farmdoc's blog post number 273

Kooyong Park. We’d go there each Saturday morning. The two of us. For her to compete in Little Athletics. And I mean compete. Her sense of competition was fierce. She didn’t run with style and grace. But she strained every muscle fibre to its limit. She ran to win. And when she didn’t win, she was distraught. Stricken. Inconsolable. There’s one thing I couldn’t ever say about darling Meg – that she lacked determination. Whether it was hardwired, or because she was neither the oldest nor youngest of her sisters, I know not. But I saw it when at primary school she climbed the trees and then taught the boys to – earning the nickname ‘Mogus the Rough One’ whose acronym MTRO I affectionately use even today. And with determination she’s styled her life according to the colour red. Not any colour, mind you. But red. Also determinedly she’s embraced the internet, extracting from it, and adding to it especially via her Land of Meg blog, using her well-developed – signature, even – quirkiness and irony. She reminds me so much of my Mum. She also solves my technical blog problems – generously and easily. Once an unshakeable City Girl, she now lives in the hills outside Melbourne, admirably determined not to shop at supermarkets and not to buy anything packaged in plastic. In so many many ways she brings joy to my life. Darling Meg, thank you for being my daughter, friend, helper and inspiration. Happy birthday, MTRO.