Circular No 234

Newsletter for Alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 29 April 2006. No. 234
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Dear Friends,

I am glad to receive good reports on the Blog site.

Thanks to Don who is devoting a good deal of time in setting up the Circulars to the Blog page and also the photo album.

I can only add that if you want to be mentioned in the Circular, you must either write direct to: Kertesz11@yahoo.com, or FW the your chat with your friends to me.

The same is true with the photos, I need hi resolution photos to work on.

Some of you have never written but receive the Circular, please give us a line or two, you may never know but you may have one of your former buddies waiting to write you.

So now here is a few emails regarding the Web page and solutions being looked into.

Some have already been taken care, but there might be others, your comment is welcomed.

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From: "Don Mitchell CBE, QC"

To: "Pampellonne, Gerard"

Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2006 17:11:07 -0400

Hello Gerard,

It was good to hear from you.

My unsolicited recommendation about going back is this: whatever you do, don't burn any bridges.

Keep your home in the UK as long as you can.

Crime levels in all the West Indian islands are rising dramatically, along with political corruption, kidnappings and cocaine use.

Trinidad is one of the most dangerous islands of all.

Why not try living a few months each year, in the middle of winter perhaps, in Trinidad, and spend the rest of the year in relative safety?

Do that for a few years, and you will know what you really want to do for the future.

Maggie and I have lived and worked in Anguilla since 1976.

We married in 1972 and lived and worked in St Kitts for 5 years before that.

Now, we are retired and living the life of gentlefolk of leisure.

No point my sending a photo if you have seen the albums.

Send me two or three of you and your family, and I shall put them up.

All the best,

Don

(The following page for information on a villa for rent in Spain, ed)

http://www.daltonsholidays.com/fulladview.php?property=2070,

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From: "Don Mitchell, QC"

Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 06:19:15 -0400

Hello Ladislao,

That is a fine piece of work on the photograph.

Yes, it is Simeon.

He was the younger Da Costa brother.

I have enquired after him over the years whenever I was in Barbados.

I have not been able to track him down.

All the best,

Don

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To: Don Mitchell, QC

Sent: Friday, October 07, 7:39 PM

Dear Don

I am enclosing the resultant photo with the corrections.

Please give it your blessing!!!!!.

Hope I have it right, make comments.

I need the last know location of those that do not have and address.

Also if David Da Costa is Simon??

God Bless

Ladislao

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"Don Mitchell, QC" <idmitch@anguillanet.com> wrote:

Hello Nigel,

I got two attachments.

One is labeled MSB Class of 1964.doc (540 KB) and the other is labeled MSB Class of 1964.doc (391 bytes).

The second one I cannot open.

It sounds very small, so perhaps I can ignore it.

The first document contains 4 photos, two of the class and one each of Tony and myself.

It seems to me that the first photo of essentially 2 rows of boys was taken in 1962 when we were in Form IV.

The second photo shows the boys one year older; I believe it was taken in 1963 when we were in Form V.

I have amended the labels accordingly and filled in the missing names.

Does anyone have any corrections or additions?

All the best,

Don

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From: "Nigel Boos"

Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 11:54 AM

I've been trying to pull together what I can find on these 2 years.

Please amend as you see fit.

Nigel

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From: "Don Mitchell, CBE, QC"

To: "Rafael Echeverría"

Date: Mon, 7 Nov 08:35:00 -0400

Hello Rafael,

I have been having computer problems, so have not been in touch for a while.

I have just seen in Circular No 199 that you may be still missing some back issues.

Are there any I can send to you?

Don

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From: "Don Mitchell CBE, QC" idmitch@anguillanet.com

To: "Jon Golding"

Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 21:06:34 -0400

Hi Jon,

I look forward to seeing the photos and the article.

Have you thought of sending them by email to Ladislao so he could use them to illustrate one of his Circulars.

I am sure he would be very grateful for the material.

All the best,

Don

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From: Jon Golding

To: Don Mitchell CBE, QC

Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 6:08 PM

Don,

Bravo! Good work following this up!

I have several additional photos for posting when you are ready.

A great one of Father Francis conducting the Prep A choir in about 1956 with all the usual suspects looking innocent - but we know better!

