100 pieces of information about me:

1. I was a fussy kid when I was little, only ate meat pies and tinned spaghetti.
2. My greatest achievement in life is raising four amazing children to adulthood. I am immensely proud of all they are and all they have so far achieved.
3. I’m most alive standing on a stage speaking to an audience.
4. I once lost my passport in Uganda, Africa and had to pay bribes to various officials to get out of the country, I was then almost not allowed into Kenya and spent many hours in the ‘terminal’, no one country taking responsibility for me.
5. I had bad asthma as a kid, once when on holidays crossing the Nullabor a Dr in Ceduna told my parents I’d die from it if they continued on across the country. They went anyway, needless to say I didn’t die!
6. I was the vice captain of the Australian Rules football team in Primary School.
7. My first girlfriend was Moira Weller, I think she ‘dropped’ me! Spoke to her a couple of years ago on FB!
8. The first car I owned was an HR Holden I bought for $300. Sold it for $600 after I had painted it.
9. I can still remember the lines I spoke as narrator in the end of year play in the last year of Primary School.
10. My younger sister Samantha and I once had a competition to see who could remember the whole of the Dr Seuss book “One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish” we both succeeded and to this day can recite 5 or 6 pages!
11. My Dad was born in England and moved to Australia when he was 14 years old, my Mum was born in Australia.
12. I have an older  (by 18 months) sister Leanne and a younger sister (8 years) Samantha.
13. My maternal grandmother is still alive and is 96 this year, my paternal grandmother lived to 100; augers well for me I think?
14. I have come close to salt water crocodiles in the wild in the NT in a 12ft dinghy.
15. I was born in Melbourne and lived there for the first 9 years of my life, still my favourite city to visit in Australia.
16. In 2012 we travelled around QLD and NT for 9 months in a camper trailer.
17. A teacher in Yr 12 told me I would be Prime Minister one day! (I’m the closest I have ever been to fulfilling that)
18. I’ve had two Subaru WRX!
19. I worked as a mechanic for several years in the mid 90’s.
20. I once visited a displaced people’s camp in Northern Uganda, very confronting!
21. I’m a passionate Carlton Football Club supporter, though I’ve never been a member.
22. My appendix burst when I was 24 and I got severe peritonitis! Thought I was going to die.
23. I once did a loop the loop in a glider.
24. A few years ago I moved over to Mac and will never go back.
25. For my 40th birthday I went on the Porsche experience at Mt Cotton raceway.
26. I wrote a letter to the PM Bob Hawke in 1983 – I still have his response.
27. Climbing Uluru in 2012 was a fantastic experience, it is the most awesome landform in Australia.
28. I’ve collected a number of biographies about Winston Churchill; he is my favourite historical character.
29. I lived in Perthfor 16 years from the age of 10.
30. I am part way through a Masters Degree in Christian Leadership, not sure I’ll get to finish it in the next little while?
31. I pastored a church in Canberra for 16 years, it was the most satisfying work I have done to date.
32. People, I believe, are the most important commodity in the world.
33. The unbalanced way the media reports on issues is unhelpful in finding answers to our worlds problems.
34. I played lots of basketball as a teenager, didn’t grow very tall which was a bummer.
35. I once worked as a garbage collector on Rottnest Island, off the Perth coast, during Yr 10 school holidays.
36. A number of  years ago I bought a digital SLR and now enjoy photography, I have sold a couple of my photos!
37. Owning a cafe has shown me how hard people in the hospitality industry work.
38. I’d love to fly in a fighter jet one day.
39. My first permanent job after school was in the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac).
40. Did a night dive with manta rays off Hawaii once, it was amazing!
41. I prefer Coke over Pepsi.
42. I quite regularly say random quotes from Monty Python skits and movies.
43. Canberra was my home for 20 years from 1990, I think it is one of the best cities in Australia to live and raise a family.
44. Corn is the food I can’t stand the most, I have twice been to dinners and not pre warned them of my hatred of corn and been served a plate of it, both times I ate it without saying anything.
45. For  about last 10 years I have struggled at times with fybro-myalgia.
46. One of my daughters and her husband lives in Germany.
47. I have 5 grandchildren and one on the way, I love them to bits, but don’t get to see them very often. 😦
48. My HSC (Though we called it UAI in WA) score was 97.
49. I really enjoy cooking and Jamie Oliver is my favourite celebrity chef!
50. I didn’t learn to swim till I was 10, but learn’t to walk when I was 10 months.
51. I had No 5 on my Carlton jumper as a kid, for me it was Syd Jackson, now it belongs to Chris Judd my current day favourite player.
