One-way tickets and golden gaps: why it's never too late to start again with Fiona Taylor

Fee Taylor has lived the kind of life other people convince themselves isn't possible. She emigrated to Tasmania with 650 quid and two suitcases. She built a career as a glass artist and taught English in Japan. She pivoted — more than once — without a plan B to fall back on. And now, in her second half of life, she's created the Golden Gap Year: a permission slip for women 50+ who are done waiting for the right moment to actually feel alive.

In this episode, Fee and I talk about the golden thread of resilience that runs through a life that looks, from the outside, like one long act of bravery. We get into growing up across continents (she had her life story written down on paper by age 10), finding her people after moving back to England, discovering glass art by accident, and what it felt like when midlife arrived — quietly, and then all at once.

We also talk about spasmodic dysphonia, a chronic throat condition that has taken some of Fee's voice — literally — and how someone whose whole personality runs on connection learns to keep showing up anyway.

If you've ever stood at a crossroads and chosen the safe road because the other one felt too selfish, too risky, or just too late — this one's for you.

You can find out more about Fiona Taylor and her Golden Gap offers at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/choosehealthybyfiona/

Website: https://choosehealthy.com.au/ 

Spasmodic dysphonia is a chronic, rare neurological voice disorder causing involuntary vocal cord spasms, resulting in strained, broken, or breathy speech. Primarily affecting speech muscles, it is treated withBotox injections to reduce spasms and voice therapy to improve function, though no cure exists. It is most common in women aged 30–50.

 Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Unravelling: The Diary of a Midlife Mess.

If something resonated with you today, I’d love to hear your thoughts,  come join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram @theglowupguide_au or visit sharonwilkesburt.com
for more resources and support.

Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you’re enjoying the journey so far!

Transcript

 Good morning, Fiona. Now, before we dive in today, I want to ask you something that I don't always ask my guests. Is there anything about you or your story or even how you show up that you'd like people to know?

Fee, Choose Healthy (00:46.569)
story

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (00:52.46)
before we get started, something that might color how we experience this conversation.

Fee, Choose Healthy (00:56.77)
Well, I do have a bit of a croaky, sexy voice. Some people, when I'm on the phone, they kind of think I'm crying or I'm very upset. If I'm trying to talk to Medicare, I would be maybe upset.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (01:04.181)
Uh-huh.

Fee, Choose Healthy (01:18.816)
Yeah, it's just I have a chronic voice condition called Masmotic Dysphonia, which is not a very nice name. And the variation I have is where my voice cuts out sort of like muscle spasms and it just kind of cuts out. So every day, the joy, I wake up and I actually don't know what I'm going to sound like. So, yeah, I've had this for actually quite a while.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (01:19.488)
Yeah, for sure.

Fee, Choose Healthy (01:48.939)
And for someone who's kind of quite jatui and outgoing, it just takes a little bit of your personality away. But yeah, I'm just sort of, well, I'm not going to let it divide me, so I'm still out there teaching fitness, talking to people. I'm a teacher by day, so I get to use my voice a lot.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (01:56.652)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (02:09.454)
Brilliant.

Fee, Choose Healthy (02:19.268)
Thank

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (02:20.214)
Yeah, yeah. I can't, I can't imagine because I know somebody who is like, you know, also a chatter that to kind of that, how that can impact you. But I love the fact that as you say, it's not defining you. And, and also, you know, when you say you don't know what version of you you've got to wake up with every day, because today you're saying to me, you're saying great, because I've spoken to you before. And of course, at that point, you're sort of at the, cause you go through a treatment program, don't you? What kind of way you have,

Fee, Choose Healthy (02:35.586)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (02:45.466)
Yes, I have botox. Yeah, I have botox and I need to have it really every four to six months but I think when I met you I'd actually let it go for maybe seven or eight months which is really too long so it was really cutting out.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (02:50.008)
Botox isn't it to kind of, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant.

Fee, Choose Healthy (03:07.57)
And then, yeah, so the Botox is not as strong as what you'd have on your face. Actually, the procedure, it's a bit like having a toothpick in your Adam's apple. So it's not a very pleasant experience. But, you know, but if it's the gold standard.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (03:08.854)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (03:17.207)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (03:24.923)
okay. Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (03:31.05)
dreaming that actually helps me to kind of get on with my life that that's you know that that's the treatment I'm going to have and I'll have to have it probably you know long term so yeah

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (03:46.252)
Yeah, yeah, brilliant. Well, it is a joy for me to be able to speak to you today. So thank you. I'm absolutely honored that you've come to speak to me, come to join me this morning. As you know, this is Unraveling, the Diary of a Midlife Mess. And this was kind of based on the premise that as I was going through my own unraveling, my diary became the place where all of those unravelingnesses went into.

Fee, Choose Healthy (04:08.844)
It's

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (04:15.64)
But I like to kind of go back. I like to of reflect back on where we come from. So if I were to open your teenage diary, what would have been on those pages? Like who was teenage fee? What were you dreaming about, worrying about, or secretly planning or adoring?

Fee, Choose Healthy (04:28.706)
Well, would probably, teenage fee, it would be 1976, would be on the Isle of Wight. I would be dancing to Dancing Queen on the pier, because I come from the Isle of Wight. And I've been there for very long period. You know, I had a summer job working on dojos and all sorts of things. That's another story. But...

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (04:46.84)
Fantastic.

Fee, Choose Healthy (04:55.01)
My diary was just kind of enjoying life, know, and enjoying living in one place because I'd lived in so many different places that sort of I was quite excited to just be in one place finally and the Isle of Wight was a really great place, you know, to grow up from about 12 years old.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (04:57.708)
Yeah?

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (05:05.953)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (05:18.936)
Yeah.

Okay, so had you lived in previous places? that with family? Was dad traveling? Was that work or was that?

