I have just accessed the RAAF School website after being informed of it by my sister Pat. The site is amazing, it brought back so many fond memories. Memories of people and places, not forgotten, but stored away in a corner of the brain just waiting for a site like this to open the flood gates.

The memories and feelings of RAAF School and Penang came rushing back to a point that I could almost feel myself there again. I can imagine myself riding my bike through the Kampongs, catching a rickety bus to the Hostel or Georgetown, or just looking at the sites of Penang upon a windswept rock with a scout emblem painted on it after a small but sweat raising climb through the jungle. The smell of the markets, the rambutan man on his bicycle, the view from the British/Jap forts and the beggars on the streets that shave by pulling their facial hair out with two coins. What a time it was.

I think the fondest memories of that time are the friends that I made there, some lasting and others brief but still important to the point that everyone combined made it like one large happy family. As it was a time and age in life when we were very impressionable, events in Penang and the school shaped my life for events to come.

After Penang, we moved to Melbourne where, apart from the constant travel bug, I stayed for the next 20 years. I became a school teacher and taught in Melbourne. In 1997 I moved to Japan to teach and met my wife Tricia at the same school. We moved to the U.S. in 1999 and working as a carpenter. I have since returned to Australia and now live in Melbourne. I would still love to hear from any one from that era.

I would love to hear from anyone who may remember me

Cheers.

Peter Lucas
29 July 2008