Gold Coast | Hello from the Five Star Vagabond

Gold Coast life 1997

May 13, 2015 by David Herd

Dinner on my Jetty

Wonderful Gold Coast life 1997

Wonderful Gold Coast life 1997, never a dull moment, the year was rather significant heralding the last year I actually had a job. I decided to take a year off work and travel, little did I realise I would never really work again.

In the photo I’m having dinner with friends on my jetty at my beautiful Gold Coast home at 106 Upton St Bundall. On the left is “the Doc” with his 16 yo concubine Rachel, Ross & Mariana Kennedy and Mary Simpson who I recently found again online living in Amsterdam.

This it not part of my travel blog, just part of my personal photo & travel history from 2000.

Posing in my Porsche

A few months after this shot Rachel gave the Doc aka Michel Grey the flick & hooked up with Wendell Sailor from the Brisbane Broncos.. 🙂 🙂 🙂

One more did you say?

How sweet she is.

A great look in front of the fire

Another name that alludes me, but once again it’s the photo that matters.

Adelaide with old friends

Grahame Farquhar and Flo and the Brookers in Adelaide, good friends from when I lived in Adelaide in the early 70s. We caught up again when I visited Adelaide in October 2014.

Fatty Francis

Big Bob Francis was a well known DJ, much later he became a “shock Jock” and finally retired in 2013. Robert Neville “Bob” Francis OAM is a former talk back radio presenter on South Australian radio station 5AA. His program aired between 8 pm and 12 midnight weekdays and was rated as Adelaide’s most popular talk back program.

An emotional farewell from Bob Francis

Watch this video on YouTube

Sadly Bob passed away in 2016, RIP buddy.

Lunch at Lynch’s in South Yarra.

We have just returned from a trip to Bali where we stayed in Albert Mantello’s beautiful waterfront home. Albert is in the middle beside Paul Lynch who owned the famous restaurant and Ross Ansell a well known Melbourne character.

Albert Mantello and Paul Lynch.

The guys spent a weekend at my home on the Gold Coast, they both loved their wine. It looks to me like a bottle of Tyrrell’s Long Flat Red. 🙂

Sadly Albert passed away September 26 2021 at the age of 87. It was a pleasure to know him. If you have the time please check out THIS LINK.

Adele is one very gorgeous babe.

My last job was a short stint as an editor for a tourist magazine call Today Tonight and Tomorrow. Not much of a job but great side benefits like hiring and photographing sexy babes like Adele. 🙂

AFL Grand Final

St Kilda played Adelaide at the MCG in front of 99,645 people and lost by 31 points.

Master Chef

The semi naked Master chef, chilli mud-crab I caught and cooked myself.

Karen Underwood

My lovely ex girlfriend from 1991, after all these years we remained friends.

Sunday session at Upton St

Another Sunday lunch at Upton St.

Jaunita and Butch

What a beautiful face, and I don,t mean Butch aka Ian Campbell. 🙂

Jaunita featured in my Wonderful Gold Coast life 1997

Absolutely beautiful.

My favourite song from 1997

Donna Turner

Another smoking hot babe, she certainly made my kitchen look glamorous. 🙂

Lets finish as we started

Relaxing in the spar with Simone, a gorgeous girl and a bottle of Stollies, Gold Coast life in 1997 was pretty bloody good. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Thanks for visiting my Wonderful Gold Coast life 1997 photo blog.

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Holiday Inn

Fabulous views, excellent restaurants & a very good room rate if you book through THIS LINK.

The building in the middle is the Holiday Inn, on the left is the Amari Hotel which is another very good five star hotel. Use THIS LINK to book for a very good room rate.

Sabai Wing North Pattaya

The best Pattaya budget hotel, 3 pools & opposite Central Marina shopping mall. For a great room rate just book through THIS LINK.

Sutus Court is a great budget hotel right i the heart of one of Pattaya’s main bar areas, just use THIS LINK for a terrific room rate. 420/100 Moo 9 Soi Buakhao.

Pattaya Hilton

This is the view from Horizons the amazing rooftop bar. A great five star hotel located opposte the beach & above the Central Festival shopping mall. Just book through THIS LINK for an excellent room rate.

Soi Cowboy Nana Plaza Patpong

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Flying high fifty years old

November 17, 2014 by David Herd

This is not a travel blog, it is part of my personal photo history .

Flying high fifty years old

Flying high fifty years old living in Surfers Paradise, working for Metway bank & living life to the max. A great trip to Berlin & Prague with a stopover in Bangkok on the way home. Helen & Helenka are in the photo having Birthday drinks at Broadbeach tavern, can’t remember the name of the girl on the left.

I’m also getting a great buzz re-visiting some of my fantastic years. Some of the photos contain nudity & certain comments may offend the narrow minded, so if you are in this category it’s probably best to close the page & move on.

Flying high fifty years old with my great old friend Harley Bradstreet

Harley and I have been friends since about 1968.

Female bouncer at Cocos.