Fee, Choose Healthy (05:25.17)
Yeah, my father was a professor of anatomy and so I was originally born just outside Stratford upon Aden, so in a funny little village called Aston Canaida, he loved English names. And my father at the time was a doctor and we moved to Ethiopia.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (05:44.014)
Fee, Choose Healthy (05:48.988)
and we lived there for a couple of years and then we came back to England. Then we went to Hong Kong but then he was a professor of anatomy and we lived there a few years and then we came back to England. So I guess by the time I was 10 I thought, well, I have to get my story done on paper so I wrote my autobiography at 10.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (05:53.452)
Fee, Choose Healthy (06:17.889)
I was just about to.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (06:19.656)
I love that! my gosh! Have you really? wow! Amazing! my gosh, I look forward to reading that! Get that published!

Fee, Choose Healthy (06:23.891)
Yeah, well, I know, I thought it's something, it's something I can't actually throw out. You know, but it was because I couldn't believe all these things had happened to me by the time I was 10. So I just had to get it down on paper. So really, was quite, you know, I was quite a creative person and always, I was always writing.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (06:36.364)
No.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (06:43.563)
Yeah

Fee, Choose Healthy (06:51.457)
And then that kind of disappeared really when I got to the Isle of Wight. I was like, I'm in this sort of, living here now for a good few years, but up to ten. Living in all these different countries, all these different adventures, experiences. I had to get that down on paper.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (07:14.186)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (07:19.15)
Oh, and what a gift that must be because I mean, I know, and I've said this many times before, you know, I remember finding my teenage diary from about the ages 12 to 14 when I was in my forties, that it was just pure comedy gold when I look back on it, because I'd kind of, I'd invented this teenager or this young person that I thought I was and my diary completely called me out on all of it. But interestingly, it's

Because we change things in our adult head. We do kind of change things to suit our narrative of whatever version of us we think we should have been. You know, my God, I was never like that. I was always so fun. But actually your diary or, you know, your autobiography is going to have kind of like, you know, given you that from a very completely authentic 10 year old hands. So that's amazing. Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (07:44.875)
Yeah. We do.

Fee, Choose Healthy (08:00.352)
Yeah. And you know, I wrote it as is because, you know, obviously now in this world.

lots of things are kind of made up and I wrote it all down and you know I struggled a little bit at school by the time I was at when we came back from England after all these adventures. By then my parents had split up it was a bit of a messy split and you know the mums of the other school kids would say to my mum Fiona's a lovely girl but she's got a bit of an imagination.

She says she's done this, that and the other and mum said we've all seen her ass. So I struggled a bit to sort of make friends when I was in that.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (08:49.358)
Why? Why?

Fee, Choose Healthy (08:51.137)
you know, that sort of age. But then when I went to the Isle of Wight and eventually I, you know, I did make some friends. But, yeah, it was a funny time, to be told that when we don't really believe that you've had all these, you know, things happen to you. So, yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (09:06.156)
Yeah

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (09:11.243)
Yeah!

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (09:15.146)
Yeah, and I just love the fact that they would kind of go, she's a lovely girl, but she has an imagination. that's even, it should even be a but, you know? And actually, as you say, wasn't an imagination, it actually happened. that's, you wow. So for teenage you, what were you, I mean, obviously you'd already had this incredible experiences as a young child anyway. So what were you dreaming of by the time you got to your teenage years? I mean, apart from obviously your dancing to ABBA on the pier, which is...

Fee, Choose Healthy (09:20.394)
Hello.

Fee, Choose Healthy (09:39.153)
Yeah, so I really wanted to, when I was 12, really wanted to live in one place and to know what it was like to go to one school from the beginning to the end. Because by the time I was 12, I'd been to about eight schools. So my maths was, I still count on my fingers, much to the amusement of everyone. But

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (09:44.216)
Bring it.

Fee, Choose Healthy (10:05.129)
The Isle of Wight was a really great place. We were very lucky because mum took us to either the Lake District at Easter or us some other days were on the island. And when she gave us a choice about where we wanted to live, we just said, yeah, the Isle of Wight. It was just a really carefree, great place. You know, didn't have to worry when you went out at night. You know, we were, because we lived in Ventnor and it was up and down cliffs, you walked

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (10:22.157)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (10:35.043)
up in the atlases, you walked all the time. School was good, it was a nice school, and again, lots of friends and you start to think about what you want to do as a career. And I loved all creatures, great and small and I really wanted to be a vet until I saw them put their hand or their arm up a cow's butt and I was like, no, that's not really for me.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (10:44.535)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (11:02.518)
Okay.

Fee, Choose Healthy (11:04.851)
I'm out. But I liked art and I sort of made some jewellery and I used do carpet sales and things like that.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (11:09.486)
Yeah, bye.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (11:23.47)
Wow, okay. So the creative young entrepreneur was showing signs even back then.

Fee, Choose Healthy (11:23.617)
yes but you know I would give people earrings oh they look so nice and you can have them. So we used to do car boot sale sort of thing as a family, by then my mum had met somebody else and so our family sort of grew but yeah it was a really great place to grow up.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (11:36.631)
Yeah!

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (11:45.773)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (11:52.329)
a really beautiful island so I have very strong connection to the Isle of Wight more than anywhere else in England.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (11:58.23)
Yeah, how lovely.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (12:06.442)
Yeah, because I guess if that's the place that through your childhood was meant, some sort of security to you in terms of like, you know, that's, that's a place that you were able to stay in and grow up in and make friends and relationships with people, I guess, then that's obviously, you know, that's going to be a bit of an anchor, isn't it, in a sense.

Fee, Choose Healthy (12:17.171)
It.

