing. Not terribly good at it, but nice. But the golf's been the main thing. I love the golf. And to go to Northbridge when we had to play on a Sunday, I had to walk a mile uphill and get two busses. And then they were going to build the new one at Lane Cove. So I've been a member there since. Well, 1961 we paid five shillings to join. Last time I played, a nine year old boy played in the competition. I don't know how but he did, and he got more points than I did. And Jo said, when we finished, "Made my day, I played with a 99-year-old and a nine-year-old". So we went my niece's wedding and it was formal, so I bought quite an expensive frock, and when we arrived at the church, her neighbour had exactly the same frock on. So we stood with the bride with the bridesmaids' bouquets as though we were bridesmaids. They were purple. Big bunches of flowers on. A bustle-type frock. All very flat in the front and full on the back. So it was quite a joke. Young people, they spend so much money going to cocktail bars and spending $10 a drink and things like that. And then next thing you know, they've got all this debt on their credit cards and things. I can't understand it, you know. Never, ever been in debt my whole life. I've always just lived within my means sort of thing, you know. So that's my advice for young people, you know. Don't be extravagant. Save for the future. Whether you're single or married, because single people can buy a home now and have a flat or a unit if they want to on their own, if they save. But then they all complain because they haven't got any money but I think they waste too much. Not everyone, but a lot of them.