© irene waters 2014
© irene waters 2014
For fancy dress parties in the early days I was Little Bo Peep and my brother a cowboy. Twice this varied — once going as Sad Sack and another time when we went as Siamese twins in my Father’s pyjama pants. We were co-joined at the back and I drew the short straw and walked backwards all night.
It was a dress up in adult hood that had me itching to get out of my costume. I was the male lead in a musical – I can neither sing nor profess to being male. At one point I had to sport a beard. This was easily done and appealed to my recycling bent as I collected my dog’s hair for the weeks prior and wove it into a hairy beard with no thought to the allergy I would suffer as a result.
© irene waters 2014
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About Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
I began my working career as a reluctant potato peeler whilst waiting to commence my training as a student nurse. On completion I worked mainly in intensive care/coronary care; finishing my hospital career as clinical nurse educator in intensive care. A life changing period as a resort owner/manager on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu was followed by recovery time as a farmer at Bucca Wauka. Having discovered I was no farmer and vowing never again to own an animal bigger than myself I took on the Barrington General Store. Here we also ran a five star restaurant. Working the shop of a day 7am - 6pm followed by the restaurant until late was surprisingly more stressful than Tanna. On the sale we decided to retire and renovate our house with the help of a builder friend. Now believing we knew everything about building we set to constructing our own house. Just finished a coal mine decided to set up in our backyard. Definitely time to retire we moved to Queensland. I had been writing a manuscript for some time. In the desire to complete this I enrolled in a post grad certificate in creative Industries which I completed 2013. I followed this by doing a Master of Arts by research graduating in 2017. Now I live to write and write to live.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
You have quite a life in pictures. I still maintain the same picture of me for my newspaper column that I submitted ten years ago. I am not ready to tell them (or me) that I have gotten older.
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Yes my life is well documented Bob, but you don’t see too many of me taken in the present. I too am not prepared to admit (mainly to me) that I have gotten older.
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Great pics. And what a beard. Wild man of Wagga Wagga if I’m not much mistaken
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Thanks. The beard I thought was a work of genius until the itching started and then indeed I became the wild man of Barrington which is closer to Cooloongoolook than it is to Wagga Wagga.
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Great place names. My uncle was a tram driver or possibly a bus driver in Wagga Wagga in the 60s and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing.
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It would be a bus driver. We do have some good names but I some of your Welsh names would leave ours for dead. We laugh sometimes at the pronunciation of some of our place names when we hear them said on Egg Heads.
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Ah the Welsh. Still my fav is the village next to the Archaeologist in Dorset – Piddle Trenthide. The trams must have been Brisbane then.
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Love it. Trams were on tracks and to my knowledge they were in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They still run in Melbourne but gone elsewhere.
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This was amusingly enjoyable!
If this challenge is still around when the weather starts to cool, I may play along. Too too busy now 🙂
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Thanks Dawn, Glad I brought a smile. Look forward to when you are stuck indoors if you find you have time then. 🙂
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You must have been cursing that beard for weeks! And doesn’t your brother look like on ornery hombre in the cowboy outfit. And Irene, you make such a cute Bo-peep. 🙂
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… one ornery hombre … I used to love reading dad’s westerns. Thanks for teh reminder of Sad Sack, my mum’s favourite comic book characer after Popeye.
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Sad Sack was my father’s favourite. We scrubbed up well as the ornery cowboy and Bo-peep. And yes I did curse the dog hair for awhile (until the rash went away). I looked like I had a red beard for a few days afterwards and it was so hard not to scratch.
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Love this Irene! What great pics you have from your childhood! My mum only has a few of me but of course I have loads of my kids! I’m still trying to decide what to do for my memoir piece for dressing up…endless possibilities! I hope the allergy attack wasn’t too bad and I hope you don’t mind me laughing just a bit (but not at the allergy attack) as it sounded so funny, with the dog’s hair woven in like that…I’m really giggling now, can’t stop….hahahaha!!!!!!
Okay…recovered just enough to say I absolutely love you as Bo Peep…priceless 😀
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Thanks Sherri.No I don’t mind you laughing. I thought it was a great laugh as I religiously combed the dog a couple of times a day (German Shepherds shed a lot of hair) then wove my beard which actually almost matched my hair. My fans loved me but my face didn’t.
Lovely to get your comments and know that it brought a smile. 🙂
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I’m so glad about that Irene…still giggling… 😉
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🙂
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Bo Peep is so cute! Lovely photo memories, Irene.
And congratulations – I’ve just nominated you for a thoroughly well deserved Quintet of Radiance award!
writingmynovelnoworkingtitleyet.blogspot.com
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Thanks Teagan and thanks for the nomination. I am always slow to respond but I will get there eventually. Congratulations on your award.
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Irene, this made me chuckle! I love your pictures and wish I had more of my own. A beard made of dog hair – good grief! Fantastic bite -sized memoir!
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Thanks Noelle. I’m lucky with the photographs. My grandfather was an addict and we loved as kids when we visited in the holidays helping him in his darkroom. It rubbed off on both my brother and me from an early age and also my Mum.
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Oh look at you – so cute! Especially aboard the ship and so BRAVE playing a male lead in a musical when you cannot sing!! I bow to your bravado. What a wonderful sense of fun you show Irene and the photos are an absolute treasure aren’t they – must take more of my boy – if only he would get past that phase of hiding his face.. Thank you Lisa xx
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Yes I’m amazed that I was let loose on deck without reins or a parent to stop me going overboard. I’m sure that most of the voyage I was probably firmly contained. Yes take lots of your boy Lisa. It is such a pleasure to have the images of times that you don’t remember.
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That’s the best/worst costume idea ever–a dog hair beard! Love your photos!
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Thanks Charli. The dog hair beard I thought was pure inspiration and perfect (almost) match for my own hair. Luckily my own hair doesn’t cause the same itch.
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What fun memories, and fabulous photos! I agree the dog hair beard was the best / worst costume idea of all time. I also got a kick out of the siamese twin costume with the two of you in your Dad’s pants! 🙂
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The Siamese outfit was great except my brother didn’t make any allowances for the difficulties it created for me. 🙂
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