I have five pieces of advice I would offer the next generation. Some may take this advice and put it to good use immediately. Some might be like me and not really understand these ideas till they are more mature, and sadly some my not relate at all. Whatever you decide to do with it, I wish you every bit of happiness and hope you find the answers you are looking for.

My top 3 pets would be as follows:

1. The golden goose that lays golden eggs would be my choice of pets, purely for profit of course. Ive never been big on poultry, but for this I would make an exception.

2. A mermaid. If you have to look after a pet, you may as well get a attractive one.

3. A park full of dinasaurs. Hopefully with a lot better security than the jurasic park movies.

My first pet that I remember from my childhood was a dog (labrador-german shepard cross) called Ceasar. We had him for a number of years but he was always on a chain due to him always running away. I remember when we moved house one time, the first chance he got, he ran a couple of suburbs to find his way back to the old place. Very impressive. Naughty but impressive. He finally got picked up by my Uncle to go to a 'pig farm'. It was not till years later that I found out it was really the 'pig farm in the sky'. Even as a teenager, I did not take it well. OK, lets move on.

Over the years, I had a number of creepy pets that I liked to catch from the rivers and ponds. I had frogs for a while until they escaped. My mother was finding frog skeletons around the house for months. I also had what I called 'creepy crawlies'. They were like little crayfish or lobsters I guess. I did not have those ones very long, as they did not take too kindly to the still water of my little fish tank. Oooppppps.

It pains me to admit, but I got my first car in 1986 when I was 15 years old. That’s 21 years ago to-date. Wow. You would think after 20+ years of driving I’d be a little better at it. LOL. It was a 1962 Ford Anglia (the one with the angled back rear window). It was my baby and holds a lot of memories.

I remember having fun at the river with my friends taking it off-road through all the mud one afternoon, acting like real hooligans. After we had finished, as an effort to keep my parents from finding out, I came home while they were out and cleaned it from top to bottom, removing all the mud that could be used as evidence against me.

When my parents finally returned, they casually asked me how my afternoon had gone. I replied with a standard answer that would give away no clues to the true events of my afternoon. My parents replied with more casual questions, which in itself was suspicious. I cautiously answered with an inkling that something was not right. Finally they revealed that they had been watching me and my friends the whole time from a nearby bridge that overlooked the river.

They had been driving passed and happened to notice my car so stopped to see if everything was OK. I was busted. Thankfully the punishment was only an afternoon of embarrassment while my folks had their fun. As it turns out, that was enough. I never did it again (that I’m willing to admit at least). LOL.

I would like to tell you a little bit about my grandmother. I have the utmost of love and respect for all my family and I’m sure I will write a lot about them in future articles, but for now I would like to focus on my grandmother because I feel that she had one of the largest impacts on my life, especially now that I have children of my own.

I was born when my mother was very young, and my biological father moved away shortly after I was born, so my mother and I spent my first few years living with my grandparents. Also my mother worked during the day so I was left in the care of my caring grandmother, so as you can imagine, I grew very close to my grandparents.

My grandmother, Norma Margaret McCoy, was one of the most caring and protective people I have ever met. She taught me the meaning of unconditional love, respect and most importantly faith. As a child, no matter what I did or said, I knew that she would always back me 100%, even when what I did was perhaps wrong. She never smacked me or yelled at me, and showered me with kindness any chance she got. I would guess any child expert would say it was perhaps the wrong way to raise a child, and as you can imagine I was quite a handful in my childhood years. I would say I would not have been the easiest kid to look after, but my grandmother never wavered. She showed nothing but love and respect..

Come to think of it, I dont think I have ever been skinny dipping with a girl in any sort of romantic, seductive setting. The only nude swimming I recall has been dares from the guys (usually after one or two too manny beers). I will need to add it to my list of 'things to try before I die'.

Way back in early 1999, my wife and I lived in an older house in Napier, New Zealand. It wasn't much to look at but it had these beautifully varnished floors. We had only been there a couple of days when the strangest thing started to happen. When all was quiet, and my wife was asleep, I could hear these footsteps walking up and down the hallway. It was a very small house so the footsteps used to walk right past our open bedroom doorway. I could hear the steps but there was nobody there. This happened every night for five nights before, out of shear terror, I decided to confront whatever was walking up and down the hallway.