I was born somewhere around the middle of last century to Australian parents who could never decide whether they wanted to live in Australia or England. We switched several times between the two countries during my childhood, which I thought was great fun, and which infused in me a love of ships and sea travel. But I finished my secondary schooling at a school in England which had a strong musical tradition. There I learned organ, sung in choirs and began my first attempts at composition, while all the time wishing I could be playing piano on a ship sailing endlessly around the world.

I went on to commence an ill-fated attempt at studying for a B.Mus at Edinburgh University, where my one claim to fame was having a composition highly commended by the composer Kenneth Leighton, then a professor at Edinburgh. After failing my first year exams, I drifted into playing in dance bands, and eventually fulfilled my wish to play piano on ships sailing endlessly around the world. After a few years, I found myself sailing endlessly around the same three ports in the Caribbean and decided it was time to come ashore.

Having lived on international waters for several years, I wasn't sure whether I should attempt to reclaim residency in England or Australia. I checked my passport and it told me I was Australian, so I went there and found jobs playing on island resorts. This was a bit like being at sea, except that it didn't sail anywhere. Endlessly.

In 1983, On Brampton Island in Queensland, I met Julie, who was the front office manager, and the two of us went to work together on several other resorts over the next few year, ending up on Dunk Island, where we got married in 1988.

Eventually we decided it was time to go and live in the real world, so we moved to the mainland, getting as far as Airlie Beach. We soon realised this was not the real world either, more like another island resort glued to the mainland. And as this coincided with live music being increasingly replaced by appalling karaoke machines, I used some of the time there to finally undertake the study I should have completed 20 years earlier, this time a BA by correspondence through the University of New England.

In 1999 we left Airlie for Canberra, knowing work prospects would be good there. Since moving here, Julie has worked as executive assistant to politicians at Parliament house, and is currently with the department of Defence. I got work in IT, completed further part time postgraduate study in computer science, and ended up as a programmer with the ACT government.

I no longer have any great interest in playing music in bars. Since moving to Canberra, my enthusiasm for 'real' music has been reawakened! I've been involved with several choral groups, and sing regularly with the choir of St John's church, where I also sometimes assist as a relief organist. My composition is once again a major interest.

And thanks to the regular work, I have been able to travel to Europe in recent years to visit family and friends and to make pilgrimages to the places where my favourite composer Bach lived and worked. See my travel narratives!