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McHale family timeline: Suzanne

Some events in my own life (and a little of my sister’s), continued on from my parents’ timelines.

1970

9 November

I, Suzanne Bronwyn McHale, was born at 7:00 a.m. in Bethseda Hospital, Richmond, weighing 6 pounds 5 ounces. Dr. Zacharin delivered me. I had hazel eyes and initially reddish hair, which later changed to golden-brown.

1972

1 August

Michele Anne McHale is born at 5:30 p.m. in Jessie McPherson Hospital, Melbourne, weighing 6 pounds 5 ounces; also delivered by Dr. Zacharin. She had blue eyes and initially blond hair, which later darkened to fair/light brown. (There are 632 days between our birthdates from the start date to the end date, end date included, or 1 year, 8 months, 24 days including the end date.)

1974

I attend St. James Kindergarten, located behind the Lutheran Church on South Road, Moorabbin. This kinder proved unsuitable for me, though. My only memory from here is of being backed against a brick wall while surrounded somewhat menacingly by a small group of boys.

1975

March-April

My family’s first overseas holiday for two months to England to visit Dad’s mother, Gladys Kirk, and relatives: his sister, Aunty Hilda and family in Waltham, and his Aunt Florrie (Florence Enderby) and husband Fred Fell in Binbrook. We flew on Singapore Airlines to London, and Qantas back home to Melbourne. My parents could only afford the air fare then because they paid off their mortgage in 1977, and the currency exchange rate was favorable. Michele and I would only meet Granny Kirk three times in our lives (Dad’s father had died in 1950 of a stroke).

Later this year, I attended Finchley Kindergarten, in the Scout Hall on Arthur Street, Bentleigh.

1976

4 February

I begin Prep (Prepatory Class) at what was then Kilvington Baptist Girls’ Grammar School, then a small middle-class private school in Ormond. This was the only school Michele and I would attend.

1977

4 February

Michele attends Finchley Kindergarten.

1978

4 February

Michele begins Prep at Kilvington.

15 May-17 July

My family’s second holiday in England, visiting Dad’s relatives as before, and staying in the Corner Cottage in Spridlington, Lincolnshire, with Granny Kirk and Uncle Jack. We also holidayed in the seaside town of Penzance, Cornwall, for ten days. We flew there and back on British Airways. This would be our last trip to England, sadly.

1980

Horseriding

I developed an obsession with horses from this year until 1983, and my parents paid for Saturday morning horseriding lessons at the Mossgiel Ridge Riding Academy in Endeavour Hills for a few months. I only got to the cantering stage; I ended up leaving as I was scared of one of the female instructors!

May

A week’s family holiday in the country town of Maryborough, staying in a motel. We returned home on Friday 23.

25 December

Michele and I received our first bicycles for Christmas: gold-colored girls’ bikes with floral-patterned banana seats and handlebar baskets. I learned to ride mine (without training wheels) more quickly than Michele did.

1981

Saturday 10 – Friday 16 January

Family holiday at a dairy farm in Korumburra, a country town on the Gippsland Highway.

23 April

Aunty Hilda, Uncle John and their three younger children (Kevin, Ian and Phillip Reilly – the older two, Tim and Mandy, remained behind in England) emigrate to Victoria to live.

1982

20 February

Grandpa (William Luty Sayce) dies in hospital of a ruptured aortic aneurysm. He was cremated and interred at the Springvale Cemetery. Michele and I did not attend his funeral as Mum thought us too young; it was our first experience of the death of a family member. I did not then really comprehend his loss. I was not as close to him as I was to Gran.

Christianity

Dad converted to Baptist Christianity this year after meeting Bill Waters, a Civil Aviation Authority workmate. (Bill and Pam Waters became close family friends.) Dad joined the Bentleigh Baptist Church, eventually being initiated as a Deacon and serving as the Church Secretary. Michele and I were coerced into attending the Sunday School and Youth Group; the latter did provide company for me with others my age outside of school (I was somewhat teased at school and not popular). Mum and Michele became Christians. I nominally converted in 1983, more to please Dad than anything, but later drifted away, disillusioned. Religion made little impression upon me, as I preferred the worlds and characters I created in my imagination.

December

From this year until 1988 my family holidayed annually for one week before Christmas in the seaside town of Inverloch (east down the coast from Phillip Island). We rented a holiday house only a few minutes’ walk from the beach, and drove on daytrips around the surrounding countryside to towns such as Leongatha, Wonthaggi and Korumburra. These were enjoyable holidays, with lots of time spent at the beach.

1983

Glasses

My eyesight had been deteriorating over the last year; I could no longer read the blackboard in class. A visit to a Bentleigh optometrist confirmed my developing shortsightedness, and I was prescribed glasses, much to my dismay. Unfortunately, my myopia and astigmatism were permanent, stabilizing in adulthood at around −4.5 diopters. Michele also developed myopia, acquiring glasses in her tenth year. Mum and Dad had normal vision, though – perhaps all the reading and close work Michele and I did contributed, or perhaps there was a faulty gene somewhere. I absolutely hated wearing glasses – an inconvenient nuisance.