Yes. And I got into horses, horse riding, until I discovered boys.

then horse riding wasn't a thing. But my first job, I think I was around 12 and I was waitressing because the island is a tourist place. So I got a job and I saved all my money and I bought a horse. My mum helped, obviously, with viet.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (12:36.097)
Sharon Wilkes-Burt (12:49.954)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (12:50.058)
So one of my sisters and I, we saw that she had the horse and then when I discovered bullies, she carried on, you know, with the horse riding.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (12:54.67)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (13:04.046)
Honestly, spoil everything, bloody hormones. It's, yeah, I mean, I think I was going to be all sorts of things until obviously you got to get to those kind of hormone years and then all of a sudden, you know, there's kind of one focus, isn't there? It's, know, and none of it's on, you know, that career, that livelihood, those, all those creative things that you were going to do. But so talk me about the versions of you through the decades. Where did life...

Fee, Choose Healthy (13:09.256)
Yes.

Fee, Choose Healthy (13:18.08)
MUTH

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (13:31.022)
take you and how did each chapter shape the one that came after that? So if we start with your twenties, what was success looking like for you in your twenties?

Fee, Choose Healthy (13:34.984)
So in my twenties I finally figured out what I wanted to do then. So my first career was as a

a glass artist as a glass designer, glass blower. at 18 I decided I wanted to do something in art so I moved up to Hereford. My grandmother came with me. My mum had a friend who had a house there and I went to Hereford College or Tech College, don't know what it's called, and I did a two year diploma in design.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (13:48.706)
Mm-hmm.

Fee, Choose Healthy (14:15.025)
I just did everything from jewellery to painting, what have you. And then I moved on to London and I was supposed to study, I was doing 3D design and I was meant to study ceramics, but I found it very dirty. I got into glass blowing. But glass blowing wasn't a major, it was...

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (14:41.492)
Right. Well, yes, a lot of clay. Right.

Fee, Choose Healthy (14:42.784)
It was a little, I guess like a minor. So I loved it. So what I did was I went downstairs into the basement where there was a studio at this university and there was a craftsman, you know, he'd come from Royal, can't remember what it's called, Dartington Glass, and he was a craftsman.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (14:54.305)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (15:10.522)
and he was sort of blowing glass and trying to help students. Anyway, he always saw me out the corner of his eye, you know, and I'd be just standing there. And then he said, you know, do you want to sweep the floor? And gradually I got to know him. So I did like a, not really an apprenticeship, but something like that. And he saw that I was so interested, so he started teaching me. And then...

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (15:14.902)
okay, yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (15:39.092)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (15:39.808)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (15:43.221)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (15:44.43)
Oh, wow. What a gift to have like somebody mentor you personally like that, you know, and as I say, you started off sleeping floors around it, but you're, but you're kind of watching, you're observing the whole time.

Fee, Choose Healthy (15:47.923)
Yes, and then I got obsessed. So, you know, it was every book, every exhibition. I was allowed to make some glass, you know, for my degree, although I still had to do my token piece of ceramic every, you know, every semester.

So then I went on to do my postgraduate in Surrey doing design and I was the first person they had there doing Lois design but they had a fantastic Lois studio so I got to study there and I got to teach the students so yeah that was amazing.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (16:15.694)
Okay.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (16:35.564)
Why?

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (16:41.632)
Yeah. wow. Because it's such almost like a lost art, I guess, in some ways. It's very artisan, isn't it? of, you know, glass craft or glass design in any way. I mean, is it something that is that something that's carried through for you? Are you still doing that or?

Fee, Choose Healthy (16:50.304)
No, because it's like you do need quite a lot of equipment and I think the thing is it was good at time that was my first career. I was able to travel the world with that and that's sort of how I ended up in Australia. But still the creative side, the design.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (17:15.309)
Bye.

Fee, Choose Healthy (17:15.932)
I find it comes out in other ways. So comes out like, you know, when I'm teaching at the university, I can be a little bit more creative with solutions and things. And then also, you know, in running my business and, you know, so I find it comes out in other ways.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (17:18.997)
Okay.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (17:36.416)
Yes. Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (17:37.534)
The energy of blowing glass is your part of a team. So if you stuff it up, you stuff it up for everyone. And I really liked that whole energy, you know.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (17:43.148)
Yeah.

Yes, yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (17:49.312)
of glowing glass. So I finished my postgraduate and they asked me to stay on to be like a technician. I was doing that. So that was early 20s, maybe 24, 25. And then I decided I wanted to do something a bit more.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (17:57.122)
Yeah. Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (18:14.143)
I was offered the job in London, but it was only £95 plus whatever you made from the art that you sold. At the time I thought £95 isn't going to get me very far in London.

with accommodation and everything else. So I sort of looked around and so this guy who had the craftsman who's helped me in London when I studied at the uni, he had lots of contacts and he said, well do you want to go to Scandinavia? And I said no, I've already been there because I'd already blown glass there.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (18:33.294)
All right, okay.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (18:38.86)
No. No.

Fee, Choose Healthy (18:50.971)
So he was sort of rattling off countries and he goes, well, what about Australia? And I said, yeah, right then. And he said, well, I know someone in Sydney and I know someone in Tasmania. And I thought, let's go to Tasmania. And so I came here. Well, I came to Australia. That's how it happened.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (19:00.802)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (19:16.738)
Huh?

Fee, Choose Healthy (19:18.815)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (19:21.473)
Wow!

Okay, so was glass blowing that brought you over to Oz. Amazing. And did you, so how did your career progress from that point and, you know, were you then settled in Tassie?

Fee, Choose Healthy (19:26.927)
Yeah, so I actually emigrated not really knowing what it meant. I just thought, I'll come here for a couple of years and then I'll, you know, move on. So I actually came to Tennessee. I went to Tennessee and I mean, everyone was laughing at me because they were all going to Sydney, Melbourne, they were like, it's mania. And I was like, yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (19:57.312)
Yeah. Yeah, it does sound like when you're offered that option, particularly in your twenties, there only would seem to be, you when you said like I was offered Tasmania or Sydney, I'm assuming my brain just went Sydney because obviously you're twenty, why would you not go to Sydney? Tasmania, of course you did.

