Like sands through the hour glass...

...these are the streets of my life. Not all of of them of course but these are the significant streets on which I have lived in Sydney from my birth in 1949 until the present day.

West Street, Darlinghurst

I was born at nearby Crown Street Womens Hospital, which no longer exists, and my parents were living in West Street at the time so this was my first home. However I have no memories from my days there.

National Street, Rozelle

My first ever memories date to my life here in the inner west of Sydney in a two storey semi-detached house. These were pre-school childhood days when I first started to walk. Rozelle in those days was very much working class with docklands and power houses nearby but nowadays it and adjacent Balmain are very fashionable and in parts extremely expensive.

Wylde Street, Potts Point

Back to the eastern suburbs and not far from my start at West Street. My childhood, pre-teen and primary school days were spent here with the Navy on one side (hello, Sailor!) and 1950/60s Bohemian Kings Cross on the other. Could both be factors in my losing my virginity here at...well, let's just say...a very young age?

Yarranabbe Road, Darling Point

My parents economic situation improved and so did our residential status when we moved to Darling Point, even in the 1960s, a posh place to live although we three were still in a relatively inexpensive and tiny flat with a sensational view of the harbour that meant nothing in monetary terms then but adds squillions to property values now. My teenage years, high school, university and first few years of adult, early twenties, working life were spent here, still living with my parents.

Hedges Avenue, South Strathfield

My mother's long cherished wish to live in her own standalone house was finally realised when, with my reluctant father in tow, we moved to South Strathfield in 1972. After years spent in the eastern suburbs this western suburb of Sydney seemed to me to be a long way from my friends and my lifestyle activities. My parents were to live there for twenty-four years until 1996 but I spent less than four years (1973/74 and then 1976/77) in that house, the only time in my 61 years alive that I have lived in a standalone house.

So strange was this suburban lifestyle to me that I had difficulty sleeping the first few nights we were there. I had never before heard the sounds of dogs barking at night in neighbouring backyards and was kept awake by this unfamiliar noise until I became accustomed to it.

I was posted to London in 1974/75 with my employment and then again to Hong Kong, Beijing, Suva and Canberra in turn from 1977 to 1987.

Meryla Street, Burwood

Finally back in Sydney in 1987 I lived here until 1990. Burwood was only two suburbs from my parents in South Strathfield and felt marginally more urban than my parents' suburb but at the time there didn't seem much difference.



Edgecliff Road, Edgecliff

 The lure of the eastern suburbs, the harbour and the ocean were too strong and I moved to Edgecliff in 1990 not far from my childhood homes at West Street, Wylde Street and Yarranabbe Road.

And here I remain to this day, now a retired senior citizen with memories of near and far.