From: Katy White [katy.white@abs.gov.au]
Sent: Thursday, 28 November 2002 4:03 PM
To: Jennifer Harvey
Subject: Reunion book entry from Katy White



Hi Jenny,

How are you? Nice to see another person working for the public service. What do
you do there?

Anyway I finally got sufficient guilt to overcome my embarrassment and I have
written an entry for the reunion book. Sorry it's not in Word but we aren't a
Microsoft organisation. BTW, I'll hassle Dave (my partner Dave Chinner) to write
an entry so perhaps you'll get one more tomorrow.

See you on Saturday.

Katy White
NSW Economic and Population Statistics Unit
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Tel: 02 9268 4436
Fax: 02 9268 4805


Memories of James Ruse:

* As a school of acceptance and tolerance.
* Six years of tedium covering the same agriculture topics in increasing detail,
offset by the fun time spent mucking around on the farm.
* Hiding behind the blackboard in room 666.
* Sheep and wool as the excuse for a free day at the Royal Easter Show each
year.
* The three unit Ancient history class spending their time chatting and
daydreaming whilst Aravind and Mr Sophecleus had in depth chats about the
intricacies of early Greek texts.
* Putting my hand up a cow's bottom. Not a high point for me, but my non-Ruse
friends find it truly delightful.

What have I been doing since then:

After Ruse I spent a few years deferring university and trying to settle on a
course. The original idea of Town Planning was deferred for a year, at the end
of which I opted for Social Science. Three months later I ran screaming and
worked in a photo shop for nine months. This was more than enough to convince me
that I needed to get a life, and that uni was a good place to start. I settled
on a BA in Human Geography and Demography at Macquarie University. I completed
that in 1998, and was accepted as a graduate in the Australian Bureau of
Statistics. This involved a move to Canberra, which at the time I thought would
be an interesting change. It was a good experience, but almost a year of
travelling each weekend to see my partner (I started going out with David
Chinner in the last year of university, which was rather unexpected) got too
exhausting. At the end of the year I moved back to Sydney, still with the ABS,
and moved in with Dave. About a year after that we did the overseas travel thing
while we could afford it. We spent ten weeks in Europe which was fun, and my
favourite country was Norway. Upon our return we started saving like squirrels
to try and break into the good old Sydney real estate market. Some three months
ago, we bought an old house in Granville which I am having a great time doing
up. I say I because Dave is currently working in Melbourne, with an ETA back in
Sydney of 2004. That's pretty much it.

What do I want for the future:

Well, speaking from my soapbox, I want world peace (or at least world stability)
that is not dominated by American imperialism (or anyone else's for that
matter). Also tolerance, freedom and true respect and care for the environment.

Getting off the soapbox and speaking for myself, I want a nice calm future with
time to plant and watch the growth of our garden. And, perhaps in the future, a
chance to spend a lot more time travelling around Norway.




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