Younger Days and obssessions

Apparently only a handful of people ever really reach their potential or acquire the job they want in their lives. For me, I like other people and with all modesty taken into account, have still not been able to find and utilise my full potential. As a child, my interests and obsessions were very specialised. I had a fascination with death and cemeteries not in a morbid way but why people put other people into boxes and lowered them into the ground. I can remember visiting my Paternal Great Grandmothers Grave in Caboolture and wondered why more than one person was below a gravestone and furthermore if the persons below the ground looked like those that I saw in the flesh around me. I was so perplexed with death at an early age, that my mind tried to work out what the process was all about and whether God was this man in White Satin with a long beard that allowed those who were good to pass through the Pearly Gates and those who were not granted denial. I also wondered if deceased persons turned into a star and as you can imagine my childhood obsessions did not go over well around other people and also at a dinner side table. I also had very eccentric interests, I was interested in why men had chains on their waste coats in the past century later to find that these fitted onto a pocket watch. I tried to make my own pocket watch with an old watch face and a chain to replicate the real watch itself and my parents bought me a watch which I still have to this day which once wound works for a day and then needs to be rewound again. I thought why does a watch need a chain and why could only pocket watches be worn in a man's waist coat. I also had an active imagination as a child turning a dull surrounding into a living reality. When I was younger, I used to visit the Sunshine Coast with my Grandma, cousin and aunt. Back then Mudjimba consisted of the "Blue Rinse" clique who as a child I could not understand why Grannies put colours in their hair and why Mudjimba was so backward. The only high rise in those days was Surf Air which was the highest building on the coastal strip and the beaches used to have tidal coffee rock which sometimes was apparent and endemic on Sunshine Coast beaches and other times hidden beneath the sand. These rocks used to be carved out with mother natures hand into small rock pools and when waves washed into them you sometimes had mini blow holes or washing machine type affects in the rocks with the water penetrating or flowing through the gapes or holes within the rock itself. If you got the rock and grinded it, you could make an artifical coffee and sand cakes which my brother showed me with three types of sand. Firstly you would get the wet sand and make it into a cake, then mix the drier sand in with it and then complete the cake of sand with dry sand. These sand cakes had several uses in that they could be used as ammunition or catapulted long distances. Furthermore, sand castles could be made by moulding sand a long the edges of the sea and wet sand could mould steeple like affects onto the sand castle. My imagination got me through a lot of turbulent and difficult times when I was younger. I had no friends but I had an imagination and could write good stories about the sea, and escaping to some island and encountering another world. I still have to this day an active imagination and this is more so evident when walking along the beach and noticing the moon above the calm water of the ocean. I used to think of sea monsters or pirates upon the sea and early sea explorers. Also beaches used to have a collection of shells and the cone type shells with the yellow and brown in them made for interesting observation also. I remember collecting Hermit Crabs and Frogs but being cruel to them not realising I had to let them go after I caught them. I had a bucket of Hermit Crabs which I once collected and took them home only to realise next morning they were all dead because they lacked the necessary oxygen and requirements necessary to survive. I was fascinated with the way the Hermit Crab dug into the wet sand and hid under it's surface and how Frogs lived in the nearby creek but when I spotted a Cane Toad swimming in the creek that was the end of visits to the creek to catch frogs. As a kid I always thought frogs were always green and toads brown. I realised that some brown what I suspected were toads were actually frogs and some of these brown frogs could jump long distances. The brown frogs with longer legs could jump over a metre or so if disturbed and the more distance the frog could jump the more I wanted to catch one. I also had an interest in collecting different coloured butterflies and trying to work out which coloured butterfly corresponded to which particular bush. A lot of people were concerned or irritated by my behaviours but I could escape into my own world and not be disturbed. Nobody could hassle me with my butterfly collecting, or frog spotting and collecting. If people were cruel or ignored me then I had my imagination and nobody could penetrate that as I could rely on my intelligence to escape fights but could not escape teasing which did occur and that I couldn't control. I had many obsessions that were peculiar but my interest in orchids and certain flower species was another fascination. My Grandmother's next door neighbour had orchids and I was fascinated with how these flowering plants could grow on tree trunks. This neighbour was stingy though and despite my constant nagging for Orchid Runners and small plants, I just couldn't get any from him. I remember though sneaking some runners from over the fence and this neighbour always had an eye on his orchids in case an unsuspecting kid crept in and pinched some but I began to purchase my own orchids and when I had the right conditions was able to grow them very well. I went to orchid shows and over the years collected my own species. I have lost a lot of interests now for over the years my interests were never nurtured and I didn't realise that I was annoying people by constantly talking on and on about them. Unfortunately I cannot have orchids now or grow them properly as I still live with my parents and because they are getting older, I am unable to look after them properly because the requirements needed are hard to install. Sometimes you just have to take the cards that you are dealt. I was able to ride a push bike and learned surprisingly fast. I used to go for long rides as a teenager but up until a couple of years ago had a serious accident breaking my wrist and cutting my jaw open. I went into the MP"s office with blood streaming out and people looking at me as I was some kind of freak. I lost quite a bit of blood apparently but at least someone was there to help. I could go on but this is only a glimpse of my life as a younger person.