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| Ben ... day 1. |
Before we finish though, we thought we’d post a couple of the speeches that were given at Ben’s 10-year CSB party at our place, on the December 8th 2018.
Here is Tim’s speech:
I remember two moments with Ben that made me want to disappear and pretend I didn’t know him. I’m sure there are countless I can’t remember.
The first one was when we were back in Australia in 2001, I was in year 9 and he was in year 10 and we caught the train to school with a whole bunch of others from school. One day we were all standing on the station, about halfway down the platform waiting for the train. As it approached, just before it passed us, Einstein decided it would be a good idea to land a big green spit on the windscreen of the train, right in front of the driver’s face. The timing was faultless. We got in the train but it didn’t go anywhere and after a couple of minutes the driver came into the carriage where we all were and said “Right, who spat?” We all stood there not daring to speak and holding back laughter, luckily the driver realised it was too hard to work out which of the uniformed teenager had done it, so he left and we got going again.
The second incident was a few months later. We were now back in Argentina and Ben and I had gone into town to buy something at a shop that sold everything. The shop had a few steep steps at the front door. As we left, a guy in his thirties was leaving with his partner. She was carrying a few broomsticks under her arm but as she walked down the steps they started falling down around her waist and her husband went to grab them and pulled them out. Once again, the Professor forgot to engage his reasonably solid brain. He thought the situation unfolding in front of us was funny for some reason so in English he said: “Go mate, you pull those brooms out of her ar …” The chance of him speaking English proficiently enough to understand Ben’s bogan retort was very low. Alas he turned around and said “Thanks, I will.”
Apart from criticism about what he was wearing on his feet, Ben wasn’t scared of much. So he was the person you wanted on your side or team. Surprisingly, he didn’t get into many fights, but he was always up for a bit of argy bargy. He famously chased after someone at Mallacoota who had smashed a window. Everyone else had let the guy go but Ben bolted after him yelling to those behind him “Come on, he’s not that big.” Probably a fair statement from the person who ended up banned from entering the New Year’s Eve arm wrestle comp because he always won.
Despite his fiery nature and the fact that he acted first and thought about the repercussions later, Ben was loyal to those he cared about. I’m sure many of you remember times when you were feeling lousy and Ben noticed and was there to comfort you, often with a firm arm around the shoulder rather than a lot of words. I know Liv remembers a time when she was on camp and visibly upset about her great aunt dying and Ben went over to her, away from the group and just sat with her to comfort her.
Another thing I admired about Ben was the fact that he didn’t really care what other people thought: his favourite bands were Savage Garden and the Backstreet boys for heaven’s sake!
We are sad that Ben isn’t around to be a feisty but protective uncle to our boys.
