The Early Reader Years (birth to 12 years)
- The Early Reader Years (birth to 12 years)
- The Young Adult Years (13 to 20)
- The Adult Years (21 to 36)
- The Cool Older Guy Years (37 to now)
1964 – Born in Sydney on the 26th of February. I’m the second oldest child in my family. My parents had three sons and one daughter. I had an older brother, then there’s me, then my sister, then my little brother. In my first year, I got quite sleepy on the odd occasion.
1965 – Spent the year alternating between being cute, sleepy and cheeky.
1966 – Moved to Melbourne where we lived in a Housing Commission flat in Kensington. Our flats were a bit like this, only smaller – just the four floors. This picture shows the flats The Undys are set in. It’s in Williamstown, across the bay from the city of Melbourne in Victoria.
1967 –Achieved my crayon license at kindergarten. (Hahahaha! Okay, we didn’t really have crayon licenses, but if we did I would certainly have got mine … sooner or later.)
1968 – Enjoyed much interesting water play.
1969 – Started primary school in Kensington. Loved reading Dr Seuss in particular.
1970 – Accidentally flooded our flat. The water to our flats had been turned off. Despite being told not to by my mum, I left the tap on and went to school. When I got home there was water running down the stairs and our flat was totally flooded. Oops. Sorry, Mum.
1971 – Moved to Carlton, just opposite the Exhibition Gardens. It was our first house. Yay! We were allowed to live in it for one year. My Dad’s work said we could.
There was only one problem. On the day we moved in, the place was so dusty, the dust got into my eyes. When I woke up the next morning, my eyes were completely clagged shut by dust. After a few scary minutes, I could open one eye, but it took hours to get the other one un-clagged. Yuk! I talk about this day in my story The Radio, which you can read here.
I also fell out of a tree this year, and landed on my head. I must have been at least one floor up. It’s the one and only time I’ve been winded.
1972 – Moved to Box Hill in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. This was the first time we actually owned our house. Double-yay! I also moved schools, to Box Hill Primary School.
1973 – Did nothing interesting. Didn’t feel like it that year. :^)
1974 – Had another quiet year. Well, it WAS the 70s.
1975 – Finished primary school. Yay! I hadn’t done much in the last few years anyway.