Photo gallery
A small selection of photos from my life. Most of the earlier ones (to the 1990s) were taken by Dad; the later ones by me.
Miscellaneous
Mum reads me (at left) and my sister a bedtime story, 1972.
Me on the front porch, off to my first day of kindergarten, 1974.
Michele and I (on left) playing in the backyard on a summer evening long ago, 1975 or 1976.
My sister and I with our maternal grandmother, 1976.
Michele and I in the Botanical Gardens, Autumn 1981.
Me during a horseriding lesson, 1981. Like a lot of young girls I went through a horse-mad phase, though this ended once I turned 13.
Me riding my first bicycle, 1981.
My sister and I on the beach at Inverloch during a family holiday, 1982. (So young! And slim! Before the horrors of adolescence emerged …)
This is the only photo I could find of myself doing anything vaguely sporty … during an egg-and-spoon race at a Junior School sports day, circa 1982. (You can stop laughing now.)
Me on my uncle’s yacht (which he built himself) during a sail on Port Phillip Bay, 1982.
Planewatching with Dad at Tullamarine (Melbourne) International Airport, sometime in 1986. We occasionally drove here to wander around and look at the jets landing and taking off. I wished I could be on them! I did enjoy these outings. (My hideous dress sense of then is sadly evident.)
At ASTA, in front of a 747’s huge engine, 1988. I had just begun dieting and losing weight, but this had not yet mutated into an eating disorder.
This is probably the nicest I ever looked, even if I did have an eating disorder … Dad took this in the backyard, sometime in 1991.
Me on the pier at Hastings during a family outing, 23 March 2005.
Homes
I have only lived in 2 places throughout my life so far. I get very attached to places and objects, and find change upsetting. Sometimes I feel I would like to move if I had the means, but leaving the place I have resided in since I was born would be very difficult as so many memories are embedded here. It is bad enough seeing the unpleasant changes that overdevelopment is doing to my suburb. If time travel were possible, I would like to go back and revisit the places of my past.
My parents’ home, November 1970, not long after they moved in, looking south-west. It was built in the late 1940s and two families had occupied it before us, and was the first house built in our suburb; a typical style for that period. It has 3 bedrooms (originally 2!), a hallway, bathroom (one toilet), laundry, kitchen, dining room and lounge room. It probably seems tiny compared to homes now. As of 2011 we are still living there, so it’s been continuously occupied for 70+ years!
My maternal grandparents’ home, where they lived from 1941 to 1997 (Grandpa died in 1982). It was my family’s “second home” as it was only about 15 minutes’ drive away from my parents’ house, so we spent a lot of time there. It was sold in 1997 after Gran had to go into a nursing home, and a developer demolished it and built 4 ugly townhouses there. I hope there is a special place in Hell reserved for him. I miss the house very much, and dream about it a lot.
Gran in the backyard of her home. The house was set on a large block on land in an old suburb, with a canal behind it, so there was a lot of room to roam around and explore.
My bedroom in 1989, looking southeast towards my bed.
My desk in my bedroom, southwest view, 1989.
Front yard of my parents’ home (looking southwest), 9 April 2007.
My bedroom, looking southeast, 29 April 2007. In contrast to my teenage years, my bedroom has no posters on the walls. Dad renovated the room in October 2001 (he previously changed the wallpaper in the early 1980s). I chose a pale blue for the wall paint, a color I found restful.
My bedroom and desktop, looking southwest, 29 April 2007.
School portraits
Kindergarten portrait, 1975.
Kilvington school portrait, 1977.
Kilvington school portrait at 12 years old, 1983, just before the onset of adolescence after which I looked awful.