Life of a Bondi Girl

By Fiona Carpenter

This is a courageous, inspirational, uplifting story of strength and moving forward. He or she will find this book a personal account of my journey through life. This book is about my experiences and hurdles and how my life has transpired.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Dec 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984500298

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Fiona Carpenter.

Library of Congress Control Number:              2018907857

ISBN:                  Hardcover                     978-1-9845-0031-1

                            Softcover                       978-1-9845-0030-4

                            eBook                            978-1-9845-0029-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 03/11/2019

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

779645

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

CHAPTER 1

I ’m sitting at home aged 51 in Sydney, Australia. It’s January 2018 looking out my bedroom window to the sea, watching some yachts sailing past in the distance Race, the ones I saw leave over a week ago. As I look out, I am pondering over the last six years of my life and feel the time is right to finalize my book that I have been putting together for the past six years. One might say, What on earth would she have to write about? To some it might seem indulgent, and part of me agrees, but throughout my life, when chatting to people about things that have come about over a half century for me, and many have said, You should write a book!. After spending years sourcing parts of My Story and putting it together, here I go!

First I return to 2010. I was working full-time and decided to compete in the Pan Pac Masters Games. This is a forum for over 18-year-olds involved in individual or team sports. The competition is held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, every two years, where like-minded people who enjoy participating get together to compete in as many disciplines as they choose. Athletes travel from all over the Pacific and the world to be there for a few weeks of competition, partying, and an awesome time.

I have always been involved in fun activities or keeping fit in one way or another. At school I was keen on many sports: swimming, athletics, tee ball, softball, tennis, netball, hockey, participating in school and inter-school carnivals. I also played tennis after school at Cooper Park, Lyne Park and Moore Park and attended lots of school holiday tennis camps from a young age. Mum played at White City, so I spent times watching her and each January attended The Sydney International which I loved, sitting in the scorching sun-hot stands. At the beach on weekends, I participated in Surf Lifesaving, achieving my Bronze Cross and Star. I jogged and attended aerobic classes in the early 1980’s which I kept up for years so I was strong as well as fit, when suddenly in 1994 at 28, I suffered a lower back bulging disc (L4-L5) injury, together with sciatic nerve pain occurring instantly which travelled from my left buttock right down to my foot. I did this by tripping whilst jogging and stopping my fall abruptly with my left hand on a thigh-high brick wall which I feel probably made the injury worse. The aggravation at times is still noticeable. At the time, I didn’t entertain the idea of taking prescription drugs due to hearing about their side effects especially on a long-term basis, so I never have. Quickly realising my pain threshold was very good, I was advised to get in the pool more seriously, so I did. I was educated in a back rehabilitation program called Feldenkrais and am so grateful for that. The course taught me to self-manage the injury and to have as normal a life physically as possible. As the years went by I have been and am now pain free most of the time.

After experimenting with different strokes I realised along with stretching, power walking and different exercises, that freestyle would be the most comfortable, so I started focusing on laps and then six years later I registered my entry to swim at The Pan Pac’s in the 50, 100, 200, and 400 metres. I couldn’t wait for commencement in November 2010. The day for me to depart arrived, and I flew to Queensland. I was blessed to stay with my great friend from school and her family in the most beautiful area of the Gold Coast, combining a catch-up around the swimming competition.

Up early the next day, I arrived at the registration, collected everything I needed, soaked up the atmosphere, meeting and chatting to lots of sports people competing in a variety of disciplines as I heard all sorts of inspirational stories. Early the next morning my first event was on. After a power breakfast I made my way to the Miami pool. The atmosphere was electric, festival-like and full of excitement. I found a space, settled in and waited for my race. For four days, it was all about making it to each race on time, swimming as fast as I could and more. I did, and at the end of the meet, I was five seconds behind the medal winners in the 50 and 100 metres. I was so close, too close. Straight away, I made the decision to come back to collect my medals in a couple of years’ time. Little did I know what lay ahead of me.

It was a week day not unlike any other, a beautiful morning in February 2012. I had just wished my gorgeous sons a good day at school from the front door, waving whilst I watched a while. They were 11 and 13. Their school was down the road, so they often walked but only together.

A few minutes later, I headed back into the kitchen to clean up after breakfast. Almost reaching the table, I fainted, collapsed and fell to the floor. Not knowing how much time had passed, I woke, got up, and got on with