December

Granny Kirk arrives in Australia for her only visit here (Uncle Jack had died on 6 July), initially staying with my family, then with Aunty Hilda and her family. Granny Kirk accompanied us on that year’s Inverloch vacation.

I also got my first periods this month, much to my dismay! Adolescence was not kind to me – I was unattractive, and plagued with acne that continued into my 30s. It destroyed what self-esteem I had. I never had a boyfriend, being shy, awkward and “odd.” I never had any interest in marriage and children.

1985

23 March

Michele and I are bridesmaids at our cousin Heather Sayce’s wedding to her longtime boyfriend, Craig Drummond, at the Anglican Christ Church in Dingley.

1986

Depression and related mental problems began to plague me from this year, and would affect my later life. I saw a psychologist, Ms. Susie Rotch, for a few months, but she eventually felt she could not help me anymore as I was a “hard case.” I could be difficult and contrary. I believe I had traits of Asperger’s Syndrome, a condition related to autism, but milder. I had difficulty interacting socially with others, and was consequently teased and excluded at school; I was somewhat eccentric in my interests and behavior. I did have several friends, but they could not cope with me after a while because of my “oddness”. I tried to fit in at school, but never could get it quite right. As an adult, I would become isolated from others my age, and increasingly reclusive.

1987

11 – 22 May

My first experience of work, as part of the Year 11 curriculum – 2 weeks’ practical placement at Morphet Press Pty. Ltd in Clayton, a printing factory. I coped okay, and got a good report, but did not particularly enjoy it. I was not interested in it as a career; in fact, I had no real career goals at all – no idea what I wanted to do. My school grades were mediocre, and I never had much motivation. I would end up having no career because of my various mental problems.

Sunday 13-Sunday 20 September

My third (and last) overseas holiday – a Year 11 class trip to New Zealand’s North Island, touring the main attractions by coach. The tour was marred for me by my having no close friends or a peer group to which I belonged, so I was something of a depressed outcast. I most enjoyed the 747 flight over and back – all the anticipation and excitement of traveling to Tullamarine Airport, boarding our Air New Zealand 747 and taking off … tremendous fun! I loved to look out the window at the infinite blue sky beyond, and watching the sunset from a high altitude. I wish I could have learned to fly!

After this holiday, depression began to seriously affect me, and thoughts of suicide surfaced for the first time, though I never attempted it. My grades, never spectacular, declined. I had the potential to do well: I had undergone some sort of IQ test in Year 6 and come out top of the class. I then attended a program for gifted children from various schools for a few weeks, in which we did exercises like gazing into a candle and saying whatever came into our minds. Nothing else ever came of this, though, and I sank into mediocrity. I was only ever an average, underachieving student, preferring daydreaming and painting to study; I had a lot of trouble concentrating. I never really fit in with school life and activities.

October

A painting I did of an F-14 Tomcat fighter pilot, Cloud Warriors (the movie Top Gun had been released the year before), won the year 11 section first prize, and was the overall outstanding exhibit at the annual Kilvington Art Show. This was literally the only award I won during all my years at school. Unfortunately, this sole triumph was marred by the painting’s (deliberate?) exclusion from the annual school magazine, the Kilvonian (no photo or mention), and this angered and depressed me further.

1988

February

I begun Year 12 VCE; subjects studied were Art, English, English Literature, Geography and Legal Studies. All interest in schoolwork was gone now, though, and I was unable to cope with the workload. I refused to undertake the midyear exams and consequently had a nervous breakdown, staying in my room and not going to school. I left Kilvington in May at the end of Term 1. An ignominious end to the many years I spent there, and a waste of all the money my parents spent on my education. My future career prospects were also negated. I was now utterly despondent.

May

I was referred by the school counselor to a psychiatrist, Dr. Leo J. Murphy. He was old and a bit gruff, but he helped motivate me and pull me out of my depression (I was not prescribed anti-depressants, though in hindsight they might have helped keep me from relapsing). He also referred me to Dr. Ian O. Stahle, a skin specialist who prescribed me Roaccutane to clear up my troublesome skin – unfortunately, my acne would return by my mid-20s.

Eating disorder

I began dieting and exercising for the first time in my life in order to lose some weight. This, however, mutated into an eating disorder – first anorexia, then bulimia – which was, essentially, a form of self-sabotage. I was afraid of growing up and being responsible for my own life – I felt I could not cope with the outside world. I lost a lot of weight, enough so that my periods stopped in December and would not return until July of 1993. My lowest weight was around 42 kilograms (I am 5 feet 3.5 inches tall). My personality became even more difficult and moody. Ironically, this was the only time I looked attractive – unfortunately, I was too obsessed with my disorder to take advantage of it. Anorexia turned to bulimia in 1989, where I began eating enormous quantities of food then purging it through hours of exercise a day (rather than vomiting). But all that effort was for nothing as I had reverted to my plain, pudgy self by my mid-20s.

