Panda

I can't remember how we met Panda but he was connected to Mark and I through two ways; he worked at Snob's Creek Fish Hatchery, a government funded aquaculture research organisation, and he also played tennis.

Panda ended up playing in my B grade tennis team. I was appointed captain and he was my alternating number 1 or 2 male player in mixed tennis. He alternated with Mark who only had every second weekend off.

Panda was left-handed so always played on the backhand side as his forehand. Our team won the finals three years in a row.

For ages we mostly saw him through tennis or at Anni and Wil's house,  at the fish farm downstream from us.

I never saw Panda with a steady girlfriend. He seemed to me, to prefer to flirt with women who were already in relationships with other men. He also never drank alcohol, preferring soft drinks. I still find this a bit of a mystery and whether these two facts are related.

When he moved to Melbourne, he sometimes joined us out for dinner and when we moved to Horsham, he made an effort, often at short notice, within an hour from Horsham, of popping in to see us on the way across to South Australia for work.

I remember one time he brought us the most beautiful looking fresh squid but he neglected to tell me (he gave it to me to cook), that he hadn't gutted the squid and I cooked it up guts intact and it was disgusting.

During his last visit he dropped off two underbed storage containers worth of dystopian and medieval fantasy books for Ruben which Ruben is still reading today.