Lily being uber cute!

Lily doing what Lily does - being uber cute!

Career v Family - Get Pregnant at 25...

The age old debate - career v family...  If the article below is anything to go by, I should have had my family out of the way, done and dusted, by the time I was 25.  Let's ignore the fact I wasn't ready, was with a partner who was, well in short - a complete and utter pr*ck and I couldn't look after myself, let alone a child, or two or three.


Fast forward to 35 and life had changed, married to a great person and working my way up the corporate ladder (slowly, but I was getting there)..  Fast forward to 40 and as per my previous blog about kids, I worked out the little tackers are not for me (too selfish - it happens the older you get).


But I do pause for thought and wonder what would have happened if I had of stayed with the idiot, had 3 children and "gotten my family out of the way"..  And I can assure you life would have been miserable.


Did I make the right decision?  I think so. 


http://bit.ly/Mjjz1p

Take me back to.... 1950....

When you think of a 1950’s housewife, like me, you probably conjure up some fairly negative stereotypes of what it was like to be a woman in that era. She was restricted in social circles, matrimonially submissive, and lord help her if she burnt the Sunday roast.

But one thing the 50s housewife had, that I will be eternally grateful for (and envious of), is her fashion.

I am somewhat of a fashion diva, and while living in the right here and now in 2012 is fun, it is hard to compete if you are, what society deems, a moderately “larger” woman.  Every day you are faced with images of stick thin models (Kate Moss anyone) parading ridiculous clothing that doesn’t suit them, let alone a “larger” person. 

In 1950, fashion was uncomplicated, fun, feminine and there was a piece to suit everyone.

One of my favourite pieces is the dress featured in this blog.  So while I am happy to live in 2012 and am grateful for the opportunities woman have today as opposed to the 50’s, I wonder if it is too much to ask for the fashion world to transport us back there, even if it was just for one season.

2011 Australian Census

Some really interesting data from the 2011 Australian census - http://bit.ly/LmNmFl

Here's some interesting info:

Census Top 10 Countries of Birth 1911–2011

	1911	%	2011	%
1	Australia	82.3%	Australia	69.8%
2	England	7.8%	England	4.2%
3	Ireland	3.1%	New Zealand	2.2%
4	Scotland	2.1%	China	1.5%
5	Germany	0.7%	India	1.4%
6	New Zealand	0.7%	Italy	0.9%
7	China	0.5%	Vietnam	0.9%
8	Wales	0.3%	Philippines	0.8%
9	Italy	0.2%	South Africa	0.7%
10	British India	0.1%	Scotland	0.6%

Winter, A Bottle of Red & an Open Fireplace..

I know people who live in colder places (i.e. Canberra or Tassie) will laugh at me when I say this, but it's damn cold for this time of year in Sydney.  Normally we don't see 12 to 13 degrees during the day till late July, even then it is for a day or two...  Well, this weekend is going to be freezing by our standards - 13 on Saturday and 3 over night!  And it continues on all of next week.

It's times like this I wish I had a wood fire heater.  While the reverse cycle is good, there is nothing like an open fire, a bottle of red wine and a bean bag in front of the TV...  Nothing like it in the world.

I love winter but I suspect by the time September comes around I will be glad to see the back of it this year.  Maybe it is just old age and weary bones setting in.  Or maybe I just should toughen up.

Confession...

Some people love Neighbours.  Some people love Home and Away.  Others like Coronation Street or Eastenders (I am not sure whether that is one word or two; obviously I am not a fan)..

Me, I like Army Wives.  Sad but true.   It is set in the US and follows the lives of, surprisingly enough, army wives and the lives of the soldiers in Iraq.  Yes, it is schmaltzy, stereo typical and very American.  But I love it.  it's easy to watch, makes me cry but at the end of every episode leaves me feeling good..  It debuted in 2007 and I don't think I have missed an episode.  Thank goodness for Foxtel...

So there you go - my secret confession.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Wives

These are a few of my favourite things

In no particular order...

