What’s your name?
Annabel Thomas
Where do you live?
Shepparton.
How long have you lived here?
I moved here when I was 18 and lived here for four years. Then I moved back to Melbourne for six years before coming back here. So all up, I’ve lived here about 27 years.
What is your favourite thing about the Goulburn Valley?
It’s like you know so many people. You’ve got friends everywhere. You know more people than you would if you lived in the big smoke.
What do you do with yourself?
I do promotions and marketing at Shepp RSL. I’ve been there coming up to nine years.
What I do there, I really love doing it.
It’s not like a job. I muck around with members and patrons, and you have fun.
It’s a very good place to work.
I also have my own business where I help people save money on essential services like gas, electricity, NBN and mobiles.
How do you like spending your time?
Going to see live music. I love live music.
It’s like you can lose yourself in the whole atmosphere.
I love singing along to music.
What piece of advice would you give your younger self?
Cherish every second of time spent with our girls when they were little and not take it for granted.
They’re grown up now and it happened in the blink of an eye.
I really miss how special a time it was and would give anything to have that time again.
What does Remembrance Day mean to you?
Before I worked at the RSL I respected and understood it.
But now it’s a whole new level. Its showing genuine respect to people I now know.
It’s intense what they went through.
I still hear the Ode at 6pm at the RSL and can get a tear in my eye.