For the sake of writing it down, what follows is a chronological list of gross sections of my life to date. Continue reading if you dare, it isn’t particular interesting; merely here in case someone would like to know a little more about me than is on the about page.
1980-1984
I’m told that when I was still a baby, I was a huge pain in the arse. True or not, apparently my mum was at her absolute tether with me quite regularly. It might have had something to with me crying a lot and not drinking fluids, I hated milk as history would record it. To get around the problem, my mum would often mix coffee with my milk and I’d guzzle it down; maybe thats where my love of coffee came from? ;)
Once I grew up a little bit, I was probably over energetic (aren’t all little kids though?) and loved getting into mischeif. It didn’t really matter what sort, as long as it was fun I was all for it. I also loved playing with an old musical recorder at the time, turns out it makes a really clear noise when you blow it as hard as you can at about 5am.
Some say problem child, I’d prefer to remember it as fun and lovable. No doubt that will change when I have my own kids
:)
1985-1991
During primary school I had a blast playing sport, riding push bikes, skateboards and motorbikes. I started playing rugby league when I was “5”, however since I’m born after Christmas, that made me a smaller “5” year old. I recall, so do most of my family, a particular football match where a “big scary kid” tried to tackle me. In confusion or maybe fear, I ran the other way as fast as I could (Forrest Gump style); scoring for the opposition – damn I’ll never live that one down. The mischief I mentioned when I was younger definitely continued here. I was in trouble all the time, so often that I don’t really recall how many I’d been sent to the office. With all the trouble though, I really do recall having a blast at school!
1992-1997
1998-2003
2004-2006
At the start of the year, I wasn’t sure what I should be doing with myself. What I did know for sure was that I’d been at university long enough and I really needed a break from it. I had investigated a few different options that would let me leave university for a period of time and freshen up but nothing seemed to take my fancy at the time.
The middle of 2004 was one of the most amazing times in my life to date I think. On Monday July 11th I took Claire out to breakfast at the Parkhouse Cafe in Toowoomba for our 7th year anniversary. Claire and I had been to the Parkhouse Cafe before for an anniversary, so it was familiar and always very nice. The familiarity of it formed part of a clever plan, as while we were there I dropped the big one; I asked Claire for her hand in marriage. Even more exciting, Claire said YES!
As geeky fate would have it, I got to know a nice bloke named Jacob over the previous few months and those that followed. When reading his site, he said he lived in Toowoomba – so I asked him if he knew anyone that was looking for a full time IT employee locally. Unfortunately (or so I thought at the time), he didn’t know anyone in Toowoomba but replied with “no, but we are”. That of course prompted the question, who is we? It turned out that we was BreakFree, a publicly listed management letting rights holder and provider of accommodation through their expanding range of resorts, hotels and apartments.
After some discussions with Jacob on a Tuesday evening, he asked if I was interested in a job at the Gold Coast and if I had a resume. Well of course I had a resume but not a technical one, so I quickly assembled one that evening and sent it through the following morning. I was surprised to find out that after passing it around the office, I was asked to come in for an interview on Thursday morning. I drove down to the Gold Coast from Toowoomba with Claire for the first time and 30-40 minutes later reemerged with a shiny new job, I couldn’t believe it!
The whole job thing was all pretty amazing timing as I had only proposed to Claire that Monday. Claire was already in a full time position at a school in Toowoomba until the end of the year, so I picked up a bag of clothes and moved down to Surfers Paradise at the Gold Coast to start work on the 2nd August.