| Biography:
Since leaving Leeuwin 1967, myself and most others from our intake went
onto the Vung Tau Ferry, after that it was off to Cerberus for training,
(greenie) and then back again to the Vung Tau Ferry, all up I think I did
7 trips up and back. That put me off the big ships. Tarangau
in Papua New Guinea was my next posting, 90 miles south of the Equator for
12 months, I liked it that much I went back a second time. We
maintained patrol boats there and as a result my posting back at Cerberus
was as an instructor on patrol boats, the 'green' side of
training. I did such a good job their, Canberra decided to put me on
one or two patrol boats, Ardent and Adroit, it was a bit like McHale's
Navy, very slack, a lot better than being on those bigger ships. The
only down side of them was anything over a force 4, like a duck swimming
past, made it a bit uncomfortable.
1978 saw me complete 12 years service. Why did I leave
then? My wife Joan, 'who must be obeyed', said if you want kids I
had better get out, she did not like the idea of travel and kids
together. That’s why.
We settled in Frankston Victoria, I found a job as technician with
Olivetti fixing office equipment, stayed with them a few years then
decided to get into a business, a 'mixed business' that is, another name
for that, milk bar, long hours, sore feet the odd broken shop front
window, and squealing car tyres out the front of our live in shop.
We leased that for 2 years, had an offer to good to refuse, went back to
Olivetti for 6 months and tried being an insurance sales person, which
failed, was retrenched from a couple of jobs, then back into maintenance
repairs again and have more or less been in that since. The last 10
years have been in high volume printing equipment with odd working hours.
Joan and I have been married for 26 years and have two daughters,
Kristy and Jodie. Kristy, our eldest, is in the police force and
loves it. Jodie, our youngest, is a primary school teacher in her
second year and tied the knot one week ago. We don’t have any
grand children yet like many of you other 'scumbags' but are looking
forward to if and when it does happen.
That’s briefly what has happened in nearly 40 Years!
|
