Brief Life History

I was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. Following the usual turbulence of childhood and adolescence, I had grandiose plans of becoming a success in the media field. I spent my late teens and early 20s pursuing relevant studies at Central TAFE in order to begin achieving that goal.

I had a short-lived career in Perth's community television arena, mostly in a voluntary capacity. The main highlights of this era include the role of editor for two locally produced programs broadcast on the now-defunct Access 31, WA's community television station. I was also a volunteer at the station itself.

Major life-changing events in late 2003 led me to start listening to my instincts. I left my job and started travelling, kicking off with my first Nullarbor Crossing in late March 2004.

After my first international sorties to New Zealand, Europe, the UK & Ireland, I shifted my home base to Victoria, Australia for a couple of years. I continued my wanderings, which became concentrated on the North American continent during 2005 and 2006.

During my first visit in Vancouver, BC in the summer of 2005, I'd heard about a working holiday visa program that allowed young Australians to live and work in Canada for a year. I got the ball rolling on obtaining my own Work Visa, but - as usual - life got in the way for a while.

In July 2007, I finally left Australia and relocated to Vancouver, Canada. I am now on my second working visa and will soon apply for Permanent Residency. Luck and the Immigration Gods willing, Canada will become my permanent home base.

Professional Past-times

In the past, I kept myself busy between travel stints with a variety of temp jobs, voluntary graphic design work and experiments in web design.

In late 2009, I became a student at Langara College, enrolling in the Web Publisher Certificate program. In January 2010, I'll also be starting on the Photography Certification program. The long-term goal is to become a professional photographer, web designer, graphic artist, or any combination of the three.

My current 'student mode' does mean that travel opportunities in 2010 will be limited. However, the Pixie has not finished wandering just yet....

Random Questions

Q: How are you able to travel so much?
A: I'm self-supporting. That is all.

Q: What are the origins of the name "Wandering Pixie"?
A: During my college years in the late '90s, a classmate introduced me to the 70's space-rock band Gong. One of their songs, "Oily Way" had the line "Lots and lots of pothead pixies, flying around in teapot taxis". The idea of pixies embedded itself in my mind - small mystical beings that get up to mischief but are (usually) benign. The first incarnation was through e-mail addresses using the handle "Happy Pixie".

My early travels were not just a case of 'taking a series of vacations'. My mother's death in late 2003 had rendered a (then) lifetime of survival skills and coping mechanisms obsolete. I had to redefine my own identity for myself and travelling seemed to be the best way to do it. My wanderings led to a logical renaming as "Wandering Pixie", an alternate name that is likely to remain with me for years, if not the rest of my life.

Whilst the "Wandering Pixie" was born in 2004, the truth is that the seeds had been sown years earlier. Oddly enough, I may have my grandmother to thank for that. Following Papa's death on 1985, she went wandering all over Australia in a motorhome during the late 1980s. She took me on my first interstate trip to Queensland in 1986 and a caravan trip to Geraldton, WA in 1989.

In the late 90s, I took two trips over to the eastern states. The second of those trips was a month-long trek from Sydney to Melbourne (via Weethalle, NSW) in 1999. Over four years later, the real wandering began.

Q: What's the next destination?
A: As of early 2010, my only solid travel plans are for a trip to Australia during Vancouver's Winter Olympics. There will be a couple of sorties to the US later in the year, but my studies are my main priority at this time.

For the future, there's a few options I'd like to explore. A return to the UK may be on the cards, along with some travelling in Europe (particularly Scandinavia). I've also contemplated travels to Egypt, Central and South America.

Q: What's with the ducks?
A: Davey Duck (yellow) and Alex (blue) have been my occasional travelling mascots during my wanderings.

Davey was originally found in a parking lot in Kangaroo Flat, Victoria back in 2003. A former friend gave him to me and I decided to take him on many of my early travels. The photographic results were vaguely inspired by the travelling gnome pranks of years past.

I found Alex in a New Age shop in Daylesford, Victoria in early 2006. He joined Davey on a number of my travels later that year.

These days, the two ducks have a happy home on a shelf in my apartment.