In the beginning .....

I was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 13 September, 1961.  At least, that's what my mother tells me and I see no reason to disbelieve her.  After all, she was there.  Also, I checked out my birth certificate, so unless it's forged, she's telling the truth!

Life was very peaceful at first.  I was a good baby, and was only dropped on my head three or four times.  I'm sure that Mum and Dad didn't really mean it.   Well, I hope they didn't mean it.

Then along came my siblings.  That was the end of a quiet peaceful life!  I have a brother and four sisters.  There are roughly two years between us all in age, except for the twins, who are the same age.  Amazing coincidence that!  They arrived to disrupt my life in the following order:  Jim (1963), Janet (1965), Lynda and Sandra (1967) and Patricia (1969).

During this time, we moved around Queensland a fair bit, living in Southport, Bundaberg and finally Maryborough, where I did most of my growing up.  I don't think we moved because we were too noisy for the neighbours, but, as you can imagine, we had a full and hectic household.  It was fun and I recall having a happy childhood.  When I read about what some people went through as children, I think how fortunate we all were.   It wasn't idyllic but it certainly was better than most!

Eventually the family made the big trek south to Melbourne (1977).  My parents, who are Irish, really enjoyed moving from warm, sunny Queensland to cold Victoria, especially because it meant they got to see daffodils again, and enjoy wearing heavy coats!  I've often wondered about my parents .... strange people.  Still, it doesn't seem to have rubbed off on me fortunately.

We children weren't quite so keen on the move at the time.  I remember freezing in the middle of summer, and, like most teenagers, thought my life had ended because I didn't know everybody and would miss out on the daily trials and tribulations of my usual circle of friends.  Moving from a country town to a city was a culture shock, as was moving from a small girls' school to a huge co-ed school.  Luckily, the school authorities made me do Year 10 again because of my age and gave me the chance to discover BOYS.   Well, I'd already learned everything on the syllabus and had to do something to while away the hours!

Life carried on and we became assimilated into the Victorian way of doing things, so much so that I now consider myself a Victorian, although Janet is still a Queenslander at heart.  I went to Melbourne University, where I had fun and managed to collect a BSc in Mathematics along the way.  I worked for a while in a supermarket to have a break from study, then returned to Melbourne Uni to get my Dip Ed, so that I could achieve my lifelong ambition of being a maths teacher.

Funny, isn't it, to think that anyone would have that as a lifelong ambition?  My theory is that it was the only thing that I thought you could do for a job if you were mathematically gifted.  It doesn't say much for the Careers advice we were given at school back then.  Mind you, they probably thought I'd grow out of it, get married, have a family, and end up using my mathematical skills checking the docket from the supermarket.

I trekked off to Country Victoria to teach, first of all in Warracknabeal (3 years) and then in Red Cliffs (5.5 years).  It was a wonderful experience, and I made terrific friends, learned a lot about myself and other people, got to know the Sunraysia Highway intimately as I visited the family in Melbourne, and generally had a good time.

Then one day I woke up and didn't want to be a teacher any more.  There were a lot of contributing factors.  I was dedicated and put a lot of effort into my teaching, which I felt wasn't as rewarding any more with the cuts to Education from the early Kennett government, the increasingly unreasonable demands of some parents who thought their children were 'gifted' or 'misunderstood' as it was easier than believing that they were junior delinquents, and the higher retention rates which resulted in more children at school who didn't want to be there.  That's not to say that there weren't wonderful students, great parents, and regular achievements in my teaching - it's just that I felt the balance sheet left me in the red.  I wanted to do something for ME for a change, instead of always being obliging and taking on voluntary work in the community, coaching sporting teams, etc etc on top of my regular teaching load.

I managed to get a separation package from the State Government, which paid for my car, sent my Dad to Ireland to see his family, and bought some appliances for my new home in Melbourne.  I also accidentally ended up in the computer industry.

Some five years later I'm still working in IT, as a consultant.  Along the way, I've picked up some programming skills, learned about project management, designed and maintained a number of websites, started my own web design business, and generally had a good time.  I've also worked in Darwin for a little over 18 months, thus managing to assist Janet to achieve one of her goals.  For some reason, she wanted me to live as far away as possible from the family - and thought Darwin was a good spot!   Seriously, it was a long standing joke, and so it was even funnier when I did eventually move up to Darwin.

I haven't said much about personal relationships here ... I'm single, independent, have never married, and have no children.  While I was teaching I didn't have much time for myself and never noticed the lack.  Most of my female friends were also single, never married with no children, so it seemed perfectly normal to me.  Since leaving teaching, I've had more time for a personal life and have been enjoying it immensely.   I came close to giving up my singleness a couple of times but am still footloose and fancy free.  I think I'm destined to be a maiden aunt, and I intend to be a good one.  Mind you, my niece and nephews have four maiden aunts at the moment, so they are spoiled for choice!