One year: A Ten by Six anniversry

One year ago this weekend, MR and I moved into the Ten by Six.

It feels like yesterday and years ago all at the same time. So much happens in a year! So much changes.

We had 3 friends to help us move and Operation One Truck was pretty much a success, with everything packed up by midday. Ofcourse the unpacking took us about 5 months and adjusting and culling to condense our 'stuff' into the Ten by Six, well, that's still an ongoing process.

We've adjusted fairly well to the 'home owner' situation with bills seemingly being paid on time and only recently did we finally decide to do a proper, 'grown up' budget.

So what have we learnt this last year?

How to use a drill - very handy for putting up shelves and pictures and things.

There's nowhere to go when you have a fight - so best just kiss and make up ;) Now that's a good one, in a space this small, you really do need to just air the fight and then let it go. Tension is just too much for the Ten by Six.

How to unblock a toilet - an experience I'd rather not go into, but let's just say it was shitty!

How to change a shower head - oh the sense of accomplishment I felt when I figured this one out... and then realised the shower head we'd bought still didn't fix our pressure problem and we still had to get the plumber in.

Two heads are not always better than one - in a teeny tiny space, sometimes, it's better if one person does this and the other does that. Two people on one job is often just too squishy, let alone stressful.

No matter how much you cull, you still have too much stuff for a Ten by Six - I think I would need to literally throw out everything I own in order for this place to have that chic, minimalistic charm I so wish it would.

Not forwarding your mail correctly results in hefty fines - enough said, I'm still paying them off! I think this counteracts the 'grown up-ness' of the budget by the way.

You can't do it all at once - no matter how many great ideas you have, you can't do all of the amazing things, all at once, there isn't the money and there certainly isn't the time. Some things have to wait... until next year.  

All in all, the important thing is that we have a little piece of the world to call our own. A little piece of security in our busy lives, and a little investment in our futures. And at the end of the day - we love it! 

Thirty before 30

It's official, in just over 17 months, I'm turning 30. That's right, 30 years of prickles and pearls under my belt. 

Now while I'm not having any particular kind of crisis about turning 30, it's just a mark of a decade and seems to be as good a point as any to assess things. 

In my last post, I wrote about the idea of actually making a plan to acheive the things in life that I want to acheive, instead of just letting them fall by the wayside and waking up at 45 crying like Kate Winslet in The Holiday 'I hate my horrible life'.

And thus, the Thirty before 30 list was born.  Really it's just motivation to achieve a few goals, do a few awesome things and have a bit of fun recounting them in this space.

There are several things I figured I'd do before 30 that I've already done - those include: travel to Europe, travel somewhere solo, see the Eifel Tower, buy a home, get a full time job, start a blog, learn to make sushi, experience great love, experience great lovers, learn how to crochet, see a show in London and many more. So these are 30 new things, achievable in 17 months.

1. Master the fine art of poaching an egg.
2. See snow and have a snow fight.
3. Run a half marathon.
4. Have a short story published.
5. Write the first draft of my first novel.
6. Drink some beautiful French champagne.
7. Knit a blanket.
8. Learn to play the ukulele.
9. Travel to New York.
10. Dance with the queen of New Orleans.
11. Grow a fruit/vegetable other than chilli.
12. Refurbish a piece of furniture.
13. Dine in a five star restaurant overseas.
14. Do a trek.
15. Learn to make pasta.
16. Achieve a flat stomach.
17. Start my own small business.
18. Visit Tasmania.
19. Get back onto a stage.
20. Dine at a French restaurant.
21. Paint our bedroom.
22. Go skiing in Canada.
23. Take a scenic flight somewhere majestic.
24. Go ice skating in New York City... outside... on an actual rink!
25. Learn how to make bread.
26. Go bungee jumping or sky diving or something ridiculously thrill seeking of that variety. 
27. Get a tattoo.
28. See a Broadway show - on Broadway!
29. Learn to reverse park.
30. Pay off my credit card and then keep it in a drawer for emergencies only.

