Day 11: Pink crystals 1

Daisy and Lou, Potts Point rooftop c2000

It's another pink earring day today, for a reason. Today is the 25th birthday of my niece Daisy, the first of Ree and Col's four children, the first of 13 grandchildren, and my god-daughter. In my exalted position as godmother, I was able to take Daisy to have her ears pieced, and buy her her first earrings about the time this photo was taken, when she was around 10 years old.




I bought these soft pink square crystal earrings with Daisy sometime in the early 1990s, at the Balmain markets, when she was having a sleep over at my house. They have travelled with me over the years, always reminding me of our special bond.











Daisy is now a Berlin-based artist where she works mainly as a tattooist (she has 190k instagram followers!) and printmaker. To my absolute delight (for obvious reasons), Daisy is also moving into jewellery-making through her label Lazy Does It. I particularly love her ferns and eye studs.










We spent special time with Daisy in France and the Netherlands when the boys were little.

Daisy and James in Beaune, France 2008

And it was wonderful for Dad and me to visit Daisy and her partner Tori in Berlin on my way home from a conference in 2015. She had a rockin' pair of earrings on that day.

Lou, Daisy and Poppy Ray, Berlin June 2015

Day 11 started with an appointment with a Orsi, a lymphodema physiotherapist. A gentle woman and one of the few physios working in this emerging area of specialisation, she will be working with me to try and prevent what is one of the most serious side effects of the surgery I've had. The good news from the appointment is two-fold: short-term, although I has some minor swelling which arose after the first chemo treatment, it's nothing serious and she can work with me to clear it; long term, swimming is the best preventative exercise, and she can help me get my arm movement back to normal so I can resume my regular swimming regime, as soon as the chemo is over. (It also means I don't need to join the dragon boat racers - phew!).

I'm feeling gratitude for the fact that I have access to such expertise, so close to home. I'm also grateful to be able to spend another day with Robbie, who took me to Bondi Junk (as James christened it when 3 years old), where we joked about in the hat section of David Jones, (they all looked equally as ridiculous on my head!) before he took me for lunch.