Rod

Rod is a great mate, and one of the nicest blokes I have ever met. I've known him since my first unsuccessful attempt at tertiary education back in 1988 at Newcastle University, where we were both doing a Bachelor of Arts degree (back before the days of HECS). He went on to finish his degree at Macquarie Uni, whilst I dropped out, seeing I only passed one subject in the entire year, which, strangely enough, was German.

We discovered that we had quite a few similar interests, apart from being students. We were both keen followers of cricket and rugby league and had both played soccer, though I would be first to admit that he definitely had more talent (and drive) than I ever did. Like me, he also wrote some poetry, and we even wrote a song together one day at uni. He even invited me down to his folks place one weekend during the year and his mum offered to do my laundry, even though she had never met me before.

After uni, from 1989 to about 2004, we would make an annual pilgrimage to the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch a day or two of the test match or a one-day game. This was usually the only time of the year that I would normally get to see him (seeing I was living in Tamworth until 1998) and we would try to fit a few things in, like going ten-pin bowling or eating out. Nowadays he usually comes up here to go to a Mariners match with me, or to just go down to the Leagues Club in Gosford and play some snooker. I haven't been down to his place for some time, generally because of my uni commitments and his work and family responsibilities.

Rod has been married since 1994, and has two kids, a boy and a girl. Currently he teaches languages (I think he's fluent in three besides English) at a private school in the suburbs. And, to be honest, apart from getting grayer, he's hardly changed a bit since this picture was taken on his wedding day.