By the way Fr Francis died recently –

I have a good article in the TT Catholic News which I can scan and send in.

Regards

Jon

(Would like to get the photo at hi resolution for the Circular, ed.)

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From: Don Mitchell CBE, QC

To: David E. Bratt

Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 4:26 PM

We can start a brand new free website at no cost to us if we use one of the free hosters such as Google Groups or Blogger.

They are idiot-proof and any one of us with the capacity to press a keyboard key could run it [it only took me a year to learn!!].

Of course, they are not as fancy as on of the professionally designed ones that we had before.

The pain would be posting all the pages all over again.

Fortunately, I expected this to happen, and saved them all on my computer.

So, at least we have the data saved.

I am sure many of the others did the same!

Don

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From: David E. Bratt

To: Don Mitchell CBE, QC

Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 4:37 PM

Subject: Re: Mount Website

What does it take to start from scratch?

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From: Don Mitchell CBE, QC

To: David E. Bratt MD

Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 3:56 PM

Subject: Mount Website

Hello David,

No, I cannot take over the site as I do not have rights.

A stranger cannot come into the picture and take over someone else's website.

I do not know if anyone even knows who has the rights.

Tony Johnson started it, and then de Marothy was going to take it over from him.

But, he never told us if he succeeded.

Some changes were made to the site after he said he would take it over, but only minor ones on the home page, on one occasion several years ago, and then nothing.

I am afraid that in the event that whoever has control will not do anything to rescue the site, we must prepare to start from scratch.

For Ladislao's Circulars, I have added the photos to the Blog [now that I have found an easy way to do so].

I have only posted the last No 220, and it has the full circular.

It can be viewed at: http://msbtunapuna.blogspot.com/

I can easily post any others that might usefully be posted.

Don

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From: David E. Bratt MD

To: Don Mitchell CBE, QC

Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 2:48 PM

Subject: RE: Mount Website

Can YOU restart it?

I will contribute financially or otherwise if needed,

Dave

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From: Don Mitchell CBE, QC [mailto:idmitch@anguillanet.com]

Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 9:10 AM

Subject: Mount Website

I don't know if anyone noticed.

I attempted to visit the long-dormant Mount website, and found the following message:

"This domain name expired on 01/28/2006 and is pending renewal or deletion."

What a shame!!

Any suggestions?

I am trying to redo the Blog site that I started some time ago, but had given up on.

Ladislao's latest Circular is posted on it.

It is at: http://msbtunapuna.blogspot.com/

We must be able to get Ladislao to easily post his Circulars on one site and have everyone visit at their own convenience and download the message and photos or just read it on the site, as they wish.

He could put many more photos up with each message that way.

There would be no limit to how long each post could be.

Best of all, Ladislao would only have to co-ordinate writing the thing, and would not also have to worry about posting it out to us.

Mind you, I would like to think that he has a patient assistant who does all the boring work!

All the best,

Don

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From: "Jon Golding"

To: "Don Mitchell CBE, QC"

Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 20:57:12 -0500

Hi Don,

I have not finished scanning and reducing the photos but will try to get them to Ladislao soon.

I am travelling a lot these days - In Panama all next week!

Take care

Jon

(Jon I shall post as soon as I get them, ed.)

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From: Don Mitchell CBE, QC

To: Jon Golding

Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 8:06 PM

Hi Jon,

I look forward to seeing the photos and the article.

Have you thought of sending them by email to Ladislao so he could use them to illustrate one of his Circulars.

I am sure he would be very grateful for the material.

All the best,

Don

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From: "Don Mitchell CBE, QC"

Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 15:30:12 -0400

Hello all,

It is a poor substitute for our lost website, but I have updated my collection of Mount photos in Club Photo. Almost all of them were taken from Ladislao's Circular letters, so you may have seen them already.

If you would like to see them just go to: http://www.clubphoto.com/ and enter my email address idmitch@anguillanet.com in the box where you are asked for it.

Click on "Go" after you have done that, and the albums should be all set out before you.

When you left click on an album, it opens.

When you left click on a photo, it opens.

You can download any photo in its expanded version to your computer by right clicking in the usual way and saving it.

All the best,

Don

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Just before closing, the Circular has lost the following Old Boys.