52. I’ve never been to a game of Rugby League.
53. I cried when I stood in Westminster Abbey, the sense of history and the sense of God overwhelmed me.
54. I’m actually quite funny when you get to know me and I probably (read definitely) don’t act my age at home. In fact my wife says she has three children at home!
55. I make a pretty good coffee, most of the time!
56. I’m a touchy feely kind of person!
57. Songs with a story are my favourites!
58. I used to read the Book of Virtues to my kids when they were growing up, I love this anthology of stories and poems.
59. The Sword of Damocles is the story that has impacted me most in regard to leadership and public office.
60. I’m naturally quite idealistic, this is not always a helpful quality.
61. I’m surprised at how good people can be and how bad!
62. I believe I am a good listener.
63. I once, as a 17 year old, steered a launch, full of young people on a youth outing, back to Perth from Rottnest Island, at night, after the skipper became incapacitated.
64. I love fishing but have never been very successful at it.
65. Quantum physics really interests me.
66. I’d love to live in Italy one day and learn Italian.
67. The Okavango Delta in Botswana was one of my favourite holiday experiences.
68. I am on my second marriage and have learnt considerably from the mistakes I made in the first.
69. Parents are there when even your closest friends desert you. My parents are both amazing people and a huge influence in my life.
70. I have had a cup of Kopi Luwak coffee, the real deal, the one that has passed through the intestinal tract of a palm civet.
71. My wife Jennie is the love of my life, she makes me so very happy, we laugh all the time.
72. I’ve learn’t more from my failures than from my successes.
73. Money does not motivate me!
74. I thrive on encouragement!
75. Experiences I believe are more important than possessions.
76. Dreams become reality if you hold on to them, faith can indeed move mountains, I’ve experienced this too many times in my life to not believe it.
77. I’m not one to hold grudges or unforgiveness.
78. I believe we should all be judged on our best moments not our worst, unfortunately the opposite is often true.
79. I have a strong sense of justice and believe it is lacking in our culture and society.
80. Had a gun pulled on me at Entebbe airport in Uganda once by a soldier, he made me get in a car with 3 Africans I didn’t know, I really thought this was the end when a short way into the drive they pulled into a deserted carpark. Needless to say it wasn’t the end, he was just getting a parking ticket. LOL BASOR
81. Once I ate rat, in a village in Northern Uganda, my host didn’t tell me that’s what it was till several days later.
82. When walking through one of the most difficult phases in my life 98% of my ‘friends’ deserted me. This reinforced the truth of the statement “True friends are those that are walking in when everyone else is walking out.” I trust the experience has helped me become a better friend.
83. I believe that mercy is better than judgement and that the truth will always eventually come to light.
84. I try to live by the golden rule, do to others as you would have them do to you, I’m not always successful though.
85. The biggest audience I have spoken to is about 2,500 people.
86. I detest hypocrisy, but we all are at some level, regardless of our best intentions.
87. When all is said and done I’ve found that most people decide or do what is best for them, the truly great are the truly sacrificial souls of this earth.
88. I hope to never stop learning and desire to be open enough to have my ideas and beliefs challenged and the strength to change if I have been found wanting in either.
89. I turn 50 this year and wonder how I ever got that old.
90. I believe in the God of the Bible and salvation through Jesus Christ.
91. I’m confused  as to why it takes so long to prepare and clean up after food and so little time to consume. I’d have it the other way around!
92. We don’t really find out what we believe until it is tested, unfortunately that is often too late for us to overcome the test.
93. I’d rather learn by being taught than by experience, however the latter is usually what occurs.
94. Eating a great meal with interesting people is one of my favourite things to do.
95. I love to debate ideas but without it becoming personal.
96. Got my head stuck in a cupboard!
97. Everyone has a story and I love listening to them.
98. We spend a lifetime trying to find out who we are and being authentic. Authenticity I believe is the key to success.
99. My greatest ‘buzz’ was sky diving, it was just incredible, would do it again in a flash, maybe???
100. Faith, hope and love these are the three most important virtues, but I agree that the greatest is LOVE.