ABOUT DAVID

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I was born in 1962 and grew up on a farm near a small town, population 500, in central west New South Wales, Australia. I was the second oldest child and I have 2 sisters and a younger brother.

The farm income was mainly from wheat and wool production with some cattle for beef. It had been my grandfather's farm before my father and uncle took control after his death . My grandmother lived on the farm until her death. We kept about 20 'chooks' ( chickens ) for eggs and my father would occasionally kill a sheep for the family to eat. We quite often had pet lambs or calves to look after.

It was a friendly, protective community to grow up in - many of our neighbours were Baptist - and my mother used to take us to the local Anglican Church at least twice a month.

I attended the local central school up until year 6 - there were only 12 people in my year, 10 boys and only 2 girls. I gained entrance into a selective boarding school by sitting an entrance test. The school was in Sydney and had classes which included agriculture. I boarded there for the 6 years until I finished high school. Most of the other boarders were from the country and most of the day pupils were from the city.

At high school I joined the Brass band and played the E Flat Tenor Horn for 6 years. I didn't enjoy that nearly as much as teaching myself to play the guitar. This was steel string initially and later I had some classical guitar lessons.

I decided to become a doctor in my last 2 years of high school. No one else in my family had done this before. I didn't really study that hard at school - but the boarding school environment meant we had 2 hours set aside for study and homework each weeknight. I probably increased that to 2-3 hours during my final year.

Anyway, it was probably the biggest thrill of my life to get into Medical school - I can still remember shaking as I read my Higher School Certificate marks. Little did I realise the amount of study I would need to do for the next 5 years ( for a short period there was an undergraduate 5 year medical course, but now there is only a 6 year undergraduate or 4 year postgraduate medical degree ).

All my school and university holidays were spent back on the farm doing things such as droving sheep and cattle, helping at shearing time, ploughing ,harvesting wheat and driving trucks with wheat to the grain silos 10 km away. It was what farm children did and a way of helping my parents afford the boarding fees for school and university.

I lived on campus for the 5 years of university. The college was Anglican and all male and very traditional. However it was close to lectures and all meals were provided so I enjoyed my university years. I had some great friends and great times while at university.

I now live in the inner part of Sydney with my partner, less than 20 minutes to the beaches, the airport, the central business district ('downtown'), and only a short walk to cafes and restaurants. Sydney has a great "cafe culture" with lots of little cafes, serving espresso coffee and light meals. Most now have outdoor seating.

The house is in a row of new terrace style housing, with a small backyard with tropical looking garden and off-street parking.

LIKES:

• Colour : Blues and Purples
  
• Music : Varied - From Erasure, Pet Shop Boys,to Brooks and Dunn, Neil Young, Jim Croce, to Eric Clapton, to Classical guitar.
  
• Television : Don't watch much, but love all the "Law and Order" series, and "CSI" series.
  
• Food : Modern Australian, Modern Italian, Thai ( especially satay and Green chicken curry )
  
• Film : I don't go nearly often enough. Love some mainstream action thrillers such as "The Terminator", "Mission Impossible", but also romantic comedy eg "My Best Friend's Wedding", "Bridget Jone's Diary" etc and independent movies such as "Secrets and Lies", "The Full Monty" etc and "American Beauty", "Amelie", and the documentary "Bowling for Columbine".