Take 5

Week after week, I’m inspired by stories from readers who know what they want and go for it. On page 4, Kim tells us how she grew up riding horses in the Netherlands and loved it so much, she moved to the Aussie outback to ride horses full-time as a station hand. What a legend! Speaking of going for what you want, we have loads of spectacular prizes that could be yours this week. Along with amazing puzzle prizes, we’re launching two new comps. First, we’ve teamed up with our friends at The Bradford Exchange to give three lucky readers $1000 to spend at Bradford. If you haven’t already visited their website, you should. There’s literally something for everyone – even that bloke who’s always hard to buy for! Another…

Gripping the reins tightly as my horse galloped across the rocky terrain, I grinned from ear to ear. “Yeehaa,” I cheered as we gathered more speed. But slowly, the landscape in front of me started to blur. Everything went black and when my eyes fluttered open, I was tucked up in bed. It had all been a dream. I’d had the same one for weeks and took it as a sign. I’d grown up riding horses in Borger, Netherlands, and missed the freedom of being on horseback. So, a year later, in 2020, I started riding lessons again after at least 10 years out of the saddle. Feeling the horse beneath me and the wind whipping through my hair, I fell in love with riding again. At this point,…

They say blood is thicker than water but my family has torn me apart Annmarie Kaye, 43. Picking confetti out of my hair, I laughed. My partner, Craig, 28, and I had just tied the knot in a simple, but perfect registry office ceremony. “You’re covered in it,” Craig said with a grin as I straightened his purple tie. We’d met a year earlier volunteering at a homeless shelter. Craig was great with my two children from a previous relationship, aged three and one. Our own baby boy was six months old at our wedding. In time, two little girls followed to complete our family. With five kids, life was chaotic, but Craig and I made a great team. We’d been married for over a decade when a friend invited…

My kids were horrified but it was the happiest day of my life Jeanna Lyons, 66. I logged onto Facebook and scrolled through posts on a wellbeing group I followed. “Let’s see who I can help today,” I said. I had a busy job as an imaging technician at two different hospitals. Although my kids Chawntau, Courtney* and Bryce* were all grown up, I was still caring for Courtney, 33, who had multiple sclerosis. Their dad and I had never married, but we’d stayed together for 28 years before going our separate ways. Life hadn’t been easy, which was why my spiritual wellbeing was so important to me and I liked to offer advice to others where I could. As I looked through the posts, I saw that someone new…

I wanted to make a difference for my 70th Claire Oelrichs, 70, Coopers Shoot, NSW. As I answered the video call, my two sons’ faces came into view. “Can you believe what’s going on in Ukraine?” I said. “It’s terrible,” my son Cooper, 32, replied. It was February 2022 and the war in Ukraine had just started. I’d been glued to the news ever since. My husband, Ian, had passed away in 2019, and both my sons lived in Berlin, Germany. I was particularly concerned about the threat of airborne radioactivity spreading over Europe if Ukraine’s nuclear reactors were bombed. Over the following months, I followed the story closely. My late father, Lieutenant Commander Michael Vaux, served in the Royal Navy and had spied on the Russians. In 1955, he…

Call it a case of happily never after – and it’s happening later in life. The average age for divorce is increasing according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with women aged 40 to 44 most likely to divorce, up from 38 in 2000. According to ABS data, almost 50,000 divorces were granted in Australia in 2020. This figure went up during COVID, and chances are we all know someone whose relationship didn’t make it through pandemic lockdowns, working from home and homeschooling. WHY IT’S HAPPENING Through her work at women’s-only telehealth psychology service Pynk Health, clinical psychologist Julie Fox says women considering divorce over the past few years are often motivated by their own unhappiness. “COVID made us slow down and take stock of our lives. For some women,…