• The flowers – Eggs and Bacon – we had them in Tassie growing up, most people look at me strangely when I mention them, I tell them they are like Jonquils – see the link - http://bit.ly/MfUrqE
• Christmas – I’d celebrate it every month if I could
• Dolce and Gabanna Light Blue Perfume – heavenly
• Santa Monica in Autumn
• Mocha coffee
• Seafood – Balmain bugs and crayfish especially
• Mulled wine (see Christmas)   
• Sand beneath my toes
• Music – without it I’d be lost
• My electric blanket in winter
• My cat Lily and of course, my husband (most days)

Green Card Lottery - Moving to the US of A!

I have always had a love of anything from the US..  I love going to the US..  I wouldn't go as far as saying I love Americans, but I don't find them offensive like some peopel do..

Any who - made the decision to go into the American government Green Card Lottery again this year - if we were lucky enough to be drawn, it would mean a move in 2014 by May.  Please keep your fingers and toes crossed (and anything else you can cross).  I'm lucky enough to work for a US based company, and while Philadelphia isn't top of my list as places to live, if I can transfer there and work, it's fine by me.

My husband and I (sounds rather royal, doesn't it?) got drawn out four years ago, got to the final stage of an interview to sign off our visas and the economy took a hit, so we made the decision not to move to NY!  Broke my heart. 

Well, not this time, this time if we get drawn, we are selling up and moving for a few years - complete with Lily the cat.

Wish me luck - in 23 months I could be living on the other side of the world.  Bring it on I say.

Bedside Manners

Fair to say I got out of bed the wrong side this morning.  One of those days, from the minute you open your eyes, you just know is going to go pear shaped.

So while the moods lingers I am going to have a grumble.  Because it is my blog and I can.

If I send you an email just to say "hi, how are you?" or pick up the phone and call you, the least you can do is respond to that email or return that call if I happen to have left a message.  I'm not saying immediately, I don't expect immediately, but within a week or two would be nice.  I do these things as I am interested to hear how you are, what you have been up to and how life, in general, is treating you.  

It's called common courtesy.  In some people it is seriously lacking.  I know you are busy, so am I.  If you'd prefer I didn't do either of these things, then tell me so I don't waste my time reaching out to say hi to someone I call a friend.

My Family Tree & the Search for the Missing GG Granny (Louisa Frost)

I started researching my family tree about 9 years ago – something to while away the cold evenings while I lived in Melbourne.  It quickly became addictive and dare I say it, without sounding nerdy, exciting..  I was high fiving myself every time I found that hard to find person or discovered an unknown fact..

In a nutshell this is what I learned:

·         On my mum’s side, much to her disgust, we hail from a wonderful line of convicts – and I am very proud!  Well, better to be proud than try to hide it like some Australians do – after all, it is history…

·         After the pardoned my GG grandfather (from the line I hail from) the family were given 500 acres and went on to own a string of public houses in Launceston and surrounds, but then lost them due to ignoring trading restrictions (i.e. he continued carrying on like a convict) – my family (then) owned lots of land, so by rights I should be rich today – well, we should be well off…

·         I learned our family (on mum’s side) is a mix of Chuggs, Birds, Frosts (well one hard to find Frost – see below plea), Parminters (originally Parmynter), Smiths, Hogans, Edwards – the list goes on and on.

But the one sticking point in my search is my GG Grandmother, whose name was Louisa Caroline Frost. She was born between 1854 and 1859 – your guess as to where, what exact year and date, and if even Louisa Caroline Frost was her real name.   No one remembers anything about her and the only person alive today who can shed any light (my great auntie) can only remember (and I quote)” she was an old cow”, which  I’m sure you will agree, isn’t that helpful.  I have searched, tried to get birth certificates from England, Australia, Wales etc – it has cost me a small fortune.  All to no avail.


My frustration is I can find people back from as far as 1590 – how is one woman from a few hundred years ago alluding me?