1. Alan Date

2. Anthony Seheult

3. Jerry Bain

4. Gioannetti, Gerard

5. Gonsales, Garvin (868) 620 8740

6. Christopher De Gannes

7. Laughlin, Harry (868) 625 3159

8. Charles, Ronald, Dr. (868) 628 5596

9. Allen, Keith Andrew

10. Ames, Michael (868) 628 6335

These are wanted ALIVE, can anyone help???, It would be nice to have the telephone number confirmed.

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REMEMBER TO PAY YOUR DUE, 50 WORDS PER YEAR, OR SEND A CHECK preferably from any U.S. Bank, to my address,: sorry but under the new laws of Venezuela, I cannot receive or send foreign currency, if caught I can be placed in jail for 3 years on the first offence, so please sent it direct to the Bank of America account of Ladislao Kertesz 02181 09151, Santa Barbara, California, USA.

For those that prefer this way to cooperate with the Circular and the expense that this generates. It is 52 issues per year.

God Bless

Ladislao

Photo in this issue:

2006LK0002LKGRP, Peter Morvay, Alfredo Montiel, Andres Larsen

60LK0001DMTTAS, Don Mitchell

1918UN0001EDIMSB, rest houses

01DM0503FAUGRP, Don and Fr. Augustine

Would you like to collaborate with photos?? Send them to kertesz11@yahoo.com,

Please note: you may have missed some of the circulars, if you have not received one every week, do not hesitate to ask for the missing number to idmitch@anguillanet.com, http://msbtunapuna.blogspot.com/

Look at www.paxabbey.com, for information on the Monastery, Mt St. Benedict.

Look up for great TT photos at: Web Site: http://jgioannettiphotography.com/

Festivals & Functionsš šššššš Or Go directly toš š” Chutney Soca Finals 2006 (Newest) orš

ššššššš http://festivalsandfunctions.jgioannettiphotography.com/Chutney%20Soca%20Finals%202006.htm

Send information to: kertesz11@yahoo.com, if you would like to be in the circular’s mailing list or any old boy that you would like to include. Telf. 0 (212) 263.5346 Caracas.

For those that would like to contact me here I include my telephones:

Telf.Office: 58 (212) 263.5346, 267.2416, From: 11:00GMT to 22:00GMT

FAX: 58 (212) 261.0829,

Home: 58 (212) 238.4084. From: 00:00 GMT to 04:00 GMT

Cellphone: +58 (0416) 612.5695

Remember that Venezuela’s time is the same as Trinidad’s, -04:00 GMT.

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Circular No 233

Newsletter for Alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 22 April 2006. No. 233

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Dear Friends,

Continuing with Andres Larsen, emails received until January, February emails are going to be in No. 237

A special Event, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADISLAO, 20 of April.

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Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 04:08:47 -0800 (PST)

From: "Andres Larsen"

Dear Laszlo:

This is a copy of the so far unanswered e-mail I sent Attila this past January 2nd.

Thanks for your help

Cordially

Andres Larsen

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Andres Larsen wrote:

Hi Attila:

Yes, we have been out of touch for quite some time now.

After MSB I went to Georgetown University in Washington DC for four years and then to Vienna, Austria, for another two to study Diplomacy which I then never got into because instead back here I went working twenty six years in banking (with Banco Provincial) until I was laid off three years ago.

With the bank I did work my way around this country in Maracaibo (10 years), Caracas (10 years), Puerto Ordaz (3 years) and Valencia (3 years).

So here I am now aged 53, single, with no kids, trying to get started as a translator for English and eventually German although I still must pass that legal translation exam after having flunked it on my first try (I get two more chances).

In the meantime both of my parents passed away (recently two to three years ago) and now my brother Christian and I just sold our house in Club Hipico about three hours before midnight on New Year's Eve.

Christian lives up near Los Teques with his wife Jacqueline, three kids (daughters Vanessa and Mairene, and son Emmanuel) and the mother in law.

He has his own small local and international furniture moving and storage business.

The last I heard from you I remember you were studying to become a chemical engineer at the Universidad Simon Bolivar here.

Then I heard from I don't recall whom that you graduated and went to the States and settled somewhere in California.

Ladislao said something that you are still over there and that you married and have a son.

