Love My Work

I need to declare how much I LOVE teaching photography.

This is only my second workshop, but the happiness that I feel when my students 'get' what I'm telling them is almost overwhelming.

The beaming smile that happens when they learn something unexpected, but meaningful to them, is a joy to behold.

The gasp of excitement when they realise that something they believed would be difficult to learn is easier than expected, is music to my ears.

When they actually put what I teach into practice and they get the result 'I' asked for, well that's an amazingly satisfying feeling for both of us.

Today was like that.

I felt that my students left the class at the end of the day, exhausted but on a high, full of gratitude, and looking forward to day two.

I'm looking forward to day two as well!

This is a small, intimate and friendly group of four ladies who were each warm and welcoming as the next one walked through the door and who all spent the day helping each other find the different dials, buttons and settings on their cameras.

We spent an hour in the morning practicing what they'd learnt about ISO, aperture and shutter speed indoors and then an hour in the afternoon at the beach practicing the same outdoors. I was surprised at how quickly they got the hang of it and how easily they understood which dials to use to change each of those settings.

They are a clever bunch of ladies.

The Motivator made a fresh batch of GF brownies which were still warm when she arrived at the shop. There was enough for morning and afternoon teas and there is still more for tomorrow! One of the ladies brought along a savoury dip with celery and carrot sticks which she shared with everyone. We also had fresh grapes and strawberries with tea and coffee.

Nobody touched the jug of water that I had in the middle of the table! Naughty ladies!

Meanwhile The Motivator had a VERY busy morning in the shop with lots of customers and good sales.

After everybody left, I had to clean up the room, wash all the coffee cups and set up the trays ready for tomorrow's morning tea, so it was after 3.30pm when I left.

On the way home, I had to drop in to see a lady who did my first photography workshop. She loves to chat so by the time we finished talking business and then finished talking pleasure, I didn't arrive home until 5pm!!

Adoring Husband had cooked a roast lamb during the day for lunch so we used the last of that to make toasted sandwiches for dinner - a nice easy dinner because I was positively exhausted!

I didn't get to sleep until around 3am this morning and my alarm woke me at 6am so I've been running on three hours of sleep all day. I was in bed at 1.30am but just couldn't relax enough to fall asleep - even running through my mediation app twice didn't help.

It's probably not surprising that I've misplaced my keys twice today and my phone once. I guess I should be grateful that they were my only 'running on empty' problems all day.

It's now 7.30pm and even though my beloved Broncos are playing the Sharks in the footy tonight, I doubt that I will see the game to it's completion. I feel that sleep will claim me before then. I have actually tipped against my team tonight and already they are looking fantastic and are winning 12-nil!

Have a fabulous Sunday everybody!

Nite all.  

Midnight Madness

Yes! It's well after midnight and I am just off to bed.

I've spent the evening finishing off my course and printing out the info sheets and assignments.

I need to be up at 6am so that I can put the folders together in the morning before the class begins.

I also need to go to the supermarket and organise some food for morning and afternoon teas!

The pressure is on.

Luckily, my class has reduced from seven to four. Three of the original ladies had the wrong kind of camera. What they believed to be a DSLR was not!

So they will do one of my point and shoot workshops at a later date and I can focus my attention on the four ladies who will be in the class tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm off to bed, but before I go, we received some new stock in the shop today and here is your sneak peek!

Nite all.

Not So Restful

My second day off work started with the alarm waking me at 4.40am.

Ugh.

The Motivator picked us up at 5.10am and we drove to the train station and dropped Adoring Husband off to catch the train to Brisvegas.

Upon my return home, I climbed back into bed for about two hours.

I rode to the Post Office and checked the mail, bought some coffee and some groceries, then dropped off the paper bags to The Happy Abode.

I returned home and did a couple of loads of washing, put a casserole in the slow cooker, made some Hainan Chicken, Curried Chicken and a big pot of Bolognese Sauce all now in the freezer for future meals.

I watched a movie and cleaned up the kitchen.

The Motivator picked me up at 8.25pm so that we could return to the train station and pick up AH when the train arrived.

He ate a big bowl of beef casserole for a late dinner and climbed into bed feeling exhausted after his big day.

The Professor was very happy with how AH is managing the PD so nothing is changing for now.

Here we are at 11pm and I'm ready for bed.

Short and sweet tonight.

Nite all.

Movie Date

I planned to be up bright and early this morning to get some housework done before Adoring Husband and I headed off for our date day.

Motivation, however, was a problem and I couldn't even get out of bed until thirty minutes before we had to leave.

Unsure of the roadwork situation between here and The Bay, we left with plenty of time to spare, just in case of holdups. Our concerns were unfounded and we arrived early at the cinema.

I wanted to see "I Feel Pretty" because it was the final session at the cinema and only $5 admission, so AH left me to watch that one alone (oh how I love to go the movies alone!) while he ran some errands around town.

We caught up after that movie to go into the next one "Oceans 8" together.

I enjoyed both movies very much! I think my favourite was "I Feel Pretty"

After the movies, we did some shopping. I really wanted to buy some organic fruit and veg from Go Natural, but I feel that AH has a mental block regarding this desire, and we didn't get there. He sucks.

*insert sarcastic smiley face here*

We spent quite some time at Stocklands where I searched for some white 3/4 length tights to no avail. Instead I purchased three pairs of white 3/4 pants. Being the end of the financial year, there are some good sales on at the moment, so it was worth the search.

