My first 22 years in Fiji

So just to tell you a little about my previous life, I was born in Suva, Fiji, an island paradise, though at the time I didnt know it. There are 300 islands in all, and 500,000 inhabitants, some islands are inhabited and some just to visit for leisure which we did often.

There was no tv, no oven, no hot water , no toys except for one doll that was bigger than me and she was made of some material that was so hard, one bicycle which I hurt myself badly on when I was 5 years old and still have the scar to this day. I am sure I had more presents as I remember always having birthday parties but these 2 items were the ones I remember the most.

I do remember washing clothes by hand standing on a stool when I was young, oh yes we had chores from the time I remember but it kept me busy. As a consequence of not having an oven, still to this day I am not good at cooking stuff in an oven although I love cooking.

I was the apple of my grandfathers eye, who died when I was 5 years old, I beleive he spoilt me rotten but I beg to differ, being the youngest in a household-of course I was going to be spoilt by 10 other people-that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I had lots of make believe friends and found things to amuse myself, I never ever remembered using the word BORED because I was never bored. I would get mud and put it into a pan and decorate it with flowers from the garden, that was my extent of making a cake for my dolls birthdays.

Having 5 uncles to grow up with, I learnt a lot of things men do, like mechanics of which they were all very good at, so I learnt at an early age what a screw driver, wrench, shifting spanner were used for. They used to use my "help" alot, I remember when they made homemade kites and crushed glass and made it into a paste with flour and water and used that to strenghten the string of their kites, I would be the one holding the lump of glass concoction and run around the coconut trees holding the string. Great memories!


This is a photo of my friends Melissa, Connie and I when I was 19 years old, I am the one sitting down leaning against the tree, we lived in our homemade bikinis and I was as brown as a walnut, now I am as white as snow still with olive skin.

This is a page in progess, please come back and read more as I add to it.