Finally, year 10 has finished & I am free but there is a slight problem.
While potential employers seemed quite impressed with my rhetoric of what a hard working, dedicated & loyal employee I would be for them, their attitude always seemed to change once they had viewed my report card.
If I can't find a job before the end of the holidays, I will be forced to go back to school, things could not possibly be any worse.
Well actually they could as Mum sits me down to tell me that your stepfather has gained a promotion to foreman shunter but that position is in Brisbane.
He is already in Brisbane, staying in a little flat while he looks for a suitable house to purchase.
Once he is settled, we will also be moving to Brisbane.
Well, i'am not going, I don't want to go, I don't want to leave all my mates & what about Susan!
It's decided, we are moving to Brisbane, we will have our own home, you will even have your own bedroom & you will have a much better chance of finding a job in Brisbane.
Diane & John obviously had their own place & Trevor had moved in with them months ago after a lot of conflict with the stepfather.
Barry had already secured a job as a teller at the Commonwealth Bank so he had no trouble getting a transfer to Brisbane, he was actually looking forward to all the benefits of living in a big city.
Not me, the thought of moving from my small country town where I knew absolutely everybody & more importantly everyone knew me, to the big smoke where I would not know anyone, really did terrify me.
Lame assurances from my mother did little to help, you will make new friends, you will forget about Susan (it's just puppy love ) & you might even find a job.
Compared to our previous very modest housing commission home, the new house was like a mansion.
It was located in Brighton which was a " new suburb " about 30 minutes from the city, it was in fact just a comfortable 3 bedroom house with a huge lounge & an enormous kitchen that had all the modern conveniences, gas stove/oven, automatic washing machine, fans in nearly every room, inside toilet next to the laundry & would you believe it, a bathtub & shower plus a
second toilet all in the one bathroom.
It's Barry's first day at work & I tag along just to learn how to catch the bus & train into the city.
We only have to walk to the corner to wait at the designated bus stop.
Right on time we see the bus approaching , passing & continuing on its merry way.
We look at each other with bemusement, why the hell didn't he stop.
As we watch the bus pull into the next stop which is only a few blocks away we realize (the Z is for Pat ) that you are
actually expected to extend your arm to wave the bus down.
To this day, I cannot imagine why anybody would be standing at a bus stop for any other reason than to catch a bloody bus.
So that was my first lesson about living in the big city, there were many more to come...