Postcards from Thailand - Postscript

At 11.59pm Thursday 23 October 2021 we will move out of our 6th lockdown.  Not completely, but there is a significant easing of the restrictions that have been in place for the last few months. The 9pm curfew is gone, as is the 15km radius limit.  People are permitted to venture out and begin the process of integrating back into society. I honestly do not know how to feel about this.  Over the last two years, we in Melbourne having been living a strange life. It is hard to imagine or even empathise with, unless you have lived through a Melbourne lockdown. Cut off from the rest of the country and the world, our lives have been spent living with health directives, daily press conferences that go for hours that often do more to depress than motivate the people and a long list of things we cannot do. We have missed birthdays, weddings, funerals and the sheer joy of celebrating each others achievements. Video chat initially a novelty has worn thin. Walks with a bubble buddy ha...

I spent my 20's and most of my 30's living life as a spender. With little concept of money management, I would put together a budget only to blow it as soon as I was paid. Whilst I am not excusing my decisions, I recognise that I was an emotional spender.  Buying something (that I most likely could not afford) made me feel better for that very short time. My mind was stronger than my willpower and I was able to justify the need, when in fact it was most certainly a 'want'.  As I hit my 40's, I suddenly started thinking about my future and that I had not real plan.  One thing I have always been clear of, is that I do not want to be living frugally in my retirement relying on the pension. In the last five years I have I worked slowly to clear my debt. It was a relief and a proud moment to see my credit rating and report are both at all time high. Realising that I was not alone I have also sought out seminars, groups and other resources designed to educate women about ...

I never really thought about my future. I think it is because I often felt I had no control over it. Always a shy and timid child, I developed into an anxious teen/young adult. Never making waves, living in a house where family violence (physical and psychological) was common, I was a 'people pleaser'.   With few strong female role models, I grew up wanting a life like I saw in the rom-com movies of the 90's.  You know, where the fun loving, caring single girl, finally falls in love and lives happily ever after. In my mind, once I found that person for me I would be set for life! No financial worries, a house (complete with white picket fence), doting husband and children. The perfect family. In reality, since leaving home as a teenager I have often been broke, rarely had savings, juggled varying levels of personal debt and was inwardly very unhappy.  I did not receive any financial education, other than what I saw in my childhood home and have struggled, sometimes o...

Long, long ago in a time before Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok I had a blog.  Postcards from Thailand was my personal journal/story about my experience as an intra-country adoptee.  The story of how I came to live in Australia and my journey to find and meet my biological family. What my blog didn't cover was my complex life and challenges that I faced from the time I was born. The parts of my story that were glossed over, but nonetheless form my identity and make me, "me".   Recently I started thinking about what I love to do, what hobbies do I have? I realised that blogging/journaling is something I enjoy. It is a way to express my feelings and provides a creative outlet. So now is the time for the postscript to my postcards from Thailand to be written.