10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me

Let me give you a tour of the inner workings of my mind ..

I was inspired to write this by an article by Hudson Rennie that I read a couple of days ago in the Coffee Times.

I’m a Chemical Engineer …

Most of my working life I’ve been an engineer. I followed in my fathers footsteps and put my love of math and logic to work.

I got my degree from the University of Adelaide and dreamt of working with chemical reactors and making long-chain polymers. I would have settled for making beer or paper or even toothpaste. It was the processing of products from raw materials into their end-state that sparked my interest.

Well, that didn’t happen….

Jobs were slim when I graduated and despite my best intentions, I ended up with a job in the oil and gas industry. I stayed 23 years (with one break).

Over my career, I enjoyed roles in sales, business development, engineering design, training, and operations. I spent a year working on offshore oil rigs in Australia and I traveled to Malaysia, Norway, Angola, China, and many of the US states.

The only sport I was ever good at was Badminton …

At school, I was the nerdy hard-working type. Sport wasn’t my thing and I dreaded physical education class where I’d be picked last for any team.

But a funny thing happened in grade 10. The school started a badminton program and somehow I fit right in. I had tried my hand at tennis years earlier with little gratification but I and the shuttlecock hit it off.

I ended up playing for a local sporting club also and spent a few years traveling around with a group of friends to interstate weekend tournaments. It was a great social time.

I was the Leader of the High School Orchestra …

Never in the popular crowd, I held out little hope of school captaincy or becoming one of the leaders of our senior year at my private all-girls high school in Adelaide.

I had studied the violin throughout high school, although I would have preferred to learn piano. I was technically okay but wasn’t particularly musically talented. I did join the orchestra as encouraged by my violin teacher and turned up week in and week out for practices and performances at school assemblies for many years.

Most performances of the orchestra were in the general opinion of the school peer group a bit cringeworthy.

I wasn’t by far the best violinist in the orchestra but by dedication to the cause was named the leader of the orchestra in my senior year.

This made me an unlikely perfect and I got a special badge on my school blazer that I wore proudly all year.

I Lived in Texas for 12 years …

Life is bigger in Texas. Well, that’s what they say right?

Well, I found out that the cars, houses, and food definitely are … and your waistline probably will be too if you get to stay a while! I gained a significant amount of weight when I first visited for training in 1997 by eating a little too much of their favorite dish — chicken fried steak.

Texas lured me in and I applied for a work transfer. I worked in Dallas for 10 years in the oil-field business. I married an American but he was from Indiana and also a Texas implant.

I enjoyed my time in Texas, met some great friends, and had some super work experiences. But I missed my great Southern land down under and in 2012 I returned home to Adelaide.

I Love All Animals ….

My love of animals drew me to start and run a pet sitting business during my time in Dallas. Pets are big business in the USA and my services of dog walking and pet care for people while they vacationed were popular.

I ran the business part time for 8 years and then quit the oilfield and loved dogs and cats full time for 2 glorious years. I found a few pet lovers to help me and grew the business to 200 clients and 10 part time sitters.

I Self Published A Book ….

I loved learning to run a business and discovered my love of marketing. For years while I ran my pet sitting business I blogged about running the business and I studied and shared online marketing tips with other business owners.

At a conference in Las Vegas, a spark of an idea grew to create an online membership site and Association for pet sitters. I found a kindred soul and together we started the Association of Pet Sitting Excellence. As part of the launch of this venture, I wrote and self-published a book “How to Create Excellence in Your Pet Sitting Business”. If you are interested you can have a read on my Linked in Page.

Teaching Inspires Me …

Several times in my life I have had the pleasure of being a trainer and teacher. It has always been a source of fulfillment and joy.

Early on in my oilfield career I was involved in our company's roll out of the SAP software. This meant spending 8 weeks in Houston learning SAP, 2 months back in Australia setting up our systems, and 2 months teaching the rest of the operations staff how to use the system.

Houston was a fantastic adventure spent with 10 other Aussies and no doubt was part of the inspiration for my later move to Dallas. The classroom teaching was challenging and rewarding and would spur me to seek out similar experiences ..

In the later years of working in Dallas, I spent 3 years as a technical instructor.

I taught a generation of oilfield engineers about the inner workings of our tools and it was one of the most enjoyable parts of my career. Over the rest of my oil and gas career, I sporadically ran into people that had attended my classes and it was great to have made an impact on their careers.

I’m a Serial Learner …

In the last 15 years I have bought and studied so many online courses. I just love to learn and always need to be growing my skills.

Right now I’m involved in Kristina God’s writers Bootcamp to learn more about Medium.

Most of the courses I’ve taken have been about online marketing and content writing. Over the past 6 months, I’ve been a student at the Digital Marketing School. I’ve learned how to help business owners to run Facebook ads and bring in leads so they can grow their business and have more freedom.

In the future, I’d like to create some online courses for others.

My Husband Says I Have a Special Talent for Hitting the “Book Now” button …

That means I’m good at booking vacations online LOL!

Traveling and exploring new places excites me. Before the pandemic, we would go on a big overseas vacation at least once a year and probably also escape to tropical Bali a few times each year.

My husband and I have explored Portugal and Spain, Malaysia, Bali, and done many local trips around Western Australia to discover the local gems together.

I’ve also traveled with my mum to Italy and Greece, and during my time in Dallas, I visited Paris and Ireland, New Mexico, Florida, California, Maine, Seattle, and New Orleans.

Bed and breakfasts in out-of-the-way places are my favorites as you get to meet the locals and enjoy local food and hospitality.

I’m a Tree Changer …

After being a city slicker most of my life we have just moved to the country to enjoy nature and play at being hobby farmers.

Two years ago we bought a 6-acre rural block in Bakers Hill, Western Australia. That’s a little place about 1 hour's drive from the city of Perth. Our little town has a Bakery, Hardware, Service Station, Post office, and Tavern.

We have just completed a pod house on the property and moved in a few weeks ago. It has everything we need in a 8m x 4m space including a kitchen and bathroom.

We have 4 sheep — 2 older ones and 2 six-week-old lambs which are constantly entertaining us. Eventually, we will get some chooks and a couple of geese.

We have plans to build our own rammed earth house on the block and of course, my husband needs a big shed.

We’ve started growing fruit trees and vegetables and one day will have fish in our dam.

Once our house is built we plan to create a little eco-retreat where we can welcome bed and breakfast guests in the pod house.

So that’s me :) I’ve had an interesting life and hopefully more to come!

At the moment I’m going through chemo treatments for breast cancer so I’ll be spending time writing and enjoying the country vistas.

Look forward to meeting writers here on Medium — I’d love you to connect by leaving a comment or giving me a follow …