In between house open for inspections on Saturday morning, Bubba and I stopped for a coffee/bottle break. The little urban cafe was crowded with families, couples, groups of friends, dogs with their families at the outdoors tables.

The kind of place you’d love to be your local cafe. If only the house on that street had been half as nice as the cafe, we’d have been happy girls!

Bubba charmed the people around us – a few of the wait staff stopped by to say hello and tell me how gorgeous she is.

Two of them stopped for a chat when they saw that I had real estate paraphernalia sitting on the table. We were talking about how hard it is to rent in Sydney and I was saying how tricky it is to be up against couples when I’m the sole income earner, and finding somewhere that’s okay for dogs on top of that. All of this conversation came around to me being a single mother. So I told the two girls the story of how Bubba came to be.

A little while later, when we were leaving, one of the girls said to me “You look so fantastic, what’s your secret?”. People seem surprised when I tell them how old I am (it’s my 42nd birthday today – how did that happen?), and if they happen to find out my story, they seem even more agog that I am not looking a total wreck (even though some days I am definitely feeling it!).

Most days I take working full time, being a mumma and just getting on with life in my stride. After all, it is what it is. Yet, so often people make comments to me like the one by the girl in the cafe.

I think my secret is this: I’m happy. I followed my dream and did what I wanted to do in life. I wanted to become a mumma. And now I am one. And it’s amazing.

So, that’s my secret. Happiness. Greater than I ever thought possible.