This well built is the only female bouncer I have seen working in a nightclub. As you can see she took no nonsense from Harley. Then again Harley could talk underwater with a mouth-full of marbles so she may have just been trying to shut him up. 🙂

Stacy at Rio’s in Orchard Avenue

Stacey was absolutely gorgeous.

Georgie, Sonya & Dave Hamilton.

Dave was the owner of the club, a wild Scotsman who was always getting himself into trouble, mainly street fighting. Sonya was a Kiwi who was as mad as a snake. Georgie was a gorgeous blonde singer from Perth.

Steve Jones (RIP) & Dave Barnes (RIP)

Sadly both these lads have passed away, Dave in early 2016 and Steve about 10 years prior to this.

Beautiful Kelly Davis

For a few months in 1993 I was lucky enough to be taking out this gorgeous lady. This is proof that I was flying high in 1993.

Kelly Davis

Say no more.

Japanese for dinner

Great dinner opposite the casino at Broadbeach with Kelly Davis, Sandy Ansell & Helen Burke. Kelly & I went home by boat, I dropped anchor in a quiet part of the river & enjoyed one of the most memorable hours I have had with any woman in my life. 🙂

Happy friends at Marina Mirage

On the left is an American guy called Henry Geller, 2nd from the right is Tony Sweurs a guy I knew in Sydney who is now living in Belo Horizonte in Brazil.

Jill McCrossan with Tony Sweurs & Lorana from Brazil

What time can we start having fun?

Andre Buzek on Chevron Island

Andre was one of my best friends and a total party animal. He told everyone, especially the cute girls he was French when in fact he was from Prague in Czechoslovakia, sounded more sophisticated I guess. 🙂 Sadly within a years of this photo being taken he lost his life in a car accident in Cuba.

Andrea from Rio de Janeiro & Andre Buzek

One two occasions when Andre traveled to Rio de Janeiro he bought back to Australia an exotic Brazilian girl for a holiday. Andrea was fairly calm compared to the one he bought out the following year who was younger and wilder.

Flying high fifty years old with Andrea from Rio.

Here is a funny story, I had a day scheduled to visit Metway bank branches in Lismore & Ballina so I generously took Andrea with me to see some of the Australian country. We stopped for lunch in Byron Bay and were hitting it off famously. Knowing the reputation of many Brazilian girls I made sure we arrived back at my home a couple of hours before Andre finished work. Well it took no more than 10 minutes for this gorgeous tall Brazilian to shed her clothes & drag me into the bedroom. By the time Andre arrived to take her home we were composed and innocently awaiting his arrival. 🙂

Coral Knowles, Andre Buzek & Helen Burke.

One of my favorite photos, Andre’s eyes always lit up around attractive females. Also around some that were not so attractive, it never mattered to Andre as long as they were female & breathing. 🙂

Eddy Bonaventure , Jill Mc Crossan & Andre Buzek

WOW! Did we have some fun in those days? Yes we did, you better believe it. 🙂

Flying high with the Melbourne girls

The parties & barbecues seemed to never stop all through the fabulous 1990s.

Another Sunday lunch at home

A typical lunch at Upton St.

Two beautiful Koreans

I feel like a rose between 2 thorns. 🙂

The big guy is Graham LaRoche aka Biff.

Harley & Biff are with another one of the lovely Korean girls who enjoyed out parties. There is a terrific story about these two guys on my 1982 post called New Year’s Eve 1981, the Great Escape.

Another Sunday lunch at my home.

You will notice how Harley always like to dress up in his army fatigues.

My favourite song from 1993

Winnie Andre & Harley.

Winnie was from South Africa, she loved a party. Andre of course was always in the thick of the action. Harley in this photo looks a lot like Col Gaddafi.

Eugine Korin has company at Kooralbyn

Kooralbyn was a great gold course which sadly has shut down in the last few years.

Two Tonys Murphy & Bonner

This was Coffs Harbour where Murphy was working & Tony Bonner was in a motorbike rally.

Family Xmas at my home on the Gold Coast

Of course this was Xmas 1993, many of my nephews & nieces now have children of there own. Here is a Xmas gathering in 2006.

Family dinner NYE 1993 at Marinas Cove

It was so good catching up with all the family.

Catherine Bonetti NYE 1993

So many women and such little time.

Roberta Aitchison still runs the meter maids

Roberta was originally a meter maid herself, she still runs the company today in 2021.

Crazy Sonya

Sonya was a Kiwi with very few inhibitions, check out the photo below if you want to see her in her birthday suit. However please remember my warning at the start of this post, in case you have forgotten……

Sonia in all her glory

Andre is also going nuts on the slideshow, check it out before they censor it. 🙂

I told you he was crazy

I will never forget you old mate.

Sexy Suzie is on the slide show as well.

She was as cheeky as they come. 🙂

Why wait, here she is. 🙂

Just like little apples.

Sexy Jill Mcrossan

Jill was a lovely sexy lady who was always fun to be with. She now lives in Sydney and I bumped into her at Manly about 3 years ago.

Patpong Road Bangkok

On my way home from Prague & Berlin I stopped in Bangkok to meet my dear mother who was on holidays there with a friend. Naturally I had to visit Patpong for some R & R.

