No ballet photos from the whole of my childhood!

Despite the fact I did ballet for over 12 years, there appears to have been NO ballet photos taken of me EVER! Sadly, my white stretch satin tutu memories will only ever be in my head and not in cyberspace or in a sadly forgotten photo album in the back of the cupboard. That white tutu was the best ever thing I owned and was transformed into a new costume every year by magically changing accessories. Also wish I had a photo of the green gingham square dancing costume for grade 4.

The aqua dress was another bridesmaid's dress, this time for cousin Noela's wedding. Noela was the unofficial head of our "Booval Girl's Club" which was made up of the cousins who were old enough and some neighbourhood girls. We actually had a fete two years in a row (in the backyard, God knows who ever came!) and we made about $30 for charity and got our photo in the paper. Of course by the time she got married the Girl's Club was long gone.

In the other photo is my deadly treadly again, showing no signs of 7 years of use and from sitting out in the sun at school most days. Don't you love the grey and lemon colour scheme of the school uniform? Even better were the lemon cullottes for sports days which I'd wear with ankle height sparkling white gym boots!

Then the other bridesmaid photo, for my brother's wedding. The first and only time I've EVER worn apricot, or carried a decorative umbrella! By that time I was at uni, and now I was the only "child" left in the house. So, I had the top mango tree branch all to myself (I pined after that for years) but funnily enough it was no fun any more. The swing was only used now by my dad for chin ups and hanging upside down for back traction.

Nads

Through thick and thin.

The start of the dieting. First thin, then fatter. And these photos weren't the two extremes either!

Nads

Getting bigger.

Here is a bit of a mixed bag. The black and white photo is of me at an undeterminable age. Possibly 10 or so. I can't seem to find any between this age and the age of the second bridesmaiding (with the red cape). Then comes the 14 year old going on 18 because no one ever asked how old I was to get into clubs! I think it looks a little like Freda from Abba but I would much rather have been the blonde!

Nads

Like a dog's breakfast.

Hmm, this blog is all over the place. Can't seem to predict where the photos are going to go on the page, and keep getting ahead of myself chronologically speaking. Anyways, here we have the cousins and the neighbourhood kids on the swing, the centre of my yard for a very long time.

The piccy at the beach was when I had the mumps, and also in the piccy is cousin Lesley. The other black and white photo is of my birthday party when I was about 4 or 5.

Two other colour piccies show my brother (and one with one of his friends), and also show the fashion of the time. The red number with the puffed sleeves and white pom poms was actually floral corduroy. Teamed with the white hat and gloves and patent lether shoes it made a perfect Sunday School outfit. The Lone Pine koala looks like one of its albino brothers made its way onto my head in the other photo.

Nads

The Wonder Years

The yellow Dragstar bike - 9th birthday present. I had to pay half but boy was it worth it. Worth it for my parents too because they saved on bus fares for the next 8 years!

The photo with all the people in it - there was me the smallest one, my neighbour Desleigh behind me, my mum in the yellow on the other side, seated was Mip (couldn't say Mrs Smith) my neighbour and second mother, and behind her Midda Mip (couldn't say Mr Smith) who was her husband. I remember that was my all time favourite dress ever and when I grew out of it I was very sad indeed. Needless to say I wore it til it was skin tight.

My best day of the week was Saturday because in the morning Mip would do lots of baking and her family wasn't interested in licking the bowl and spoon like I was. A little bit of cooling and the delicious bakery items would be carefully placed into the 3 tiered silver cakes/biscuits/scones tin. Heaven!

Then on Saturday afternoon I'd go to Brownies up at Queens Park across from where my mother (Tottie) and her twin sister (Doris) grew up. Actually, I must have had 3 mums because Dor Dor was just as much a mum to me as my own mother. The kissin cousins (Wendy, Bryan, Noela, Lesley and Janelle) only lived a street away and weekends were full of scooter adventures and Girls Club activities.

Back to the Brownie photo, what can I say, I still look good in brown! Goes with the eyes. Maybe don't wear so many badges now but it was a good look in the early 70s. Never was the same when I went into guides - they can stick their pale blue and navy and making knots and folding flags. Give me Brown Owl, a toadstood and a situpon and I was in heaven.

Nads

On and on and on (and on).

Actually, go back again, I forgot this lovely studio portrait (on the right) that sat on the fake mantelpiece all of my growing up life. This is the smaller version of the one that was "colourised" and that still sits on the fake mantelpiece no doubt, somewhere in Warwick now at my dad's place.

Then let's move on to the bridesmaid era, well flowergirl actually, the photo on the top left. The oufits were (luckily for black and white photography) lime green culottes and we were dangling from our hands big balls of yellow centred daisies. Amazing! I'm the one on the right in the photo, or as Andy puts it, are you the one that looks like Keryn? (my niece). Yes, that's me. Neither of my kids look like me that much but there is someone who does.

Then there comes the first colour photo (top left) - the one where I'm dressed as Captain Cook's wife. The year was 1970 and it was the bicentennary of the discovery of Australia. It's not often that you get to feel like Cinderella, but me in my red velvet, tiara and lace, well that's how I felt. And behind me, voila, the fake mantelpiece with the photo of me laid down so it wouldn't detract from the photo being taken! Hehe.

See you in the next era.

Nads

Have you got your lunch?

Now why is it that some things become obsolete? Cardboard school bags for example? Paper lunch boxes? Canvas swimming pools? Styrofoam eskies? Who'd know, it must just be the fickleness of fashion.

And wasn't I the lucky one because my mother made me a "special" uniform that no-one else wore, when everyone else was wearing a navy box pleat pinafore? And aren't I lucky that my mother was the only mother who was thoughtful enough to make her daughter wear galloshes when it rained and then provided jiffies to put on in class. Wasn't I just the duck's guts?