Fee, Choose Healthy (20:03.488)
So, I mean, there's two parts to it. One was, so this was in 1988, I was 26 and I emigrated, but the summer of 87...

A couple of Australian girls came over to the island and we all worked in this glass studio which at the time was one of the top studios to work at. Now they were glass blowing and I was in the packing department. I didn't care, I was working at that studio. And one of the girls, said to me, look, I've left my job in Tasmania.

Would you be interested in going over there? So it sort of all kind of worked out. So I wrote to her boss two weeks later, he said yes, and then started the, you know, emigrating thing, because it was a bit easier in those days. And I do see her from time to time, not very often, but I do still, you know, keep in touch. that's, you know, that's really nice.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (21:11.65)
Yeah

Fee, Choose Healthy (21:15.743)
But.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (21:22.734)
I always love these like sliding door moments, these thing where you meet somebody and then of course, you know, just the actions that you take, take you down a different path. I'm always so fascinated by how people's lives go in. you know, there's the, it's like almost, I mean, it's not often, it's not always, but it's often in your twenties when you're presented with these opportunities to take one path or another. And you know, those moments that sort of make all the difference in a sense, you know.

Fee, Choose Healthy (21:40.212)
Yes, yes, my, so I did actually have one sister who was living in Western Australia and so she happened to come home for that Christmas at 87, 88. She left about one week before me and then I left, you know, and my mum was like, go do whatever you want in your life.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (21:52.93)
Yeah, that's amazing.

Fee, Choose Healthy (22:05.376)
But she said later, she said, I just wish you both hadn't gone so far away. So I arrived in Tasmania with two suitcases and I started this sort of new experience. I landed with about 650 pounds. Don't think I had a return ticket.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (22:16.28)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (22:21.749)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (22:30.687)
And I just went, But I had the best experience because I met so many amazing people in Tanzania. It's such a collection of travellers, artists, such a wide variety of And they were all still very good friends. They were the only friends that you probably have if you were at high school.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (22:37.931)
Okay.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (22:42.318)
You

Fee, Choose Healthy (22:57.107)
So yeah, and I mean, what a beautiful place to live as well, know, such beautiful, you know, countryside, landscape. You know, I got to make my own glass and I had quite a lot of exhibitions.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (23:06.326)
Yes, yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (23:13.815)
Yeah

Fee, Choose Healthy (23:15.011)
you know, met lots of artists and stuff and then, you know, after two years I thought I need to do something else and I'd already been over into the West to visit my sister and, you know, been up to Monkey Mire when it wasn't, you know, so commercial, etc. and I thought well I'll come.

come over here so I slowly made my way over here and then the glassing was really different here so it was quite a struggle to find somewhere to make glass. So I thought I might need to change direction a little bit.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (23:45.549)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (23:59.604)
Okay.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (24:06.514)
I mean, I love it, first of all, that you you arrive over here with no return ticket. That's it. You've got everything you need. But I but I remember being that 20 year old who just arrived at a place with a know, with a one way ticket and kind of like, you know, and just no fear, I guess, or no cut like you'll just work it out. You know, you don't have all that stuff that we that we gather all that.

Fee, Choose Healthy (24:09.268)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (24:13.138)
No.

Fee, Choose Healthy (24:19.078)
Yeah. Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (24:30.962)
Yeah, yeah. I think I was quite a risk taker. know, I thought nothing of like someone said, well, as they did, why don't you come to Japan? went, yeah, right. Yeah, like you said, didn't have fear. knew you felt that it would work out. And if it did, you know, you could come home or whatever.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (24:31.244)
rubbish that we gather later on, those responsibilities, those, you know, kind of, God, this could all go wrong, you know. So I love that. you know, I kind of, I think this is the only thing I've kind of missed about my younger self is just that, you know, they're just kind of like, okay, let's just go and do that thing, you know, let's go and work it out, you know, which is brilliant.

Fee, Choose Healthy (24:59.64)
now I'm a safe risk taker, you know, sort of at that stage. So yeah, so I landed here, sort of, I would...

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (25:07.939)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (25:11.294)
I was about 28 and then I got an artist in residence in Canberra at ANU. So I did that a couple of times and then that's when I met a Japanese artist who said, you know, come over to Ijima. So I went over there for a couple of years, you know, doing glass because I could and I got to work with, you know, top glass people. I met some great

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (25:17.708)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (25:39.198)
I met lots of kind of Japanese that were artists and just a little bit different to probably how Japanese people may come across that, you know, because I was an artist, I was meeting quite a different crowd. But then I needed money so I started teaching English.

Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (26:10.081)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (26:14.19)
Right. Okay. Oh, interesting. Okay. So yeah, because obviously you used to wear these paths, Lee, doesn't it? But I mean, I think, I think it's, mean, when you talk about you as sort of making glass, I mean, was this, was this a jewelry, was this small designs, was this, um, like, um, commission pieces or what was, what was it you were doing?

Fee, Choose Healthy (26:19.102)
So yeah, I was doing just one-offs or things for exhibitions. So I made...

And my glass, I think, was quite influenced by Scandinavia, so quite clean lines, simple colours. And then I really got into just a couple of techniques, sand casting. So basically, loved, you know, heavy lots of glass, pouring it into a mould. So was quite a physical kind of person, you if I made...

a plate or something, it had to be big. So yeah, I was working in a studio. Most of time I work in a studio and you're making production pieces. So it might be you're making glasses, you're making beds, you're making bowls. But then for myself, they were mostly one-off pieces and for exhibitions.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (27:10.539)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (27:16.054)
Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (27:38.38)
Right. I mean, and I guess it's always the artists slot in a sense, isn't it? That you, you know, there's this creative part of you that's, you know, just doing these beautiful designs and really kind of, you know, living your best life in a way. But unfortunately, bills have to be paid. And so I, you know, I know a lot of artists I've had to go into, or had to go into too, but you know, kind of sort of, yeah. Teaching.