Apparently you sent him a lengthy fullfledged news update on yourself and your family about a month ago.

Write.......

Andres Larsen

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Attila GYURIS wrote:

Hi Andres:

I just received a forwarding of Laszlo Kertesz's Mount St. Benedict Circulars with your MSB "...recollections and ramblings...".

Brought back so many memories and I am marvelled at your recollection of names and places long forgotten.

I always wondered what happened to you over the years.

Glad to have found you again through this wonderful medium of the internet.

Write....

Attila Gyuris

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Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 04:03:30 -0800 (PST)

From: "Andres Larsen"

Dear Lazslo,

I recently wrote Attila an e-mail but received no reply from him.

Maybe he is vacationing somewhere with his family.

I sent him a news update on myself.

I would be very interested in receiving your Circular of about a little over a month ago, which you mentioned in our phone call, and which has his lengthy update since his time at MSB.

I would appreciate this very much.

Separately I'm sending you a copy of the so far unanswered e-mail I sent Attila.

Cordially and best regards

Andres Larsen

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Date:Mon, 23 Jan 2006 05:53:14 -0800 (PST)

From: "Andres Larsen"

Dear Ladislao,

There is something else I noticed in your most recent newsletter and which brings back another memory.

I believe it was either in 1968 or in 1969 that Trinidad was hit by a strong tremor late at night.

The epicenter was somewhere to the north.

I was at that time sleeping in the dorm upstairs which, if I remember correctly was up on the third floor in the main building.

We all ran downstairs and somebody kicked open the dorm door of the dorm which was at ground level on the eastern side towards the Abbey itself.

I pride myself on still recalling the MSB aerial outline.

Any way, that person almost lost its ankle with the karate kick to the door handle.

Why I bring up all of this is that north of Grenada an undersea volcano by the name of Kick 'em Jenny is slowly rising of the sea floor at the outer eastern rim of the Caribbean basin where the Caribbean tectonic plate meets the Atlantic tectonic plate.

There will probably more seaquakes in the region also perhaps affecting our Margarita Island.

The volcano is expected to break the sea's surface within the next 20 years.

More updated information on this growing undersea volcano can probably gleaned from the Google search engine.

Best regards

Andres

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Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 06:05:26 -0800 (PST)

From: "Andres Larsen"

Dear Ladislao,

Talking about the dorm upstairs on the third floor of the main building, another piecemeal recollection comes to mind.

The bigger Venezuelans would shinny up and down the rain drainage pipes from the WC room at night for their wild nights out on the town in Port Of Spain after whichever Benedictine who was overseeing the dorm had gone to sleep after prayers in his cubicle.

We all slept in double bed bunks.

Once one of the Venezuelans, I don't recall which one, coming back in up the pipe, slipped in the WC room next to the urinals and bled heavily.

The next morning obviously the Benedictine doing his rounds found out because of all the blood in the WC room and the bed of the guy who was of course sent packing home expelled without further notice.

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Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 19:30:21 -0800 (PST)

From: "Andres Larsen"

Dear Ladislao,

Reading through your most recent newsletter I came across the mention made of Tucupita.

I do remember him now.

It was Adolfo (or maybe Alfonso) Brito Daumaitre from Tucupita.

That time when I ran into Humberto Mezzana in Caripe del Guacharo I had also visited Daumaitre in Tucupita and slept overnight in his house in a chinchorro.

At that time years ago all his family slept in a room in chinchorros.

I kept falling out of mine.

The only two other times I have tried to sleep overnight in a chinchorro were coming back from Canaima over land not far from Puedpa (where the Leonis had their big cattle ranch) and El Manteco; and once also in Molinete by Carrasquero where the Salesianos have an agricultural training center in Zulia.

Now that you mention it I do vaguely remember the Malavers from El Tigre and also Alfredo Montiel whom I did see once in the early seventies here in Caracas.

I still haven't received the Circular you offered to send me in our phone conversation with the information update from Attila Gyuris on himself and his family in Riverside, California.

I understand from what I can glean from the Google search engine that Attila is an ultralight fiberglass aircraft flight instructor.

That keeps in going with his outdoors enthusiast character.

I will always remember him throwing his bush knife at targets and wielding his cutlass to tame the bamboo into all sorts of tree houses and platforms.

