In honour of my Dads

I loved my Dads. Both of them. Birth-dad. Step-dad. Though they never met in this life, the pair no doubt busy slaying those in the next with classic Dad jokes, after all, that’s what Dads do and today as we celebrate Father’s Day, my chance to honour them.

Never experienced the love of my birth-dad first hand for Mum, at the tender age of 20, bid him farewell, packed a few books, two-year-old me and headed west. Governess, Jillaroo, Pub Chef, Telephonist, not a thing that woman couldn’t put her mind to, including an impressive ability to stay ‘mum’ about my father. Evan. The Journalist. The man whose lust for her very impressive breasts had led to my conception. So why do I love him? Well, he gave me the opportunity to meet my Mum. 

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Munchkin Jane

Evan also gave me the pleasure of three half-siblings. When meeting them for the first time in my mid-30s – the same laugh, same humour, same mannerisms, love of writing, of MC Escher’s work – a beautiful, genetically engineered puzzle piece fell into place. An intense, intrinsic connection – I’d found my ‘kin’. And doubled my sibling count.  

While Evan was generating said siblings, Mum was hanging up her nomadic boots and succumbing to a man who, in adoration and with a tad of recklessness, whisked her and her daughter away to an outback sheep station. A place of dusty plains, Gidgee trees, red gibber rocks, flies, swelter and spectacular sunsets. Ian. The Mechanic. Should have been a cowboy I know but Mum found them notoriously unreliable.

Ian taught me how to ride a bicycle, shoot a gun, skin a ‘roo; the secrets to finding my way back to the homestead should I ever lose myself on the vast acres, how to put a whole duck
egg yolk in my mouth without it oozing down my chin. He also tenderly brushed my hair before bed, vetoed my first boyfriends and continued to love my mother as evidenced by my other three siblings whom I absolutely adore. Nappy changes, bathing, feeding, reading to them, watching them grow into the grounded, loving, beautiful adults they are today, how could I not.

Seems I’m one of the lucky ones. Two dads, six siblings, a magnificent Mum who continues to inspire (their’s too). The people who shaped the person I am today – a city girl, a country gal. A woman with a love of writing, an insatiable wanderlust and the uncanny ability to always find her way back home…and into their arms.  

Here’s to the Dad’s today – Happy Father’s Day, wherever you are.


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Evan and Jacqueline – Feb ’56

 

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It’s Monday! Go get ’em Tiger!

Big week ahead? Well you’re gonna need a tad of inspiration to kick start that kick ass attitude of yours now aren’t you. Well here’s my top 12 favourite Steve Jobs quotes chosen just for you…

About that job of yours

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

If you haven’t found it yet

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Fearing failure?

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

“I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.”

Quality in all that you do

“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

For when it’s getting scary

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

“My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others’ negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.”

Focus my friend, focus

“That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”

 And remember…

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Now go get ’em tiger! 

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Vignettes? Er…killing it!

Colour, lighting, mood, textures, furnishing proportions, art work, accessories…yes, visually appealing environmental aesthetics certainly play an active role in my mental and spiritual wellbeing.

Passionate about interior decorating, I can readily lose myself in magazines and coffee table books of this genre, often pressing the very same books, with colour coded spines of course, into action when ‘styling’ my coffee table. Problem is I’m never satisfied with the outcome and it seems I’m not alone.

A girlfriend and I recently spent over 3 hours creating the perfect vignette on her table and as we finally stood back to admire our handiwork, laughed at how little we had trusted our independent ability yet collectively managed to ‘ace’ it.

Needing a tad of accessory inspiration and a massive confidence boost we took to Pinterest (of course) which led us to Scogsberg & Smart  Such a feast, just had to share – oh and check out their blog for an absolute visual overload!  
    

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