At Coolum with Robert Allemby

May as well finish where I started, playing a round at Coolum with Robert Allemby, is that like 15 minutes of fame. 🙂

Henry from California & Kelly David

Lunch with nice people.

Once again, so many women & such little time. 🙂

Oh well, a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do. 🙂

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Jump forward 21 years and I’m still flying high, click here.

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Before you go have a look at 1997 in Bali.

Post by Travel blogger Fivestarvagabond.com”.

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Gold Coast 1995

June 11, 2014 by David Herd

Please note, this is not part of my Travel Blog. It’s part of my personal history, check it out if you wish.

Gold Coast 1995 life was good, & in fact all through the 90s, my home at 106 Upton St Bundall was “party central”, 1995 was no different, I was working for the NRMA as a Financial Planner and enjoying life to the max, this post shows many of the people who made it another memorable year.

I love this photo

My old friend Harley Bradstreet on the Gold Coast 1995 telling one of his long winded stories that used to bore everyone to tears. He had a million stories but they were all about himself, the look on Kerry’s face is priceless. The other guy is Barry Madden who worked for the NRMA in Newcastle, it is now 2014 and we are still in touch often on Facebook.

Grahame Kinsela & Harley Bradstreet.

Harley was & still is a terrific guy, he now lives in Perth and collects & restores old Jaguars. Grahame was also an old friend of mine from the northern beaches area of Sydney.

In those days Harley seemed to stumble from one disaster to another, a mutual friend of ours Larry Wilson, a Gold Coast solicitor, coined the phrase referring to Harley, “anyone can have a bad decade”. This seemed to describe Harley to a tee. 🙂

November 2016 & I saw saw the sad news on Facebook that Grahame had passed away, RIP my old buddy.

My new jetty Gold Coast 1995

I remember this photo so well. My Doberman Ziggy is taking his first look at my new jetty, he was a very confused dog for the next hour or two.

This is what the jetty was designed for.

Drinks, drinks & more drinks, my jetty turned into the main party area for my house. On the left is Jim Bell, he rented a room in my home for 15 years, that’s what I call a long time tenant. Michael Gray aka “the Doc” was a local Radiologist & a well know collector of beautiful women. Finally on the right is John Hunjadi, a partner in several Gold Coast nightclubs, including ” “Cocktails & Dreams”, The Party”, & “The Bourbon Bar”.

Good buddy Phil Thompson.

Still one of my best friends today Phil was a handy guy to have at my Sunday BBQs.

My gorgeous girlfriend of the year was…..

Carolyn Clark was & still is a gorgeous girl, we were an item for about a year and a half in 1994 & 1995. Twenty years later and I’m glad to say we still keep in touch.

What do you think of these little puppies?

I gotta say I think they are gorgeous. 🙂

A weekend in Sydney

Carolyn & I flew to Sydney for a weekend, I caught up with my good friend Paul Slaughter, 2nd from left. The guy on the left was an actor from “The Bill” Tony O’Callaghan.

Great shot of the Gold Coast girls in Sydney.

On the left is Marie Stephens beside Carolyn Clark, far right is Kandice Aldington with Michaela standing at the back. It was a good weekend

My favourite song from 1995

The Oaks Hotel

Old friends meet for drinks at our favourite pub. Derek Pugh and Ian Rich, Paul Slaughter in the foreground with his sister on the left and girlfriend Clode on the right.

Drinks at my home before dinner.

I was always entertaining people in my home in Upton St Gold Coast 1995, after the year 2000 I started to entertain less & less due to my frenetic overseas travel. Wendy is 2nd from the right, sadly she passed away in 2017, RIP.

Beautiful Argentinian girl

Surely one of the most beautiful girls that ever visited my home, sadly I can’t even remember her name.

Photo bombed

Greg Johnston aka Greg Bin Laden looking like a middle east terrorist photo bombed me with the Argentinian Princess.

A gorgeous girl from Rio.

This is Andrea from Rio, my good friend Andre (RIP) bought her to Australia for a holiday.

Brazil on the left & Argentina on the right

Why does imported fruit always seem so much more exotic? 🙂

Time for some local talent

This is Jade, only on the Gold Coast would you go out like this. Please click on Google + to help my page ranking.

Fun on the Broadwater

Much of the Gold Coast 1995 life revolved around the water, many people like myself lived on the waterfront with our boat tied up to our jetty. The guy in the yellow shirt was a good friend of mine from Melbourne Ross Ansell, & as you can clearly see they seem to be enjoying themselves.

I was having fun as well

Here I am with Pascale & Rene, both gorgeous ladies.

Another party on the jetty

And the beat goes on at Gold Coast 1995, yet another party on the jetty, the guy on the left with his arm around Kandice was John Merryman from Sydney. We knew each other from the old days at Eliza’s in Double Bay in the 70s. The guy in the middle is John Gombos beside my sexy hairdresser Dianne in the red top. On the far right is Ziggy, same name as my Doberman.

Sadly Ziggy passed away around 2018, RIP.