100 Moments of History I've Witnessed

1. Kevin Rudd’s apology (on behalf of the Australian Government) to the Stolen Generation
2. Fall of the Berlin Wall
3. First black president of the USA
4. Australia's first female prime minister
5. Invention of the internet
6. Freeing of Nelson Mandela
7. September 11 attacks on World Trade Centre
8. Sorry Walk across Harbour Bridge

100 Books that are special to me

1. A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns , Khaled Hosseini - Reminded me how loved I have been by women in my life.
3. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
4. April Fools Day – Bryce Courtenay
5. Artists Way, Julia Cameron
6. Big Book
7. Beloved, Toni Morrison
8. Bliss, Peter Carey
9. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
10. Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
11. Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee
12. Cloudstreet, Tim Winton
13. Dirt Music, Tim Winton
14. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
15. Illywhacker, Peter Carey
16. In the Cut, Susanna Moore
17. Like Water For Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott - I was sure I was going to grow up to be Jo.
19. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
20. Miss Smilia Feeling for Snow
21. Monkey Grip, Helen Garner
22. My Brillant Career, Miles Franklin
23. My Fortunate Life, AB Facey
24. Pastures of the Blue Crane, Hesba Brinsmead
25. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
26. Rebecca, Daphe du Maurier
27. Songlines, Buce Chatwin
28. Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson
29. Sybil, Flora Rheta Schreiber and Shirley Mason
30. Tales from the City, Armistead Maupin
31. The Artist Way, Julia Cameron
32. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Thomas Keneally
33. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
34. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald - I recently re-read this and reminded me what a tragedy love can be.
35. The Harp in the South, Ruth Park
36. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
37. The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead
38. The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan
39. The Riders by Tim Winton
40. The Secret River, Kate Grenville
41. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
42. Thorn Birds, Colleen McCulloch
43. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee - I really related to feeling uncomfortable with an older father, then slowly realising all I had to be grateful for.
44. Tully - Paullina Simons
45. When Jays fly to Barbmo, Margaret Balderson
46. White Teeth, Zadie Smith
47. Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin - Showed me the thing I fear the most is myself.
48. World According to Garp, John Irving
49. You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay

My favourite words

1. Balderdash
   
2. Curmudgeon


3. Decadence


4. Elixir


5. Oscillate


6. Persnickety


7. Shenanigans


8. Serendipity


9. Ubiquitious


10. Supercilious

100 things I am grateful for my Mum for (in progress)

1. Teaching me to catch. She spent hours with us all in the backyard, encouraging us in the basics of catching and throwing. People continue to be shocked that a clumsy girl like me can catch so well.


2. Role modeling to me that commitment was everything - if she said she was going to do something, she did it. That flowed through to her children's commitments - especially sport - keeping your commitment to play was paramount.


3. Her cooking style. Long before it was fashionable, she did healthy no-fuss meals.


4. Sharing her love of craft - teaching me how to knit, cross-stitch and generally express myself creatively.


5. Giving me to permission (ok encouraging) to cry over a movie, TV and books.


6. My education - my Dad was from an era where a girl's education wasn't as important as a man's. My mum insisted that wasn't the case - and worked terrible jobs to pay for the education of her five daughters. Of her 8 kids, 5 went to university.


7. Broadening my horizons when it came to food, she was way ahead of other Mums when it came to embracing the world of food.


8. Her hands; each day when I look down at my hands I am reminded of my mum and her strength.


9. Showing me that helping others, whenever I can, will make me a happier person. My Mum spent her life being of service.


10. Insisting I 'look it up' when I didn't know something. When I was a little girl she made me look up the dictionary every time I came across a word I didn't know. Today I instinctively google something when I come across it for the first time.


11. Sharing her love for moving her body - especially walking.


12. Sharing her love of reading with me.


13. My siblings - yes I know it takes two to make babies, but it was my mothers Catholicism that resulted in me having 7 siblings. Growing up I desperately wanted anything other than having so many siblings, but today I couldn't choose which ones to give up. My life would be so much poorer without them.


14. For how she makes me feel when I feel sick - no one makes me feel like everything is going to be alright like she does. She'd give me her cure-all, a lemonade ice block and I'd feel instantly better.


15. Her insistence I smile first - especially if I wasn't sure how I knew people.


16. So many of my values come from her.


17. Mum has always walked everywhere, and on good days I am reminded that walking is a great way to see the world.


18. Flying half-way around the world to come to my wedding - in her 70s!
    
19. Weekends Away in 2015