Favourites
Icecream:
Chocolate chip cookie dough and anything with coffee in it like Cafe Grande and Affogato Drumstick (Vegan).
Drink:
Cappuccino, honey liquer whisky, water, freshly squeezed orange juice, ginger beer (alcoholic and non), iced coffee.
Meal:
I am transitioning to vegan. I used to like roast lamb or pork with roast spuds, veges and golden sponge steamed pudding with custard (just like Mum used to cook). Now I like pumpkin Risotto, Mee Goreng, Pumpkin soup, yellow Thai curry with potato, roast vegies dusted in chili oil.
Movies:
Big Hero 6, Shrek (only the first one), Pay it Forward, Bridge to Terribitha, Any Star Wars (not the sixth (Sith) one), A Monster Calls, Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2.
Kids books:
Sweet:
Lindt balls, dark and espresso (unfortunately they don’t make them anymore) and chocolate in most forms.
Fruit:
Banana (easiest to peel), Pink Lady Apples and tree ripened peaches (from Donnybrook). I now have grown a mini orchard.
Vegetable:
Hmmm … butternut pumpkin (and good green beans). Potatoes – I love the spud.
To dos:
Collect Box Brownie Cameras and model sailing ships and long boats, blowing bubbles, playing golf, bushwalking, taking photos (especially of the Liddle Things), making stuff, watching the Eagles (AFL), reading kids books, talking with children, telling and making up jokes, flying kites, getting snowed on, getting rained on, making dams in creeks, taking cruises, hugging trees, finding native Australian terrestrial orchids, watching Willy Wagtails, Magpies and Splendid Blue Wrens, spotting a Scarlet Robin, going to the movies, hanging out in Fremantle, Rottnest Island and the South West of WA (especially Bridgetown where I live).
Ambitions:
To power hope in children. To be an amazing children’s book author, to be short listed with CBCA, to see my novel Maximus made into a movie, to find and photo a Queen of Sheeba Orchid (done) and a Red Eared Fire Tailed Finch (done), take a tour to Macchu Pichu, enjoy life, find a way to eat lots of chocolate without putting on weight. To make the world a better place. To get many more picture books and my second and third novels published.
Life highlights or greatest achievements:
Being there for many kids who needed someone to listen and to nurture hope. Creating BUZ (Build Up Zone). Receiving an OAM (Order of Australia Medal).
Most embarrassing moment:
When I was seven-years-old I had a slight wet spot on my pants (I had a weak bladder or I was just too busy doing what boys do and left it to the last minute). I was faced with going to class with the tell-tale spot or running away forever. To avoid the embarrassment I came up with a clever plan. I splashed water to wet my whole shorts and shirt and said that the tap squirted me. Pretty good for a seven-year-old. It worked, I didn’t get teased.
Most amazing memory:
My breath has been taken away on many occasions. I will mention this one – Climbing to near the top of Mount Roberts near Juneau in Alaska and having a 360 degree view and seeing snow capped mountains, the extent of the Gastineau Channel and the cruise ship below as the sun was lowering in the evening sky. I was thinking to myself, it doesn’t get better than this. Two years later I went on a trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal – breathtaking. Oh, and being at the Grand Canyon in a thunderstorm.
A great childhood memory:
Every Christmas when Mum would take down the old case from the passageway closet full of Christmas tree ornaments and the feeling of sheer expectation early on Christmas morning seeing the lights on the tree and the mountain of presents underneath. I also remember the smell of pine from the fresh tree Dad managed to find somewhere.
Favourite quotes:
“Suffering ceases to be suffering once you find meaning in it.” Viktor Frankl.
“Hope is more powerful than a wish.” Harry McCourt (8).
“Hate cannot drive out hate, that’s loves job.” Martin Luther king Jnr.
“Don’t wipe away my tears, I want to feel them on my face.” 4-year-old
“Wisdom without compassion is like a lantern without a flame.” Steve Heron