ASTA

Dad took me on visits to the RAAF Point Cook Air Museum (we both shared an interest in aviation), and to the AeroSpace Technology of Australia’s facility at Avalon Airfield, near Geelong. Through his CAA work, Dad knew Mr. Frank Carroll, ASTA’s Quality Assurance Manager, who accompanied us on a guided tour of ASTA’s huge hangar, where a 747 undergoing maintenance resided. In an adjacent hangar, the RAAF’s then-new F/A-18 Hornet jets were being assembled; for the highlight of my tour, I got to sit in the cockpit of one! (No photos unfortunately, for security reasons.)

21 November

Through Frank Carroll, Dad learned of an opening at ASTA for an Airframe Fitter Apprenticeship. He suggested I apply for it; as I had limited employment prospects, I decided to give it a go. I sent off an application letter on this date, and Dad and Dr. Murphy aided me in acquiring the necessary interview skills. I was granted an interview, and passed the interview and aptitude test (maths was my weakest subject, but I could get tutoring). On 22 December I received a letter informing me that I had been accepted for the apprenticeship position. This was the last time in my life that I felt optimistic about my future.

December

Our last one-week holiday at Inverloch as a family; an enjoyable vacation. I was excited and apprehensive about the impending apprenticeship. I would have to board out in Geelong as I had no means of getting to Avalon by myself (I couldn’t drive; had no license). It seemed my life was finally working out for the better … a hope sadly proven wrong.

1989

23 January – 23 March

With much trepidation, I began my Probationary Airframe Fitter Apprenticeship at ASTA. But I quit within the 3-month probationary period due to a number of problems. My anorexia interfered with my initial motivation and concentration. I had lost so much weight that I had no energy and was constantly tired; alternating weekly shifts (morning or afternoon) didn’t help, and I was frantically exercising in my spare time. The lady with whom I boarded in West Geelong eventually evicted me due to my unsociability. I felt unable to cope with the physical and mental demands of the apprenticeship as I was weak at maths and unfamiliar with mechanical work (I attended a remedial maths course at Melbourne RMIT which helped – though I was tired and could barely stay awake). I was the only female in my year group and, being shy and unused to male company, was unable to interact with the other boys. I was emotionally immature; unprepared for independence. I could not drive and was isolated. Unable to cope, I decided to quit – a decision I would come to regret greatly in the years ahead. I lost my chance for a career in aviation and had failed once again.

I spent the next few months reluctantly looking for work; I joined a “Job Club” at the CES but was not enthusiastic. In September I did find work as a checkout operator at Bentleigh Safeway (now Woolworths), intended as a temporary job but I ended up in it for 12 years and quit, having burned out from stress. My work history essentially stalled at this point in my life – I never did have a proper (skilled) career.

9 November

My 19th birthday, my last year of being a teenager. I do miss the 1980s now!

December

At my parents’ suggestion, I registered for a Moorabbin TAFE Secretarial Studies course in 1990, after completing a Keyboarding Course there on 13/12. Touch-typing was, literally, the only skill I would acquire in the next decade.

1990

January

Began the 1-year TAFE Certificate in Office and Secretarial Studies at the Moorabbin campus, and successfully completed it at year’s end, despite the distractions of my eating disorder and frequent trips to a nearby gym.

21 March

I gained my driver’s licence, barely scraping through my licence road test (71 points out of a 70 pass score). I was nervous driving and could not afford a car on my low income, so I quit driving after that.

10-21 September

Two weeks’ practical placement with the CAA Safety Regulation Group in their Melbourne head office at 108 Lonsdale Street. This assignment was part of the COSS curriculum, and Dad helped me gain this placement in the building where he worked. No job opportunities arose as I unfortunately wasn’t interested at the time.

27 December

My first bicycle accident this morning, when I was knocked off my new Triathlete bicycle when turning a corner into North Road at the Tucker-North Road intersection by a pickup truck (which didn’t stop). I only had a few bruises, and continued my ride to the gym.

Michele completed and passed her Year 12 VCE – something I never managed! Her subjects studied were: English, Biology, Australian History, Geography and Music A.

I considered undertaking an art course the next year at Moorabbin TAFE, so I enrolled in the Advanced Certificate in Art and Design; the interviewers seemed to be impressed with my portfolio (such as it was!). Mum paid a $90 enrollment fee. But I canceled the enrollment when I attended the Open Day after learning of the great amount of work and study the full-time course entailed – it would have interfered with my obsessive exercise routine. I gave up trying to study after that.

1991

January

Dad was diagnosed with osteoporosis, the bone-thinning disease, and had to take preventative medication.

Monday 14 Januray

Michele passed her learner’s permit test today (unlike me, she would continue driving) and found out her VCE results. She enrolled in a Diploma of Teaching (Early Childhood) course at Melbourne University, beginning in March, and completed a year’s study. She left after meeting Chris Perona late in 1991 at Bentleigh Baptist Church).

