This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#3 – A THING THAT CHANGED MY WORLD VIEW WAS…I don’t know that I’ve ever held a different view on the world than I do now. I guess (mostly, there are always exceptions) that we down here in NZ are practical, welcoming, generous people who know that we are strategically unimportant on the world stage, but generally strive to leave the place better than we found it. Various events around the world make me shudder, but there is evil everywhere and that’s why it’s important to just BE KIND to one another, and to ourselves.

This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.

#2 – SOMEONE WHO HAS INFLUENCED ME IS…my partner’s mother, Carol, and earlier on, my besties mum, Alison. Both are strong, upright, loving Christian women. Unfortunately my biological mother has some issues, and my stepmother a few more, so it wasn’t until I was 22 & became serious with Si that I learnt how to parent unconditionally. I do struggle (teens!!!) but as yet, I’ve never chased one with a carving knife…

This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine over on Instagram & on her blog, https://www.10thingstotellyou.com/about/ I do listen to Laura & Meg’s podcast “Sorta Awesome Show” every now and again (usually in my summer as I potter about outside) & her solo-ish podcast, The Smartest Person in the Room is fascinating. I’m following these prompts on the blog as a) I can schedule and b) I think this is a really cool idea. Play along!

#1 – I GREW UP…my earliest memories are a combination of gardening with Gran at their home in Fantail Grove, Upper Hutt; feeding baby lambs at the farm in Lumsden and playing at the house we moved to in Otumoetai, Tauranga, when I was around 3 ½. I lived in Tauranga until I was nine, when my mother accepted a job offer at Greenlane Hospital in Auckland. I’ve lived in Auckland almost continually since, and all over the city.