Something about the Author
So you really want to know some things about me? Okies - where to start?
I was born in the UK in a small town just outside Liverpool called Rainhill, for those who know the area, go on - have a chuckle - yes, years ago there was an asylum for the unstable situated there. (I could see it from my bedroom window!)
When I was almost 10 years old we emigrated to Australia - that was in 1974. (**groans** now I'm feeling old!) We came out under assisted passage on a Greek ship called SS Australis. Shortly after docking here in Melbourne and leaving us finally on Terra Firma, it docked in Sydney and then promptly pranged into the HMAS Melbourne - am I glad we had already disembarked!
The trip out here was fantastic! Six weeks aboard a cruise ship! Three swimming pools, a gym, two dining rooms and a cinema - oh **sighs** and then there was day school too. Fortunately that only lasted for two hours a day so the rest of the time was our own!
Coming to a new country was a terrifying, but exciting experience. Leaving all my old school friends over in Rainhill was very hard. I managed to locate a few old friends two years ago and we try to stay in contact to some degree.
The first two months in Australia we spent in Hastings Victoria - an experience that wasn't quite so pleasant. Back in the 70's Hastings wasn't much more than a bush town, apart from John Lysaghts/BHP (a steel works) foundry, the town really had nothing going for it, the kids were rough - as I said not a pleasant experience.
Thankfully Hastings has improved in leaps and bounds in the past 30 years.
We moved to Mornington late in '74, and my younger brothers and I started school at Vale Street, before moving on to Tanti Park Primary School in early '75. I can honestly say I loved Tanti - the kids were great and so were the teachers - I was surprised in the 90's when my oldest child started there, that a couple of the teachers were still at the school - it was great to see familiar faces.
'76 saw me start at Mornington High School, complete with Aussie accent by then too *G* No more being called 'pommy-bastard'.
For the most part I loved school, unusual I know, but I was always relatively good at school so I never had many problems with the work (except Math!), and the teachers were good then too. Most of them really gave a damn about the kids, unfortunately these days I wonder why half of the teachers decided on a career in education - as the younger ones can't even spell! (Yeah - my pet peeve!) Many of them don't seem to care whether the kids absorbe anything either.
Don't get me wrong, I have friends who are teachers, and I know how hard it is to be a teacher these days - but when a parent comes in and asks you for specific help for their child - for god's sake - don't fob them off! One of my daughters teachers promised to concentrate on a particular aspect of Math she was having probs with - he never did a damn thing - even told us at the next Parent/Teacher night, that for some reason our child suddenly 'clicked' on the problem. Hubby saw red, and told him she hadn't 'just clicked' he had sat up three nights in a row trying to explain to her how to work the sum out, before she finally understood. Obviously she was put in the 'too hard' basket by this teacher.
Okay, enough bitching *G* I'll save that for the blog.
I left school at 17 1/2 to join the army. Basic training in one of the last intakes to go through Georges Heights NSW before arriving in Puckapunyal in late '82, back in Victoria - nearer my family - and training to be a truck driver. Don't laugh!
I drove trucks for a couple of months, before being sent on a clerks course in Brissie, and then was sent out to an Army Reserve Unit as Cadre Staff.
I was discharged (honourably) from the Army in 1985, 22 days before hubby and I married.
Always imagined that after being trained by the military, I'd have no problems getting employment in civvie street - but you learn!
I have been in so many different jobs in the last 18 years - as long as people use toilet's you can never be out of a job LOL! Only partly joking, I have done toilet cleaning, but the rest of the work has been basic drudge work. Supermarkets, banking, petrol stations - whatever I need to turn my hand to.
Hubby and I have three kids, Melanie, Aimee and Bobbie. All bright, intelligent kids - or so thats what their teachers keep telling me, LOL. Apart from being normal, messy kids who hate cleaning their rooms, they are good kids, and hubby and I are very proud of them all.
A couple of years ago we bought an old computer for games and such, and I slowly learnt the way each program worked. We upgraded from the old 286 to a 486 when my mum and dad passed their old one on to us. (Big Mistake! Hubby reckons.)
The old 486 is now being used for solely games by the kids, whilst I have a bright shiney new pentium to play around on. But the worst thing as far as hubby is concerned is the net connection *G*. I spend a lot of time on here messing around creating websets and pages for people to come and browse through - may be use on their own sites. I started by creating the old Angels Graphix site at tripod before a friend helped me buy this site through ICD Soft over in the states.
I still have the old Angels Graphix site attached, but also the newer site - colour-by-numbers, which has both adoptable graphics in the form of websets and special gift adoptions, as well as basic HTML tutorials. I taught myself HTML so I could hand code all my pages and so have better control over how they look, and I figured if I can teach myself the basics, may be I can teach others?
I love creating stuff on here, its an outlet for a pretty mundane life *G*. I write online too and love the Anne McCaffrey stories about the Dragon Riders of Pern, so there are also links to a couple of clubs I belong to online.
Apart from working on the PC doing webstuff - and I've even managed to create a couple of Professional Websites on here too - I love to read! Anne McCaffrey is the only SciFi/Fan author I like to read, mainly because I love the escapism, but apart from her I really love murder/mystery/horror type books.
There's nothing better on a cold, wintery night, than to be huddled under the bedcovers reading a great novel. And scaring myself silly with horror stories has always been a quirk of mine. *G* Started with Stephen King when I was about 14 years old, and have progressed through to Richard Laymon and James Herbert for true gothic horror. Mary Higgins Clarke and Dick Francis also pack punches with no holds barred grippers.
**pouts** But I'm hanging in there right now for the next Patricia Cornwell to come out. If you haven't read a really great 'un-putdownable' book in a while - go find yourself a bookstore and buy a copy of one of her Kay Scarpetta novels - you'll not be able to put the book down - that's a guarantee!
If I miss a few days online due to work, you can be guaranteed that to wind down after dealing with customers, I have grabbed the nearest Scarpetta novel and curled up in dads' old recliner in front of the fire and am lost in her world of forensic medicine.
Well, as Forrest Gump would say - "that's all I have to say about that". So until my blog is up and running, I'm off to write some HTML, or maybe make a graphic or two.
I hope I haven't bored you too much, and that you've learnt a little about me? Don't forget to sign my guest book before you leave so I can come and visit you too!
**hugs**
Kaysea
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