The Early Years...

Well here goes. I was born on a hot November day in Sydney back in 1976. At the time my Mum (the lovely Karen pictured left - Also pictured are my Pop, Paul - Mums Husband, my Dad & Bob - my Step Dad) was living in a place called Merrylands in a house that I understand was a little crowded with Relatives.

So after an adventerous trip to the hospital in peak hour traffic in Sydney I was born! Life was never boring in my family. I spent the first few years living with my Mum and grandparents and off and on some other relatives (but being so young I cant remember).

I lived in some fantastic places while I was growing up the first of these that I remember so fondly - The Big Step House at Emu Heights - this was, as the name implies, a house with many steps. This house backed onto the Blue Mountains national park and I recollect taking walks many times with my Pop and our Dog called Dog. hmmm... I am starting to see a pattern in naming conventions.

Another place that I also loved was the Brick Factory. This again was named as such because it was ...a Brick Factory! Here we lived in a small 1 bedroom unit attached to the office at a Brick Factory that my Pop worked at. I think that there was about 5 - 6 of us that lived here, but the one thing I remember was always having people there to spend time with and also all the adventures that I went on with my Pop on the acerage that was the Brick Factory. We also used to go through the factory and I used to be so scared that I was going to fall off a catwalk and into a kiln! We also used to go swimming in the dam and Dog used to chase waterhens. I dont think that he ever caught one, but he had a great time trying.

After a time Mum and Bob (my step-Dad) moved us to a place called St Clair where we stayed until at the age of 13 it was decided that Sydney was no longer the place to live and they moved me to Hervey Bay. Talk about culture shock! MY GOD could I have felt more out of place! One thing I found was that I was intimidated by all the white (european) people there. Now some of you might have noticed that I am a white girl myself, however I had grown up in a multi-cultural environment and was used to seeing people of all backgrounds. On my first day of school I felt overwhelmed by it all! But I adapted and Hervey Bay has since become a little more multi-cultural. It even has good Thai and Chinese restaurants :-)

Anyway - more from me later :-)