He was a truly great tree climber.

There is somebody else who also comes vaguely to mind.

A guy I think who was later expelled.

He was also from somewhere in the Oriente venezolano and he went by the nickname of Nazi.

He was always taunting and harassing me until I one day got fed up and gripped his head in a wrestler's arm lock until he promised to stop bothering me, all this in front of a crowd going up to the Refectory one morning for breakfast.

After that nobody really messed with me anymore.

I do remember something not so pleasant about the Abbey School and that was a tendency of the older boys to lord it over the younger ones.

I never did that and always tried to get along on the best terms with the younger ones as I also gradually approached Form 5 and the end of my five year stay at Mount St. Benedict.

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From: "Adolfo del Jesus Aumaitre Brito"

Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 01:45:17 +0200

Apreciado amigo,

Te escribo estas cortas lineas para hacerte saber que recibi tu E-mail y esta demas decirte que en la Direccion Regional de Salud del Estado Monagas, Coordinacion de Salud Visual, estoy totalmente a la orden para lo que se te ofrezca a ti o a cualquiera de los OLD BOYS del Abbey school.

Un afectuoso saludo,

Dr. Adolfo Aumaitre Brito

Dear friend

I am writing these short lines to let you know that I received your email and it is to let you know that at the Direccion Regional de Salud del Estado Monagas, Coordinacion de Salud Visual, I am totally at your disposal in whatever you need for you or any of the old boys of the Abbey School.

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Just before closing, the Circular has lost the following Old Boys.

1. Capt. John Dulieu

2. Frederick Du Coudray (First Citizen Bank TT) (868) 623 2576

3. Roger Farah

4. Gioannetti, Gerard

5. Gonsales, Garvin (868) 620 8740

6. Christopher De Gannes

7. Laughlin, Harry (868) 625 3159

8. Charles, Ronald, Dr. (868) 628 5596

9. Allen, Keith Andrew

10. Ames, Michael (868) 628 6335

These are wanted ALIVE, can anyone help???, It would be nice to have the telephone number confirmed.

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REMEMBER TO PAY YOUR DUE, 50 WORDS PER YEAR, OR SEND A CHECK preferably from any U.S. Bank, to my address,: sorry but under the new laws of Venezuela, I cannot receive or send foreign currency, if caught I can be placed in jail for 3 years on the first offence, so please sent it direct to the Bank of America account of Ladislao Kertesz 02181 09151, Santa Barbara, California, USA.

For those that prefer this way to cooperate with the Circular and the expense that this generates. It is 52 issues per year.

God Bless

Ladislao

Photo in this issue:

2006LK0001LKGRP, Peter Morvay, Ladislao Kertesz, Andres Larsen

06AL0001ALACSC, Queen’s Scout Certificate of Andres Larsen

1913UN0002EDIMSB, front of the old chapel.

57LK0001BVIGRP, Bro Vincent and kids. (I need your help LIONEL !!!)

Would you like to collaborate with photos?? Send them to kertesz11@yahoo.com,

Please note: you may have missed some of the circulars, if you have not received one every week, do not hesitate to ask for the missing number to idmitch@anguillanet.com, http://msbtunapuna.blogspot.com/

Look at www.paxabbey.com, for information on the Monastery, Mt St. Benedict.

Look up for great TT photos at: Web Site: http://jgioannettiphotography.com/

Festivals & Functionsš šššššš Or Go directly toš š” Chutney Soca Finals 2006 (Newest) orš

ššššššš http://festivalsandfunctions.jgioannettiphotography.com/Chutney%20Soca%20Finals%202006.htm

Send information to: kertesz11@yahoo.com, if you would like to be in the circular’s mailing list or any old boy that you would like to include. Telf. 0 (212) 263.5346 Caracas.

For those that would like to contact me here I include my telephones:

Telf.Office: 58 (212) 263.5346, 267.2416, From: 11:00GMT to 22:00GMT

FAX: 58 (212) 261.0829,

Home: 58 (212) 238.4084. From: 00:00 GMT to 04:00 GMT

Cellphone: +58 (0416) 612.5695

Remember that Venezuela’s time is the same as Trinidad’s, -04:00 GMT.

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