Here's to another 10!

It's Jacaranda season here in Brisbane, one of my favourite times of year ....

I try every year to capture the essence of this beautiful tree in a photo, but I can never quite manage it.  So I prefer to just drive down certain streets where I know there are plenty, or find myself a vantage spot somewhere in the city where I can look out across the lavender-daubed landscape.

The Jacaranda in flower holds a special meaning for me - it was blooming at the time I first arrived in Australia ....

  

Look closely and you'll see - that was 10 years ago yesterday.  10 years!  On the one hand I think, where does the time go?  But on the other, I wonder: how on earth have I managed to fit in all the things that have happened?

I've changed career not once, but twice. 

I've lived at 9 different addresses and am about to move into number 10. 

I adopted 2 beautiful girls ....

And have enjoyed so many amazing days in so many beautiful places around Australia that I can't possibly keep count ....

I've met many amazing people, from a bewildering amount of backgrounds, cultures and walks of life and built so many more lasting and meaningful friendships than I would ever have thought possible. 

But what this beautiful country means to me personally, more than anything, is freedom.  Here, in this amazing place at the other side of the planet from where I began, I found something unexpected, something I didn't even know I was looking for ....

I found the freedom to be me.


Til next time, Nx


PS at 2.50pm on Friday afternoon.  Celebrating with a cuppa and a lamington!

The sights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes (and secrets) of home ....

Hi everyone,

It's Friday, the sun is shining and I'm where I'm supposed to be - life is good! 

A sneak peek from my Six Senses Tour - link below

Spring must be on its way here in Brisbane, as Jezebel the cat just brought me the first lizard of the season.  Thanks Jez, I love you too. (If only the tail would not detach and wriggle about on the carpet all by itself!!!!!)

I wish I could take credit for this great shot of Jezebel, but I have to thank Ruth, who with her husband Fred, took the best care of the girls and the house while I was overseas - thanks guys!

Since my trip and then my graduation, there's been a lot of thinking about 'home' and what that means to me. 

Fitting then that my post today is simply a link to the post I've written for a gorgeous blogland friend of mine, Felicity, of Gifts of Serendipity.  Felicity regularly posts a feature on her blog called the Six Senses Tour, and when she read that I was heading back to Scotland to visit my family, she asked me if I would write a Six Senses Tour about the little corner of Scotland that is my original home.

So here it is - I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it:

My Six Senses Tour of Fife, Scotland

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.  I'll be back to regular posting next week, with a mix of new thoughts and ideas, as well as a host of highlights from my trip.  Don't expect too much from the Paris part, however - most of that was spent in bed with a hideous flu!

Til next time,
Nx

Coming home ...

Happy Saturday everyone!  Back from my amazing hols earlier this week and madly working away to complete all my course work before next Wednesday - I graduate from the Beaumont School of Interior Design and Decoration here in Brisbane next Friday evening!

I do keep having to pinch myself, but it looks like I may already have work lined up as well.  More details to follow, but it seems surreal that just a couple of years after deciding this was the direction I wanted to take and just over one year after I quit full-time employment, I have - all of a sudden - changed career. 

I am an Interior Designer.

And it feels good, and right.  After years of - not what I would call unhappiness - more of an internal disquiet, like radio interference humming away in the background, I'm finally . . . .

Paris shop window - more holiday photos and tales to follow!

Til next time,
Nx