You are (Miss) Universe and there ain’t nothing you can’t do. If you conceive it, you can achieve it, That’s why I believe in you, yes I do. You’re a winner so do what you came here for.” ~ The Brand New Heavies.

When I moved to Melbourne in 2005 I started my first job for a fabric wholesaler to the interior design industry the day after the Melbourne Cup. I didn’t know what the Melbourne Cup was and I’d certainly never heard of Jennifer Hawkins, Straya’s answer to Miss Universe 2004.

One year later, I knew every single fabric in that showroom, I knew who she was and I had made some friends who generously took me to the Melbourne Cup in the cold, wind, rain and hail. (Melbourne’s weather is like a box of chocolates for those with no experience.) It was the coldest one ever but I got lucky and backed the winner (Delta Blues) and suddenly I found my British beer coat.

There Jen was, on the big screen, dressed by Alex Perry in the most beautiful Christian Fischbacher floral silk. IT WAS MY FLIPPIN’ SILK!!! From the showroom! And that was my short, sharp introduction to fashuns on the field and the Spring Racing Carnival. A few months later I actually passed Jen by on the jetty of Moreton Island but mistook the milling throng around her for a disorderly queue to the boat. Oops. Poor ways of seeing.

So here you go, no trending crown headpieces here today since I do like to live in the past. It’s a 2006 flashback to the pretty in pink, big hatted Myer ambassador and Straya’s top model. I do hope y’all back y’all a winner! I feel lucky-unlucky as usual.

The Melbourne Cup

7 November 2017

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I WILL PREVIVE [The Book Of Rocks] diary extract, 23 November 2016

AND GOD CREATED FRENCH WOMAN series (2016)

“I was pleasantly surprised (and fairly relieved) yesterday to discover that I’m not the only one who feels unhinged on the inside. I’ll call it the “loose canon” condition. Thanks for letting me know that I am not alone with this sentiment and that my merde has resonated in some way beyond my thoughts.

Mum used to get the French catalogue, La Redoute, which would regularly land with a massive thump on the mat. (Who buys from catalogues these days? Do they actually still exist??? I do believe t’Internet has replaced them.) It usually arrived before our summer holiday so we could all order ourselves some shiny new threads. The model who stood to me out from its pages was the beautiful Noémie Lenoir (another first name I love and another one to get trashed in English: Noémie = Gnomey?). She is of French-Réunion-Malagasy heritage and says she grew up in a Parisian “ghetto”. Photographed happily prancing around in short shorts, halter neck tops and swimming cozzies, she looked picture-postcard perfect. Those curls!!! Later on she modelled for Marks n Sparks and Next in the UK.

I thought of her after drawing Teri Moïse because she also tried to take her own life and once again I found this really sad. It shows how you can’t tell what someone is feeling inside, no matter how beautiful they are on the outside. How do people get through periods of depression or avoid potential depression? I don’t know the answer as everyone is made differently but this drawing lark has been a big help to me through all the recent highs and lows. So I say hold on to your coping mechanisms for as long as they work, if it’s only to get you through to the next day. You might even learn something you never knew about yourself along the way.

Your hump day wine this week is Something Good Can Work The Twelves Remix by Two Door Cinema Club.”

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