My new blog pal Cindy from Quaint Handmade tagged me a number of weeks ago. And to be honest, when i read the tag i thought: great balls of belching fire these are some pretty heavy questions! I have had a rather intense life, and i am a rather intense person (“apparently”), so for me, the following questions are pretty full on and difficult to fulfill without giving you a painfully long post. But here is my attempt, in brief, and I hope you can stick with me to the end…

I was 20. In my last year of Uni, working on my final film piece. I would have been in the midst of casting, and would have just met my female main, actress Felicity Hay. Back then Felicity was on lots of tv ads, played as an extra in Water Rats and other aussie dramas like that. I selected her out of 20 other actresses that were keen to play the role. She was so passionate about my film and gave me all her time, even when it was a non-paying part. Felicity was only 25 or so at the time. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 21 or so, and was well on her way of recovery. All her hair had grown back from the chemo, and i remember she had the most beautiful thick, dusty blonde hair. She was friends with Belinda Emmett at the time. I lost contact with Felicity some years after I finished my degree, and when I heard the sad news of Belinda passing away from her battle with breast cancer, it got me thinking about Felicity again, I’d love to get back in contact.

I was also going through a very traumatic break up with my first true love. The film was definitely a way of expressing the anguish and confusion I was going through.

and I was also about to meet my second true love (time went quick back then!!) who was to become the editor of my film (god bless his cotton pickin’ heart), my business partner, and a friend for the years to come.

My daily to-do lists are always longer than my arm but in brief, since I am working on a book right now my main goal is to finish it! Today I also have a meeting with a client at noon at my agency to discuss an upcoming job, and I am hoping to have a cuppa with my friend Riley at around 5. In between all of that I hope to find time to eat, organise a courier for a pick up from another shoot, and still get everything else done including prepping for shoots for the week and emailing clients new work. and blogging! washing the dishes and making dinner are not on my list today.

I am a snack-a-holic! So this list is long. But among my favourites are choc-chip cookies, muesli bars, bitterballen, cheese croquettes, wedges with sweet chilli sauce and sour cream, French Boy’s sardine butter on little toasts, apple with cheese and sultanas, a slice of my carrot and date loaf, a glass of ice cold milo. oh and did I mention chocolate? but you already knew that.

pass.

The list goes a little something like this:

Sydney, Australia
Montreal, Canada
West Chester, PA, USA
Rovereto, Italy
Paris, France
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

oh just six, this is the hardest question of them all as I want to know everything about all of you! But here is six, and ladies, if you don’t want to play I will not be offended I promise, just know that I think you’re great and enjoy your blogging company.

Esti from píntame el día.
Yoli from Musings.
Jo from Red Aprons.
Corine from Hidden in France.
Nadia from La Porte Rouge.
Leah from Hyena in Petticoats.

Thanks for being interested in my life Cindy, it’s nice to get to know you, and everyone thanks for listening! and girls if you do choose to play along, please feel free to use and link my tag pic and heading pics too. i put time into them so they might as well get a work out!

Before I could speak words I was talking. Mum’s eyes light up when she tells the story of how I would chatter on and on and on in some kind of language before I was yet one year old. She says she would sit and listen and reply in english words and then i would reply to her in my ‘words’. She recalls that I was indeed having a conversation and was fully aware of what I was saying, it’s just that no one else understood. When I did learn to speak words that everyone understood, I continued to chatter away.

And so I was nicknamed little miss ‘chatterbox’.

Just the other day, French Boy taught me the French word for chatterbox. It’s pipelette! (pronounced: pip-let) And this is my new favourite word. From now on I have self-titled myself as Pia La Pipelette. French boy has a continual smirk on his face when I get into ‘pipelette’ mode, he finds it rather hilarious. Another friend likes to call my chatterings as ‘passionate ranting’. Obviously there is a continual theme in my life… I talk. alot.

