Saturday 28 April 2012

Sister Sister...


 Curled up on the sofa on a grey, drizzly Sunday afternoon, I've got my head in another book. This time it's Caitlin Moran's, How To Be A Woman, and every few pages I'm giggling away to myself, tears of laughter streaming down my face as I relate to yet another one of her childhood stories. The one that springs to mind is when she's explaining to her younger sister what it's like to start your periods, while they play with their Sindy dolls, using the sanitary towels as Sindy mattresses!

I remember my sister Laura and I having similar moments - where our Barbies would, for some reason, have American accents and all be in a relationship with the one Ken doll that we owned, who, evidently, fathered two sets of quintets, while they all lived happily ever after in the Barbie mansion.


And, while little sisters can be a great nuisance, and older siblings can be bossy and frustrating, the bond between sisters is a strong one. One of my favourite memories has to be the following...

Together, the Treacy sisters watched Blue Peter eagerly as the presenters demonstrated how to create a Barbie salon out of empty cereal boxes. We decided that we definitely needed a Barbie salon for our plastic doll's make believe lives and got to work straight away. However, the 1980s children's presenters neglected to inform us that we shouldn't actually cut off poor Jasmine, Pocahontas and roller skating Barbie's hair off! Even their fringes! We came up with a genius plan to hide the synthetic locks in a shoe box under Laura's bed - but, it soon back fired when mum discovered our secret stash of hair cuttings and demanded to know why we had disfigured our treasured toys. At the time of discovery, our hairdresser was round our house, and she lined up the dolls on our kitchen worktop, and while she held back the giggles and not wanting to crush our first attempts at being creative, she told us that she could see what look we were trying to go for, and that we'd mastered the asymmetric bob! Needless to say, that the fringeless, shaggy, bed head look didn't go down too well with Ken, and it wasn't long until the Barbie mansion made it's way into the loft.



We both have a bank of memories filled with laughter, tears and togetherness - and while, they might not be as cool as your best friends, as witty as your work colleagues or as funny as your boyfriend - you won't find anyone more reliable than a sister.


Wednesday 18 April 2012

Follow the signs...

Today's Sagittarius: "The lucky moon shines on you to help you win what will make you happy, whether it’s the lottery or a love promise.
Being with people who make you feel good about yourself is a big plus at work. If you’re single, an old love may want to try again – but you have plenty of other options."

There used to be a time when I'd read my daily stars religiously, scouring the internet for as many different astrology sites as I could. And, while I still love a cheeky read of the light-hearted horoscopes, I won't break out in a cold sweat if I can't get my daily fortune fix! So, the lucky moon may well be shining on me, and the many other Sadgies, but it certainly won't help me win the lotto (because I haven't bought a ticket!) and it definitely won't fulfil a love promise (as I'm as single as they get!). It's not exactly rocket science that being around people who make you feel good is a big plus, and I really hope that none of my old flames want to try again!



After spending the majority of my twenties soul searching and looking for reasons as to why certain things have occurred in my life, I've exhausted almost every avenue of spiritual therapies to try and find what I'm looking for. A visit to a flamboyant psychic a few years back, left me believing that I'd find happiness with Mr J, at company C and mother to a baby girl by the ripe old age of 28! Well, that's only eight months away, and of course, none of the above has come true! Then, came reiki - where I felt like I'd levitated above the bed I was lying on, and my therapist told me she'd "seen" my self esteem that had been pecked apart by a huge crow and it was trying to sew all the holes back together! And, finally, the random palm reader on the stoop of a Californian beach house informed me that I should never be with someone younger than me, that I'd be financially stable by my thirties and that I probably shouldn't have more than two children!

Now, I didn't need a bunch of fortune tellers to know all of the above! My self esteem had indeed been pecked apart by a huge crow (aka my first boyfriend) - but only because I'd allowed him to. I definitely shouldn't have a toy boy (been there, done that, got t-shirt!).And, I probably will only have two children at the most (because I'm not really the maternal type!). But, if Conde Nast come knocking with my dream job, along with Jake Gyllenhaal - I definitely won't knock mystic Mary for prediciting those things!

But, it wasn't until I sought out help from a hypnotherapist that I really started to change my beliefs. I embarked on the Thrive programme, which really focused on the way I was thinking and why I was looking externally for all the answers to my problems. When really, the answer was with me all along. Once I got my head around the concept that I choose the way I'm feeling and everything else is a trigger, not a cause, it started to change the way I viewed everything.

And, it's not a mystical reading that has improved my confidence, but my own hard work - and it's not a lucky moon that takes credit for my achievements, but my own efforts that'll get a little pat on the back.


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