So – my plea is, if anyone is an experienced genealogist or just has a passing interest in family trees and has some spare time to help me take up the challenge to find out where my GG Grandmother morphed from, I’d love to hear from you. 

http://www.ancestry.com.au/home/lo/index?version=a

A Hand Written Letter....

I attended a funeral this week.  One of my dearest friends grandmother left us, aged 87, to join her husband at the pearly gates (I assume that’s where they were reunited, I am not overly religious but Joyce was, thus I choose to think she is with her beloved husband somewhere she believed existed).

As I sat there and listened to the priest talk about Joyce, he told the story of how she met her husband.  It was 1944, she lived in Marrickville in NSW and she was walking to work with her sister.  She stumbled upon a letter which had fallen out of someone’s pocket. It was addressed to the man who would later become her husband, stationed in Papua New Guinea with an Australian battalion.  It had fallen out of his brothers pocket on the way to post it.  Joyce’s sister suggested writing a note before posting it on, which Joyce did.  A few weeks later she received a letter from him and a pen pal friendship ensued for 12 months.  Then, while on a weeks’ leave, he visited Joyce, and the rest is history.  They married in 1946 and were together until he passed away in 1990.

My point here is I miss the writing of and receiving letters.  I had penfriends galore growing up and used to write pages and pages.  These days I am lucky to receive a Christmas card in the post let alone a letter written by hand (I still send Christmas cards, ready to be posted so they arrive at their destination on the 1^st of December, yes I know, who has time for that, well I do!), actually in this day and age birthday cards seem to be a thing of the past too..

What with the likes of Facebook, Skype, Twitter and other social networking sites, I guess it is passé to send things via “snail” mail.  But sometimes when I see something sticking out of the letter box, my heart leaps and for a split second I wonder who has written me a letter..  Then when I reach the letter box, it is a bill or junk mail… 

Oh well, just quietly I will continue to live for the day a hand written letter arrives in the mail.  Till then I’ll keep blogging.

Republic v Monarchy

Back in 1999 when the Republic debate became a focal point in Australia, I have to admit I really didn’t care whether we became a republic or stayed loyal to the Queen.  Simply because I was young (well, younger) and the government at the time did their best to confuse everyone.

Furthermore I should point out – if anyone is going to loathe the English, it is me.  Remember, I am a recruiter.  I witnessed the "wide boy" war they waged on the market place in 2000, with their annoying cockney accents, when they transcended to “change the landscape of Australian recruitment forever”.   While a good old dose of GFC sorted the wheat from the chaff and sent many home packing, to some extent we still have a few here and they still annoy me. 

Like anyone, I think the royal family has made their fair share of mistakes. But so did Canterbury Bulldogs and half the NRL players between 2006 and 2010, and as loyal supporters, we eventually forgave them.

Let’s skip forward to 2012 and the recent Diamond Jubilee.  Seeing the queen in all her refinery (the gorgeous white outfit on the barge while floating up the Thames and later on the nice and very appropriate gold outfit); Prince Charles getting down and jiggy with it on the barge (seriously, he was shaking his booty) and Princess Kate looking stunning, as always, in her little red number, I began to rethink my whole approach to the debate – Republic v Monarchy.  I’ve got to say, at this stage the queen has my vote.

From the staunch republicans, I can hear the outrage and I can honestly say I look forward to someone convincing me otherwise.  The government today couldn’t organise a, well you know how the saying goes, (although..  given the new of late, I am sure there may be someone able to help them out there) and they have done nothing, at least in my mind, to benefit Australia.

So as the Diamond Jubilee comes to a close, I say, god bless the Queen – she’s a stayer.  In my mind at least.  I can even stomach Prince Charles taking up the throne but have to admit, I do wait for the day of Will and Kate.

Note; of course, it goes without saying, any friends I have connected via FB etc who are English AND recruiters, you are obviously not the English I am referring to above.  Not all English recruiters are bad; only the wide boy cockney ones, who made a mockery of recruitment as a career.

A Kick up The Pants? We All Need It Sometimes....

