Growing Up

Box Hill

I was born at Box Hill Hospital and grew up around Elgar Road. Box Hill Kindergarten first, then Box Hill Primary, then Koonung Secondary College. I graduated with the class of 1974, started a degree at Melbourne University and dropped out.

Europe

I worked as a labourer on the F19 freeway in Melbourne to save money to travel Europe as a backpacker. I used Europe on $10 a Day as my bible, long before Lonely Planet arrived. I spent close to two years moving around Europe, working wherever I could and spending as little as possible. At some point along the way I ended up on a kibbutz near the Sea of Galilee, where I stayed for about six months, and after that joined a camel trek down along the Red Sea and into the Sinai Desert, overnighting with Bedouin tribes.

Back in Australia

I returned to Oz and drove taxis, coached some tennis and delivered bread for Home Pride. Then I found Control Data and did a computer course. I was top of my class so I had no problem getting a job thereafter.

Sydney and Singapore

I eventually continued my career in Sydney as a computer consultant. In 1992 I was on a charter on the Hawkesbury River. Then on to Singapore as a project manager, which gave me the taste of expat life. Which once tasted can be hard to give up.

In 2001 I captained the Australian Elephant Polo Team at the World Cup in Thailand.