26 February 2010

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

11 comments:

  1. Wow. Another lawyer. They are everywhere in the blogosphere (like Devon at Wisteria House). I also get disillusioned by the way people view lawyers - we don't sell ourselves very well. For example, in my firm we do 1000s and 1000s of hours of probono/free work for disadvantaged people and charities every year. But you never hear about that, only about the lawyers who rip people off.

    Anyway enough ranting. Love that top photo.

    And my key aim this weekend is to get on that Anthropologie website and buy up a storm!!

    xoxo

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  2. What a great list - so nice to find out more about you. That photo of you and your brothers and sisters is sooo cute! Enjoy your day recovering :) Have a fab weekend.

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  3. Oh Engracia...so great to know a little more about you...and I love the fact that you love to learn new languages...wish I was alot better at my portuguese..I used to be but have gone a bit rusty. Now...golly gosh..what on earth am I suppose to write about myself...gonna need some time to think about this one :) x

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  4. Engracia ~ I loved this post, it was so wonderful to get to know you a little better:) Such interesting things too I might add! I really didn't know lawyers were thought of so poorly, that just sounds really sad to me!! Lucky you meeting Richard Gere:) Oh and I love your cow collection, but not as much as I love your new profile pic:) Thanks for tagging me ~ I really have no idea what I will come up with... but will certainly try over the weekend:) Hope you enjoy your quiet day tomorrow Engracia ~ Tina xx

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  5. Hi Engracia, so nice to learn more about you! I'd love to see all the cows in your collection, I bet they're all cute! Thank you for tagging me! Hubby's going to the local (you probably know where I mean if I say the Gg) tonight for drinks so it will give me something interesting to do!
    Janette x

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  6. You girls look ever so sweet all in a row in your pink, and how very nice of Richard Gere!

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  7. Wow, you have a very fulfilling and interesting life! I love Richard Gere, you lucky girl!!
    I too adore Jcrew and Anthro. we have both stores very close to my home plus NYC is nearby.
    xoxo

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  8. This was so much fun. We actually have a lot in common! :) Have a lovely weekend!

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  9. loved reading this - lots of fun tidbits! happy weekend to you! xx

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  10. seems like you have had one wonderful life, so fun.

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  11. I've learnt lots of new things about you!!! Love the photo of you and your siblings :-)

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