Biographical stuff

While this blog is still shiny, I think I should provide a few basic biographical facts, which I can refer back to in future posts. I’ll cover two themes today: places I’ve lived, and members of my family.

I was born in Sydney on 12 June 1977, at 5:30 in the morning (or so they tell me). We lived in the suburb of Rhodes, and the hospital was in North Ryde (I can never remember which way around that is!). My sister (Rebecca Sylvia Morgan) was also born in Sydney, in January 1979.

We moved to Scotland when I was two. In fact, my second birthday was celebrated in Thailand (where my Uncle Brian’s family was living at the time) on the way from Australia to Scotland.

For the first few months in Scotland, we lived in Bowling, a town at the western end of the Forth and Clyde Canal, but settled in Bishopbriggs, a suburb of Glasgow. I started school in Bishopbriggs (Meadowburn Primary School).

We returned to Australia in 1983, not long before my sixth birthday, and settled near Maitland, the South Australian town where my mother was raised. In 1995, I moved to Adelaide (the South Australian capital) for further studies. I’ve moved house a couple of times since then, but I’m still in the city.

My father (Roger Paul) was born in February 1950 in Adelaide, and my mother (Dianne Emily, maiden name Pearce) was born in October 1952 in Maitland, so both are South Australian by origin.

Grandparents on Dad’s side were Gordon and Launa, who both died in the early nineties. They were known to me as Grandpa and Grandma. Grandparents on Mum’s side are David and Nancy, known to me as Papa and Grandnan.

Mum has one brother, Rodney, and Dad has two brothers, Brian and David. All of my uncles have families.

[Update: More about my extended family here. A report on Grandnan's funeral here.]