Danny : Interview 4

Meet Danny. 

What did you want to be when you grew up?

A musician actually. Never ended up doing, oh actually- I never ended up studying any music or doing, or having- my parents couldn’t afford to give me lessons, I suppose, to learn the guitar or anything. And that’s what I wanted to do when I was little, but it never ended up happening, so c’est la vie.

Then I think I keep thinking I’m too old to do it, but really I’m not, so.  Just not having the time to- or not having the time, I suppose not making the time, there’s always time. You just gotta prioritize it, I suppose.

“Then I think I keep thinking I’m too old to do it, but really I’m not, so.  Just not having the time to- or not having the time, I suppose not making the time, there’s always time. You just gotta prioritize it, I suppose.”

What was your first job?

Working in a supermarket. That’s where I worked. That’s where- actually I met [name withheld] and we’ve been friends ever since. We worked there for about two years. About 35 years ago or something like that. Then I started off as an apprentice carpenter, I got a job doing that, did that for a few years.

Then the recession came in the late, or early, early nineties and then I started working in a chemical factory just filling chemicals in bottles and within about two years I ended up being a manufacturing supervisor there.

And then about a year later an operations supervisor. I worked there for about seven years running the plant, then I got retrenched from there. Then I went to another chemical company as a supervisor there in that plant. Then I ended up about two years later at [company name withheld] as a plant operator operating one of the petroleum plants.

Yeah, then I got retrenched from there after ten years and went back to work for myself as a carpenter and didn’t really enjoy that too much and then I ended up landing a job as an operator at [company name withheld], a big mining company here in the- in the world, I suppose. I love it. Enjoy it. It’s fantastic.

What is your greatest accomplishment?

I suppose having four lovely children, I suppose. That and enjoying them even though it’s with a- [I’ve] been divorced now for two plus years with a wife who was- the reason was that she became an alcoholic and also a sociopath and doesn’t want me to see the children so she’s making life very difficult, difficult for the children.

And the children are now nineteen and seventeen year old daughters are, they’re fine. They don’t care what their mother thinks. I still see them on a regular basis. But the sixteen year old son and an eleven year old daughter don’t see me as often because they don’t want to upset their mother. Because she makes life so difficult [for them]. So that’s very, very hard. That’s one of the things that I regret that ended up being like that, the way it was, with her. 

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Danny’s phone rings. It’s his girlfriend. He asks her if he can call her back.

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Who is the most important person in your life?

She [Danny's girlfriend] is, yeah. Very fortunate to have met her and she is an absolutely fantastic- absolutely fantastic person. And I wish I had met her twenty odd years ago. [Laughs]

We just click. Everything’s- life is very easy yeah, totally the opposite to my ex-wife. She’s just a beautiful person, lovely person, and [I’m] very, very lucky to have her in my life. She’s fantastic.

What will you miss the most when you are gone?

No, I don’t think anything, really. Cuz I’m gone, I wouldn’t know. I just really- look, I’m really easy going, I love life, I enjoy life. Will I miss anything? It’s a very hard question. [Laughs] I’ll be dead. I wouldn’t miss anything. Nah, I wouldn’t. I think that I’m dead, that’s the end of my life. And whatever’s been accomplished in that lifetime has been done and that’s it. It’s game over.