1 honey. I love honey 🍯 particularly locally produced honey.
2 Vegemite. I love Vegemite on toast with butter. My mother used to put a little Vegemite on my dummy when I was a baby. No wonder I have grown up loving it.
3. Spreadable butter 🧈. I love real butter.
4 yoghurt. I love natural Greek style yoghurt.
5 Pink lady apples 🍎. I start the day, every day, with an apple. I am a firm believer in that an apple a day keeps both the doctor and dentist away.
Describe a man who has positively impacted your life.
There are a few men that have positively impacted my life, and I would have to say my friend Russell is someone who only ever spreads goodwill and has good intentions.
Russell came into my life through Brunswick Baptist Church and was groomsman at my wedding. Throughout my involvement with Brunswick Baptist Church, Russell and I became close friends, and in the months following the breakdown of my marriage, Russell was there by my side and became a most trusted, wonderful friend. Russell is quiet and patient and not reactionary in any way. He gives off an aura of peace and tranquillity, and I find him to be gentle, peaceful company. To say he is the most Christian man I have met in my life is quite possibly an understatement. He is kind and generous and thoughtful, and he has come to mean the world to me.
He is my brother and my kindred spirit and definitely a soul mate. I value him as my friend, more than words can express, and he, with his gentlemanly manners, will be my friend forever.
Is my life today what I had pictured a year ago. Sort of. I knew that I wanted to focus on my writing both of this blog and hopefully more books. I have spent the year focusing on my writing ✍️ and was delighted when I found a copy of The Dance Of The Emerald Dress 👗, a story I had written many years ago, and thought I had lost forever, because I thought my ex husband had thrown out all the copies I had of it, because he didn’t approve of me spending time writing. So it was a joy to find it and self-publish it.
I certainly didn’t expect my my mental health issues to flare up again, but I never know what curve balls life was going to throw my way, and I could never say it would never happen again. I am very fortunate to have some great people on my side looking after me, my psychiatrist being a person of such integrity and goodwill. It has taught me to treasure my support networks and never take that for granted..
Lily, as always, is the thing that brings me the most joy in my life, and I intend to honour the memory of my dearly departed angel, Lady Susanna, who passed away in April 2022. Susanna only spread goodwill and was one of my greatest supporters of my writing ✍️. I have no doubt that she, in her angelic way, had been working behind the scenes on the success of my writing.
So I guess in some ways my life is how I pictured it would be a year ago. God has plans for us all. Life is what happens whilst we are busy making other plans.
It should surprise none of my readers that I skill I learned recently was how to set up a shop site with ETSY. I had never really considered myself all that tech savvy, but I managed to navigate the process of setting it up on my own, so I guess I am a bit tech-savvy. I guess I also set up this blog on my own too, so I can’t be doing too bad.
This is an easy post. I would love to go back to Auckland and just spend a couple of weeks site seeing, and revelling in its charms. I would love to see London and Dublin and any of the cities in Italy. I love London, Dublin, and Italy for their culture and definitely Italy 🇮🇹 for its food.
The one thing that I hope people speak of when I am mentioned is that I am empathic, compassionate, and kind. I strive very hard in my life to be all of those things and know I am being true to myself in those efforts. I want to be a good role model of someone who has experienced mental health issues and want to be the best version of myself I can possibly be.
Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?
Yes, I have performed on stage as a child at dance concerts. At my first dance concert when I was six years old, I wasn’t the best dancer, but I won the award for having the biggest smile.
As an adult, I have spoken at many mental health conferences in my role as a peer support consumer consultant. I was always very nervous, but I knew that I had spoken well. Probably the most memorable conference was the Richmond Fellowship ( Mind) conference in Hong Kong. It was an amazing experience. I have spoken at many conferences here in 🇦🇺 Australia. I am kinda glad that I no longer have to do that sort of public speaking. Yes, I was good at it, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it. I prefer working behind the scenes, solemnly doing my bit to teach empathy and compassion to those who work with people with mental health issues. I don’t like being in the limelight. I prefer to be anonymous.
What are your favorite physical activities or exercises?
My favourite everyday exercise is to walk Lily in the fresh morning air .
In my life over the years, the main physical activity has been dancing of all sorts. As I child, I did ballet and tap, then jazz ballet, ballroom, rock ‘n’roll swing, belly dancing, and zumba. My favourite remains Swing and ballroom. These days, I don’t dance much and am contemplating a return to some form of dance.
What is something others do that sparks your admiration?
I have to say that I am in admiration of people who have celebrity status who use their wealth and celebrity status to do good in this world.
I think of Neil Finn, whom is a very wealthy man, worth millions, whom supports financially organisations like So They Can, who builds schools in isolated African communities, and Auckland City ,Mission, fighting homelessness in New Zealand. Neil is using his wealth and status to highlight global issues. He is definitely a compassionate, empathic person. Also, when we were in lockdown, he created Fangradio, a daily radio show that was broadcast all over the world for an hour or two every day. I think of Sam Neill and Jimmy Barnes, who did similar things online during lovkdown to keep humanity smiling and functioning during lockdown. Sam is one of my favourite people, and I dare you to watch his online “cooking programs” and not laugh. Jimmy Barnes these days is a redeemed soul, a loving family man, who again uses his wealth and talents to do good things. Whatever he was like in the heady days of Cold Chisel, he now has definitely made up for his previous wildlife. He is the epitome of a loving family man.
There are probably countless more people out there who use what they have to share with those less fortunate, and I have only given examples of those I know of in my 🌎 world.
I always have the attitude thst there but for the Grace of God Go I. I consciously look for examples of people who share what they have and have some pretty amazing friends in my life. We all believe that if all the world would learn to share, we would overcome some of the world’s problems.
My two favourite cartoons from my childhood would have to be both Peanuts and Scooby Doo. I have memories of enjoying both of them. I also enjoyed Josie and the Pussy-cats and the Roadrunner.
Kaye's Life and other gems 