27 things you didn’t know about me

I was recently lucky enough to be invited by Sarah Prout to join an awesome bunch of 44 enlightened female entrepreneurs on the exclusive SPROUT Mastermind group. Our first assignment was to show our readers a lil bit more about ourselves so they could get to know us. So here you have it! If you have a totally random get-to-know-me question that you’d like me to answer I’d love you to drop a comment in the box below the blog and I will be sure to answer it! 

1. 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. 
2. I have a Masters in Forensic Psychology and spent four years working as a Probation Officer in one of the most challenging boroughs in London, and absolutely loved it. Bad ass.
3. My bookshelf is a strange mix of true crime (the gorier the better), self development and natural therapies.
4. I have been through depression and out the other side twice.
5. I love snakes – I grew up with a garden snake called Fred and currently have a carpet python called Kaa.
6. 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.
7. I am one eighth Javanese. My Oma (maternal Grandma) is half Dutch half Indonesian.
8. In a 6 week period when I was 19 I sky dived 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 mint.
9. 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. 
10. I first learned to ride a motorbike two years ago and now have a CRF250R motocross bike. This is quite an achievement for me because I’m a short arse. My man had to shave the seat and put a lowering link in there before I could even touch the ground and kick start the bike! I am definitely still in learning mode, highlighted by the fact that I expertly managed to have a head on collision with my fella a few weeks back. Don’t try that at home, kids.
11. A male friend of mine once gave me a valuable bit of advice – as a woman, if you are lost and you think you should go in one direction, ignore your own sense of direction and go the opposite way. I have followed this piece of advice ever since and it never fails for me!
12. I love all music except death metal. And even then sometimes I could be swayed. My favourite music for running is Bullet For My Valentine.
13. A few years ago I completed Tough Guy in the UK (similar to Tough Mudder) – 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 under water tunnels etc…. took me 3 hours 20 minutes to complete, and I laughed the whole time. Seriously, the most amount of fun you can have with your clothes on. Granted, most people probably wouldn’t consider this fun but rather a form of torture.
14. My friend Damo calls me an extremist. I think he might be right, highlighted by the above.
15. My favourite scene from a movie I have watched in the last year has to be from Magic Mike where he strips to that song “my pony”. Yes girls, you know the one 😉
16. Ever since I learned my Reiki Master/Teacher course, I have ridonkulously hot hands. It drives my man bonkers most of the time, except when it’s in the colder months, in which case I come in quite handy as a hot water bottle. 
17. I am a bit of a weird sleeper it seems. I think this has only really been the case since I moved to Perth, but in the last couple of years my poor fella has suffered with me waking him up on numerous occasions elbowing him in the face, pushing him out of bed (I was saving him from being bitten by a white tail spider in my dream), pointing at crocodiles swimming on the ceiling and bats in the cupboard. The other night he apparently spent a good 5 minutes laughing hysterically at me while I laughed hysterically back in my sleep.
18. Previous to this strange night time behaviour I got sleep paralysis quite often between the ages of 19 and 29. Still get it occasionally. 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!
19. I did various different volunteer roles to get work experience over a 10 year period. 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.
20. I’ve spent the last couple of years working with people with serious and enduring mental illness 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 the kind of stuff I see on a daily basis isn’t what most people see. I feel quite fortunate about that actually, because it helps me to always be grateful for how my life has turned out.
21. I have a massive urge to go and cuddle Orangutans. There’s something about watching them on the TV in nappies as babies hanging off human limbs that just makes me really want to give up my day job and do that for a living! I mean look at them. How cute is that!!
22. One of my favourite things in the whole world has to be watching the sunset over the ocean. Turns out that exactly where it sets here in Perth! What a Brucey Bonus.
23. I developed a strange case of Tourettes while learning to ride a motorbike on the road. My instructor had one of those headsets connecting him to me through our helmets, and I lost count of how many times he said “no no, we haven’t got time for that” when I would use the F Word. I think he thought it was funny and it was the first few times but in the end I just thought he was a bit of a perve.
24. 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. 
25. Some of my favourite sayings remind me of my Dad – “what’s the matter face-ache” when I was looking a bit sorry for myself; “do you want a knuckle sandwich” if I was taking the mickey, “are you ‘avin a larf”.
26. I love love love watching British comedy – classics like Absolutely Fabulous, One Foot in the Grave, Harry Enfield and Chums, Fawlty Towers and the like, always bring a smile to my dial. 
27. I am the opposite of a fussy eater – perhaps a human dustbin would be more apt. But you won’t ever catch me eating rice pudding. Looks like sick in a bowl! We used to be made to eat it at school and I’d pick the bowl with the biggest blob of jam in the middle to try and get rid of that manky bland sick taste. Eurgh.

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