before school

i went to st.peter's retreat and kooka's nest (?) for kindergarten. i remember going down the driveway to st peter's retreat. i think it was in advancetown or somewhere on the way to hinze dam. there were ducks there. i learnt incy wincy spider and sang the song while moving my hands together to be like the spider. i think one day all the kids held hands and danced around in a big circle singing a song. we did arts and crafts there.

i used to sit on my parent's knees and they would jiggle me up and down, pretending that i was on a horse. they would do all the different speeds, "some horses go slow like this, 'trit trot trit trot'. others go faster like this, 'gallop, gallop, gallop!'" my mum also would make a circle on my hand, and sing, "round and round the garden, like a teddy bear. one step, two step, tickle him under there!" i really loved that.

we used to live in a place in tallai, on veronica drive. i shared a room with my sister. i hated mushrooms and refused to eat them. one day it flooded there and i remember looking outside, and seeing my shovel wash away in the floodwater. there was a sausage dog i think that lived nearby, and would always come up our driveway. my dad used to take me running on his shoulders (!) in the mornings. he would come into me and my sister's rooms in the mornings... to say something, i can't quite remember what now. there used to be tiles on the floor, and a pool with a diving board my brother would jump off. i know my cousin would visit, and we had a teaparty outside but i think that is a photo and not a true memory. my mum used to take me to speech pathology sessions because i had a stammer. the speech pathologist claimed it was because my language development exceeded the rate of my motor skills development. my mum would take me to these sessions, and i would have to do things like speaking "slowly and carefully" and describing pictures (e.g. a banana and a phone). when we sat in the waiting room, i would beg mum to ask me to spell things for her! my brother had a cockatiel called max, and she laid an egg one day. i remember i was so excited but i accidentally crushed the eggs in my little hands when it was my turn to hold it...

this may have been during preschool, i'm not sure. but i remember i was staying at my grandparent's house in redcliffe and really wanted to see my cousins. i wasn't allowed to use the phone for some reason, but my grandmother let me send a fax, asking if i could see my cousins. i also remember being told it was naptime, and my grandmother would close the door on my room to make me sleep. i never slept but just sat there, waiting until i hoped it was long enough for me to come back outt (if the door was unlocked). i also remember sleeping over there with my cousins, and my grandmother would spray this ?eucalpytus stuff which ostensibly helped us sleep. one night i was quite sick, and i slept in my grandparents bed whilst i had fever dreams of something involving the wiggles.

preschool to grade 3

we moved into our new home, kagoola, i think when i started preschool. my teacher was mrs b. i remember coming one day, wearing a dress and we had PE! we would sit around in a circle at the start of the day. there were sort of open plan bathrooms, which joined the two different classes. sometimes i would go to mrs copperwaite's class instead because they had better activities (like painting rainbow fish). we also raised chickens during the year, and i think i named mine loveheart or sparkles or something. i was friends with a girl called lily, and we would chase nat and BK around trying to kiss them. we also had naptime, and had to haul out our thin mattresses and put our sheets on them from home. we had to get changed i think, and i remember one day a girl called sarah showed us all how small her nipple was! there was a sand pit outside. there was also a girl called katya, who i for some reason was disgusted by - because her hair was always messy and she had a runny nose. another girl called pauline had rotten teeth, because apparently her parents would give her milk mixed with sugar. i think my dad came to parent's night one night. when it was time for pick up we would have to sit outside the classes with the rest of the junior school, on the concrete near this huge rock, i think. or maybe that was a later memory.

during preschool we had a class toy called little ted. i took him on holiday with me to dunk island, and i drew a picture of him on the plane. the other class had somerset bunny. i also went on holiday to mexico - i think my first overseas trip. we saw the aztec ruins. i was terrified of the places were sacrifices were made. we thought my brother's shirt was stolen, but it was under a pile of clothes. i think i may have gotten sick at one point, and insisted a taxi pull over so i could vomit? maybe? i remember seeing a peacock and being upset that it fanned its tailfeathers for a lady and not me (having been told they do that for beautiful people only).

i started ballet in preschool. we used to do it in a demountable. we would stand in lines doing exercises. i remember a boy eddie did it too.

in grade 1 we moved to the junior school, which was still only up a set of stairs from preschool. i was in mrs millican's class. we would get free time every so often, and i used to use sticky tape to pick up glitter. i think one of my friend's got in trouble because she cut her hair in class. we would sit on the floor sometimes, and i remember my thigh resting on nat's. i also remember looking out the window in a trance. we had to do alphabet exercises at the beginning of every day, like a rap with a laminated card to follow off. i would play in the playground with my friends (phoebe, nicole, not sure who else) trying to master the monkey bars. we would play power puff girls (i would be buttercup), and we made my friend yolanda be mojo-jo-jo. sometimes we would also play pretend families and i would call myself crystal. i remember something about the excitement of our christmas concert, but can't remember quite what. i recall the sense of magic and excitement.

grade 3 to 5

grade 6 to 7

grade 8 to 9

grade 10 to 12

university

working life