Heading to university March 1993.

Craig is now 18. And soon he will be moving to Ashhern, [4 hours away] with three close friends. Russell, Kenneth and William, where they’ll attend university together. Craig, always looked up to his father. For as long as he can remember, his only wish is to become a fully qualified carpenter. Then Craig can professionally and confidently work alongside him. Russell, who has been Craig’s best friend since kindergarten. Lives two driveways down from ‘Winter Forth’ to the left. Craig met the other two lads in high school, around year 8. Kenneth and William, were both born in and live in Sagehurst. [30 mins from Hillstem]. The first semester break won’t be until six months after enrolment. Kenneth’s uncle Morgan owns a 3-bedroom house in Ashhern. With a 32-foot granny flat at the rear. Everyone will live there with him. From there it’s a short bus ride to the university. Craig will share some classes with Kenneth and William. But many of the same classes with Russell. Who is a fellow gifted designer, also planning on becoming a carpenter. Kenneth is studying to be a lawyer.

Kenneth is of medium height, I guess cuddly. Would be an accurate, polite term. He has short red hair, blue eyes, a moustache and a long beard, same color as his hair. Which according to him he ‘trained’ to grow down from his sideburns. To look at him you can’t tell where the moustache finishes and the beard begins? Intrigues, people have often asked him, how? They have even tried to touch it. Kenneth simply moves their hand away from his face and says, “Ah, ah. I trained it well!” he then runs his fingers through his beard. It is said that most people wish to forget high school nicknames. But Kenneth often called [Gnome] remembers he’s fondly. In fact, many of his friends still call him this today. University will be for 3-4 years. Upon hearing this news, Kenneth was utterly disappointed that he’s unable to bring along his Harley Davidson motorcycle for the duration. Lovingly referred to as ‘Harliqueen.’ She will instead be safely parked up in his parents' garage. William, believe it or not is lovingly nicknamed ‘Wilma.’ Yes, lovingly! I don’t understand how a nickname is something to be proud of? If you think about it. “Michelle is Shelly, Edward can be Edward Eddie, Ed or playfully Edwardo. Jamie or Jason is Jay. Those names can at least be worn with pride, even accidently. But to so proudly stand by Gnome and Wilma, hmm? It just does my head in at times. Since age 5, Wilma had been teased. He was tall, wore glasses and had long, thin black hair. I wouldn’t say scrawny. Athletic, I suppose. The bullying experience made him shy and withdrawn. Some even started saying he appeared ‘girly’ hence the Wilma. I remember when Wilma developed his first crush. He became really sensitive. Still remained withdrawn. We often found him starring up into the clouds.

Everyone knew he liked this girl, Natalie…..? Can’t remember her last name! After two to three awkward weeks of blushing whenever he saw her. Ducking in behind library shelves. Doing tuckshop dashes. [He collected ordered lunch, then dashed off again.] Eating lunch on the oval, so as to avoid seeing her in the undercover area.To this day, we still don’t know exactly what? Or how it happen? It was after school finished; the buses arrived. Wilma emerged, hair neatly tied back, shirt tucked in even shoelaces tied. He walked straight toward Natalie. And asked her to meet him at the local café, later this afternoon. We could hardly believe it. And we just saw it! Wilma had finally crept out of his shell. First few times, Natalie replied no. We were all convinced he‘d recede back into the comfort of his shell. But Wilma surprised us all. He kept persisting. He was so pleased when Natalie……? Darn, I always forget her last name. I know, I know it but oh! Ah! It’ll come to me later. Anyway she’d finally agreed to go out with him. Craig, suddenly shouted out ‘got it! I knew, I knew it! Withers. That’s her last name!’ Kenneth [Gnome] wasn’t the only one of us who would miss ‘Harliqueen.’ Craig got to ride her a couple of times when they visited the beginners track at ‘Rear Tyre.’ ‘Rear tyre’ is a local track not far from the town of Hillstem. It features many large open areas. Designated to bike riders, both bicycle and motorbikes as well as drivers wanting to playfully race and egg each other on with questions like. “Are we ever going to have a chicken race?” Equestrian riders were also welcome. There’s an obstacle course with different difficulty levels, depending on chosen track size; Small, medium, or large. All courses contain jumps and tight corners. This is where the three of them were usually found of a Saturday afternoon. Gnome was the only one of their group who could legally drive, passing his provisional driving test just last month. Craig and William, grew up on farms. Often driving tractors and quad bikes around their grounds. They each had driving lessons with their dad’s. But as yet no on road driving experience. ‘Rear Tyre’ has a 6X6 stable, coincidently designed and built by Craig’s father Logan and some of his co-workers. The stable stands alongside a 100 metre track. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own horse. However, there’s usually 3-5 horses if you’d like to hire them.