Welcome to some personal information about one half of the duo who brought you these pages. I  was born in Sydney, Australia. I have always lived here and have no desire to live anywhere else. I currently live in Stanmore, which is located on the city fringe, only 15 minutes from the famous Oxford Street.

Here is a couple of pictures of me. Click the picture for a larger version. Guess where they were taken?

I have developed a keen interest in computers since getting our first PC in March 1995. Not knowing anything at all about the things, we purchased a Packard Bell 486 DX2 66 based on the price and the bundled software. Several mistakes were made here, ones that I am sure first time PC buyers make. The 486 was really out of date technologically and Packard Bell computers are not the best! Most of the bundled software is crap too. While it has proven fairly reliable, the few calls to tech support have been unhelpful and here in Australia it would seem the on-site warranty doesn't exist.

Our second PC was a Hewlett Packard Pavilion Pavilion 166 MMX, 32 Mb ram and 4.2 gig hard disk. Great system for those who want a reliable, name brand PC. While not top of the heap, in terms of performance, it is a good bundle at a reasonable price.

Our current PC is a Gateway Pentium II 450 with 128 Mb ram, 19 inch monitor, DVD and CD-R/W and 10.2 Gb hard drive. I am very happy with this system and would recommend Gateway. I have had so much fun putting old vinyl records on to CD. The two additions to the system is a hardware decoder card from Sigma Designs for the DVD so we can output movies to the TV and a Sony CD-R/W which is much faster than the Philips unit that came with the PC. Two new additions are a Kodak DC 240 digital camera and a Canon 6000 printer. The printed photos are quite extraordinary - crisp and clear with excellent colour definition. Real good fun! I have also upgraded the hard drive to an IBM 30 Gb GXP that, along with many others, has failed with bad sectors and horrible scratching noises.........since upgraded to a Maxtor 40 Gb D 740X. Hopefully that will last a little longer. I upgraded the processor with a PowerLeap Celeron 1.4 slocket upgrade to extend the use of this aging dinasour.

Our most recent addition is broadband internet access. It is only 256Kb ADSL but it is so far in front of dialup access it isn't funny. Our access is through iiNet - a West Australian company that offers much better deals than Telstra. It is only recently that Telstra (the dominant Telco) has been forced to offer realistic access to wholesale ADSL for ISP's due to action by the Competition and Consumer Commission. I had been holding off going broadband as Telstra's pricing structure was and still is outrageous. (now upgraded to 24 Mbit ADSL 2+ and Telstra now privatised is still at it blocking all attempts at competition).

We have finally upgraded to Windows XP. The looming end of support date for 98 was the catalyst. So far it all seems to be going OK. Only complaints are barebones driver for Brother 1240 laser printer and NO driver from Logitech for Quickcam VC web camera. The camera is a bit of a sore point for me. It seems that even though ours is an original Connectix product it was still sold under the Logitech brand. It seems that Logitech are not providing any drivers for original Connectix products......

After 10 years and countless upgrades the Gateway has been replaced with an Acer FH series tower (June 2007). Still running XP as I didn't want to jump to Vista yet. I hope that it is as reliable as the Gateway.

My other interests when I get away from the PC are reading, television, movies, music and cooking. I am an ABBA fan from way back. I have many 45RPM singles of their songs from the 70's as well as all their albums. Tony has developed his taste for ABBA since we met and we both have purchased several books on the group. The four CD collection that was released 94/95 is probably my favourite. Listening to all the unreleased stuff and reminiscing about my teens. Good stuff! Latest Abba purchases are the two NEW releases from the girls - Agnetha and Frida. They were very expensive here as imports only but I just had to have them! Reading these days limits itself to PC magazines, trying to figure out a little bit more. I used to be a little bit of a car nut. Purchasing car mags all the time - at the news stand the day they came out. I owned six brand new cars in the first seven years of my working life. I realised this was rather extravagant and while I still am interested in new cars I no longer want to buy every model when it is released.

Now for some work related stuff. For the first 9 years of my career, I worked for the Australian Taxation Office as an Income Tax Assessor. By this stage I had had enough of sitting behind a desk and decided on a change. I couldn't think of anything more different than driving a bus. I have now done this since 1990 and thoroughly enjoy it. I drive for the State Transit Authority doing route work in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Many people told me to be more responsible about my career, but my advice to others is to do what you want to and be happy. Money can't buy that. (Just my 2cents worth!) Of course it is not as much fun as it once was but - hey - it pays the bills!

As you would have seen from the opening page I live with a fellow bear, Tony. We first met a while ago but did not click. We ran into each other again on New Years Day 1994 and were living together within 3 months. Since this time, we have been overseas for 5 months and moved into our own place. We have settled into a domestic lifestyle which is quite a change from the days of being a "scene queen". Like most people, I have discovered that there is more to life than going out 6 nights a week and not having much money to buy things. Funny how attitudes change!

During our trip in 1995, we visited both Disneyland and Disneyworld. They are wonderful places and not just for kids. I had a ball behaving like a child again. I can recommend to all to go to these fantasy islands for an escape. You really do feel like it is the 'happiest place on earth'. We even stood in a queue to have our photos taken with Barbie and Skipper. We even thought about pushing through the 7 and 8 year old girls to get to the front........but that wouldn't be in the Disney Spirit!

In March 2000, I realised a lifelong dream of seeing Barbra Streisand live in concert at The Sydney Football Stadium. What a magical night.......the last true superstar. In these days of come and go pop stars I believe I have witnessed the end of an era. Hopefully Ms Streisand will continue to record in the studio and make movies. Even more wishes: I would like to see her in front of a camera rather than behind it. The Barbra Streisand Music Guide is an excellent site for those who want to know more.

On a related note a group of friends and I went to see Steven Brinberg in Simply Barbra in May 2002. This man is a genius in his performance as Babs. His vocalisations and mannerisms are spot on. Close your eyes and you could almost believe it was Streisand. If you get a chance to see him I recommend you to do so.

I have a new car. A Holden Barina. It has not been a pleasant experience. You can read all about it here. I no longer have this POS. It has been sold..........

In April 2005 we went to see Bette Midler in her "Kiss My Brass" tour. What an absolute hoot. We were totally mesmerised by the whole performance. It seemed to go way too fast and was all over in the blink of an eye. Another of the old time superstars that actually sing their whole act..........

I hope that you found some of this interesting and enjoyable. If you would like to, please email me.

Cheers

Raymond