Sometimes all it takes is a song – one that you haven’t heard for years – and you are instantly transported back to a distinct time or place in your life. Hoodoo Gurus songs were the soundtrack of my first year at University. I was a very young, nervous, apparently "straight" and naïve seventeen year … Continue reading A Whole New World
A colleague of mine from work was on sick leave recently. The staff notices just said ‘Sick – Family Responsibility’ so naturally we were not overly concerned. He is a father of six so we simply figured that one of the kids must have been ill. After a week, we started to ask questions. No … Continue reading Family Planning
Dear Donor (sorry for the impersonal sounding greeting) I have tried writing this so many times over the years, and each attempt has ended up in the bin. There are so many things I would like to say, yet, not knowing you, or having any idea of the type of person you are makes this … Continue reading A Letter to Our Sperm Donor
My littlest sister gave birth for the first time on 1st February. She’s nine years younger than I am, highly successful in her career, a wife, and a doting mum already to two year old Ashton. Yet, as I watched her gazing so lovingly at her new daughter, Scout, I had an overwhelming maternal surge … Continue reading A Glimpse into the Future
Call me unromantic, and at the risk of being browbeaten, anyone else get really frustrated with feeling pressured into buying expensive gifts for Valentine’s Day? I’m all for romance and appreciating one another, but do we need to fork out our hard earned dollars for overpriced flowers and chocolates that none of us actually need? … Continue reading The Valentine’s Vacuum
I’ve had more time than I normally do with my Master C, who is four, over the past couple of Summer months. We have been to many playgrounds, movies and shopping centres, where he, being a very social creature, inevitably meets new ‘shriends’ (friends). What I have found incredibly interesting is observing the manner in … Continue reading Early Introductions
A contentious one. Australia Day – do we need to change the date? Now before you roll your eyes, get irritated and stop reading… just humour me for a minute or two. Those who know me know that I LOVE a good barbecue, with or without prawns on it, and any excuse to catch up … Continue reading Australia Day
It’s one of those parental love/hate relationships. We whinge about how much we can’t wait for the school holidays to be over, yet the second they end, we wish for more time with our little people again. At their tender ages of four and one, the opportunity to be an ‘At-home’ Mum to my two … Continue reading Summer Time
In the spirit of the New Year, I’ve been looking into all the fuss surrounding the Marie Kondo ‘movement’. For those who haven’t heard of her, Marie Kondo is a five-foot-nothing Japanese powerhouse of tidy who penned the Japanese best-seller "Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up'. She teaches people how to ‘free themselves’ of clutter, … Continue reading How’s the Serenity?
So this week is a bit of a big one for me. I’m turning 40 tomorrow. Whilst I haven’t yet fallen victim to the melancholy that a birthday of this magnitude can conjure, I am acutely aware that I’m about to take a flying leap into the ‘middle aged’ bracket. I remember as a teenager … Continue reading Middle Aged