Fee, Choose Healthy (27:40.765)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (27:48.286)
Mm.

Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (27:57.273)
Yes, I was blowing glass and I thought I needed some extra money and I had a friend over there who was also from Perth and she was working for a company and she said that they're looking for, you know, English language teachers and she said basically, you know, you'll get a job, sort of thing.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (28:01.646)
to be able to supplement that income or lack thereof. So obviously, so you were in Japan when you started teaching English,

Fee, Choose Healthy (28:18.782)
So I said I did teaching and I enjoyed it because I love helping people so I enjoyed that and then I thought I actually really need to get a qualification too. I did that while I was teaching. But I did love the experience of Japan. It's a real contrast.

know, people, everything, but after two years I had sort of had enough and I came back to birth. But then my voice was quite, that's really when my voice probably changed because I was teaching and talking non-stop for about 12 months and I think that.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (28:53.688)
Yeah, absolutely.

Fee, Choose Healthy (29:00.818)
some sort of impact. But it was sort of there, but I still managed to get jobs when I came back to Perth. was only recently, I'd say in last few years, where it had become very noticeable that it was cutting it out. So then my career went in another direction and that was teaching.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (29:14.008)
Bye.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (29:32.194)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (29:33.276)
So I teach at the university, I teach international students English as a second language. I mean I do smile because I think obviously they need to clear pronunciation and stuff and here I am sometimes cutting it out or what have you but we make it work.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (29:35.021)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (29:41.386)
Okay, so and this is what you're still doing now. So you say you're teaching is that tell me about that.

Fee, Choose Healthy (29:52.702)
You know, so far no one said, I don't really understand what you're But yes, I went from this kind of risk taker and yeah, I'll go and do this to suddenly, well, it's actually quite nice working somewhere for a long time. And fast forward 30 years, I'm still doing it, but I'm doing it part time now because I'm exploring, you know, a business and other things.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (30:06.252)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (30:11.757)
No.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (30:22.222)
Mmm.

Fee, Choose Healthy (30:22.365)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (30:37.421)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's quite interesting, isn't it? mean, you know, obviously you said about when you were that 12 year old, that land of white and you enjoyed that doing something, you know, we're living somewhere for a long time. And now this also with the teaching. So it's like, there's these kind of contrasting sides of you. There's this kind of creative, traveling, explorer, adventurer, you know, but also there's the kind of this love of like, Oh, I like the security, the sameness, the, you know, the structure or, whatever it is in a sense. So

Fee, Choose Healthy (31:01.853)
Mm.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (31:05.848)
Do you find, is there like a constant sort of fight between these two or do they live quite harmoniously together? Because I know that in your business that you've gone on to create, it would seem that you've now made these two parts of your life work for you.

Fee, Choose Healthy (31:07.399)
Yeah, but I think I've always had two things on the go. I have, I guess, the security of the teaching, but I do most of the time enjoy it. But then I've also taken the time, because I've got time to explore this other side hustle, whatever. But I like the two things.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (31:27.342)
Mmm.

Fee, Choose Healthy (31:35.933)
I do quite like them and at the moment they seem to work quite well. And actually what I learned from running a business, there's actually impact on the teaching and the other way around too. So they do kind of connect really.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (32:13.004)
Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (32:17.772)
Yeah. I love that. mean, I know that, you know, I would say the same sort of thing. And I've always struggled to ever do, to do one thing. And I think it's very much a creative, creative brain thing where we kind of, the idea of only ever do one. I've done, I don't think every, in my life, I've only ever had one job or one thing on the go. There's always been something or two other things or three other things sometimes that are going on at the same time. I mean, I remember,

I remember being in my twenties and when my clients had said to me, like, just don't know how you do it. Or maybe I was early thirties, but she said, I just don't know how you do it. And I looked at her kind of going, I don't get what you don't get, you know? But when I think back on it now, you know, at the time I think I was hairdressing through the day. Obviously I had the kids and, you know, bringing up children or all that involves. I also was going to college studying overnight time to get my teaching diploma and

Fee, Choose Healthy (33:07.515)
Ha

Yeah, a lot.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (33:15.096)
do my makeup artist courses as well, and also teach and also doing body shop parts on the side. And so when I look at that now, I kind of go, yeah, I guess that was quite a lot. I think you are creative. It just makes sense. You you just make it work. It's like, because you're tapping into, you tapping into parts that you love all the things, you know, so.

Fee, Choose Healthy (33:15.292)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (33:21.789)
Yeah, I can relate because at one point I was working full time. I'd also become a fitness instructor so I was teaching 15 classes a week.

But that wasn't enough, so I decided to do a 12 week transformation thing for my... because I actually wanted to know what it was like, you know, because everyone talks about 12 week transformation, I felt, well, I want to know what that's like. So I was doing that training six days a week, I had a very active dog. Sunday was my day off and I used to call it active rest, because I still went for a walk or whatever.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (33:48.824)
Bye.

Fee, Choose Healthy (33:59.108)
People say, I don't know how you managed to do all that because you'd be teaching at six in the morning then you come and do full-time, you know, day and then you go and teach something and then you walk the dog and you still manage to go out and do, I don't know, but it just seemed at the time, at the time you manage it but then afterwards you think, yeah, right, okay.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (34:02.732)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (34:12.342)
Okay. Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (34:37.322)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, I mean, I do look up, you know, now, you know, I don't, couldn't, I couldn't contemplate having a diary that's that full of that many things. I mean, now I like to see, I like white space. I like to see that there's kind of clear things for to do, you know, nothing or everything in that space in my diary. But, you that's just, I think that's an age thing. That's just where I've got to at this point in life.

Fee, Choose Healthy (34:40.999)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (34:45.179)
Yes, yes, I agree. yeah, it's good to have some white space if you can do it.

