Working there was really good for me though. I made some good contacts and got a good grounding in Aboriginal heritage. I also had the opportunity to work on some really interesting projects, and even got some fieldwork in. One was for a survey of local archaeological sites in the metropolitan area but another was four days in the Pilbara in the far north of the State. That was an amazing experience.

But when my last contract ended, I approached an independent group of consultants called Estill & Associates. Karina had just hired one of their former employees to join her marketing team at Curtin and suggested I look them up on the Net. I did and I thought there might be something there for me, so I arranged to come in and meet one of the directors, Vic Johnston.

As luck would have it, Estill had just been awarded a major contract by the Department of Education and they needed someone with research and writing skills so I literally started the following Monday. Estill carries out work for Government departments outside their core business, so I found myself working on a review of professional development training for teachers and school principals; evaluating crime reduction initiatives by the WA Police Service; doing a crime and safety assessment for part of a major road development; and even writing budget requests for DIA.

It was a significant learning curve for me, and it was an opportunity to work in new areas, but I found it quite stressful. I was much more comfortable working on heritage projects since that's what I've been doing for five years now. Luckily, DIA threw me a small job doing some system testing and manual writing, and I did an assessment of built heritage at Royal Perth Hospital for the Dept. of Health.

Then the big one came - a major desk study of Aboriginal heritage in a tiny part of the Burrup Peninsula for the Department of Industry and Resources. This was really something to get my teeth into, although it did drag on in the end for various reasons. Then, a favourable reference from the client led to another major contract from Department of Environment which I'm now working on with Dr Edward McDonald, another Irishman (from Dundalk). And since I went part time to sign up for the acting course, this one project will keep me occupied until June.

I still do some editing, mainly for heritage reports through Documend but it's fairly quiet at this time of year. I'm trying to avoid working weekends and nights on it now, so I usually do it during the days I'm not in the office. It's not a huge earner but it's a useful supplement to our income, and it covered our holiday expenses which was a real help.

Karina is still Marketing Manager at Curtin University of Technology. She's been doing really well, organising major promotional events such as Curtin's first university-wide open day, attracting 15,000 people. She has also won several awards in association with her advertising agency including a Campaign Brief Advertising Effectiveness Award, the Australian Marketing Institute "Marketing Communications" Award for Western Australia and Best Presentation at Market Research Society of WA, Annual Conference. She is also now a Certified Practising Marketer under the auspices of the Australian Marketing Institute.

We have both made some great friends through her work including Francinne O'Rourke and Ashlyn and Rory Hendricks. Our friend from Dublin, Kieran Pierce, also works at Curtin now as a research chemist and soon Karina will be dating a student on campus - me!!