Five Fun Facts!

Five Fun Facts from Jane & Graham

This newsletter features two people who work on the administration side of FPS. Meet Jane, our Business Manager, and Graham our Groundskeeper – both have colourful stories to share!

Jane O’Riley  – FPS Business Manager

My fun facts involve travel – l have been reflecting a lot this week, as my eldest daughter Alex turned 21 today! 

We were lucky to spend 15 years in the Middle East and Asia as expats – we first moved to Doha, Qatar as a family of two, then moved to Hanoi when Alex was six weeks old. Hamish came along just before our move to Taipei three-and-a-half years later, and our youngest Eliza was born in Singapore six-and-a-half years after Hamish. 

What was the best vacation you ever took and why? 

There are two! We travelled to Myanmar in 2003 with three other families when Alex was two. It was a fascinating insight into what was a fairly closed off country, and one that was not easy to enter back in 2003, unless you were on an approved tour. We were not even allowed to bring mobile phones into the country back then. We still talk about the many adventures on that trip – Mandalay, Bagram but I do remember nervously catching a long boat to the hotel on Inle Lake, with a wriggly two-year-old and not a lifejacket in sight. Thankfully we made it in one piece! 

The other most memorable one was China in 2011, when our youngest was still a small baby. It was the depths of winter, and we had a great time exploring Beijing and the Terracotta Warriors in Xian. I remember being thrilled to see a man and his donkey selling chocolate bars on the Great Wall – it was just what we needed to get Hamish to make it to the other end of the Wall, after I had told him that there were only two ways to get off the Wall – backwards or forwards! I think he would have preferred a donkey ride as the third option! 

Best day on the job?

My first job in Qatar was a temp job for Occidental Petroleum – an oil and gas company, in the drilling department. This was not an area I knew a lot about, so management decided to send me out to the rig so I could get a greater understanding of the process. This involved a helicopter ride to the rig, the biggest seafood buffet lunch I have ever seen on-board and a trip around the rig. It was a great day out and my husband is still a little envious that I got to go on a rig in the Persian Gulf! 

Where’s the next place on your travel bucket list and why? 

Interstate would be lovely! I have really enjoyed discovering new parts of Victoria in the last 18 months and it would be nice to extend it a bit further, without fear of being locked out! Last place we visited in July was Warrnambool, which was a great winter escape.

What’s your favourite way to spend a day off?

Now that children are back at school, my favourite escape is a coffee/brunch and a daytime movie at The Nova or Westgarth. Bliss! 

Do you have a pet?

A dog named Honey, a cat named Lola, and two guinea pigs – Wilbur and Harriet. These two fluffballs are not my spirit animals, but my daughter made a very impressive PowerPoint presentation to get me across the line for the guinea pigs. So far, I am still on the fence…

Graham Keen – FPS Groundskeeper and Maintenance Guru

Graham is quite the storyteller - on paper and in conversation... sit back and enjoy!

I was born and raised on an island which is just a tad smaller than Australia. In fact, the Isle of Wight off the south cost of the UK, is just 70 kms from east to west and 35 kms north to south. It was in this tiny rural idyll, living on a dairy farm, that I spent the first 19 years of my life. It was also here that a chance encounter redirected the path of my life. I met the editor of the Isle of Wight's only newspaper and he offered me a journalistic apprenticeship (or indenture to be more precise) at the tender age of 16. Instead of following my father into farming, I entered a profession that was take up the next 30 years of my life and saw me living in many towns and cities throughout the UK. I ended up running my own news and picture gathering agency. One of my highlights was a "world" exclusive exposing a plot to kidnap Linda McCartney, the late wife of Beatle Paul McCartney.

As newspaper journalism grappled with the new digital age, I decided it was time to quit. It was then that I upped sticks and came to Australia with my young family. I've now been living on my new, slightly larger, island home for more than 20 years and I am still gobsmacked by its beauty. During this time I've had many different jobs; running a bed and breakfast, erecting brush fences, delivery driver, lollipop man, communications manager and now, my favourite, maintenance man here at Fairfield PS.

When I'm not at the school, I enjoy gardening, reading all manner of crime novels and taking long walks with my boisterous, loveable eight-month-old golden retriever puppy, Poppy who provides proof of the adage that you'll never have a matching pair of socks when you own a retriever!