Fee, Choose Healthy (35:00.965)
No. That's wrong.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (35:10.636)
Yeah, think this, I think that's a this stage of life thing. I'm not sure I'd have taken that on board in my thirties or had this space to even think about a different life phase. So for you, when you look back across all of these things, and you've, mean, this is like an incredibly full life with so many adventures and experiences and, you kind of just follow, mean, like, were you

Fee, Choose Healthy (35:28.989)
I think it was probably a combination. And also because mum never said, you can't do that. She'd ring her up and say, know, I've got this chance to do something. She'd say, yeah, great. know, yeah, was great having, I mean, there was no way that she was conformist at all.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (35:36.984)
Was it like you just following your gut into places or was it just a kind of like opportunities presented themselves and it was very much a kind of like, yeah, let's go see.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (35:49.646)
Hmm.

Fee, Choose Healthy (35:53.627)
you know, she raced and we get at ease. did hill climbing, you know. This is pretty, kids. So when I see photos, like, no, we were never destined to be, you know, normal.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (36:00.162)
Yeah, brilliant.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (36:16.014)
Why? Yeah, why?

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (36:23.306)
No. I love that. that's brilliant. And actually, it's so interesting, isn't it? Because of course, you know, where those decisions that you make in those younger years are so kind of, know, family's so huge in your life and such a huge influence in your life that if you do have a parent that kind of goes,

Fee, Choose Healthy (36:40.775)
Yes.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (36:46.734)
you know, or passes on to you any kind of fear or, you know, restrictions or reasons why you shouldn't do something, then that can really impact that path that we were talking about earlier in a sense, you know. So, I mean, I had the same, my mum and dad, my mum certainly was very much kind of like, God, no, go live your life, go do you, you know, that's which I think is such a, it's that permission slip, isn't it, that you don't realize that you're being handed at the time.

Fee, Choose Healthy (36:47.005)
.

Fee, Choose Healthy (37:10.171)
Yes, and what a congenial, Mum was very much, know, go do what you need to do, you know, enjoy life. But, you know, years later when I got to see my father, it was like, well, why did you do glass blowing? Why did you do? That's very strange, because he was very academic and I think he didn't really understand kids, to be honest.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (37:14.232)
But, know, when you talk to people later on and people are looking for permission to do things, you think actually it probably started much earlier than now. You know, you just didn't have the permission from a parent perhaps to go and do these things in the first place.

Fee, Choose Healthy (37:37.277)
And I found his approach quiet. I was like, hmm, it's just a bit strange, you know.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (37:50.017)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (37:53.309)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (37:59.035)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (38:02.806)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. I kind of rub up against that. It's that kind of like, there's almost a defiance that comes up in me and kind of goes, why not? Well, why not? Why can't I do that? But it, but look, if you that obviously, but was the greatest influence in that sense that you got to do all the things that you got to do and experience everything that you got to experience. So when you look back across, what's the thread or is there a thread that you can see running through everything, whether that was like a strength or a struggle, you know, something that's just

Fee, Choose Healthy (38:16.22)
Well, yes, about taking opportunities, you know, being a risk taker, but I think it's perseverance and resilience because it wasn't all roses, you know, I didn't land in places and it all just fell into place, but it was just, yeah, sometimes persevering was something when it didn't naturally...

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (38:31.81)
basically threaded through your life.

Fee, Choose Healthy (38:42.728)
it didn't seem very natural to you, think was a good thing, resilience, relying on like there's another way, I think that's, yeah. And you know, hopefully that inspires, you know, people because yeah, I think if you're not happy with something or you want to give something a go,

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (38:50.158)
Mm.

Fee, Choose Healthy (39:09.594)
I really feel like you should join and it. Otherwise you'll always wonder.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (39:31.148)
Yeah, yeah, just stick in. yeah. gosh. Yeah, absolutely. I think when I was growing up, my mum would always say, I wish I'd done this. I wish I'd done that. And I remember thinking, I don't ever want to be saying that. I don't ever want to be saying I wish I'd done something. The regret of having not something for me was always much greater than the fear of doing it in the first place. You know, so I think that was, that's been one of my drivers.

Fee, Choose Healthy (39:39.196)
Yes.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (40:00.558)
think really. And I think, for you, obviously, you know, when you're rocking up in places, you know, and you've just, you know, jumped all in, I mean, that is resilience. Cause as you say, it's not kind of all of sudden you're landing in this place and somebody's going to, has a golden ticket, you know, you have to kind of like knuckle down and kind of like, right, I've got to make this work. you know, so yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (40:03.037)
But I'm like you, I want to get to my rocking chair going. I've bloody gave life a go, and not sit there with regrets. I've lived life, I've just given it a go. With some of my students, they don't have very many experiences maybe yet.

you know, sometimes asking them what your experience is, it's kind of hard because like I said, they haven't had so many experiences. But by the time I was 18, I'd done the...

Fee, Choose Healthy (40:58.737)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (41:04.65)
Yeah, yeah. You had a big imagination, obviously. No, that's true. Yeah, absolutely. So what was, obviously this is Unraveling, the Diary of a Middle-Life Maester. So tell me what was happening, was there a point at which the wheels came off for you or was there a point where it began to unravel?

Fee, Choose Healthy (41:07.524)
Yeah, so when I sort of hit my fifties and my mum had maybe passed away, I just kind of went, well, I looked around and I thought, isn't this it? Because now I was in this secure job, what have you, and I thought, well, everyone's just...

on this kind of end mill to rediamond and I thought well I can still want to live life you know I can have the security but I still want to experience things and so life coaching was a fairly new thing and I thought that might be a good addition to teaching fitness so I did a couple of qualifications in that and that still wasn't quite hitting it and then I thought

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (41:55.086)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (41:57.647)
Well, what about if I create a business? Why not? And so I sort of went down that path. But yeah, was really in my early fifties, I did really look around and think, is this it?

