Born in Brisbane in the early hours of 9th April 1961, I grew up in the northern suburbs of the city: Wilston, Sandgate and Zillmere. In 1968, my family - father, mother, brother and three sisters - moved to Redcliffe Peninsular, north of Brisbane. This move was, in part, to provide a healthier seaside environment for one of my sisters, who suffered from a debilitating disease requiring large amounts of medication and frequent hospital visits.

Growing up in a Queensland seaside town in the late 60s and early 70s was a pretty pleasant experience - neighbourhood fences were only two feet high, people left their cars unlocked when they went shopping and graffiti was nonexistent. Our huge Queenslander was situated in a quiet area well suited to games of street cricket and Sunday evenings were filled with the smell of barbecue smoke. I watched live television pictures of Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, drooled over the advertisements for the new Chrysler Charger and saved my pocket money to buy crackers for fireworks night.

My primary school, Humpybong State, was located on the seafront and I could walk to and from school each day along the beach. Clontarf Beach State High was next on my education journey - at the time the premier state (public) secondary school. I had no particular academic worries and, while I did not make the A-grade sports team, I had fun playing rugby league, shotput, volleyball, archery and golf. I was also active in backstage activities for school musical productions, spending many happy hours wiring lighting and sound systems. For a while I even ran a lunchtime "pirate" radio station out of the school assembly hall.

About this time, my father, a master-painter, took early retirement due to ill health and my parents then purchased a small mixed-business shop on the seafront at Clontarf. "The Shop" was a big part of my late teen years and despite the strain that long working hours placed on our family, we had many happy times during the three years we owned the shop.

My brother left Australia to live in the United States with his new American wife and started a successful business of his own selling and maintaining sewing machines. Two of my sisters also married, moved away and began families of their own.

My father's continuing health problems - asthma and emphysema - saw my parents sell the shop and for a while we survived on a government pension - quite a feat considering I was still at high school and my third sister had just started teachers' college. These were challenging years, with my mother also suffering health problems that saw her hospitalised for a few months. By now, I think I was familiar with just about every medical facility in Brisbane.

A heart attack claimed my father the day after I finished high school, and my sister finally succumbed to the painful and debilitating disease cystic fibrosis a year later. Another sister suffered a massive stroke and also passed away. To complete the series of cataclysmic changes, my mother had to sell the family home and we relocated to Brisbane where she undertook a teaching diploma.

I obtained a cadetship as a civil design draftsman and commenced an engineering diploma at the good old Queensland Institute of Technology, attending lectures three nights a week for the next four years. My mother, now a secondary school teacher, was posted to north Queensland, first to Monto, and then Hervey Bay. She was later to retire from teaching due to failing health.

I moved back to Redcliffe and, for the next half decade spent my spare time involved in amateur theatre (backstage), house design and writing, with occasional stints as a band roadie. I became involved with a Brisbane writers group and met some interesting and colourful characters. It was at a poetry reading that I met the woman who would become my wife for eleven years.

I returned to tertiary studies and completed an economics degree at Queensland University of Technology (another six years of night lectures). This led, seemingly inevitably, into middle management (sigh!) and I was employed as a Quality Assurance Manager and later, a Business Services Manager.

About this time, I began a love affair with an exotic, temperamental Italian that continues today. On a whim, I had taken an Alfa Romeo for a test drive and was immediately smitten. I've only owned Alfas since then.

The year 1993 saw the birth of my son - and best mate - Rowan. The memory of that May afternoon at Boothville Maternity Hospital still fills me with wonder and amazing joy; and I cannot imagine those feelings ever diminishing. Being a parent is enormous fun and brings great satisfaction - even if it is sometimes a lot of hard work!

After years spent designing houses and buildings for others, I finally got the chance to be my own client and "Jesmond" took shape on a suburban block of land bordering a nature reserve. It was finished just in time to bring Rowan home from hospital.

Then, another change of career. The World Wide Web had suddenly come into existence and I became involved in web development - oddly enough through my work as a QA Manager. Currently, I have the privilege of heading up a close-knit team of energetic, eccentric and eclectic designers, developers and programmers. These guys and gals drive me crazy, but somehow keep me sane in a world that is often nuts.