Wednesday 5 June

Mum was diagnosed with ovarian cancer; she had been feeling unwell for several months. She was booked in for an exploratory operation at the Mercy Private Hospital on Tuesday 11; Dr. Robert Zacharin conducted a 1½ -hour operation. A football-sized tumor was removed from her ovaries, and she was also given a hysterectomy. The tumor was removed just in time; a few more days and it would have burst and spread through her system. She came home on Sunday 16; it took her many months to recover. The cancer did not reoccur.

November 18

Dad takes an early retirement package from the CAA, as the government organization was undergoing major restructuring and downsizing (it subsequently became CASA); many of Dad’s contemporaries also chose to retire at this time, including Bill Waters. Dad had spent 42 years in the aviation industry.

1992

I had a spinal bone density scan done at the Como Clinic which revealed that I had the bones of a menopausal woman due to calcium loss! I was still gripped by my eating disorder.

Saturday 2 May

After a short engagement of a few months, Michele married her first and only boyfriend, Christophe (Chris) André Robert Perona, at the Bentleigh Baptist Church. I did not attend. Chris was born in Toulon, France, on 12 November 1968. His mother, Maryse, was French; his father, Maurice, had Italian ancestry. They subsequently emigrated to Australia, where Chris’s sister, Sandrine (Sandy), was born on 8 January 1974. Michele moved out of home after her wedding.

1993

Wednesday 20 January

Dad became an Australian citizen, though he still retained his English citizenship and passport.

Wednesday 31 March

Another bicycle accident for me – I was knocked off my mountain bike by a car in the Southland shopping center car park. Only bruised, again!

Friday 16 July

Got my periods back today, after an absence of 55 months! I was gaining weight again as my eating disorder faded. Unfortunately, it transformed into other mental problems – depression and so on. I still hadn’t resolved the basic issues in my life (lack of purpose and goals, no self-esteem, social phobia, etc.) and this would continue for many more years. My 20s were basically wasted.

Saturday 4 September

Gran broke her upper left arm (humerus) in a fall, and Mum had to spent the next few weeks nursing her. Gran was in her nineties, and was slowly declining.

Wisdom teeth

These emerged late this year. The two teeth in my lower jaw became impacted and got infected at separate dates. The lower left tooth was removed in December of 1994; the right lower tooth on 2 February 1996. The top two wisdom teeth came through okay.

Friday 15 October

Mum resigned from her job in a nursing home and decided to retire after nearly 40 years in the nursing profession.

Saturday 20 November

Michele informed Mum that she is pregnant; first pregnancy!

1994

Wednesday 22 June

Michele gave birth to her first child, Josiah Ronald Perona, born around 1:00 p.m. in the Mordialloc Community Hospital.

October

A friend from the former church Youth Group whom I had not seen since my teens contacted me this year and we went out to the movies a couple of times accompanied by her boyfriend. I had no friends my age by this time, and I withdrew from seeing her after a while; I felt I could not sustain such interaction with people my own age, though I craved it. She later got married and I lost contact with her.

1995

11 November

Mum and Dad bought Sasha the Bichon Friese from a pet shop in Southland. He was born on 2 September.

Friday 17 November

Granny Kirk died in her sleep of a stroke. Dad could not afford the airfare to fly to England for the funeral. Timothy sent him a copy of Granny Kirk’s funeral notice from a newspaper:

KIRK

On November 17, 1995, at Ancaster House, Winteringham, Gladys Winifred (Win), aged 88 years, late of Scunthorpe, beloved wife of the late Jack, dearly-loved mum of Hilda and Ron, a dear mother-in-law, grandma and great-grandma. Will friends please meet for service and committal at Woodlands Crematorium on Thursday November 23 at 1 p.m. Flowers, please, to Keith Button, Funeral Director, 43 West Street, Winterton.

1996

Monday 13 April

Mum informs me that Michele is pregnant again with №2!

25 December

Michele and Chris’s second child, Margaret Renee Anne Perona, was born on Christmas Day at 5 a.m.

1997

Friday 4 April

Gran had a blackout in her kitchen and fell, breaking her upper right femur. Mum arrived to find her lying on the kitchen floor, and Gran was taken by ambulance to Sandringham Hospital where she was operated upon. She was later moved to the Kingston Rehabilitation Center. Mum and Uncle Brian attempted to secure her a place in a nursing home, as Gran was too frail to remain living alone in her house.

Wednesday 21 May

Gran was moved to accommodation at Southleigh Baptist Community in Bentleigh. It wasn’t suitable for Gran, who now required intensive nursing care, but it had to suffice for the present. Her house at 14 Bridge Street, Elsternwick, would have to be sold to pay for her care. The Edwardian-style house had been built around 1927, and my grandparents had moved there in 1941. Mum and Uncle Brian had grown up there, and it was a “second home” to Michele, myself and Uncle Brian’s children (Colin, Warren and Heather). It was set on a huge block of land, and was thus ominously advertised as a “sensational multi-unit/townhouse development site,” which meant that after its sale the new owner-developer would demolish it. This was very upsetting, as the house and garden that we had known and explored since childhood would be erased.