You know, those moments when you look in the mirror and you can see that there are changes, you know, oh, where's my waist? You know, what's happened? But it was really that sort of moment. I just thought, no, I don't want to be someone that just works and then retires and the place got all full.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (42:22.412)
Yeah, yeah, brilliant.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (42:35.63)
Mmm.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (42:43.714)
Yeah. Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (42:49.55)
Okay.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (43:00.078)
It's like, it's such a, it's such a pivotal period in your life in a sense. remember I loved my forties. I loved being 40. I loved everything that forties was. And then when I got to 50.

It was like, my God, I'm an actual adult. need to, and it's, you know, and I should have things sorted by now. I should have my shit together, you know? And looking at the woman in the mirror and not recognizing her was something that I found that was one of the wheels falling off moments for me, because you realize that actually you're not ready to be this old person or this person that's, you know, a mature adult hadn't fallen into that yet.

Fee, Choose Healthy (43:18.768)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (43:29.19)
Yes.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (43:41.768)
So yeah, and I, when I talked to friends, there was this real sense of like, what's next, you know, what is this it is this where I'm supposed to be? I now supposed, have I reached my peak and I'm now supposed to recede and disappear. So I think, you know, when you're saying about having that moment of kind of like, you know, is this it? think so many women experience that and particularly around that sort of 50 mark when you're, you know, you've, you've now got this extra.

Fee, Choose Healthy (43:43.153)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (44:05.797)
That's all.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (44:10.606)
Um, time and space, because if you've got kids, they're probably, you know, getting to the point where they're leaving the nest or whatever. And so you're, you've kind of got all this new time and space and then it's like, but then you're supposed to disappear and you're kind of like, I'm not, I'm just start, I'm just getting started. So, this, I know this is for you is like where you found yourself. So what did, what came next? What came, I mean, what, what prompted the unraveling? Obviously, obviously you said you lost your mom and then you thought about, you know, what next?

Fee, Choose Healthy (44:17.03)
Good.

Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (44:24.123)
And so it was because I was already in the health and fitness industry and I wanted to do something to add to that because I like teaching, coaching, mentoring. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what I do, I think I love to help people feel good about themselves, you know, like, and yeah, I just wanted, I wanted a bit more. And so.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (44:40.844)
What came from that?

Fee, Choose Healthy (44:51.555)
I just, I took that time to explore and then I saw the start of the business but didn't really take it seriously and then probably about 18 months ago I pressed pause and then I...

took my business and myself in a slightly different direction and I'm really loving that. I've got to allow the time in my fifties to still explore. I don't know if I actually answered your question.

Fee, Choose Healthy (45:42.512)
See ya.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (45:46.616)
I think, I mean, like it's that it's it is that exploration. And I do think the fifties, certainly early fifties is a time when we start to do that, exploring who we are. And what was there any kind of revelations for you? And we'd certainly start to do the inner work, as they call it more, you know, were there any, were there any sort of discoveries for you that was something that came up that you went, yes, this is who I am. This is what I, you know, that moment of clarity where you kind of thought, I know what I want. I know what I'm here for.

Fee, Choose Healthy (45:56.188)
Well, I think I actually probably have bit more in my 60s. And like I said, probably in the last couple of years, because I've arrived, you know. So, yeah, and I think, yeah, just getting the clarity about where I wanted to go with.

you know, my day job and the business now. But in my 50s, I would think I was exploring, you know, although all my life I've explored, but I feel like in my 50s, I was really exploring with that whole coaching side, how could I actually really make these two things work.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (46:22.638)
Hmm.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (46:31.682)
Yeah, amazing.

Fee, Choose Healthy (46:43.833)
you know, how can I help you? And yeah, I did find out like I really wasn't someone that was into weight loss. You I couldn't work with someone for like, you know, I just couldn't do it. But you know, organizing events and I started to feel I really like that, bringing people together. I love to bring people together, but then I want to be in the background. You have a good time, but I've created this.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (47:17.486)
Mm.

Fee, Choose Healthy (47:19.439)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (47:28.898)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (47:30.523)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (47:31.374)
Yeah. Yeah. But as you say, it's, well, I suppose it's through the exploration that we discover that, isn't it? We discover the things that we like and the things that we don't like, and we become quite discerning about the time or the energy that we give to things that we perhaps, you know, recognize maybe quicker than we did previously that that's going to work for us or it's not going to work for us, you know, so we'll kind of...

Fee, Choose Healthy (47:46.299)
So, like I said, I breast-paused a couple of years ago because I was like, I'm in this health coaching thing and it's just, something's not suiting right, so let's just breast-pause. And then I thought, you know, I've actually never really had a gap year. I mean, yeah, I've gone and lived in different countries and all of that, but I've actually never just had a gap year. And then...

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (47:59.726)
doesn't say quite necessarily to move on quicker, but it's only through exploration that we do that. So tell me about your business. What is it you offer? What do you do?

Fee, Choose Healthy (48:13.729)
I thought I wondered if there are other older...

women who also want to have a gap year but maybe like me can't take a whole year off so we can break that down into golden gaps and explore, travel and experiences and adventure without having to completely change our lives. So yeah, that's where I am now and I genuinely really love it because I think it's

really connected to me more than perhaps the actual health coaching. I I still think you obviously want to be as mobile and as healthy as possible to age because, you know, we want to get to that rocking chair ourselves. We don't want to be in that.

And yeah, so I organise events to bring people together, usually every month. And I love doing collaborations because I love sharing people and that it's usually around some sort of health and wellness and, you know, women at 50 plus who want to explore this next chapter. I like giving them permission, know, to do it. So that's why I'm here.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (49:20.972)
Hmm.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (49:26.498)
Yes, yeah, for sure. Yeah, and get out of it.

