"Just My Life"- This Is My Story!

I live with my husband in the South East of England. This photo shows me in one of my favourite places, a local beauty spot; The White Cliffs of Dover. I have lived in this world for over half a century! At such a time in your life, you either stick your head in the sand and hope for a quick exit or you get up and share with the world what you have observed, in the hope that other people can learn from some of your mistakes. This page will take you through my journey, hopefully the interesting bits and will highlight the things that along the way have deemed worthy of stopping and noting. I hope you will be inspired and encouraged in some way. I don't pretend to have accomplished great exploits such as some of the famous people I mention later on who have inspired me, but I do believe that I have grown and changed for the better. Read on and see for yourself!

I was born in Sussex in England and lived there for the first 28 years of my life. Then we moved to Bavaria and had new beginnings in southern Germany, one of my favourite places, after a brief holiday- yes it was that good! It was an amazing 13 years, during which time we learnt to;

• ski in the Alps
• ice-skate on the frozen lakes in the winter
• swim in them in the lakes in summer.

Our two eldest sons became bilingual as they did all of their schooling out there. This has enriched their lives and they still regularly visit and work there, although they are also based back in the UK. Our two youngest were born there but were quite young when we returned. After learning the language for two years we were speaking it confidently and made many interesting friends from Germany and other parts of the world. My husband had a great time windsurfing on the lakes and his computing skills were much appreciated in the firms he worked in. I enjoyed the Mums and Toddler groups in my contact with other families, who were very open and friendly. This is the time of my life when I started to come out of my box and expand my life experiences, thus becoming more interested and tolerant of other people, realising how different we all are.

Learning the language

I have taught and hosted foreign students who came to us from all different countries to learn English. At least I know what it's like to learn a foreign language in a foreign country. Actually the best way is if you are learning the language whilst living abroad. It might seem hard at first, but you pick it up so much quicker.

The time of my life to do something that I'd never done before

I didn't use to believe the above saying, because I always believed that there were many, if not most things in life that I couldn't do. Oh yes, I had good reasons why not, but I had resigned myself to the fact that I would just have to be content with being a housewife and mother. However, after returning to England in 2000, with the start of a new century, we settled in to a church where we were encouraged to dream big and stretch our horizons. I gradually started undoing some of the lies that had really prevented me from moving forwards and before long I had at last recognised where my passion lay. I discovered that I loved working with young children and decided to enroll on a college course where, despite not having any work experience with children (I had done everything on a voluntary basis) I was accepted to do an NVQ3 in Early Years Care & Education.

I remember that day!

We had had one of the worst storms in Kent, which had blown a tree over the railway line causing the trains to be cancelled. I felt tempted to give up getting to the college for the enrollment and just going home, but managed to jump on the first bus I saw and I got there just 10 minutes late! This reminded me that I had to fight for this because I had spent my life until then believing that I wouldn't gain any qualifications. I also attended a few workshops, including one on music and rhymes for children and a parenting course. After I completed my course I started to write about parenting and ran a group myself. I also ran a creche and a parents and toddler group. So here I am, still writing about these things and working in preschools.

What else have I learned to do that I'd never trusted myself to do before? When one of my sons announced that he was getting married, they asked me whether I would make their wedding cake. Although I had always made a much simpler version in the form of our Christmas cake each year, I had never made a wedding cake! However, after much research and a practice run, I managed to put together a rich fruit cake with royal icing. The end result was well received, but mainly I knew that I had crossed another hurdle and through deciding to believe that I could do it, I did!

The time of my life to stride out in business

The job climate was difficult where we lived and one Christmas we realized that we actually had a potential business at our fingertips. For some years my husband had been filming private events including friends' weddings. Combined with his computer skills we saw the potential and two years later this became a business where he filmed and edited events, producing beautiful presentation DVDs and also designed and produced websites. I have been able to bring my administration skills to the business and it has been very satisfying to provide such a service! It has been a challenge at times to trust myself that I could make this work, but with the added help of completing a business course at our local university I have learned so much and it has become another string to my bow. The business has since moved on my to a joint venture of providing qualifications and websites for the construction industry.

In addition I became a Jamie At Home Party Consultant, which combined some of my hobbies and skills: