Greg’s Story or how Engineers Created Australia part2

Greg’s Story or how Engineers Created Australia. 23 june 2023.

Greg’s Autobiographical Story as created 2022

Table of Contents

7. 1974 CMAD created with Damien and Charles in Bank St, South Melbourne.

8. 1977 Prometheus Software Years with Dave, Peter and Shane.

9. 1985 The Arrival of Ursula Kim Hotchin 5september

10. Married Voula Savvas 16apr90.

11. Christina Joy arrived 10 june 1992.

12. 1991 Design and Build House at Galtes Crescent. Started 16aug91

9.1977 Prometheus Software Years with Dave, Peter and Shane.

After CMAD was closed by Rex Thiele at the Wool House Office I moved with Dave Nolan to a new office in Victoria St Brunswick (the first floor above the Middendorp Electrical Wholesaler and a block from my then house at Macfarland St , which I bought with Kathy.

One time Melbourne had a hail storm that completely blanketed our bit of Brunswick in small 5cm white hail it looked like snow on the ground.

10. in 1985 Ursula Kim Hotchin came along and she spent some time being baby sited at the Victoria St Office. It was a fairly easy birth in the City Hospital that’s not there now but at the end I was not allowed in the room because I was told I might faint at the site of blood.

11. In 1989 I married Voula Savvas and then Christina Joy Hotchin came along on 10june. It was a more arduous birth in City Hospital because the labour lasted 24 hours. At one point I as reprimanded by the nurse because I took a rest and opened a can of beer.

12. In 1991 I Designed and built a house at 23 Galtes Crescent, West Brunswick.

I toured a variety of show houses to various eastern suburbs before found one design that was close to what I wanted. I modified the ceiling height, type of windows, revised the kitchen

and added extra cupboards in all the rooms and added a front porch and a work office. The main mistake I made was allowing the water plumbing in the central walls. It took some effort to stop it making a noise. Insulation was installed in all walls and later the ceilings. The 2 car garage was added and turned sideways to allow a curved paved driveway. Special wood beam had to be added and a steel bar above the front window. I personally later added the wood paneling under the roof to stop the dust getting on the cars.

13. In 1994 lots of travel around the world but only North America, Europe and Asia.

Memorable Trips included my one and only trip to New York. I took 3 taxi trips, the first from the airport to hotel took the direct route and most of the time was spent in long lines of traffic moving very slowly. The second trip was from the hotel to convention centre and he went the long way , out of the traffic and along the harbor drive around the hotels and I saw the Statue of Liberty and lots of the city and lasted half the time of the previous trip. While in New York the Sales manager lady I was with tripped and fell on some stairs, so I helped her , the hotel staff told us the nearest medical centre was around the corner at a hospital. That hospital turned out to actually be a police hospital with guys everywhere with guns hanging around the necks, We had the arm wrapped and checked out and took a taxi to Newark Airport to fly back to Atlanta where her family could look after her.

Chicago was memorable for good and bad. The first night the travel people booked me somewhere cheap on the West side. The hotel people advised me to stay elsewhere the next day. It was a high crime area so I moved to the Sheraton in the city (and I always stayed at Sheratons after that). I did greatly enjoy a walk to the East side of Chicago where its full of very friendly bars serving fairly good larger.

In Atlanta I was staying in a spare room at Howard Taylor’s place up in the lake area above Atlanta. Howard had a boat on the lake and he liked to fish. I distinctly remember that Atlanta airport is very big.

Los Angeles Airport or LAX as its known was memorable not just for Disneyland (went once) but for the beach road from Santa Monica to Oxnard in Ventura County.

Europe and the UK via Heathrow and Gatwick was visited many times to assist Steve Wolski and his wholesale Sun Computers business. Steve had a team of salesman selling his stuff that was warehoused at Wakefield in the Middle of England. He bought a farm in a valley near Wakefield and built a hanger to store his helicopter, and he built ponds feeding the fish he used in his restaurant and ostrich kept the grass down. On the farm was a Druid era plot 4x6 mtr , No one ever explained why the Druid plot was there, but the local pub served excellent food and beer. Nearby was Leeds where I noticed the girls all had short skirts even in mid winter. The most interesting girl I met was a translator. She spoke French in real time as I spoke in English to a class of sales people in Paris.

Other cities visited included

New Zealand went to Christchurch many times it’s a nice city near the park and motel was comfortable

Auckland I was at the airport passing through many times and when staying I used the Sheraton Towers on the hill just out of town.

In America Vancover Canada Seatle in Washington State , San Francisco California to visit Silicon Valley Suppliers in Berkley for Unix training,

LAX passing through to Los Vegas or San Diego

In San Diego to learn about Linux and Coherent for the second computer I designed and built (the CM2)

In Nevada it was Los Vegas ,most often for the COMDEX computer exhibition and show but NEVER for gambling.

I stayed at Ceasers , the new Orleans and Sheraton and the one with the large old boat at the front and MCG and Excelsior.

Chicago, Dallas (IBM) , Houston (COMDEX),New Orleans (Masterfile Concord USA).

South Africa Durbin is nice but Johanisburg is very very not nice guns everywhere and very dangerous in city central . I was warned not to leave the hotel except in an armed Taxi to airport, In Pakistan Lahoure its was very dirty down town , only ever visited that IBM client once.

In India Mumbai at the time was very crowded and dirty made the mistake of eating a salad (forgot Rule 4. it was washed in local water I was very sick for 3 days.)

I made the same mistake in Taipei and in Los Vegas.

In USA I liked visiting Boston it was very nice and quiet and a very easy place to drive.

In Europe I visited Paris several times, the Sheraton Hotel King George was nice and comfortable and only 50metres from where Di died but once they booked me into a motel in west Paris and again I was told by the reception not to walk outside its too dangerous.

In Asia I visited Kuala Lumpur (KL and PJ) more than a dozen times to help sales and training the local IBM reseller, same Singapore , Bangkok ,Manila and Hong Kong

I went to Jakarta twice once for Century Battery the Hotel was nice but the beach and streets are dirty and crowded and noisy and will never go again.

I learnt in China New territories across from Hong Kong that the taxi drivers cannot read or understand English but the youngsters can and translated my note for the driver.

14 in 1996 it was my Last Trip out of Oz I was gone less than 24 hours, Singapore, did some work for IBM then left for Perth, then Melbourne home on the red-eye flight arriving home 8am. Singapore is still the nicest city visited overseas.

Chapter 15

15. My first residence in Melbourne was in a single bed 2 room flat in a East St Kilda motel near Dandenong Road. I caught the tram to get to RMIT in the city.

The second was a rented house at 68 Oakleigh rd , Oakleigh I had to move out because it had a creek running underground under the house and the walls were always mouldy.

Then I lived in a two bedroom flat in Holmes Rd Moonee Ponds , I drove from there to the cmad office behind Festival hall West Melbourne.

Then I purchased the 2 storey house at MacFarland St , west Brunswick , walking distance to Victoria St office.

16. In .2000 Prometheus Software morphed into PSI Nominees and Randex P/L created and I sold my shares in Pronto Software and didn’t do any more work for them. I did some independent consulting for 10 or so companies as well as some work with a Queensland company Concord and their school library management software and

later with Consultants PWC and EY.

17. I crossed the Nullabour Plain 3 times going from Melbourne to Perth and return.

The first time was with Kathy and her sister and about 50km was not paved , slow dirty going.

The second time I drove the whole way myself over 4 days stopping for petrol, food and motel sleeping.

I traveled to Adelaide several times by road but once during a pilot strike I had to visit PWC and flew in a military C130 and came back by small plane through Mt Gambier.

The C130 with 2 loud engines had a row of seats on either side of the plan. We had to wear headphones. A girl on the plane asked to goto the toilet, they pointed at a bucket at the back of the plane , she decided to hold it in.

18. 2005 I purchased a suite at Peppers Hotel Salt. It is 15 minutes south of Coolingata airport and 10 minutes from the town of Kingscliff NSW. Suite 8214/8213 is a two bedroom, 2

Balconies, 2 bathrooms, the main suite has a king-size bed and a dining room , lounge and kitchen that includes laundry facilities. Initially it had views of Salt Village and the

Ocean in the distance. Then Mantra built a female beauty spa that blocked the view because they made it two storey. Voula and I where the first guests to stay there on Boxing

Day night the day before it officially opened.

Greg hotchin gregstory as at 21 June 2023.