MMM March 2000

Update 2023 - His wife Fran died in November and Simon couldn;t attend the funeral as he was in dementia caere unit.

Malley-Mate Data Sheet
Name:	Simon
Approx Age:	60ish
Nationality:	Brit
I met the driver of U52 in Fiji where I had to teach general science without any training. He was from Wales, via New Zealand.   Luckily, I had Simon to show me what to do and how to fix demonstrations so that you got the correct result.   But more than that, he was my rock. He was always there to give good advice: "Eat your vegetables or I'll thump you".   The man does like to thump. There was always thumpthing special about him. He was my Superman, which is what we cast him as in "Holy Hell". That was a bit of a stretch from the staff play where his only line was "Cucumber". I even bought, in the States and carried back to Fiji, shock absorbers for U52.   I helped him get a job in New Zealand at the same school where I was teaching and set him up in a flat next to ours.   We spent many a night at their house watching TV to the wee hours. And quite often we would play Scrabble just like we had in Fiji. Whenever I think of Simon, I think of sailing. He has been my only direct link to that activity.   In 1971 I was a crew member for the Suva-Levuka race and in 1988 we spent a week on his trimaran floating around the harbour.   In 1978 he and Chris built a "camper trailer" basicaly a tent that folded down onto metal base.   In 1986 Simon decided to try teaching in Papua New Guinea for a change. Had a tough time getting there for astart and found everything very expensive. Christopher came back to NZ as schooling there wasn't adequate. And Simon and Fran soon followed as they didn't like living inide a barbwired compound. From there he moved to Brunei for 9 years; so we haven't seen a whole lot him over the past 10 years. He had a plan to drive from Brunei to Auckland and have school children get reports via a website. I was supposed to be the Project Manager and Geroge Hawkins the Patron.   We stopped in for a few days in Brunei in '97 and most years we will spend a day catching up when they get back to NZ to visit family.   Letter decribing returning to NZ.   I sure hope I see him at least one more time - to move that car of his we have sitting on our front lawn. [Update - it was removed 12 May 2003]. Update 2009 - Simon has taken on the NZ government over the Global Warming debate and agaimst Auckland Super City: photo.

Always trying to get the last word in	Geobreezic Dome	Only known photo of SVB without facial hair
	Thump Your Daddy	12 May 2003
John speaks 1970