1. I worked for the good ol' Golden Arches (AKA McDonalds) for 5.5years from the time I was 15. This is me on the left. I was a hostess, so just did the birthday parties for the kids, drive-thru and front counter. This is in the days when you did get served within a minute with service with a smile and you didn't have to wait for ages while they prepared your food from time of order. We used to have those big product bins and the food was chucked after it had been there for 10 minutes.
2. When I left high school (and whilst at Auckland College of Education) I did hair modelling for two of my friends that left school and went straight into hairdressing, so unlike Penny Ryder who has been only as radical to have a fringe once in her life, I've had several strange cuts, dye jobs, perms and hair ups! The photo of me in the red was for a hair competition which was really a lot of fun - the hairdresser won dye of the day for this creation - back then (1989-90) to have black hair like mine with bright red bits in it was unusual. Today I have long hair down past my mid back, and it is dyed every 10-12 weeks to cover up the grey!!!
3. My lovely mum pictured here died in 1993. She was only 44 years young when she died (from cancer), I was 21 at the time. So she will never get old and wrinkly in my mind - this is how she will always look. Her name was Gloria Dixie - my middle name is Dixie too! I think it is a rather unique middle name, it was my grandmother's christain name and it is passed through to the first daughter. I didn't have any girls so may be one day my boys will be able to pass the name onto their children.
4. Before getting into leadership and management roles in schools and being a self-proclaimed techno savy person, I was known for being an art educator. I worked at the Auckland College of Ed Children's Art School for two years and taught the 5-7year old kids. I also was the Co-chairperson of the Akld Primary Art Assoc. from 1997-99 and ran workshops for teachers every school holidays.
5. In 1998 I went on a 2 week trip teaching exchange trip to Detroit, Michigan. I spent one week each in a high and low decile school at Oakley Elementary and Alcot Elementary. It cost heaps to get there and my school at the time paid $1000 towards the cost so I sold hand painted glassware at craft markets to help boost my spending funds. I don't do this much anymore, however have done 80+ champ. flutes for two separate friends weddings.
6. Whilst I haven't done a painting for myself personally since leaving university I have done several murals at different schools that I have worked at. This one I did for a friend who owned a Lollipop's Educare Centre at Botany Town Centre, and this was a public mural that was 3.6m x 2.4m (so quite big) and it was on the side of their building. If you know Botany and stood from the $2 Shop across to the centre you would have seen it. (It was up for 4 years and now the business has relocated).
7. When I was little my parents managed the Sheffield Pub in Canterbury for 1 year and they used to pack us off to the ski slopes which was a lot of fun. In 2007 I returned back to the slopes on our first family ski trip (that's me waving)... after 25yrs it is NOT like riding a bike. It was really hard but I did get better. Although we did not go skiing in 2008, I hope as a family we can try this again this year.