I love competent people - you know the kind the ones that can turn their hand from changing a truck tyre to building a designer mud-brick home. People who know how to absail down a cliff or love to camp alone with just their swag for company in the middle of the Nullabor Plain. I had a deprived childhood – the most my parents taught me was to smoke elegantly (just think of those early black and white movies where girls with smouldering eyes, curtains of hair and extended middle and index fingers gracefully holding the long cigarette holder as they inhaled greedily till the smoke curled up from their nostrils. Well that’s me – I was the princess of the drag of the fag.
When I gave up smoking in my forties - I lost my sense of identity. Who am I, I asked plaintively will the real Mary stand up. Well eventually I did and these days I am a lot more tolerant of my shortcomings - well I have to really, as this is who I am and any changes I may wish to make must be based on living and working to my true nature, otherwise it is just a waste of time.
Mrs Mary Atkins, Speaker and Author.
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