Smokie's Page - A look at the Philippines by an Australian

Amy & Smokie

G'day to all web travellers. My name is Jack Forbes and I go by the nick of "smokie".

A bit about myself. I was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1949, moved to Australia with my family in 1951 when I was two years old. Grew up in a place called Morwell in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria. In 1974 we moved to North Queensland and lived in Cairns and Mareeba on the Atherton Tablelands for about 8 years. I then lived in Glendon, a coal town in Central Queensland, about a 2 hour drive from Mackay for about 18 months. I then moved to Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley, NSW in 1986 and lived there for 12 years until I moved to Quezon City in the Philippines in December 1998.

My sister and brother in-law and one niece and two great-nieces live in Nth Queensland, while one niece, two great nephew & one great-niece live in Coffs Harbour, NSW. My mother passed away August, 1999 and my father passed away July, 2001.

I have 3 children from my first marriage. My sons and their families live in the Melbourne, Victoria area and my daughter and her family live in Brisbane, Qld. I have 4 granddaughters and 3 grandsons.

I did my trade in Morwell as a blacksmith/farrier but also learnt boilermaking and welding. I was an apprentice to my father who was the hardest boss I ever worked for but he did teach me well.

I've done a number of different jobs over the years besides my trade, they being a tyre fitter and salesman, car salesman, car detailer, groundsman, truck driver, worked in a tin mine, and as a wedding photographer.

I have always been interested in photography which led me into computers. I am self taught in computers but have a friend, Wayne Millerd, who has also taught me a lot about computers, how they work and how to set them up. He has a small computer business called Reset Computers in Muswellbrook, NSW in Australia. I also did a computer course at the Hunter Institute Of Technology, Singleton Campus, NSW.

My computers are mainly a hobby, I like too build and upgrade them, make web pages and surf the net, as well as chatting to friends on a few forums.

I live with my lovely wife Amy, who was a Lecturer of Communication at the Monash University in the Churchill campus but formally of the De Salle University in Manila. We met via the net over 13 years ago and visited each other a couple of times before I moved to Quezon City in 1998.

After nearly five years living in the Philippines, Amy and I moved back to Australia in September 2003. As Amy had a position teaching Journalism at the Monash Campus we had set up home in Morwell, Victoria. After 25 years I had returned to the town I grew up in and like me, it had changed but not changed, a bit older and a bit bigger but still basically the same place.

After four years living in Morwell we moved again and as of July 2008 we headed to Townsville, Queensland as Amy got a Senior Lecturer's position at the James Cook University. With our two dogs in the back seat of the car we drove the 2900klms in 2.5 days to our new home near the beach, were the sun shines most days.

We have been here in Townsville for nearly 18 months now and loving it.