1. I spent some of my childhood and teenage years in Papua New Guinea. My parents managed hotels and for a couple of years we went to school in Port Moresby. We thought nothing of going shopping with security guards and barely noticed the 10ft fences topped with barbed wire around our house. We weren’t even that concerned the night our chef got drunk and chased my father with a huge kitchen knife.

What I do remember is having lots of possum type creatures (cus cus) as pets, speaking in Pigeon English and meeting some of the most beautiful, real people. My experiences there made me despise racism from a very young age..I just didn’t, and still don’t, understand how people can judge an entire race when there is so much beauty to be found in individuals the World over.

2. I suffer from simple partial epileptic seizures. I would have put that in past tense except I had another today, after years of thinking they were no more. They are something like de ja vu except so intense it stops me in my tracks and takes over my entire thought process for a minute or two at most. They also make me cry. The doctor told me I’m still normal. He doesn’t know me very well.

3. I have a secret and rather complex handshake with one of my children. We’ve had it for around three years. No other member of my family is aware of it.

4. I have numerous nicknames. To my Dad I’m “Wik“. To Crayton and Jennifer I’m “Sheisty“. To Sherrie I’m “Schlemmy“. I also answer to variations of Sheye such as Cher (Crayton’s relatives) and Shy (Ian Ziering from 90210 after we met, as you do in downtown LA.)

5. I’m vegetarian and haven’t eaten red meat for seven years. I have started eating chicken very occasionally recently. Don’t mistake me for a lentil and chick pea kinda girl though, I live on Lean Cuisine and Baskin Robbins. (They cancel each other out).

6. I have issues with the over purchasing of pyjamas, ribbon, lip gloss, Havianas, magazines and Ikea photo frames. Supply well exceeds demand in all these categories yet I can’t help myself..I have an insatiable desire for pretty stuff.

7. I once refused a marriage proposal. Thankfully.

8. I have a completely irrational fear of cockroaches. I’m not sure why..could it be because, as a child, my mother referred to them as “man-eaters”? I would rather cuddle a snake than have one of those beastly critters crawl or, God forbid, fly near me.

9. I was, many many many years ago, arrested for stealing a dirty $2 ashtray from a bar. Firstly, I have never smoked. Secondly, I did not put the ash tray in the bag. Thirdly, it was not even my bag I was holding when arrested. Scouts honor, this is fact. And no, my chain smoking thief of a flatmate did not come forward with a confession. Incredibly, it went to court before a judge dismissed it. I still feel dodgy when I recount that tale.

10. I wish I could:

Sing. (My sister got that gene.)
Paint. (Or draw.)
Scrap. (Too much, too fiddly, too pretty – I got overwhelmed when I tried.)
Enjoy excercise. (Blahhhhh)
Think clearly. (It’s become apparent I have lost my mind.)
Be more organised. (Jennifer/Carrie/Kate please stop laughing.)
Reply to every email I receive. (There are not enough hours in a day).

And just because my post feels naked without a picture:

Little Miss Showoff.

Please tell me it’s not THAT day of the year again. Not that day after the previous night where my children have, like wild bush animals in the night, scurried about my house at the most unGodly hours, whispering and fossicking and giggling until the sun finally rose. Could we possibly be the same parents that were giggling ourselves at midnight as we lovingly assembled chocolate baskets and tiptoed around making egg trails? Because we surely don’t resemble them, with our matching bed hair, sleepy eyes and nasty scowls, today.

Regular readers will recall my Nightmare Before Christmas – Easter is simply more of the same. I’m certain not even an elephant gun would stop my two from this horrid tradition. I promise, I am canceling all things festive next year. I said this with absolute dead pan seriousness at 4am and Crayton actually laughed, thinking I was joking.

So anyway, here are a few cupcakes I whipped up with 20 mins to spare the other day. **Should anyone hear rumors that, in fact, Kate Austin was responsible for these little masterpieces, that it was in fact Kate who baked and decorated so incredibly, that it was Kate that arranged them on a beautiful stand, or that it was Kate that drove for 40 minutes to get them to me…they are nothing more than just that – malicious rumors.

Here’s what happens when the toddler has to wait for her cupcake to be photographed.
Why are people so cruel? (Said with my best Billy and Mandy impersonation.)

More than anything though, we had so much fun..Angie is the craziest woman I know and up for anything! It’s quite clear she got twice as much self confidence as the rest of us mere mortals which makes her a dream to shoot.

ps: Feelin’ Sentimental by The Waifs courtesy of Barb’s Good Taste In Music.

In Loving Memory of Isabelle Broadhead

Many years ago, Jennifer began a game. A silly something where you make up a story that is your Xanadu. Except Jen’s was “Jenadu”. Didn’t sound quite as amazing with “Sheyeadu” but still works very well for Soozadoo. We shared tales of living in penthouse apartments in exotic locations, being waited on by maids and driven to Saks by the butler to restock our designer closets. We’d dream up incredible social lives where our feet never hurt in our Jimmy Choos and cocktails were calorie free. I loved playing this game – even when I moved to the Gold Coast we’d still sometimes write down the latest version and post it to one another.

I remembered this game just the other day and realised that if I were to sit and write my Sheyeadu now it would contain nothing more than one line. It’s no suprise that my utopia, my every wish granted would just be:

To have Ava.

It’s something you can’t possibly realise fully until it’s gone..that every person out there who has all of their children does in fact exist in their very own Xanadu. We didn’t know that our happiness was so completely and utterly tied up in the simple fact that all of our children were here and healthy. That the ability to feel true, untainted joy would also be lost the day Ava left. I can’t ever go back and live in that perfect World, I can’t ever again experience happiness not tinged with sadness. I didn’t know it when I had it and I can’t have it now I know what it is.

All I can do is keep sharing what I have learnt..to remind every person out there who does have all their children to just be so, so thankful, to let go of the small stuff and to trust me when I say you have absolutely everything you need.

While these are my thoughts today, I also write them for Danielle Broadhead. Some of you will know of my friendship with Danielle. A year ago, I caught an interview on television with the parents of Isabelle Broadhead, who’d tragically died at 3 years, 9 months. It was the first time I’d seen another family mourning their beautiful daughter, just as we were. The first time I’d seen another precious child lost too soon in such a preventable way. On Easter Thursday, 2006, Isabelle was sitting in a booster seat with an adult belt, as per child safety legislation at that time, when Danielle was involved in a low speed accident. Her booster seat and adult belt was, in fact, the reason Isabelle lost her life that day.

Shockingly, Isabelle is one of many children Worldwide to have died this way. With such selflessness and determination, Danielle and Noel have pushed and fought for legislation to be changed in Australia to prevent this ever happening to another familly. Three weeks ago, they got their wish. Please, please, please go to Isabelle’s site, light a candle and learn what every parent should know.

Today is a very difficult day for the Broadhead family. There is nothing that can return their adored daughter to them, to give them back their Utopia, but they have worked hard to make Isabelle’s short life mean something great and I believe with all of my heart that Isabelle would be so very proud, just as we all are.

I don’t understand why terrible things happen to good people. I can’t make it better for Isabelle’s parents but I am so thankful that I caught that interview, that I then “met” Danielle and together we have shared such a intimate friendship through a very painful journey.

With love and endless thanks to the Broadhead family for making our World safer.

xx