Most of the time I have great trouble with this blog, as all I want to do is chatter away with you. The last two weeks were excruciating to only have time to post one or two photos. But here I am, back in the (blog)house, and I’m afraid I may be pipelette-ing away. You’ve been warned my lovelies!

It’s good to be back. I missed you.

Get 27 on the rocks, image courtesy of moi!

Not only is it a glorious sunny day in Amsterdam, but I am being treated like a princess on this special day. So far it has started with a cup of tea in bed (oh, Alfred), and there is the softest warm breeze coming through the windows. Pre-celebrations last night were a hit, my guests loved my all-Australian playlist and I even had requests for a copy of the compilation! It was an international mix of cultures with French, Australian and Dutchies all mingling, and champagne a-flowing. Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes leading up to this wonderful day. I have had a fabulous birthday week here in the (blog)house and I hope you’ve enjoyed it too! I will leave you for a day or so, just to catch my breath. No doubt I will miss you all for the next 48 hours though. If you haven’t had a chance to catch all this week’s posts, please scroll down to view them, they are full of the good stuff of life!

Before I sign off on this post, HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY to all you fellow-aussies! Hope you have a fabulous weekend, I’ll be thinking of all of you celebrating while I indulge in my own birthday celebrations here on the other side of the world. Lots o’ love, pxx

Photograph by Warick Orme.

It has always been the most special of gifts to share my birthday week with you. Thanks for being a wonderful mother, friend, mentor and listener. Thousands of miles apart and still I feel you are right by my side. Happy Birthday Mum.

I was tagged a while back by the lovely Lisa at Blush, and I am a bit of a shy one (aren’t we all, us bloggers?!) and was a bit nervous to participate. However, in celebration of my upcoming birthday, i have finally plucked up the courage to reveal a few silly facts about me, here we go…

1. I’m impatient. Perhaps you’ve already noticed? And not only is it one of my most annoying qualities to those close to me, it drives me mad too.

2. I love my toes. It would not be surprising to my family to see my feet up near my face while I scrutinize them and give them a top pedicure.

3. I hate flying. I mean, if I had my own pair of wings i’d love it. If I have to fly on a small plane I nearly always faint en route. And as a child I vomited every flight. That’s alot of vomiting since we flew back and forth to Australia every 6 months.

4. My Mum is my best friend. She is my star and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be born from her.

5. I love to be on boats. I love being surround by water and everything about the water gives me that ‘home’ feeling.

6. I always wished I was black. Ever since I was a tiny little creature, i was disappointed to look in the mirror and see my freckly white skin.

7. I have a ‘flat nose’ because I am part Indonesian. When my mother told me as a child that I had the Indonesian ‘flat nose’ I literally thought I had no nose and I was always worried of what this might mean for my future. I looked at other Indonesian people and they all seemed to have a nice, substantial nose to me, so I didnt understand why mine would be ‘flat’. Needless to say, I do have a nose and it is not ‘flat’. Just not quite the same sort of nose other people have.

Agh, there you go, not as scary as i thought it would be and I hope you have enjoyed learning these things about me and that they are not too boring. I hope I have entertained you somewhat!

Coming up next: someone special is about to start cooking in the kitchen, and it is going to be miam! (‘miam’ is french for ‘yum’)(oh i forgot i was supposed to be aussie this week, so um, i should say maybe something like, ‘bonza!’)

UPDATE: I totally left out the part of this blog tag to tag back. Sorry about that, I am so new at this. So here are my seven taggees:

KerryAnne from 3 Continent Family
Felicity from All Things Bright and Beautiful
Nyla from Cherry Coloured
Mary-Laure from Aurea
Marie from Là
Uncle Beefy from The Bedlam of Beefy
Barb from MayDecemberHome

I hope they don’t mind being tagged but I’d love to find out more about them. If you guys don’t want to play no worries, I will not be offended. It is a bit scary and I already feel I have said too much about myself, and since there are no comments here I feel like running into my shell and never coming out. px