A Little Bit of History

An impeccably dressed two year old! (The pictures with borders on this page are hyperlinked to bigger and usually clearer views. You'll need to use your browser's <Back> button to return to this page if you take any of those links.)

I'm the blondie that's beating into my sister! I think that's a karate chop to her neck that's about to happen! (I vaguely recall it was a battle for her teddy bear. Why could she have both a doll and a bear and I had nothing to cuddle?) Or was it a mosquito that I saw on her neck and was about to swat? 

You can tell I was going to be smarter than my sister because my head was bigger!!! (Or maybe that's not a good thing?)

Trying hard to look intelligent for one of the early school photos. I hated my hair being glued to my head!

My Years at Primary School

NOTE: If you went to school in Australia and are interested in catching up with your old classmates or even some of the teachers, may I suggest that you add yourself into the schoolfriends site?

When scanning these pictures to include here, it's quite amazing to look at each face and recall the interactions I've had with each of these people. Some faces bring no memories at all, but most have a story or two that could be told. One of these guys was my mate all the way through school. One of the girls I proposed to at the drink throughs! See if you can pick the twins.

Grade 2 must have been a poor year as the photo never made it into my keepsakes. Grade 3 saw us share the teacher and classroom with a bunch of grade 4 kids to make up a mixed class. (Some of the kids in the grade 4 class were not too smart I think!? The twins are still in this class. Can you pick them this time?

Not sure how all the rest of the kids did this year, but I got straight "A"s at both half year and also at the end of the year! (I kinda think that most of them did too!)

A new kid started from England this year - he went on the get an opening part in "Mad Max". The twins are still there. Can you pick them yet? They are also in the picture below....

This is the last year at Primary School. All "big" kids before the reality check of being the youngest kids again in our next year at school!

There were no photos during my Technical school years, so use your imagination to convert how I looked above into what follows when I started work.

The mullet is getting underway here... Stage one - grow it longer and keep cutting the fringe so you can see where you are going! I think I'm about 17. As I was always paranoid about the size of my ears, I was intent to cover them up!

I'm 19 and thinking I'm starting to look "pretty cool"!

Yup, I thought the world was my oyster at 20! As I wanted to become popular and part of the "in" people that I knew, I started smoking (because all of those "popular people" smoked and I wanted to fit in).

Then, at 22 I had a major crash on my motorbike and lost a third of my weight whilst in hospital. This is when I first got out (and was trying to whistle!) I went through all manner of bitterness about "Why me?", and wishing for different than what I now had. The realisation that I was not "bullet-proof" (like most teenagers seem to think they are) gave me a whole new outlook on the world and daily life.

I didn't get religious, but I was thankful for every moment.

By my mid to late twenties, the longer hair was back, I'd gained some weight and there was a beard there as well.... The foot that had been crushed between the motorbike and the car was giving me continual pain, but I was trying all the mind control stuff to stay on top of the agony my foot was giving me.

The straight hair used to grow straight down and into my eyes, so I went curly (and blonder - and started to have more fun!!!!)

Then the hair colour went again, and the length shrunk a bit. A little while after this, I had my right foot amputated. Gone was the pain I used to suffer from, and in it's place was a whole new set of challenges - like having no feeling or balance on a prothesis.

Right up to a shot taken just yesterday.... or maybe it was the day before...(Well, it was recent anyhow!)