The challenge goes like this...
Share 7 things about yourself. Challenge 7 other blogs at the end of your post through naming their blog, and post a link to it. Let them know they have been challenged by leaving a comment in their blog.
1. Facts first
I just scrape in as a sixties baby - I was born in the last half of 1969. Born and (mostly) bred in Adelaide, but I spent four years of my childhood in the country and one year in the big smoke of Chicago USA. After a happy childhood I toddled off to university to do a Business Degree (the safe option), and now I work for a government regulatory body (again, the safe option). Check me out as a baby - I look like a boy! Pink and grey bathrooms were all the rage when my mum and dad built their home in the 1960s.
2. Passions
Decorating captured my heart from an early age. Here's me painting my desk chair white (what other colour is there?) at the age of 18 with a very bad '80's perm (thankfully you can't see much of it since I had my hair in a ponytail). Note the hills hoist and the corrugated iron fence in the background - Australian icons! I spent many a time swinging off that hills hoist as a kid. We also had our own incinerator (!) and the requisite fruit trees.
4. Joy
My son is now 7 and he is my joy. I didn't get the opportunity to have other children (wanted 2 more!), but I am so lucky to have him.
This year, in July, I lost my dad. My dad had suffered a cruel and debilitating neurological disease for twelve very long years.
These days I try to remember dad as the healthly, vital man he once was. He had over 300 friends and colleagues attend his funeral and the comments people said to me included 'he was a true gentleman', 'loved and respected by everyone', 'one in a million' and 'a man with the x factor'. He started out as a country boy from a poor family, who moved to the city to start an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner. By the end of his career he was a CEO of one of South Australia's biggest employers. In between he met and married my mum, had three kids, became a draftsperson, then an electrical engineer and later a management consultant for a big firm in Chicago. And yet, he was a humble, down to earth man, a real family man with a calm, gentle nature and a great sense of humour. I'll always remember him as the man with a project - dad was always tinkering contentedly in his shed, designing something, building a pergola, digging out his own mechanics pit under the car, carving mum a mirror or a coffee table. I feel truly blessed to have been his daughter.
Decorating captured my heart from an early age. Here's me painting my desk chair white (what other colour is there?) at the age of 18 with a very bad '80's perm (thankfully you can't see much of it since I had my hair in a ponytail). Note the hills hoist and the corrugated iron fence in the background - Australian icons! I spent many a time swinging off that hills hoist as a kid. We also had our own incinerator (!) and the requisite fruit trees.My other passions are books and movies. In my free time when my son is with his dad, if I'm not blogging, then I've got my head in a book or I'm off to the movies with friends. Books and movies capture my heart, inspire me, move me, transport me to another world. For a list of my favourites go to 'my complete profile'.
3. Laughter
Here's me looking a bit 'tired and emotional' after a big night out with my friend J. Am I hugging her, strangling her or simply hanging on so I don't fall down? Even Jazzy J doesn't look too sure. I've been friends with J for more than 15 years and we met through our boyfriends at the time. The boyfriends came and went but our friendship has lasted! J lives in Melbourne now but we still catch up as often as we can and pick up where we left off. I am so blessed to have such lovely friends in my life - some friendships span 24 years and counting. My friends make the sun shine for me - there's lots of laughter and support and I couldn't be without them.
4. Joy
My son is now 7 and he is my joy. I didn't get the opportunity to have other children (wanted 2 more!), but I am so lucky to have him.
Nobody told me that when you have a child, it is like someone pulls your still beating heart from your chest and places it in the tiny hands of another human being. It no longer belongs to you.
In my experience, motherhood heightens all your emotions in technicolour glory - amplified joy, pride and wonderment, yet pain, guilt and worry too. Life is a roller coaster ride when a child enters your life, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I share a special bond with my little man. I'm sure that being 'just the two of us' has made it more so. But it can be tough - my son has been diagnosed with a behavioural disorder which gets him in to lots of hot water and causes me a great deal of worry for him at times. All I can do is surround him with love and hope for the best. Lots of naughty children turned out great adults.
5. Love
5. Love
I'm 11 in the above picture with my dad who is 45. The picture below was taken a couple of years ago at my dad's 70th birthday at Vitners in the Barossa Valley.
This year, in July, I lost my dad. My dad had suffered a cruel and debilitating neurological disease for twelve very long years. These days I try to remember dad as the healthly, vital man he once was. He had over 300 friends and colleagues attend his funeral and the comments people said to me included 'he was a true gentleman', 'loved and respected by everyone', 'one in a million' and 'a man with the x factor'. He started out as a country boy from a poor family, who moved to the city to start an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner. By the end of his career he was a CEO of one of South Australia's biggest employers. In between he met and married my mum, had three kids, became a draftsperson, then an electrical engineer and later a management consultant for a big firm in Chicago. And yet, he was a humble, down to earth man, a real family man with a calm, gentle nature and a great sense of humour. I'll always remember him as the man with a project - dad was always tinkering contentedly in his shed, designing something, building a pergola, digging out his own mechanics pit under the car, carving mum a mirror or a coffee table. I feel truly blessed to have been his daughter.
Love this picture below - dad being a dag on the bike, my brother and sister along for the ride.
In this picture above my mum was 18 and newly engaged to dad. I'm loving the polka dot dress with the boat neck - I think she sewed it herself. My mum is my rock, my ever present source of love and understanding. She and dad were married for 47 years and she loved and supported him to the very end. Her bravery never flagged. Love you mum!
6. Independence
6. Independence
The decision to become single was the hardest decision I've ever made, but the right one. I've been single now for five years. I don't even recognise myself now. My friendships are deeper, I'm bolder and I bang my own nails and kill my own spiders. I've bought my own humble little house (see below) - it's nothing special but it's mine. And I have had so much fun turning it in to a place that is a comfortable and cozy home for my son and me. Being a single mother, paying all the bills, working full time and still managing to be a good friend and daughter is not a walk in the park, but I've done it.
7. Dreams
7. Dreams
Ok, I admit it, after five years of singledom, with a love life like the Sahara Desert, I am READY for love. The timing wasn't right before, but now the time has come! I'd like a man who is good and true and who shares some of my interests and dreams. Know anyone suitable? Send him my way please.
I also dream of ditching the corporate job and doing something more creative and fun. I look at Judy over at Lilly-g, running her own homewares store and design consultancy and say 'that's what I want'. Other days I think I could quite happily buy houses, do them up, style them then put them back on the market. But saying goodbye to regular income when I have a mortgage and a growing boy to support scares me witless! Maybe one day I'll bite the bullet and do it!
I have done zippity travel overseas as an adult, and one of my dreams is to go to Europe and soak up the sights and sounds.
I would love to build my dream house one day, which would look much like this picture above - a beautiful white home with dormer windows, a grey roof and a big wide verandah all around. It would have french doors and big windows everywhere and inside it would have high ceilings and dark wooden floors.
So there you have it - you know all about me, I am an open book.
Now it's my turn to flag 7 others. So here goes -
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