Do you have a 30 before 30 list? What do you want to do before you turn 30?

"Where do you want to be?"

Last week I was asked the question.

"Where do you want to be in 5 years?"

It was during a performance development session at my work. I rolled my eyes and first. My body constricted and the very notion of thinking about where I wanted to be in 5 years made me rebel against it, like a 5 year old being hand fed brussel sprouts.

I'm not very good at this stuff.

I know I want to be happy. Is that a response? In 5 years, wherever I am, I want to be happy. Can we go with that?

I remember being asked the '10 year' question in my first or second year of uni.... which funnily enough is actually 10 years ago now. Oh. Dear. Fuck.


Back then it was for an assignment. The whole class was to put together a short presentation/storyboard etc of where they wanted to be in 10 years. It got me into a bit of a panic back then. I felt all this pressure to have a 'plan' and at the time I felt way too naïve, too inexperienced to deal with it. I'd just started uni, I mean, how was I to know where I was going to be in 10 years? I felt like I was still learning. Still needed to learn so much. I mulled over it and it really made me question where I was at in life. In the end, I decided it was ok that I didn't know where I wanted to be in 10 years time. And I embraced that. Instead I focussed on how I wanted to feel in 10 years. What things I wanted in my life in 10 years.

I got a big piece of yellow cardboard and started cutting out words and pictures that represented how I wanted to feel and some of the things I wanted in my life; stuck them on with a glue stick at varying angles. You know, for effect.

I wish I still had that sadly constructed piece of card. I can't remember much of what was on it. But one thing I do remember vividly was a set of judicial scales. They represented my need for balance in life. A balance of work and life, passions, relationships, family and friends, challenge and fun.

It's funny, when I think about it what I really should have had was a juggler. All along I've had all these different balls in the air. Flying around in different directions. Different colours and shapes. In the world of circus performers I'm definitely more the clown with the juggling balls than the stringent tight rope walker balancing life high in the sky.

I am still a firm believer that you never know where you're going to be - life could take you in any matter of directions as soon as tomorrow, therefore, the next 10 years? So much could change in the next 10 years!

However, this most recent line of questioning has got me thinking, where am I now? What have I achieved over the last 10 years? And what do I actually want in the next 10 years? Sure, life could steer me down many different roads in that time, plans could very easily change. But there really are things that I want to do and have in my life, in the next few years and in the next 10. And if I don't set any kind of plan in place to achieve those things - will they ever get done? And how satisfied will I be with what I have or haven't achieved when it dawns on me that another 10 years has ever so quickly flashed by?

Life is too quick to be taken advantage of, but long enough to regret the things you always wanted to do but didn't.

So what's the solution... well that still requires some thinking.

For that you'll have to stay tuned ;)

Do you know where you want to be in 5 or 10 years? What plans do you put in place to achieve your dreams and goals?

My Fringe World 2015 'Must Sees'

Froget Christmas! Fringe World is officially my favourite time of year in Perth. The city comes to life with activity, with people, with performers and with awesome artistic displays, tinselled with strings of pretty lights. It's the time of year you remember that living in Perth is actually pretty awesome!

One week in and Fringe has certainly whisked me away. There are so many amazing things to go and see. Last Friday I saw Big Titty Ha Ha: Hard Time which was a bit of fun and I went to see Mummy on Tuesday night, written by Mick Devine and starring Claire Munday - it was absolutely incredible! A great peice of writing coupled with sensational acting, it was funny, quick witted, morbid and sad all at the same time.

There's still about another 3 weeks of Fringe World and here are a few of my 'Must sees' for this year:

10,000
Great new play by two Perth writer/actors about a couple who get thrown into a video game trying to save their flatlining marriage. Plus I'm doing the publicity so go see it!