Fee, Choose Healthy (50:01.167)
Yes.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (50:01.665)
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I mean, it's brilliant though, isn't it? And as I say, it's kind of like, it's like, in a way, everything that you've done before, you know, like the travel and just, and again, having that mum that gave you that permission slip from a young age, it's like, you're now in a position to be able to pass that permission slip onto other women who perhaps never had that, you know, growing up. So, yeah. So I just think it's, it's a

Fee, Choose Healthy (50:23.994)
to it's not over. I think it's the main thing, it's not over.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (50:28.288)
It's a brilliant thing that you do. What would your, you know, so if you were to give some advice to another woman who has got to that point in life where she's looking at herself and kind of going, you know, what next? Is this it? You know, what would you, what would you say to her?

Fee, Choose Healthy (50:31.994)
You know, just art small, just kind of exploring what do you like, what passion do you have for things. Maybe you want to rekindle a past hobby, but you've yourself that away because you've been focusing, you know, maybe work, family. And, you know, what adventures do you want to have? And they can be small, you know, so I try to break it down into doing something weekly, monthly, quarterly.

and I break it down to travel, experiences and adventures. So I think the first thing is to just do, to realise that life isn't over and that this next chapter could be even better and this is your time to explore and just start small.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (51:37.41)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (51:45.282)
I think, yeah, I think realising that they can do it without it having to be this huge life-changing thing, as in, mean, like you've got to move to another country. So what have I seen? I've seen when someone really, you know, finds their passion in maybe a hobby.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (51:50.144)
Yeah. What's the, what's the smallest adventure that you've seen that completely changed someone? I mean, obviously, you know, obviously you take these women out and is, what's the, you know, you talk about this golden gap. I mean, something that would have looked like unremarkable on paper, but it shifted everything for them.

Fee, Choose Healthy (52:13.563)
or maybe like they go and do something that's taking a real step out of their comfort zone. So maybe, I don't know, going for a hot air balloon ride or jumping out of a plane. Something they've always wanted to do. I mean, it sounds small, but it can be a big step to the next.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (52:20.162)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (52:48.94)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (52:57.998)
yeah, it's huge. And I, you know, I say the same thing, and I spoke about this for the week, I was just saying, you know, when I talk about my business, if I was to distill it down to a moment, it's for me, when that woman looks at herself in the mirror and kind of remembers who she was, you know, and as you say, it's not some massive, you know, I'm buying a ticket and doing a traveling around the world thing. It's just that moment of like, either remembering or recognition or

Fee, Choose Healthy (53:04.218)
Yes, yeah, that moment that you've actually given to yourself, because you can see, you know, you probably know, like the beginning of the workshop, people come in and then, but at the end, they're like, wow, you know, I've given something to myself, and it'll help them have the energy to carry on, you know, until maybe the next...

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (53:23.872)
I can do this or, you know, it's, those shifts, isn't it? That are just so powerful.

Fee, Choose Healthy (53:40.442)
It can be just as well as going for a walk or changing a cafe or meeting that friend that you never do have to have for a day in Rockingham like I did with a friend I'd never been to Rockingham. And she was actually from there and she said, do you really want to go there? And I went, yeah, never been. So we had the best day. Well, that's all right.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (53:43.832)
Yes. Yes.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (53:52.374)
Yeah. Well, it has a ripple effect, doesn't it? mean, like, you know, whatever that shit is, it kind of ripples into their life, their family, their conversations, whatever, you know? So it's, yeah, that's amazing. So.

Fee, Choose Healthy (54:12.443)
Yeah, living the dream. Living the dream. Yep.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (54:14.242)
Yeah.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (54:28.482)
It's nuts, isn't it? I've traveled all around the world, but I've never been to Rockingham, which is randomly outside Perth. It's kind of like, I don't know, what, 40 minutes south of Perth, the city. Living the dream, absolutely. What would you go back then and whisper to that little girl that was writing that diary or writing that, you know, that she'd written her biography? What would you go back and tell her?

Fee, Choose Healthy (54:38.97)
I enjoy every moment, I think. no regrets, think just, yeah, if an opportunity presents itself, it, you know, do it. Yeah, live it, don't have any doubts, you know, because you will be able to, yeah, you'll have the resilience, the go big skills.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (54:56.552)
And yeah, what sage piece of advice would you give to her?

Fee, Choose Healthy (55:09.398)
And yeah, well, no, I probably would tell her, I probably would say it's a good idea to maybe have a buffer, put a little bit of money away. So it's a good idea to have a little buffer, you know, because I think that's what I was saying. Yeah, back up.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (55:33.47)
Yeah, it sounds like she did. It sounds like she did all those things anyway. I don't know what you'd go back and tell her, but she didn't already do to be fair.

Fee, Choose Healthy (55:42.746)
Thank you.

Fee, Choose Healthy (55:48.27)
But.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (55:53.294)
Yeah, I do that as well. Have a backup plan. No, I think it's brilliant. Yeah, wonderful. thank you so much. It's been such a joy hearing your story, Fee. mean, what a wild ride and of course it's not over yet. We're still going and...

Fee, Choose Healthy (55:56.731)
Look, it's exciting. 60s are really exciting. I think every decade is exciting. I love the 40s, I love the 50s. In the 60s, you've got no more Fs to get into really, I feel. it's fantastic.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (56:16.748)
you know, if we don't get to that kind of end goal without like scorch marks on our pants, then there's still something that we've got left to do, I think.

Fee, Choose Healthy (56:25.486)
Thank you.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (56:27.938)
Yeah.

Fee, Choose Healthy (56:29.132)
Thank you so much. didn't know where we were going with our conversation, but it's been fantastic. Thank you.

Sharon Wilkes-Burt (56:38.67)
Yeah, I'm thinking that in the fifties, so I don't know where the sixties is going to go. what love left. Oh, thank you so much. This has been an absolute joy speaking to you. So thank you for joining me today.