It really was lucky that I started a year ahead of my peers as I had a great start in the "slow" class - I thought I was really smart!

Silkstone State School, my old alma mata, whatever the heck that is. Now I definitely am lucky that I didn't have problems saying my s's like my big bro. "Tilktone Tate Tool" was the school he went to instead. Hehe, he ain't slow, he's my brudda!

Nads

Let's start at the beginning. Suburban Dipswich.

Let me take you on a strange journey, to the land of black, white and grey tones. To the days prior to disposable nappies, lycra togs and sun safety for baby skin. Back to the good old days when mums were mums, dads were dads and big brother was just the idiot who kept poking you in the eye and practising swear words on you before you were too old to tell on him.

This was 1963. This is what I think of when people ask where were you when President Kennedy was shot.

The back yard, the beach, the pram. The tranquility.

Nads

Smiley

This is the nicest close up shot I've ever seen of me (the one on the left, not the dog shot!) even though it wasn't really a close up and so it isn't very good quality. It looks like I'm younger than I was when I was in my 20s! (maybe the blurriness helps!)

The other one is my best diet tool ever, Echo. She eats the leftovers (well she used to be able to until the vet put her on this low allergy diet - grrrr) and she makes me take her for a walk every day!! She looks pretty mangey but she is scary enough looking to make me confident to walk with these crazy people around, but friendly enough to have around.

Nads

Art course sketches

Ok, here are some sketches I did at art class in the first part of 2007. Can't believe they actually looked like the people who they were supposed to look like!

If I can get the memory off my old computer I'll be able to post a lot more photos. I'd like to do a "best of" album of my trip photos some day. Or maybe I could scan some of the photos of my childhood. That'd be fun and then if I lose them there'll be some in cyberspace for posterity, hehe.

This is fun. Love the blog.

Nads

Another icky photo.

Yuck, another one of those horrid photos. There thankfully aren't that many of them around but it's good to have them as a reminder of what I don't want to go back to.

The one on the right was part of a group photo we had taken professionally of the family. We had a collage made up for my father in law's 80th birthday. Needless to say he loved it!

We're just trying to decide where to go on holidays in Sept/Oct. Will have to put my thinking cap on soon.

Nads

Photos before and after.

In the photo on the left I'm in tropical Fiji, dressed in baggy clothes. But I must have thought I looked OK because I remember asking someone to take my photo. Erk, thank goodness I'm not at that place in my life now.

On the right is the new me. The me who wants to go out and socialize and do anything which is fun (which doesn't involve too many calories of course).

I'm going to try and get some ballet photos up soon. I've had a bit of a setback. My second calf tear in as many months isn't helping me towards my goal of going for the Grade 6 RAD ballet exam at the end of July. I'm such a lucky ducky though as I'm enjoying this journey SO MUCH. I love every minute of ballet lessons and think about the music and the dances all the time! It's about all I can do when my legs are out of action like they are now. I want to be ready to go to a ballet vacation school at the end of June. Have booked in to see a Sports Physician and also an Accupuncture/alternative medicine clinic. Not going to force it next time I go back. Now I know the warning signs.

Anyway, there are only 3 adult ballet exams to do, and when I look at it like that, they have to do me for the rest of my life as I'm not going back to serious ballet. One of the adults, after she did grade 6, went back to do an exam that she failed when she was younger. It was the class I got up to, but I passed luckily. So I have no unfinished business. I'll be able to participate in class and in concerts for as many years as I want. The adult grades are so much easier on the body - don't have to do high extensions or double pirouettes or pointe shoes.

Thank goodness I lucked upon the best ballet school in the state for adult ballet, and it's only 300m down the road!! Lucky lucky lucky me!! And the people there are such good friends now.

Enough of ballet, next time I'll post about something else!

Nads

Very first blog post!

Hey there and welcome to my blog.

Thought I'd put something "out there" in cyberspace about my very own self. Something just about me, for me. Me, me, me. Don't I sound really self-centred? Well, you can if it's your own blog and it's supposed to be about yourself. Let's face it, if you didn't want to find out about me, you wouldn't be here!

So, what's to say. I'm female, a hot sexy babe and this year I had the 23rd anniversary of my 21st birthday. Two out of three ain't bad.

My two babies are all (almost) growed up now, and I've got PLENTY of time on my hands.

I'm in the middle of my mid-life crisis. Everyone else has had one, so why not me? Mine is quite creative and active, even if I do say so myself. I've returned to the thing I was forced to do as a youngster (sorry mum, that's a bit harsh). BALLET!!! Well, the adult version anyways. If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd be doing ballet, I would have thought you were totally cookoo!!

A year ago I was pretty miserable you see. There was a lot happening in my life that I couldn't fix but finally I took the step of trying to sort out the thing that had plagued my adult life - my overeating and its resultant effect on my body. The body that would have to see me through til the end. The end was fast approaching at the rate I was going. It looked like I didn't want to live til I was 100 the way I was treating myself. My knees were sore, I was feeling the effects of increased blood pressure and basically I wasn't interested in going anywhere or seeing anyone. I had nothing to wear and I was embarassed I'd let myself become what I'd become.

So I paid a lot of money upfront and hoped to hell I didn't give up on this like I'd given up on everything in the past! My policy was "Whatever it takes for forever" and I knew that setbacks would arise and all sorts of s*it would happen but I wanted to do something that was just for me. I really did just hang in there from week to week, never really feeling like I was on top of it. But what I surprisingly did have was staying power, because like the Energiser bunny I just kept going and going til it was done.

Anyways, that's enough for one post. Better save something til later.