Peter Hardy

My family went to Penang in '79. I was aged 11 which meant I ended up in 5K (ah Peter Kirby you mad-man!) and a year later 6D (Paul Day - Kirby's quieter colleague). When my father got posted to Malaysia, a country none of us kids had heard of before, safe to say we did NOT want to leave go. We lived at 38 Jalan Azyze, right across the road from the RAAF school which was great at lunch for a quick duck home for a shower on the really hot days! Most days though we'd go down to the canteen where mum was manager there and we'd get a huge lunch...we didn't realise that she had to pay for it, oops. I can still see sleazy Khor checkin' out all the girls and Ginger the dog lying in the shade. After staying in Jalan Azyze for almost our entire stay we were moved, no idea why, closer to the Hostel. We missed the Hillside Hilton like crazy and the close location to the school. We ended up experiencing the bright Yellow and Green buses first-hand instead of just watching the poor school passengers as they jammed into the buses for their oven-like trip home...what goes around...yadda yadda yadda

Once getting back to Aust I went through the high school thing, and the college thing then I did the "I don't know what to do with myself." thing. I ended up moving to Darwin with mum and dad on their last posting (other than Canberra). Being the only one still living at home it was quite good for a while, but those Darwinites won't let people come in and work straight off the street. So back to Canberra for me to work in the Public Service for a while.

Well, after working in Tax for 11 years I decided to look at other horizons (in other words - redundancy) so moved down to Lara just outside of Geelong with my wife Cherie and 2 cats to start a new life with the nice carrot Tax gave me. After a little long service leave I decided to do a Diploma of Systems Technology course in Melbourne and finished in March 2001. Timing is everything. For just as I graduated I was given the news that we would be expecting our first child in 9 months time. I was then into the roll of nest building. My wife, who worked for IBM (still), had to take more time off then she wanted to. IBM were great! I then became the Nest Builder, the Home Looker-afterer and my wife's carer. Well, on the 6th of December, after a hellish pregnancy, Cherie gave birth to the most gorgeous little girl....ask anyone....and we named her Tianina. It's pronounced Tia-Nina. Once again, IBM were brilliant and gave Cherie more time off then needed and when she DID go back to work I became the Stay At Home Dad.

The time has flown and Tia is now almost 15 months old and walking like a toddler possessed and getting me fitter faster than a gym membership. We now live with two cats, two dogs and a horse on 10 acres just outside of Linton, Victoria...down near Ballarat.

Life is pretty damn good and having seen your site about the RAAF School really did bring a bigger smile to my face. Thanks for the wonderful memories. And I hope to catch up with a few friends and make new ones at the Reunion in May 2003!