How does a community engagement officer, events and PR whizz, and avid collector spend her spare time? Sarah Flenley lets us know.

Each weekend varies depending on what I have to do.

I work for the Eliminate Dengue program, so sometimes there are community engagement activities on the weekend. Last weekend, for example, I was underneath a beautiful big tree doing Moon over Machans.

The weekend beforehand, I was organising the Diane Cilento tribute.

It really depends on what’s on. I’m doing promotion for The Colony (an indie play showing at the Centre of Contemporary Arts) so recently I was out at Wangetti Beach for the photo shoot.

I also like to do the markets. I have a side business, Eliza Goes Retro, and once a month I go to the markets at Yungaburra and once a month on Sundays to the Tanks to sell my retro wares.

I’m a bit of a collector, so I love going to garage sales on Saturday mornings. I get up early, go and get The Cairns Post, work out what I like and then I go and find them.

I love objects that are part of Cairns’ history. I met this guy who was in a travel agency in the ’70s and he had this blackboard and he had painted the prices from Cairns to Cooktown and Cairns to Townsville. I love collecting parts of history.

I love objects that still work. For example, I have an iron from the ’60s and it still works beautifully.

I’m really interested in people and how they connect and I love stories, which brings in vintage and collecting. For example, if there’s an old cake tin, I’m interested in who cooked what in it, and for whom they made their cakes.

On a Friday night, what I do depends a lot on the week I’ve had.

I’ve had a big change of lifestyle in the past year or so, so now I’m early to bed, early to rise. It has to be a pretty big occasion to keep me up late.

I might go to a show at CoCA – I went to see Boy Girl Wall there, which was fabulous – or I might go to a show at JUTE or a gallery opening.

If I’m not going to an event, I’ll have a quiet night in or dinner with friends.

On Saturday mornings, I wake up and do about 15 minutes of gentle exercise, and then I’m off to my garage sales.

The weekend wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Rusty’s. To me, it’s not only about local produce but about having a connection with the Cairns community.

I love Saigon Hut, the Vietnamese place, and I love to get a bowl of pho (soup).

Of course, there’s always the domestics to do, like washing, cleaning and ironing.

On Saturday nights, again, what I do varies. I like to keep life simple. I might cook and have a quiet night in.

I went gluten, dairy and sugar-free because I wanted to have a more honest relationship with my body. For too long, my body has been subject to my head. I wanted to live in a more natural way.

I watch movies sometimes. I like arthouse and Australian films.

I have been known to get stuck into a TV series, like Breaking Bad or Six Feet Under (both American series).

On Sundays, I like to get out in nature, so maybe I’ll go to Behana Gorge, have a swim at Trinity Beach, or have a quick dip at Stoney Creek. If I’m not feeling up to it, I’ll catch up with friends and go for a walk around the neighbourhood.

I quite like having a balance between time with friends and time on my own.

I listen to my body. Sometimes I want to rest and sometimes I want to be out connecting with people.

It’s about feeding into what’s the loving thing for me to do.

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