What is your favorite animal?
My favourite animal would have to be dogs, in particular, my darling Lily. It is true that dogs are humankind’s best friends and are angels sent by God to look after us. They are gifts 🎁 from God, and it is out duty to look after them. Dogs are one of the most intelligent lifeforms on 🌎 earth, and if you doubt that, you really need to watch Muster Dogs on the ABC here in 🇦🇺 Australia.
In what ways do you communicate online?
The ways I communicate online are most definitely through my blog, my ETSY shop site, and through email. I also regularly send my loved ones’ gifs via text. I had a bad experience once on Facebook, so I no longer use that type of social media. I have so many friendships that have occurred organically, so I don’t need Facebook friends.
My favourite wat to communicate online would definitely be my blog.
Think back on your most memorable road trip.
Probably the most memorable road trip I went on was the times I went to San Jose at Apollo Bay when I was working for Richmond Fellowship Victoria, now known as Mind.
San Jose was a holiday property belonging to Richmond Fellowship Victoria and was used to take groups of their clients for respite. I was a Consumer consultant at the time and my good friend Michael Fleming who worked for VMIAC ( the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council) came up with the idea of taking a group of Richmond Fellowships clients on an Art Escape. These clients would be immersed in art 🎨 materials, and the art works they produced were to be shown at a state wide art exhibition to be held at the Abbottsford Convent. We worked alongside a couple of Art Therapists that were employed by Richmond Fellowship and the road trip down the Great Ocean Road was amazing, we started the road trip in Willamstown, headed for Geelong and the Great Ocean Road that begins in the surfer 🏄♂️ hub of Torquay and goes through Lorne and Anglesea on route to Apollo Bay. This is a beautiful windy stretch of road that is world 🌎 famous. There are signs everywhere reminding motorists that we drive on the left side in Australia. We would laugh at the signs because you would seriously realise we drive on the left long before the Great Ocean Road begins its stretch on Victoria’s west coast.
We had an amazing time producing some really wonderful pieces of art, and walking along the beach was totally awesome. On our final night, we went out to a restaurant in Apollo Bay, and many friendships were made.
I believe that every visitor to Victoria should see the Great Ocean Road, for its beauty and the feat of engineering it is.
I loved my job with Richmond Fellowship Victoria, and this stands out as one of the most truly remarkable things I did in my career working in peer support.
What snack would you eat right now?
My favourite snack would have to be cheese and crackers or dip and crackers. I prefer savoury to sweet when I snack, but do crave chocolate occasionally.
Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?
I had many favourite books as a child, but my favourite novel or chapter book as a child would have to be “These Happy Golden Years ” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I can remember buying it from Myer at Tea Tree Gardens c in Adelaide. We were visiting my uncle and aunt in Adelaide, and I can vividly remember buying that book. I still have that book and reread it again recently.
What is your mission?
My mission or my life purpose is to help educate people about the reality of mental illness and to have empathy and compassion for everyone on this planet.
I worked in mental health services for 16 years and kbow. I helped a lot of sufferers and was a role model to many about how a good life can be led whilst experiencing mental health issues. I feel that was my life purpose and that I have fulfilled my life purpose by God. I still am a role model and still work on my life purpose, although I no longer receive a weekly wage for it. It is alongside my writing ✍️ is how I now spend my time. I am still working in mental health, just in a different way.
What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
I am all for the concept of living a very long life, provided there is quality of life in that longevity. What would be the point of living a long life if you were suffering from ill health in that longevity. I would like to love a long, happy, prosperous life in relative good health. I do worry that my mental health issues will get worse as I age, but for now, I am in good health and manage to juggle all the balls relating to my well-being. I would hope that as I age, the balls will become easier to juggle, not more difficult.
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What could you do differently?
Thinking about today’s question has made me think quite deeply about the way I organise my life. I am a fairly organised but flexible person. My new years resolution is to be more committed to my writing ✍️ habits, both of my blogs and my other writings. What I could do differently is to spend 2 to 3 hours a day of activities related to my writing career, be that actually writing, seeking out stockists for my books, promoting my books, etc. It is something that I need to make a firm claim to doing, and hope, ully now I have put it in writing ✍️ I will strive to achieve that goal. So yes, the thing I could do differently is to make a more regular commitment to my ✍️ writing.
If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?
If I had a billboard on a freeway, it would have in big bold letters IMAGINE with the words to the John Lennon song 🎵 Imagine below. This should not surprise my regular readers.
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
At first, I was a bit perplexed by today’s topic but realised that given my age, I spent a lot of time thinking about things from the past.
I am a bit of an expert on Australian Music from the 80s and 90s and in particular, I know a lot about Neil Finn, both in Crowded House, Split Enz and his solo career. I don’t think I live in the past and nor does Neil Finn live in the past. Neil has kept up with how technology impacts how Music is made today, he has embraced modern technology and used it to his advantage, recording an album online and having a world wide radio show, when all the world was in the grips of lockdown. I listened to all this.
I am aware of modern pop culture, but am less influenced by it and tend to embrace what I find fits in with my personality and interests, but ignore what I feel to be irrelevant in the modern world 🌎
So yes, somewhat I think more about the past, but not to such extent that I ignore the present.
Kaye's Life and other gems 