Every now and then we all get a kick up the pants. Sometimes it comes like a bolt of lightening when we least expect it - other times it just sort of occurs to you that maybe you need to take a step back and evaluate everything around you.  Maybe you contributed to the storm brewing, maybe you need to take some ownership..

For anyone that has heard of the Myers Briggs, and even if you haven't, I'd encourage you to go online and evaluate yourself (note; from a work perspective, but fair to say it seeps into your personal life as well).  

The link is: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

I am an INTJ: http://www.personalitypage.com/INTJ.html

I'd encourage you to read about "my type" as well.  Explains a lot really..  I've known for a long time this is my "personality type" but sometimes you just need a gentle reminder about the things you do well and the things that you need to keep working on...  I especially laugh at the third paragraph from the bottom - ignore the part about excessive drinking..  I'm not quite there yet!!

So to everyone in my life, if I don't tell you often enough - thank you, I am very blessed to be surrounded by such a wonderful group of people.  People who celebrate with me, commiserate with me, laugh with me and sometimes even cry with me.

To the team I manage at work; I know I don't say it enough - but good job guys, you are awesome (yes, very over rated word but very apt in this instance).  You constantly perform over and above everything I could have ever imagined, in a sometimes very tough environment.

So there you have it - I'd love to know your 'type" if you can spare 5 minutes to complete the online Myers Briggs.  It might be a reminder of how wonderful you are and then again, it may even be the gentle kick up the pants you need as we head into the second half of 2012.

Note; as with all things, these type of evaluations are to be taken in context.

My Chosen Career...

I was sitting at work the other week, flicking from Twitter to Facebook, LinkedIn, RenRen (China’s equivalent to FB), and a multitude of other social media sites and it occurred to me I get paid to surf these social networking sites!  I get paid to build my company’s brand through these sites and I thought “how cool is that” (also means I can't get caught out checking my personal FB or twitter through work!)?

Recruitment has never been an overly glamorous career, sure some people made more money than I will ever see in my life time, but I wasn't one of them.  I was more concerned about the candidate experience and doing the right thing by them and my clients…  I sometimes question whether I should have been more ruthless but then I realised I couldn’t have been – that wouldn’t have been being true to myself.

You tell people you are a recruiter and they look at you like you are the devil.  We are right up there with used car salesmen and politicians…  Just remember, not all can be tarred with the same brush. I learned from the best – a team of women, when I worked for a company called Centacom (now Adecco) in the 90's, who were absolute masters in their chosen field.

So, to every one of those women who taught me how to recruit and reminded me daily of the importance of ethics and honesty when it comes to dealing with people’s careers, I thank you.  Every time I get to do really fun stuff at work around social media, I look back at how far we have come from faxing resumes to clients!  And every time I have to do the not so fun stuff I think about changing careers..  But where would be the fun in that?

Reason, Season, Lifetime - One of My Favourite Pieces

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.  When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly.  They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually.  They may seem like a godsend, and they are.  They are there for the reason you need them to be.  Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.  Sometimes they die.  Sometimes they walk away.  Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand.  What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled;  their work is done.  The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn.  They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.  They may teach you something you have never done.  They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.  Believe it!  It is real!  But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.  Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people (anyway);  and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.  It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Lady Luck

Definition of Luck as found on Wikipedia via Google:  “Noun: Success or failure apparently brought on by chance rather than one’s own actions”.

When an elite athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympics – does everyone say “gosh, weren’t they lucky to win that”.  I’d suggest not.  I’d suggest the athlete trained exceptionally hard, for a long period of time, giving up many of life’s little pleasantries along the way.

If I find a $100 note in the street or win lotto – is that lucky?  Bet your bottom dollar it is (excuse the pun).

My point; twice this week I have been told that I am lucky to have what I have in life.  Yes, I live in a nice house, drive a nice car, take an annual “vacation” (my love of the US working its way into the blog) and  yes,  I wear nice clothes (note; not designer).

But it isn’t luck – this was a lot of hard work over a long period of time.  So next time you tell someone how lucky they are; ask yourself if it was luck or hard work – or maybe a mixture of both.