Such demolitions of old homes had regrettably become a common occurrence under the new planning laws introduced during Jeff Kennett’s autocratic regime, which saw units and townhouses built in backyards to accommodate Melbourne’s growing population. A housing boom was a feature of the 1990s. I would personally love to see all property developers burned at the stake.

Saturday 21 June

Beginning at 3:30 p.m., Gran’s house was sold at auction to a developer for $470,000, thus sealing its fate. Due to council boundary changes, 14 Bridge Street was now located in the prestigious suburb of Brighton, which increased its value (Gran’s home was only a few minutes’ drive from the beach). Gran and Grandpa originally paid ₤800 for it. The developer wouldn’t take possession until October, so Mum and Uncle Brian’s family spent the interim clearing out the house.

Sunday 22 June

Influenza struck me down for the first time in my life. I was so exhausted that I could barely move, and my appetite vanished for a couple of days. I did get the week off from my awful job, which I was not unhappy about. A heavy cold and sinus infection followed on from the influenza for a couple of weeks.

Tuesday 15 July

An ear ailment began plaguing me, consisting of a vague aching, vertigo and an echoing pulse in my right ear. Though this didn’t interfere with my hearing, it was loud in a quiet room with nothing else to distract me. The GP could give no clear diagnosis, and a course of antibiotics didn’t cure me of the symptoms. She then referred me to Dr. Douglas S. Buchanan, an ear, nose and throat specialist in Clayton.

Wednesday 13 August

My first visit to Gran’s home in a long time, with Mum. It was a deeply depressing experience, as most of the furniture and possessions had gone. It was more like a ghost house – and soon it, too, would be only a memory.

Friday 17 October

Mum, Uncle Brian and I visited Gran’s house for the last time; they were there to wait for an electrician to come and read the indoor meter, and disconnect the electricity. I wandered around disconsolately, taking a few photos of the now-derelict house and overgrown garden; also the streets and canal (Elster Creek Drain) behind the house – sites indelibly etched into my memories and dreams. The power was first connected on 3 February 1941, when my grandparents and their children first moved in – 56 years ago. A day before Mum’s 3rd birthday, and in the midst of World War 2. The owner-developer took possession of 14 Bridge Street in the next week, and began the process of demolition. The old home was now gone forever, and it felt as sad as losing a close relative. Four two-storey townhouses were crammed onto the site; a real eyesore in the quiet street. More houses in Bridge Street would also be demolished in the next few years.

Saturday 25 October

Went for my appointment with Dr. Buchanan. Had a hearing test (no abnormalities), then saw him. He couldn’t specify what my problem was, so he scheduled a blood test and Computed Tomography scan for me. None of these turned up any abnormalities, either.

Monday 3 November

More broken bones for poor Gran when she was found by Southleigh staff on her bedroom floor. She had broken her upper right arm and cracked her right femur (again). She was taken to Caulfield Hospital for treatment, and spent the next few weeks there until a place was found for her in a nursing home.

Friday 7 November

Back to Dr. Buchanan for the results of my CT scan; nothing abnormal was found. He diagnosed my ear condition as “pulsar tinnitus,” a condition brought on by stress, and nothing could be done to cure it. He told me that it would probably clear up in a few months (it didn’t), and that the obvious solution was to tackle the cause, so he recommended a psychiatrist to me. I did not go to see her, though, feeling I was beyond help now. I disagreed with Dr. Buchanan’s diagnosis; I felt the pulsing in my hear had been triggered by my bout of influenza. I eventually got used to the pulsing, and mostly ceased to notice it.

Friday 5 December

A nursing home was found for Gran at last – Siesta Private Nursing Home in Moorabbin, only a few minutes’ drive away from my parents’ home. She was installed there in the next week.

1998

Thursday 8 January

Mum informed me that Michele is pregnant with №3!

Friday 13 March

Mum and Dad celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.

Friday 20 March

With my parents I watched the Mir space station speeding overhead this evening at 8:10 p.m., moving rapidly from SW to NE, taking about 5 minutes to pass over. We looked for it only because it was mentioned on the TV news. If I had been using the Internet then, I could have found out viewing times whenever I wanted – but by the time I got my first computer in June 2001, Mir had been deorbited.

Sunday 19 April

Gran’s 100th birthday. A big family gathering was held at Heather and Craig’s home in Dingley. I and my parents went, as did Michele and her family, and Warren Sayce and his family (Colin couldn’t attend due to work commitments). Gran’s nieces Dawn Harbour and her sister Pat Dobbyn, Pat’s daughter Debbie, and Dawn’s daughters Dianne and Jenny also came. Gran was by this time very frail, and only intermittently lucid, though she did seem to recognize us at times. The next time we would gather like this, though, would be at Gran’s funeral.

