Monday, July 18, 2005
My Dad
Friday was my Dad's last day at work. Ever (well, probably). Having done his time in the Public Service, he got let out early for good behaviour (he doesn't actually retire until September). It's a pretty special event for my family. My Dad's a fairly quiet, calm guy who doesn't get worked up no matter how bad things get, and will always get the job done. The sort of guy that you might not notice next to your prima donnas and praise seekers, but who probably would have been the only reason your project got finished on time. He's amazingly patient - as in "get on quite well with Gandhi" patient.
A favourite quote of my Mum's is from a work dinner to celebrate completing a fairly long and painful project. They were giving joke awards to various people, and they called my Dad up. The comment was "and we knew the project had all gone to hell when we heard Peter mutter 'oh poo'".
He's also probably the most modest person I know. As an example, I didn't know for probably 3 months that Dad had been acting Director General, and then it was only because Mum told us.
Dad was the one who first showed computers to me. He was one of the very early members of the ACT Apple Users Group (for years we had the BBS sitting in our study). I wrote my first programs (using Basic!) with his advice and encouragement. Fractals, Chaos Theory, Quantum Mechanics and physics in general I know about because Dad introduced them to me. The whole "engineer mindset" thing I pretty much got from him.
Most people seem to be scared of ending up like either of their parents. But I can honestly say if someone told me that I reminded them of my Dad, I would be thrilled. Of all the people in the world, it's him I want to be more like.
So yeah, happy retirement Dad.
A favourite quote of my Mum's is from a work dinner to celebrate completing a fairly long and painful project. They were giving joke awards to various people, and they called my Dad up. The comment was "and we knew the project had all gone to hell when we heard Peter mutter 'oh poo'".
He's also probably the most modest person I know. As an example, I didn't know for probably 3 months that Dad had been acting Director General, and then it was only because Mum told us.
Dad was the one who first showed computers to me. He was one of the very early members of the ACT Apple Users Group (for years we had the BBS sitting in our study). I wrote my first programs (using Basic!) with his advice and encouragement. Fractals, Chaos Theory, Quantum Mechanics and physics in general I know about because Dad introduced them to me. The whole "engineer mindset" thing I pretty much got from him.
Most people seem to be scared of ending up like either of their parents. But I can honestly say if someone told me that I reminded them of my Dad, I would be thrilled. Of all the people in the world, it's him I want to be more like.
So yeah, happy retirement Dad.
# posted by Simon Dugard @ 9:02 am 
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Hey,
I had the pleasure of working for your dad as a young public service twerp, , and I have to say that everything you said rings absolutely true to me.
In fact, when I saw your resume lying around, I commented to Anthony that: "I used to know a guy with that name. If this guy's Peter's son, we should probably hire him"
Congratulations on doing a level, Peter! (Oh, and nice work on the Simon, too..)
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I had the pleasure of working for your dad as a young public service twerp, , and I have to say that everything you said rings absolutely true to me.
In fact, when I saw your resume lying around, I commented to Anthony that: "I used to know a guy with that name. If this guy's Peter's son, we should probably hire him"
Congratulations on doing a level, Peter! (Oh, and nice work on the Simon, too..)
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