Great moments of my life

1. Getting the keys to my first apartment.
2. Catching sight of Craig at Manchester airport. Even though I'd just flown 10,000 miles I wasn't 100% sure he'd be there, I wasn't 100% sure we had a future.
3. Getting my driver's license. It opened up a whole new world for me.
4. Helping my mum because I could.
5. First meeting way back in the early 90s, changed my life and continues to change my life for the better.
6. Mum's UK trip.
7. Turning 40 in Paris, especially being with Craig & deciding that we could spend the rest of our lives together.
   

8. Watching Renee's birth and getting to cut her umbilical cord. I made her belly button.
9. Trekking with Robyn on the Inca Trail.
10. Sailing on Halong Bay in Vietnam. My time in Vietnam, and the Vietnamese, reminded me that I could be happy no matter what life threw at me. 
11. Craig getting a visa to Oz.
12. My win at Brightpoint - even though it took me days for it to sink in.
13. Meeting Scarlett for the first time as a teeny tiny baby.

Noughties Notebook

I can't believe I am just about to go into my sixth decade (born in the 60s). The noughties were an amazing decade and I want to celebrate all I experienced in the noughties, including:

Love

• After a long break, got back onto the dating market via internet dating. I had lots of fun dates, had a few long term relationships and fell in love.

• Married in November 2008.

 Home

• Bought my first apartment in Sydney's inner city (amazingly I can't remember if that was 2000, 2001 or 2002).

• Following my heart, I lived overseas in Leeds UK, (2007-2009).
  
  
   
  
  
   

Creativity

• Bought my first digital SLR camera.

Adventure

• Visited Jodie & Dean in New York in 2006.
  
• Explored Paris with a lover in 2008.
  
• Had an adventure holiday in Peru & Cuba, including the Inca Trail in 2007.
  
• Visited Stuart in the UK in 2006.
  
• Vietnam in 2006.

Work

• Made my first international work trip, to the US. 

Photographers I love & who inspire me

1. Annie Liebovitz
2. Bill Henson
3. Cecil Beaton
4. David Moore
5. Dorethea Lange
6. Elliott Erwitt
7. Erwin Blumenfeld
8. Eve Arnold
9. Frank Hurley
10. Harold Cazneaux
11. Henri Cartier - Bresson
12. Jane Brown - loving the The Observer's series of her photos
13. Man Ray
14. Martin Parr
15. Max Dupain
16. Olive Cotton
17. Phil Borges
18. Tracey Moffatt

My lounge light reflected in my Trent Parke picture - my first investment in photography.  I loved having it with me in the UK, as it made me smile every day and to remember my fabulous home city.
19. Trent Parke
20. William Yang

What I learnt as a temp..

1. I need to look busy, even if there is nothing to do.
2. In a panic they want someone to be calm, and as its not your company it is easiest to be you.
3. They want to think I am confident in my abilities, it makes them feel confident in theirs.
4. They want me to make decisions whenever I can, they don't want to worry about all the same decisions.
5. Flexibility is everything.
6. Even if I don't know how to do something, they'd like me to give it a go.
7. You can do anything in 7.5 hours that would be intolerable as a permanent job.
8. Any news is received better with a smile.
9. You're a never too old to learn something - and often people really do have better ideas on how to do something you've been doing for years.
10. Kindness and manners are important.
11. Most computer systems are the same, so if you play around you'll eventually work it out.

What I love about me....

Life seems a little tough at the moment, and I realise I have started to beat myself up a little more than usual. Mostly I am telling myself that I am not enough.  Tonight I remembered a post from Definatalie about what she loved about her.  My instinct was to do that on another blog, where I write a more 'diary style' but more secretively.  However, for some reason that didn't feel right.

I need to be proud about this list.... which I am going to keep updating as

I am enough.  What I love about myself:

1. I'm adventurous and especially love travelling to places I've never been, even those in my own city, and trying food I've never tasted before.
2. I am usually pretty accepting, I really judge people on their sex, colour, race, religion.
3. My boobs, which are doing ok  for a 40+ women.
4. That I can appear very brave. 
5. I've turned into a pretty good camper.
6. I am curious. It can drive people mad, especially my love, but I never stop asking why.
7. I've got a strong design sense.  I can't draw or paint, but I know what colours look good together, what objects make a lovely still life in my home and what looks good on a page.
8. I'm a good friend.  I can handle the hard times, as well as the good.  I can listen when they need me to and I share myself with them.
9. I'm generous, not always in the traditional financial way but often with my time and my words.
10. My green eyes, which don't seem to be that common a colour.
11. My small hands, they look nice and they fit easily into my partner's hands. They remind me of my mum's hands, even though hers are larger and stronger.
12. I have great hair.  It is think and healthy, and every new hairdresser tells me how lucky I am.
13. That I have a strong sense of who I am - that I am an individual.  I give myself permission to be different, to not be like everyone else.  My family and friends sometimes lovingly (and yes it is genuinely lovingly) tease me for being odd.  I celebrate my oddness.
14. I have a really loud laugh.  It's infectious and it makes people smile.
15. That I laugh at myself.  Often. 
16. Somehow I have turned laziness into an asset.  An old boss pointed this out, and I know she really did mean it with love.  She told me that my desire to work as little as possible had transformed my role and the processes I had to do. I thought through and identified the easiest way to do so many things,  which would be passed on to people who replaced me.
17. Inspite of myself, I keep learning.
18. I've finally cured myself of my fascination with bad men.  I love and am loved by a very good man.
19. That I have an open mind.  Mostly. I am willing to explore ideas, facts and then make up my mind.
20. I take lots and lots of photos.
21. I'm smart, maybe not as much as I think but there is certainly a fair few brain cells in there.
22. My smile, it's teethy and wide.
23. I'm usually willing to smile first.  My mum always insisted on smiling at people, and now I love that I do that regularly with strangers.  At the moment I am saying hi most mornings to a women who walks by me as I go to work.
24. I can say sorry and mean it, and often be the first one to say it.

See what inspired me at: http://www.definatalie.com/2009/08/17/what-i-love-about-myself/