About

My name is Carolyn McDonald, and I have recently moved from Perth Western Australia, the most isolated capital city in the world, to live on the Gold Coast, the holiday destination of Australia. But to my delight and surprise, I have found that it is also a very special place to live.

But I grew up on a sheep station (farm) north of Broken Hill, New South Wales, near the opal mining town of White Cliffs. I lived there until I was 10, beginning my schooling on Correspondence School through Blackfiars in Sydney, and School of the Air from Broken Hill. Then I went away to boarding school in Bathurst (3 years), Newcastle (1 year) and finally finished in Adelaide (3 years). Those who have had similar experiences know that the view of the world they create stay with you for life – hard to get the red dirt out of the girl/boy. I never lose the hope that sometime I will get back to my family roots somehow.

 Many years later, I am married and have 3 kids all grown up, including the eldest who has AS and twins (boy and girl). I shall be sharing some of the experiences we have had as my son with AS (Aspergers Syndrome) has lived his journey through school and university – he has graduated and is now in his first paid employment! That sentence alone should bring hope to parents who struggle to see the light at the end of the tunnel for children with this condition.

I am passionate about many things. Some of my hobbies are:

• family history. I’m looking into how we can make use of this technology to network, locate and share information with other members of our family, and how the technologies generally can be used by those interested in this field.
• reading. My mother told me I should be a librarian because I love books – well I don’t get to have much to do with the books in my job, but I still love them.
• fibre and thread crafts. I am an adequate amateur at many crafts involving fibre and thread, my favourites being cross-stitch, spinning and lace making. If I had my time again, I would work somewhere in the fibre industry. I am not creative in the artistic sense, but love to create.
• beading. I just love the sense of creating something of beauty.

If anyone is interested in the beautiful pics that I am going to use in the header of this blog, they are taken by my husband and you can see more of his work on Flikr. This one is taken at The Boulders, near Babinda in Far North Queensland.