Irene and I met in Melbourne and started dating, and then living together rather quickly.  I always wish I was cooler in relationships, but somehow for all my intentions of not taking things too quickly, I get carried away with them.

Shortly after that she decided to move up to Queensland and feeling my life in Melbourne had run its course I decided to go with her.  I was too shy and nervous to make such a big change on my own.

It turned out in many ways to be one of the best decisions I ever made in many ways.  Although I was unemployed for a while after I came to Queensland, I eventually got a job in a sawmill, which led me to applying to study at University.  At this point my mother moved up to Queensland as well and bought a house.  Irene and I were thinking of separating, and my mother offered me the chance to live in the bottom of her home rent free whilst I was studying.  This essentially meant I never had any money issues at University.

The house was in Scarborough, a seaside suburb on the Redcliffe Peninsula, and that is where this photo was taken.  Irene would come and visit me one or two nights a week, and it was one of the best times in our relationship.  In the end, once I started working we decided to buy a house together.  This was largely Irene's idea, in that although I had always talked about it, I didn't think it was really possible.  It turned out to be the second best financial decision I ever made, after deciding to study computers.

In this photo Irene's hair is out, which I always liked.  She changed me in many ways, helped me become vegetarian and then made me decide to take the final steps towards veganism, got me involved in activism.  Yet another relationship that wasn't perfect by any measure, but it left me a better person.