My Creative Everyday

It was a Friday. If you didn’t know any better, you might think it was just a normal Friday. As usual I was at home, with my timetable carefully organised so I never had to teach on Fridays. Tilly and Scotty, our two Schnauzers, were playing in the garden. Scotty was on the lookout for anybody he could bark at, while Tilly was lounging in the shade. The golden dewdrops (the purple flowers in the photo) were still in bloom. It was only the end of March afterall, and the days are still warm here in South Africa that time of the year. But that was the day when everything changed. It was 27 March 2020 – the first day of the level 5 lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. We were restricted to our homes except for essential shopping. And nobody yet knew how bad the pandemic would get or how long it would last. Suddenly the garden was our whole world as far as physical exploration went. On that first day of lockdown, when I took the photo of our two sweet Schnauzers, I knew I had to sha...

A legend, icon and one of my idols - Olivia Newton-John was humble, warm and successful.  Though she was born in the UK, I think of her as a Melbourne girl, like me, spending her formative young years in suburbia but dreaming of overseas adventures.  She paved the way for Shania Twain and Taylor Swift -  ONJ country music - ABC news . Her campaigning and impact on cancer survivors too make her one of the more remarkable women -  People Remember ONJ Such was my excitement as a child, when I heard an ad that Grease was going to be on tv, that I jumped and my wobbly tooth fell out. I've always loved leather, may be because of Grease. Perhaps it's also why I adore dresses and being a bit Sandra Dee.  Summer days, drifting away, we fell in love with her, and now she's been taken away, suddenly, sadly, our Sandy.  Olivia Newton-John, she will be so missed.