Filed under: Thoughts on Life
Born in the Netherlands during the sixties, so I guess that makes me a baby boomer/generation X. We moved to Australia when I was six, my Mum and Dad and younger sister. We lived for a time in Perth where I went to Brentwood Primary School, and Rosmoyne High School. In 1973 we moved to Brisbane, where I attended Sunnybank High School and for a year MacGregor High School. 1979 I moved to Cairns, North Queensland, and took up an Electrical Fitter and Turner apprenticeship with the Far North Queensland Electricity Board. I lived with my Uncle and Aunt in Gordonvale, on their eighty acre hillside farm. Those were pretty good days – I rode horses, shot pigs, bought my first big bike (a Suzuki GT750, and later a Suzuki GS850). Later on moved to town and met my first wife, fell in love, and got married. We had one child and then things got crazy and we split apart. I headed overseas to London, Germany, Egypt, and finally Israel where I worked on a farm. It was there that I got my head and heart back together again. Fell in love again, fell out of love again, met some nice ladies, travelled from Israeal to Morrocco with a good Canadian mate, and wound up in Lodon again. It was there that I met my second wife, although this wasn’t obvious at the time. We had a brief two week encounter and then went our seperate ways, she to New Zealand and me staying put in London. We kept in touch, and after my Mum died in Cairns I went back to London with a detour to Tauranga NZ to see Gill. Well, one thing led to another, and Gill came back to London with me. I had already started to formulate a plan to drive a landrover through Africa and have a bit of an adventure. Gill wasn’t too keen, but I said ‘Come along, it’ll be fun and you’ll see lots of elephants.’ Elephants are Gill’s weak spot. So she did, and we had a wonderful year long trip. Eventually ended up in Harare Zimbabwe, sold the landrover and headed back to London. A year later wound up in Tauranga again, bought a house, rescued a cat, found a dog, got married, produced two beautiful kids…but that’s another story.