ABOUT ME: I have been teaching at St Joeys The Strand for nearly 17 years. I started teaching with Karen Blomberg and then for 11 years with Lisa MacDonald and now with Natalie Cox. Teaching is a great profession, it’s fun and ever changing.cEwen and I have been married for 17 years this year. Ewen and I don’t travel very well together. I don’t like having anything planned while he likes every last detail planned. He also likes being ridiculously early for planes which I have never been. In fact, I’ve missed flights because I was late and I won’t tell you how many. However, last year we went to Thailand and had a great time. He had some planned activities and so did I but most of the days we did whatever we liked which was great. One of the activities planned for me was a great cooking class which used ingredients I rarely use.
MY BAG Of course my bag contains the usual detritus of my life; old coins, tampons, pieces of paper with stuff written on it that can no longer be seen, old receipts etc. etc. However in preparing for this photo session I had to stop and think of things that I would like to carry around IF I were to ever clean out my bag. This a PHOTO of my son Andrew as a baby which reminds me that he wasn’t always the angst ridden teenage monster he often is now. I always carry a little NOTEBOOK because when we eat out and have a nice bottle of wine or someone tells me about a book they’re reading I write it down before I forget because I am 51 and forget everything. I love Harry Potter and one of the kids gave me a TIME TURNER. I bought this great pair of EARRINGS which I never wear because when I do my eldest step daughter Emma tells me I look like mutton dressed as lamb. They also remind me what a little s… she is. I have a friendship BRACELET that one of my Grade five children made me that I am too embarrassed to wear but keep it with me in case they ask. MENU I have a menu that I kept from a restaurant I went to in France with one of my friends. It was the most awesome restaurant and the first time I ever tried foie gras.
Abbie my youngest stepdaughter always tries to give me make-up advice which I rarely listen to (because I’m nearly 30 years older than her) but she did buy me this great MASCARA online because she told me I had no eyelashes and had to do the best with what I’ve got. Yes she is that mean. Hahahaha. I have a bottle of Chanel No.5 PERFUME that the three children gave me for Mother’s Day (with their fathers prompting of course). There is my red LIPSTICK that Ewen bought me on one of his trips away. He asked the airline steward where she got hers from because he liked the colour and thought it would suit me. I always have a book that I’m listening to on my PHONE (I know, like an old lady). I listen to serial killer books to help me walk faster when I’m walking up the Hill. Once I saw a white van with no windows and I walked very fast that day. SUNSCREEN (occupational hazard). Andrew is always dirty. He must roll around in the mud. I love to babysit my little cousins and so I have hand SANITIZER in case he wants to play with Harper who’s nine months old and so adorable. My mother in law Hilary gave me this cute picture of EWEN which I carry because well, look how cute he is. My PASSPORT because one day we may win lotto and fly off to far away places. I’ve carried this tin of TUNA around all year because one day someone is going to tell me they’re hungry and hey presto I’ve got a tin of tuna. PHOTO of my family – my two stepdaughters Emm and Abbie and my son Andrew. I couldn’t find one with my husband in it.