It was after 5pm when we finally reached home and by the time we unpacked the shopping/groceries, it was time to prepare dinner. We were supposed to go to trivia tonight, but we were both exhausted from the day and we have a super early start tomorrow morning to catch the train to Brisvegas for AH's specialist appointment.

We pulled out of trivia - which was kind of disappointing, but necessary.

I haven't slept well for the last two nights so I'm feeling a tad weary. Hopefully tonight will be different and I'll sleep soundly.

That's totally it from me.

Nite all.

Evilly Me

I'm sitting here, by myself, giggling in the lounge room.

Adoring Husband and I each have a fan directly across from our lounge chairs on the opposite side of the room.

My fan is a tall tower, it no longer oscillates and seems to be much less powerful than it once was, while Adoring Husband's is a tall, powerful pedestal fan that oscillates perfectly. He never puts it on oscillate and has it aimed directly at his chair all the time.

Every time he goes to bed, I change the direction of his fan so that it's aimed at my chair and I change the speed to a couple of notches faster than he likes it.

Every day, he changes it back to suit him and then every night I change it again.

Tonight, I found it highly amusing and couldn't help laughing out loud as I once again changed all the settings! It was an evil laugh - even if I do say so myself!

We had a big crowd at the shop for coffee this morning and the last of the ladies left at 11am. We had spillage and panic and laughter and noise all morning.

There was a slow flow of customers through the door all day. A lot of tyre kickers, but all happy and friendly.

I wore a pair of Colorado half boots similar to these ...

... mine are a few years old now, but while I was at work today, the sole partially came away from the top part of the shoe. Ugh!! So I spent the day clomping around the shop hoping that it wouldn't completely come apart.

Oh my goodness! Oh dearie me! I may have to buy a new pair of shoes!!

Adoring Husband and I have a date day tomorrow. I have two days away from the shop and we are going to the movies. I hope to see two movies. 'I Feel Pretty' with Amy Schumer and 'Oceans 8' with a gazillion famous faces.

I'll give you my critique tomorrow.

Once again, it's after 11pm so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Meditation Fail

i jumped out of bed bright and early, prepared for work and left the house well before 7am, pedalling to the shop so that I could open up early for The Gypsy to set up for meditation classes.

The Gypsy usually arrives around 7.10am but this morning, when she still was nowhere in sight by 7.20am, I checked my phone for a message, only to discover that she had sent a text at 4am telling me that she was too ill to come in!

At that moment, our most regular and reliable client walked in with her adult son. She was closely followed by one other lady who, due to family commitments, attends intermittently.

I knew that I simply was not prepared to run a meditation class on my own, so I offered them a cuppa and a morning chat in our lounge area. One of the ladies seemed keen until the other’s son asked if he could pitch a product to me, so she made a rapid escape while he prepared to pitch.

I was not prepared to begin my week feeling stressed, so I dealt with the dilemma the best way I could. Nobody minded being turned away and they are still keen to return next week, so it all worked out in the end.

It was a slow morning, but the afternoon picked up and I was able to make some biz phone calls and respond to some biz emails, update our social media cover page and take some pics to post on Facebook. That turned out to be fruitful, generating two good sales!

This is what I made on Sunday ...

... I have $42million in my own currency!

Gawd, it’s after 11pm and I need to sleep!

Nite all.

The Next Project

So, now that things are somewhat settled with The Happy Abode, we have created a routine of sorts and are comfortable with our progress, though certainly NOT resting on our laurels and ALWAYS looking at developing new ideas and creating change when necessary, I am now looking at a new project.

This project was always a part of my 'to do' list and an integral part of creating income to supplement the shop and the in-house workshops. This idea will also be integrated into mini workshops at the shop if I plan it correctly.

My idea is to create online programs and courses.

At this stage, I have two in the pipeline. One is for health, wellness and happiness. There will be a choice to either follow a step by step program that introduces lifestyle changes to improve your health and wellness OR a choice to pick and choose the changes that you want to slip into your current lifestyle that will still significantly improve your health and happiness.

The second idea is a photography course that also follows a program and includes practical challenges that will ultimately improve skills and add to the experience and expertise of budding photographers with any type of camera.

At the moment, I've joined a website that provides the training for creating these courses and programs and it also provides the platform to build them. I imagine that it will be a slow process considering my other commitments, and how slowly my brain absorbs technical jargon, but I'm excited about the possibilities!

While doing some initial research for my first program, I came across this video of  93 year old Charles Eugster doing a TED talk. He died three months before his 98th birthday of heart failure, but he was a strong and fit fellow enjoying many sporting accomplishments and successes in his nineties and certainly living life to the fullest.
 


Here is a story about him ... Charles Eugster

I hope to share some inspirational videos and stories about the older generation of health conscious humans on the planet who have changed and improved their health situations for the better.

So my lovely friends and readers will get the benefit of my research and hopefully pick up a few tips along the way!

There is a very big storm skirting around us, of which we are catching the edge right now. It looks very bad and it snuck up on us without much warning!

Today is Sunday and I have spent the entire day in bed doing my research and setting the groundwork for my online program.

It's now 4.03pm and I am about to get up to watch the footy. Unfortunately, Parramatta destroyed my chances of getting a perfect round last night, but at least I gained two of the four points that Adoring Husband surpassed me by last week!

Meditation tomorrow and The Motivator has the day off so I'll be enjoying a public holiday in the shop on my own.

An early mark for me today with the blog.

Nite all.