Another Speaker cancellation, but this time it was due to out of town work commitments. However, our newer Member John Gartlan stepped into the breach to tell us a bit more about himself. John hails from Mentone, a suburb of Melbourne, where he was born and bred. His father was a pharmacist and John enjoyed a happy and stable family upbringing. He attended Xavier College in Melbourne and considered himself fortunate to come under the influence of a literature teacher there , nicknamed "Old Joe" (all of 48 years old!) who helped prepare him for life after school and was responsible for John's addiction to reading as a result of the "essential" study of Shakespeare. John related a cricket experience at Xavier bowling to Test batsman to be Paul Sheehan where he, John, came off somewhat worse for wear. John studied Law and Arts at Melbourne University, during which time he hitchhiked across the Nullarbor to WA for holiday work. In 1970, at the end of his course, John spent a year backpacking, firstly in Asia then around Europe and the British Isles, which he thoroughly enjoyed. He returned to Melbourne and settled down into law. John entertained us with some extremely humorous anecdotes of incidents he had experienced in the Courts during his time in law. John and Helen moved to Floreat about 18 months ago to be nearer their only daughter and their 3 grandchildren. It was a most delightful address and John proved to be an excellent raconteur.