David | Massey
“I’ve grown up on the North Shore. Milford actually is a great place to live.
My family; I’ve got an older brother and a younger sister, Sandra and Howard. We grew up on the Shore, went to Milford School, Takapuna Grammar; things like that. I was born in Devonport actually, in 1943, a long time ago.
Actually the last time I was very grateful was probably about this time last year. I had a small operation on my arm here, which I didn’t realise had quite invasive melanoma, which was operated in Henderson by a doctor there. So, it was probably one of the reasons, you know, feel grateful that I’m still alive. Also, I’ve had prostate cancer too which was diagnosed about 2011. So, I had various treatments at Auckland Hospital and I seem to be okay at the moment, so it’s great yeah. Probably I wouldn’t be here now.
Having good health is very important. I’ve got four wonderful children we had, my wife Isabella and me, and I think that’s one of the things that really holds us together, the nice family unit. You know? I’ve had a few scares over the years.
I’ve also got a very tricky bowel syndrome which needs regular blood tests every two months, which keeps the health. At the moment I’ve got a, a blood condition which is something to do with the blood not actually clotting, but it’s very thick. So I’ve got to keep an eye on that at the moment. So, apart from that, you know, okay; healthy. Dr Ng-Wai Shing at Royal Heights is a magnificent doctor, really is. If it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t be alive now, so it’s really good.
I’m going out to the airport today to pick up my daughter, Fiona and my son-in-law Jason, and I’ve got a grand-daughter, she’s 18 months old. They’re coming back from the UK, and they’re going to be staying at our house for five months. So it’s really exciting. We might have a trip to Rotorua or something like that. I haven’t really thought about that. We’ll have to wait and see what money’s available and all that sort of thing.
We went over to the UK in May last year, to York where Jessie was born, so that was very exciting. We stayed at an apartment there for quite awhile before she was born, because there was complications with my daughter Fiona giving birth to Jessie.
I’ve got a daughter that lives in Glenfield on the Shore, and we usually go over there at just before three o’clock, to pick up Kiera and Ben from school. They live at the local school, so that’s another job for us to do three days a week. So it keeps us very busy.
The role of a grandparent is very busy. Busy all the time. You’ve got to make sure you leave home here at Massey to get over to Glenfield say half past two, to be out there at three o’clock, because of this business that they don’t like walking home from school. So, you’ve got to be there on time, and there’s no parking, and you’ve got to make sure if you’re going over to the daughter’s place you’ve got perhaps a few biscuits to take with you, if you can have a cup of tea and sit back and relax, watch TV.
Kiera of course goes to dancing today at four o’clock, so my wife Isabel will take Kiera to the dancing lessons in on the Shore there. So it’s just going to be another busy time. For them, with the airport and the picking the kids up from school and, so that’s busy time.”
