… again telling the story of how some foreign China man sprayed his entire face with breath spray. Which by the way, would have been absolutely hilarious; no wonder it stuck in your mind.
But you have never been one of those traveling Dad’ s who only saw their kids on the weekends or late at night. Your traveling was totally OK with the family. In fact, traveling with you guys has been one of my fondest memories. All the way back to going to the US in year one and hair-drying cousin Meg’ s butt, or you lining up her best friend Jen from the van with a snowball right to the back of the head. I remember laughing hysterically and that still remains one of the best shots of all time. Playing pool with you in Aunt Linda’ s basement and space-invaders were also fortunate memories that I had with the family in the USA.
I’ ll never forget taking your Dad to the Waterfalls in Seattle before making us pull over and pissing at someone’ s house. Classic.
But before that move to Seattle, I remember you always waking me up every Saturday morning to go for bike rides or play tee-ball or dragging me to take photos of rust somewhere. Learning to ride the BMX bike at Perry Lakes will remain a cycling highlight for me; despite all of the mountains and tracks I have since ridden.
You always made time, despite working ridiculously hard at WA Cardiology, to coach t-ball training and t-ball games. I will most certainly be doing this with my kids also; when I have them. I will, however, restrain myself from shouting at Sam Rowe:
“ GO F *& KING GET IT!!!” after getting hit in the back of the head with a baseball. Or replying to Sam’ s parents after they asked“ Why don’ t you put Sam in to play more?”
“ COZ YOUR KID SUCKS!!” I will also remember the:“ HUSSLE FERNANDO”“ BASE-HIT NOW LUKE”“ THROOWWWW DAA HEEEAAATAA” … in the back of my mind every time I watch a baseball game.
Still, one of my favorite baseball movies was Sandlot Kids. Best movies ever. Other movies that I watched in year 3 that were age-relevant were Aliens and Total Recall at I-Max. I’ ll never forget when Arnold is sitting there when the freak-Mars leader starts popping out of the middle of this guys stomach. Species 3 was yet another family-fun-feel-good movie that I remember. A nd Ryan saying – in his pre-primary class in front of everyone-“ My favourite movie is the Rock, BECAUSE IT’ S RATED R!” Of course, this wasn’ t as bad as if he were to say this in Australia; the USA standard is clearly different.
That move to Seattle was a bit of a shake up for me. I admire you for bringing us over there and making the move entirely. At the start, I was bullied and found it hard to make friends as the foreigner. But soon did they find out that I was a keen base-baller( because of you) and I was socially accepted, plus more. Before I knew it, I had plenty of friends. Most of which you remember; Hillary( my first girlfriend who beat me up), Danel, David Burke( with the weirdo Mum), Chris( the smart one who convinced me to shoot a hunting arrow directly vertical into the atmosphere) and Joan( my blonde girlfriend).
I realize now how much time you still dedicated to Ryan and I; you were always there to chaperon at the school dance( where you witnessed your first midget throwing competition try-outs) and also accompanying to my school camp. I thought that was really cool.
I still use the study techniques you taught me in year 5 and 6 and will continue to use them well into the future, as well as teach my kids them. I remember going through each chapter with you and writing questions on cards for review. Saint Monica’ s was certainly“ Harvard for Kids”. I really appreciate you learning the material with me and spending countless hours testing and reviewing with me. I think it has certainly paid off. Must have been that integral calculus you taught me in year 6 when we got back to Perth.( Remember asking the Army drop-kicks if they knew how to manually calculate the trajectory, flight time and time to impact of one of their shells?) ha ha, I always laugh when I think of that.
You always believed that good schools were an absolute must. Coming back to Perth saw myself at Newman College( Hello, Newman) for a semester before again rejoining the JTC band wagon. My kids will also go to the best schools as I now know the effect of such. High school went by extremely fast and you again provided study help for me, this time in the form of tutoring, and it was again quintessential for my career. You also supported me throughout my entire life for things that you
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