Grateful Monday

It’s June 3rd today, the third day of winter here in Australia. I live in beautiful Brisbane, and today I am grateful for this STUNNING blue sky day! 21 degrees and perfect. Brisbane weather FTW :)

Grateful Monday

L-R: Me, Hayley, Tenille, Lauren and David. Photo by Special Memories Photography.

Today’s Grateful Monday is about my brother and sisters. The above pic of myself and my beautiful siblings was taken at my sister Tenille’s wedding in August last year. I am the oldest of the four girls, and when I was nine, my family met David and instantly claimed him as one of our own. My sisters are natural redheads, with blue eyes and peaches & cream skin (the red hair comes from my maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather). They are absolutely stunning. I missed the red gene much to my chagrin, and look nothing like them (apart from the ice blue eyes we share). It prompted me to actually wonder if I was adopted when I was eight, but I look so much like my mother that that notion was quickly put to rest! So I have my Dad’s colouring, but look pretty much identical to my Mum (I will post about them later).

I love having a big family. Growing up, my sisters & I always shared rooms, which was a blessing & a curse. I was never left wanting for company, but sometimes I craved some alone time! Our house was mental. We all loved to make absolute dicks of ourselves and then spent the rest of the time cracking up laughing!

But we fought. Oh yes. My poor Dad - FIVE women in the house?! The funny part was that once the initial hissy fit of stealing clothes/eating food/hogging the computer/general pain-in-the-ass behaviour was resolved, we pulled up our Big Girl socks & got on with it. We never held grudges. I always found it astonishing when my friends at school completely ignored their siblings & bitched about how much they hated each other. We always said hi if we bumped into each other at school & hung out quite often. Heaven forbid if anyone said a bad word about us - we would instantly close ranks & defend each other, like a private army. If shit went down, we would have each others’s backs. I loved having that level of support :)

David, or Daiz as we call him, is nine years older than I am & I love him to pieces. We met David through Mum, who was working as a makeup artist. He was working as a drag queen performer & wanted to learn how to disguise the 5 o’clock shadow! He is an incredibly talented fashion designer & made that beautiful blue dress I’m wearing in the photo above. David & his partner Kevin are keen gardeners. Their garden looks like a sanctuary of paradise. David loves it so much he has enrolled to become a horticulturalist. Hope he keeps making those beautiful frocks for me though!

Lauren, or the Moley, is 22 months younger than me. Growing up, we were really close. We had nothing in common at all except each other - she loved the army cadets & was very tomboy-ish, whereas I was the music nerd. But man, there were so many nights where we would lie awake until 3am talking about boys or just life in general. She is very clever with her hands, generous, loyal, incredibly kind & hilariously funny! Due to a nasty relationship break-up, Lol recently moved to Canberra from our hometown of Brisbane & my heart broke just a little bit. But she has absolutely blossomed into herself & is now working in defence and living the life she deserves. I am so proud of her. Onya moley! Yuvou xx

Hayley, or Hailze, or Moley is five years younger than me. She was the quiet thinker & the brains in the family. Hailze is loads of fun, a total klutz, very clever, incredibly musical, has a bit of a blonde streak and has a very warped & black sense of humour (we love to quote movies. We text each other 2-3 times a week with funny quotes). She also has an adventurous spirit & spent 8 months living in Canada. I was so proud of her. In another bold move, Hailze was the first of us girls to move to Canberra & has been a great support to Lauren when she went down. She is also blessed with the most stunning voice imaginable, and I was so chuffed to have her sing harmonies on my solo album! Hailze was accepted into the Canberra production of The Phantom of the Opera - words cannot describe the level of pride I have for this! Go Hailzes! Yuvou!

Tenille, Neale, or Chook, as I call her, is eight years younger than me. She was a beautiful baby, with a shock of curly red hair - the rest of us were bald until we hit 18 months :) Chook is outrageous. I think being the youngest, she wanted to carve her place in the world very quickly. Dad always said about Tenille that in times of strife, she won’t go hungry. She has a good head for business, isn’t afraid of hard work and has the most incredible fashion sense! Chook is spontaneous, kind, giving, hates camping, has the most infectious laugh & is a total extrovert. Kids just love her - she has a natural warmth about her that draws people in. Chook married the love of her life, Simon, last year. May they grow together like old trees :) Yuvou Chookie xx

There you go, some info on my gorgeous siblings. I am very lucky & incredibly grateful to have them in my life! What are you grateful for this week?

I used to work in Human Resources in corporate banking. Hehe, I know :) I was gigging with Sunas more and more, but the double job thing never bothered me. I loved my banking job, although I wasn’t very good at it (my poor boss, she put up with a lot from me). It even sounds ridiculous. Come on - Sarah the muso in a suit? And yet that was what I wore to work every day, convincing myself that this was the best way for me to build my life with my then-husband. 

On my first day, one of my co-workers turned to me and asked, ‘What’s your goal working in HR?’ I looked at her blankly. It was my first day. Was I meant to have a goal ready? ‘I have a seven year plan’, she said. A what?

A seven year plan. She really did. I was both impressed and in hysterics. Turns out HR can be extremely competitive. Me, I just tried to work hard and help make a difference in our department. 

I tried hard. Everyone knew I didn’t fit in properly, including me. The muso side of me kept coming out. Looking back, I loved the people I worked with more than the actual job, and that was what kept me there for nearly three years. Oddly enough, my job actually saved me when my marriage failed. I lived at the office, even though we were expected to work overtime frequently with no pay. I must have clocked up at least 60 hours a week in those difficult months. I worked so hard I was promoted. And then, after a severe bout of depression, I stopped caring. In hindsight, I should have resigned. I knew this job was better for someone else, someone who cared. My boss called me into her office after I had made a spectacular error and informed me that it wasn’t working out. It was both a shock and a relief. I cried, more from the view of losing a great team of people, but it was wonderful inside - to finally face what I had chosen to ignore for so long, that I didn’t belong in a suit. I felt free.

On my last day, my boss smiled and told me I had been a breath of fresh air and she had never met anyone like me. We both laughed - it was true!

I took a part time admin job working for a university. I wore jeans and threw my hair in a topknot most days. I worked for a lovely Dutch professor who thought it was great that I was a musician. For five years, I was his ‘second wife’, as his wife jokingly called me. He allowed me so much flexibility with Sunas, which made me want to work harder for him. Sunas steadily gained momentum in those five years. Since the ARIA nomination, my and work with Sunas had been building at an insane rate, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I had to choose between my dream of full-time music and the job I loved so much.

On January 1st 2013, I officially began to work for myself. My boss has taken a job overseas and the department was closed down. I wish he and his lovely wife nothing but the utmost happiness, and know we’ll keep in touch (especially when Paul & I tour to the States and we need a couch to crash on!). We are both full-time working musicians. I am terrified, exhilarated and ready for anything. This is my dream. Watch me fly!

Vogue, Vogue, Vogue …

Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?! Last night I may have caused a storm on Facebook with this pic of yours truly on the cover of Australian Vogue. It isn’t a real cover, rather an excellent mock-up designed by my genius friend Maria, who created it for a design workshop. With the reaction this caused, perhaps we should start a grassroots campaign to break the mould & get folkies on the cover of Vogue! I’ll drink to that :)

I’m really enjoying the running training for the annual Bridge to Brisbane fun run in September. My amazing sister & I got completely thrashed doing sprint and stride training last night, but I feel so good today! I should write a song about the addiction of endorphins. Hey, if I can write a song about PMS, why not lovely lovely endorphins? Food for thought :)

Sx

Big things are in the pipes. In the meantime, this is my much-needed mantra.