20 things you may not know about me

Hey legend

I’ve had a bunch of newbies join my community lately so I thought it would be a good time to reintroduce myself!

What better way than to start off with a list of random shit you may not know about me…

I first came to Australia on holidays with my 15 year old sister when I was 19. We visited a few spots in Aus as part of a world trip and I knew then it was where I would call home, although I didn’t move here until 10 years later.

I met Valentino Rossi when I went to see him for the MotoGP in Malaysia.

I tried (and failed) to learn to ride a motorbike myself, ending in me nearly writing myself off as well as writing off my motorbike.

I have two degrees and a masters – in Psychology, Criminal Justice and Forensic Psychology. Two masters if you count being a Reiki Master

I spent 18 years working as a parole officer in London, Sydney and Perth and bloody loved it (mostly) until I left earlier this year. My “field of expertise” was in serial family violence offending and now that I’ve left I’m focusing on the women who are experiencing abusive relationships, supporting them through coaching and energy work.

For a large part of my life I’ve worked 6-7 day weeks running my biz on the side of a full time job, but decided to go all-in this year and walk away from a J-O-B.

My bookshelf is a strange mix of true crime (the gorier the better), self development and natural therapies and I watch serial killer docos to relax.

I’ve been through depression and out the other side twice.

My favourite movie is Sexy Beast with Ray Winston. Ray is the ultimate “geezer” – I love him and all his movies. In fact I think the Cockney accent is my fave. There’s just something about it that’s “proppa” as my Dad would say.

I’m one eighth Javanese, half Dutch and half English – and I suck at maths.

In a 6 week period when I was 19 I skydived in Cairns, rode a horse along the beach, got my PADI course on the Great Barrier Reef, swam with dolphins at the top of NZ, sand boarded down giant sand dunes, went to Universal Studios in LA and visited Hollywood. It was amazeballs.

Apparently in a past life I was a “nun in training”. It totally makes sense to me that I failed miserably at this role. Apart from the obvious, I was also in charge of the gardening, and was more often found leaning on the rake rather than using it. This also makes sense – I’m not the biggest fan of gardening.

In 2009 I completed Tough Guy in the UK – a 10k run followed by a 2 mile 30-obstacle course called “The Killing Fields” that you complete twice. Think crawling over rocks and mud under barbed wire, running through fire, climbing up giant A frames, sliding over 6ft high stinging nettles, swimming through underwater tunnels etc…. took me 3 hours 20 minutes to complete, and I laughed the whole time.

I got sleep paralysis quite often between the ages of 19 and 29. I have seen the weirdest things when paralysed – alien beings, scary entities, colours, pressure on my chest, tuning fork noises in my ears… there are plenty of theories about this on the internet but all I know is it’s weird and scary and I’m happy it doesn’t happen anymore!

I did various volunteer roles to get work experience over a 10 year period when I was younger. I’ve always had a fascination with psychology, coaching and criminology and have done work experience at Scotland Yard Murder Squad, the Cold Case Squad, Child Abuse Squad, was an appropriate adult for vulnerable adults being interviewed by police, helped out on a youth offending team among other things.

I’ve spent most of my career working with people with serious and enduring mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar and borderline personality disorder. It’s funny how even by working with such a small percentage of the population, you really do start seeing borderline traits in a lot of people you know. Sometimes I have to be reminded that the kind of stuff I see on a daily basis isn’t what most people see.

One of my favourite things in the whole world has to be watching the sunset over the ocean. Turns out that’s exactly where it sets here in Perth!

My favourite colour is yellow – sunshine, happiness, yellow fairy cakes, sunshine… you can put all the other colours together and they just won’t look right unless there’s a blob of yellow in there.