Wednesday 13 May

Mum bought a new car, using some money inherited from Gran’s estate. It was a silver-blue Toyota Starlet, a small modern car to replace her old orange Renault 12, bought in 1975.

Friday 4 September

Michele’s baby was finally born, a week late (he had to be induced), at 12:45 p.m., weighing 6 pounds 5 ounces. He was named Timothy Joseph.

Friday 15 September

A gas explosion at Esso’s Longford plant killed 2 workers and shut down Victoria’s gas supply for 2 weeks. No hot water (for us), gas heating or cooking. It was the most serious power crisis the state had experienced, and everyone coped as best they could. Mum and Dad decided to convert back to electric hot water, and the electric water heater was installed on the 30th. The gas was finally turned back on for us on Thursday 8/10.

1999

Sunday 10 January

Mum and Dad sold the block of land in Clarendon where Gran spent her childhood at 8 and 17 Midland Highway; her parents’ cottage had stood there. It had been auctioned in 1992 and bought by my parents then.

Wednesday 10 February

Went on a daytrip to Inverloch with Mum and Dad. It was my first visit there for many years, and it was nice to walk along the familiar shoreline again. Unfortunately, the property boom was affecting the area (as it was many seaside towns), and many expensive houses were under construction, driving prices in the area up. The quiet seaside town in which we had holidayed in the 1980s had, unfortunately, been “discovered”.

Saturday 13 March

Mum and Dad left for a week-long holiday at Inverloch, renting a beach home there, returning home on the 20th.

Wednesday 23 June

Another daytrip with my parents, out west this time to Clarendon, driving along the Princes Freeway (after crossing the West Gate Bridge) and Midland Highway. Enroute we passed Avalon and the former ASTA hangar (ASTA went out of business in 1996) – a painful reminder of what I might have been. We stopped at the cemetery, then had lunch on the peak of Mt. Buninyong. It was a beautiful clear, cold day. I like the country out here; we used to go on long daytrips out to Ballarat and Bendigo in the 1970s and early 1980s. Many of Gran’s relatives live out that way. Unfortunately, housing developments and industrial parks are spreading like cancers here, too.

Saturday 18 September

State elections today. My parents and I voted for Labor. To everyone’s surprise, Jeff Kennett was ousted after a controversial 7-year reign, replaced by Labor Steve Bracks – a slight improvement. I (like many) tend to be cynical of politicians in general.

2000

Sunday 2 January

Mum’s cousin, Dawn Harbour, rings with the news that a brother of hers, Jack Parker, had died of a stroke and tumor.

Wednesday 5 January

Michele, Mum and I visited Gran at Siesta Nursing Home. She or the staff there had misplaced her false teeth, which affected her ability to eat. This year would be her last.

Wednesday 2 February

Dawn rings Mum again with more bad news, this time that her younger brother’s (Geoff Parker’s) son Jai (aged 23) had been found dead in his car at Broadford. He went missing on 12 November last year and committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. He had been an apprentice jockey and was working as a carpenter; he was popular and had a bright future. But some sort of personal problems led him to take his own life. He was a very distant relative to me, a third cousin; I never met him.

Thursday 3 February

A 40ºC day for the first time in a very hot summer. That night was the hottest since 1902 at 29.9ºC. Statewide power restrictions were brought in from Monday 7 to Thursday 10.

Friday 17-Friday 24 March

Mum and Dad take a week’s holiday at Inverloch, renting the same beach house as last year.

Wednesday 19 April

Gran’s 102nd birthday; her last, as it turned out. A small party was held at Siesta.

Tuesday 2 May

Michele rang my parents with news that she was pregnant with her fourth child!

Saturday 1 July

Beginning of the dreaded 10% Goods and Services Tax. All this did was drive prices up. Items like books and clothes – the few things I bought frequently – became more expensive.

Sunday 16 July

An eclipse tonight of the full Moon, over 4 hours long (the longest for the next millennium).

Monday 24 July

There was an earth tremor just after 5:45 p.m., measuring 3 on the Richter Scale. Dad felt it, as did I; the frame and walls of our house rattled. Victoria gets earth tremors several times a year, though most aren’t strong enough to be noticeable.

Tuesday 29 August

Another earth tremor! This came at 11:08 p.m. when I was in bed; I felt my whole room shaking for about 6 seconds, which was rather unnerving! Mum felt it, too. The earthquake measured 4.5, and the epicenter, 12 km below the surface, was in Boolara, East Gippsland – some distance away from Melbourne.

Thursday 28 September

Gran blacked out briefly while being showered, and was given oxygen to revive her. A precursor of things to come next week. Mum’s last visit to Gran was on Wednesday 4/10.

