Life, Love and the Everyday

Mount Tamborine has a very speical place in my heart and is full of memories growing up with *Victoria and *Cassandra. Today we visited Canungra, a small picturesque town in the Scenic Rim which is bordered by mountains and have trees scattered all over them like giant brocilli. The azure sky looks closer to earth and the sun is warmer.  Today was my Mum's birthday and we do a country escape for her birthday almost every year, she grew up in Kin-Kin on a farm in the late 60's and between ages 10-12 moved with her family to the booming town of Brisbane. Time after time, she misses the fresh air of the mountains so we head out Mount Tamborine way. This year *Victoria, Alan and myself squished into the back of Dad's sleek black ride.  It was a cosy trip there and back! Once we arrived in Canungra I climbed out of the car, stretched and inhaled the fresh mountain air on a sigh before turning to Alan and said the same thing I always say when we venture here.  "Plea

2017 was a helluva great year, it heralded the count-down for my walk down the aisle and saying yes to the man I love for as long as I live. It was the year when I realised what really mattered and who really mattered. This was such a difficult lesson for me to learn because I didn't know those things. But as that year went by, day after day and month after month - I learnt about cherishing the simple things because that was all I could really afford.  I watered the garden, I did art projects and I learnt to surround myself with people who can truly appreciate me as I am. Our friendships are so important, they are supposed to make us feel safe and happy and to help us gain courage to take on the challenges that life holds.  When we are surrounded by friends who make us stronger, braver and happier then our lives are enriched despite what we are going through.  I find that focusing my time, energy and love on people who give it back is a must. I have learnt that if you le

Fire is like any kind of relationship; whether it be family, a friend or a spouse. Relationships can burn bright for a time but without mutual respect, attention and love that fire is reduced to a glowing ember. Over the past two and a half weeks, I have learnt three ways that a fire can die. 1) When a fire is not tended as it starts to smoke, the chances of it being fanned back to life in the last moments are almost nil. A fire that is not tended begins to smoke, a distress signal that tells us that the fire needs fanning and more kindling to keep it alive. 2) When we do not give fire room to breathe and smother it with too much kindling, it begins to smoke. Because we think that is what it needs and overwhelm it with our good intentions, the top the fire is burning out quickly but underneath the fire is trying to burn its way through the kindling. Which means that we need to gently rearrange the kindling to the side so the fire has room to breathe. 3) When we light a fire in

Melbourne is my second city, if I was living in a futuristic world and teleportation was a way of transport - I would come to Melbourne on my days off. But then I'd miss the building anticipation of a flight, the humming rumble of a plane enguine and the way my stomach flips when the wheels take off or land. As our plane ascended through the night sky in Brisban, I thought. "Melbourne, I'm coming for you." When our plane from Brisbane to Melbourne landed (somewhat joltingly) on Melbourne soil I whispered the word in my mind on a reverent sigh. "Melbourne."  I love this place of history, art and culture. It's like my Hogwarts and Hogsmeade all in one. There is so much to look at, graffiti art, mouth-watering food, store windows full of pretty things. A visit to Haigh's Chocolate Shop is always on my go-to list when I am here. I feel like I'm in a zoo. A zoo full of sky-scrapers, people and trams. My favourite suburbs so far in Melbourne are

Last Monday I received great news. A publisher in the U.K wanted to publish a book I had submitted to them!  I was over the moon. Estatic. In my mind there was the boom of fire works, celebratory drumming and the Be Our Guest scene from Beauty & The Beast.  Yet this honour would come for a price of 4,400.53 in Australian dollars!  After trying to get published for so long I was ready to consider it. At the concerned urging of my family, I dug a little deeper.  Two days of research when my investigation yielded unfortunate findings about this publisher. Alot of yucky reviews that prickled my intuition that beneath the gloss and the pretty Royal Mail stamp which sealed my publishing offer, there was something greedy about this company. I went one step further and sought the advice of A.S.A and an industry professional in editing and writing.  I received cautionary emails back about the risk writers run with contributory contracts that require that much money. A piec