Seven

I have been tagged by lovely V from A Few Things From My Life (a really wonderful blog). I have to tell you seven things about myself. So ...



1. I am the eldest of five children. We were all born a year apart (birthdays fall between Oct-Dec with a March one just to throw us all!!) Mum and dad came to Australia from Portugal in the late 60s not knowing a single person. I understand they didn't own a television for a number of years.

2. I am multilingual . Along with English and Portuguese (which I speak and read fluently) I also speak and read French and Spanish (not fluently anymore but still pretty well). I can also understand German and make valiant attempts at speaking it with some success, sometimes. I discovered my gift for languages at school and studied languages at university in my Arts degree.

3. I love cows. Like many people I collect things, I have collections of Eiffel Towers, vintage scissors and skeleton keys and perhaps unusually rubber bands. But I think it is my love of cows since childhood which has resulted in an unusual collection of cows. I can't resist buying them and the above image is just a smattering of the cows that can be found around my house, from the boys' bedrooms to the kitchen and bathroom.

4. I used to be a lawyer and a book publisher. Along with an Arts degree I also took a Law degree at university and like many lawyers, I became disillusioned with the life of incredibly long hours for absolutely no gratitude from clients and little respect from the community (I will never understand why lawyers are held in such low opinion by people). So I took a a huge pay cut and decided to do something fun and I hope worthwhile to the community, publishing books. I really enjoyed it and I hope I can back at some stage in the future when the boys are in school five days a week.

5. I met Richard Gere when I was 16 on a school excursion to Egypt and Greece. I studied Ancient History in my final two years of high school and our school organised a six week excursion to see the wonders of ancient Egypt and Greece (I was fortunate enough to be sent to a private school - thanks mum and dad). Mr Gere was there at the same time and after the usual signing of autographs and pictures being taken he invited our group of schoolgirls and teachers to join him and his guests on a fancy yacht for lunch. That gesture really made an impression on me and I have been a fan ever since.

6. I love J. Crew and Anthropologie. The problem is that J. Crew don't have a store in or ship to Australia, so I have to admire from afar. Good news is that Anthropologie have just introduced shipping to Australia, so maybe a store here is in their plan, fingers crossed.

7. I have been flying by the seat of my pants this week. I have had so much on this week that I have felt like time was escaping me and I was just surrounded by clocks ticking away. I just haven't been able to get on top of everything. I didn't prepare a menu so cooking has been quite stressful and my To Do List just kept getting longer and longer. I am exhausted. I'm sending the boys away for the day tomorrow with F to my sister-in-law's beach house the Northern Beaches so the boys can have fun by the sea while I try and refresh myself.

I understand I now have to tag a few people, not sure how many so I will choose four. Over to you Tina, Janette, Anna and A if you feel like it tell us seven things about yourself.

See you next week and have a happy weekend.

Images: 1 (my dad), 2, 3 (mine), 4, 5, 6a & 6b, 7