Friday 6 October

Gran dies, peacefully in her sleep, around 5 a.m. A lady from Siesta rang Mum at 6 a.m. to inform her. Gran’s death was inevitable, but it still came as a shock as she had been around forever. Michele and I now had no grandparents. The funeral was to be held on Monday at 1 p.m.

Monday 9 October

Gran’s funeral was held today, at John Alison/Monkhouse in Springvale. A lot of relatives and friends came. Mum, Michele and I viewed Gran in her coffin, an unsettling experience. Gran had lost much weight as she had not been eating in the last few months; she couldn’t have weighed more than 30 kilos. The service went well. Gran was driven away to be cremated.

Thursday 9 November

My 30th birthday; a third of my life gone already and absolutely nothing to show for it. I was in no mood to celebrate (I didn’t usually celebrate my birthdays, anyway). I had no skills, no interesting career, no money, no boyfriend, no independence, no life. I felt that I had failed at life.

Wednesday 15 November

Mum and Uncle Brian collected Gran’s ashes and paid over $400 to have her name recorded in a “Book of Remembrance” at the Necropolis in Springvale.

Michele and Chris were to move to a town called Rochester in the north of Victoria on 16 January. It was on the Northern Highway, between Bendigo and Echuca. Chris would be preaching at a Presbyterian church there for 3 years.

Wednesday 29 November

A drive to Clarendon today to scatter Gran’s ashes in the cemetery there, on her parents’ and uncles’ grave. Mum, Dad and I went with Uncle Brian in his car. It was hard to associate the grey ashes with the grandmother I had known.

Wednesday 13 December

Michele’s baby was born at 10 p.m., weighing 7 pounds 14 ounces. She was named Trinity Jane – Trinity was a character in the movie The Matrix.

2001

Tuesday 9-Wednesday 10 January

Glimpsed the Galilean moons of Jupiter through binoculars for the first time this evening, very faintly (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto). On a morning walk at 5:30 I saw a partial lunar eclipse; a golden Moon sinking into the west with a shadow on its upper right edge.

Wednesday 7 March

A pleasant family daytrip to Inverloch.

Wednesday 21 March

Mum and I managed to catch a last glimpse of the to-be-deorbited Mir space station, orbiting eastwards in the northern sky at 8:30 p.m.

Tuesday 27 March

Dad decided to remodel the kitchen; he had last done this in 1975. It took several weeks.

Tuesday 29 May

I was becoming interested in using the Internet, and decided to book an hour at Bentleigh Library to try the computers there (computer use is free, but you have to pay for printouts). I had no idea how to type in an address or which icons to select; I gave up and went home in frustration. Dad showed me how to access the Internet on his iMac computer.

Tuesday 5 June

Booked another hour on the library Internet, and Dad came with me this time to help get me started (the library computers were Windows PCs). This time I managed to get to the space and aviation sites I wanted. I now could find out ISS viewing times and I watched for the Station frequently as it passed overhead in mornings or evenings. After a tentative start, I became comfortable using the Internet over the next few months, and discovered a goldmine of information. I was in heaven – so much information was available that I could find nowhere else; I previously had only the limited resources of books and magazines. I quickly became addicted! I could escape reality for a little while. Dad only had a modem connection for 10 hours a month, so use at home was limited. The next step was my own PC!

Saturday 22 September

Dad bought me a computer on sale this week for $1099 – an Aptiva PC 200, made by IBM and installed with Windows 98. It was a 1999 model with only 4 GB on the hard disk, but adequate for a first computer. I found that using the word processor seemed to free up an ability to write!

Sunday 21 October

A quiet day marred by an unpleasant incident as I returned home on my bicycle from a library Internet session. Three or four young men driving past in a white Commodore-like car first threw a plastic soft drink bottle at me, then circled a roundabout and squirted water at me from another bottle, laughing raucously at me – their afternoon’s “entertainment”. As usual, I was powerless to retaliate, except in my imagination.

Friday 26 October

My last work shift at Bentleigh Safeway. I felt then that I had wasted what should have been the best career years of my life doing in a low-status, low-skilled job. I now was unemployed and had few job prospects. All I wanted to do was retreat into my bedroom, and that’s what I did for the next year as I watched my meager savings dwindle. I made no effort to look for work.

Tuesday 30 October

Dad decided to redecorate my bedroom (he had last done it in 1987), so he stripped off the old wallpaper and painted the walls blue, and new carpet was laid. My parents also encouraged me to enroll in a TAFE Introduction to Computers course which ran over 2 Wednesdays, 6 hours per day. As I had a Health Care Card, I got a discount fee of $204.

Wednesday 7 and 14 November

I completed the computer course. There were two other men and two women, all older business types, and I felt somewhat out of place and so didn’t talk much. It covered the basics of the Windows system. This was the first course I had done since the 1990 TAFE one, but I didn’t feel much like doing any more – there was little of interest to me.

Saturday 17 November

On my morning walk I passed two teenage boys loitering on a corner. They, predictably, made a few stupid remarks as I passed them. There were also there next Saturday, same thing; but I didn’t see them after that. I wish women were permitted to carry weapons to use against men or boys who harassed them – men might learn some respect. I am really fed up with Stupid Young Males in general.