Asking For It
This I can't wait to see - Adrienne Truscott's 'One Woman Rape About Comedy - tackling the big issues through comedy dressed from the waist up and the ankles down. Challenging the point of view that certain women's behaviour is asking for it.



600 seconds
Read: 10 minute plays. It's like a buffet - you can get everything and then come back for more. I love short snippets and it's awesome how much can be communicated in 10 minutes.





Impromptunes - Tune your own adventure
Improvisation + music - what could be better? Ok so I was a massive Wayne Brady fan back in the Who's Line Is It Anyway days and humour through improvised song is just awesome to me. 



Those who fall in love like anchors dropped upon the ocean floor
This received rave reviews during it's season at The Blue Room last year... and I missed it! By all accounts it's amazing and I'm so glad it's back, giving me the opportunity to jump aboard.



Metalhead
I saw this in October last year at Victoria Hall in Fremantle. Tiffany Barton is an exceptional Perth playwright and it was a hard hitting, emotional play. It's back with a new cast and a new director and I can't wait to see the transformation. 

23 days in

So I missed the obligatory 'new year' post and 23 days in, I feel I've begun to settle into 2015.

So far, the start to 2015 has been full on. But then again, full on seems to suit me much of the time. I may have started the year with a sinus infection and flu (who the he'll gets that in summer!!!) that's slowed me down some but none-the-less, so far it's been a great start. 

I've started the year with family and loved ones; merriment the bubble in a glass of champagne.

I've started the year with trips to the beach, rewarded with sun bronzed summer skin. 

I've started the year reading The Trouble With Flying and watching Boardwalk Empire; watering my soul with inspiration and relaxation.

I've started the year working hard; another year, another project to sink my teeth into.

I've started the year running again, or should I say jogging? Either way there's movement over kometres driving me to go further and faster each week.

I've started the year planning and saving for an extended trip at the end of the year that I couldn't be more excited about - expect to hear more on that soon!

I've started the year with words swelling in my heart and a keyword at the ready to capture them. 

How have you started yours?

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10 things to be thankful for today

As an American tradition, Thanksgiving has never been celebrated among my family or many families here in Australia, unless they've had some American or Canadian influence. Traditions aside, in the lead up to the silly season, when often the commercialism and the statement of it all takes away from the genuineness of it's purpose, it's a pretty good time of year to take a step back and think about what you really are thankful for.

So here's just 10 things in my life that I'm thankful for today.

1. I'm thankful first and foremost for family, friends and a beautiful man who love and encourage me, and I them in return.
2. I'm thankful for a well paying job that offers me security and challenges alike.
3. I'm thankful for having had the opportunity to study whatever I wanted, to read whatever I wanted and be afforded knowledge that in many countries and cultures is either still denied of women or simply cannot be afforded for anyone. 
4. I'm thankful for both the times my family did it hard and those when we lived well, because it's taught me to be appreciative, taught me to be resourceful and taught me to be compassionate.
5. I'm thankful for having lived in the country, the bush and the city in this enormous country of ours that so few get to experience the true breadth of.
6. I'm thankful for the opportunity to travel, to be in a position that has afforded me the opportunity to explore other countries, meet long lost family members and experience things I never dreamed I would.
7. I'm thankful for a creative mind that takes me on many journeys.
8. I'm thankful for the harsh words said to me throughout my life that have thickened my skin and thankful for the encouraging voices as well that have fed my soul and ambitions.
9. I'm thankful for clean running water available at my beck and call.
10. I'm thankful for my little home, that each night I am sheltered, comfortable and surrounded by nice things and for all the little things it is teaching me in this new phase of my life.

This list could really go on and on. Yes we live in a country where there are many opportunities available to us, but above all that, all the little experiences in life, good or bad have influenced who I am today and how I interpret the world around me. So we might change this or that, if we had the opportunity to do it all again but from where I'm sitting, I've got a lot to be thankful for.

What are you thankful for?