2002

Tuesday 15 January

Saw my first meteor around 10:25 p.m., a brief orange flash streaking from west to east.

Tuesday 29 January

More tragedy for the Parker clan. On Friday 11/1 Warren Parker, 42, died after his 4WD rolled down an embankment on Kookaburra Road near Lal Lal. He was the youngest son of Jack Parker (deceased), one of Dawn’s brothers. On Sunday 27 Anthony Harbour, 35, Dawn’s youngest son (one of 5) was killed when riding his motorcycle on Deans Marsh Road out of Lorne around 2:58 p.m.; he dropped back to avoid an oncoming car when trying to overtake, and his motorcycle ran into a tree. His girlfriend, who was riding pillion, survived.

Friday 1 February

A ferocious thunderstorm from around 6:30 this evening! Storm clouds rolled in from the west after a hot day, then the city and suburbs were hammered for the next four hours or so. Thunder, lightning, heavy rain and hail. Hundreds of flashes of lightning, flickering like strobe lights through the clouds; I stood outside for a while around 9 p.m. and was dazzled by the light show. There was forked lightning and sheet lightning everywhere – an awesome sight from orbit! Haven’t had a storm that fierce for a long time. The 2001/02 summer would be unusually cool, though – a welcome relief, but the hot weather would return next summer, unfortunately.

Saturday 16 March

Mum, driving home from Southland with Dad and I, was in a car accident – a middle-aged man in another car came out of a sidestreet and sideswiped the front left panel of her Starlet. Fortunately, the speeds involved were low, and everyone was shaken but not hurt. This was the second accident in which I’d been a passenger – the first, in 1975, was where a car rear-ended Mum’s Renault coming down North Road with Michele and I in the back seat. Again, no-one was hurt.

Monday 6 May

Dad got shingles, a painful nervous system disorder where some of the nerve endings on his face were exposed. The doctor diagnosed him and gave him some tablets which cleared it up – if left too late, it becomes a chronic disorder. Mum was also diagnosed with adult-onset Type 2 diabetes later in the year, which is treatable with a managed diet and exercise. Mum was very unfit, but she at least started to go on daily walks.

Thursday 23 May

Went for a pleasant bike ride (on my now-aging mountain bicycle) down South Road to Beach Road, along the bicycle track, then back again – something I’d not done for years. Getting there, though, was nerve-wracking as the road traffic is heavy and dangerous. I began doing this regularly early on Sunday mornings only – the only time it was relatively quiet on the roads.

Thursday 13 June

Mum and Dad left to stay at a rented house in Kyneton, returning the following Friday.

Monday 17 June

Saw my first IMAX movie at the theatre in Carlton Gardens: Space Station 3D. There were some good scenes – wonderful shots of the ISS from orbit – but it was otherwise too NASA-centric; too focused on the Americans’ role, with only a couple of Russian scenes shot at the Baikonur cosmodrome. As the IMAX company is American, though, I guess this was inevitable. (I saw the movie once more, on Thursday 5 September.)

Thursday 1 August

Michele’s 30th birthday – now we were both in our thirties. Middle age not far away …

Friday 2 August

Went into the city to see a short film that was being screened as part of the Melbourne Film Festival: The Cosmonaut (guess why that interested me …!). It was only 15 minutes long, but I enjoyed it – which I couldn’t say about the feature movie which followed, The Tape (not space-related), but I had to sit through it, anyway. I ended up spending around 6 hours in the city with nothing to eat, and came home very tired. I had a headache all night, and vomited a couple of times the next morning upon awakening – Mum later said I probably had a migraine! I’ve not had one that severe before.

Tuesday 13 August

Parents had a smart new metal front fence put up to replace the decrepit old brown wood panel one. Unfortunately, vandals put a small dent in it only a couple of weeks later. Vandals – young males wandering the streets at night – were an increasing problem in the neighborhood.

Tuesday 31 December

Visited a dentist for the first time in several years! My teeth needed cleaning, but were otherwise okay (no holes). The dentist was at Southland. I also saw a movie there: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Note: My childhood dentist, Dr Hurse in Bentleigh, had retired, so I put off finding another until 2002. I did not visit a dentist again until January 2007 (Southland dentists), when I got my first filling – and I had increasing troubles with my teeth from then on, including more fillings; an ongoing expense which my parents paid for as I was long-term unemployed by then with no income and virtually no savings. Unfortunately I had got complacent.

2018

Wednesday 12 December

Michele graduates from The University of Queensland in 2018 as an adult entrant with a Bachelor of Occuptational Therapy with Honours Class IIIA, and a Bachelor of Pharmacy with Honours Class I.

This timeline is in need of updating! Life events are in both my personal journals (2001-2022 and 2004 onwards) on this site.

Saturday, 28 June 2025 at 1:24:19 pm