Classic Holidays

There has been a steady stream of cars, boats, caravans and trailers making their way into town all day.

They filled all the empty car spaces at the shopping centre and the caravan parks are almost full.

While there was slow stream of customers through the shop early in the morning, the rain made the stream much slower in the afternoon, but it gave The Motivator and I time to get a lot of 'stuff' done, some of which will need to be finished tomorrow.

There was also a lot of silliness going on with the two of us making strange sounds and singing weirdly and joking around with each other, but we still got stuff done.

We are prepared.

We hope!

A lot of those holiday people were at the club for dinner tonight and the queue was a mile long as they all waited to order their meals. Some were beautifully dressed and some much more casually, but you could definitely sense the relaxed and happy holiday mood permeating the air!

I had a losing night and even the usual winners in our group missed out, while there were lots of cheers coming from the less familiar faces.

It's going to be a big weekend - lets hope we survive intact. Let's hope the weather doesn't cause any problems - and if it does, may it bring the bored people who can't fish in the rain, to our shop for some shopping!

Meanwhile, I wish you all a very happy Easter. Be safe and be happy.

Nite all.

 

Lunch with the Ladies

It took me forever to figure out what to wear to the lady's luncheon today.

I've been feeling decidedly frumpy lately, so I'm not comfortable in many of my outfits. I haven't gained weight and they all still fit, but I don't feel right and I try five or six different outfits before choosing something and then, more often than not, my choice is just the best of a bad bunch.

I felt comfortable in my choice today though, so I was happy.

There seems to be more newbies than originals in the lady's group these days.

It was still a pleasant day at the Golf Club where the food was delicious (a good range of GF options), most of the staff were happy and friendly and the atmosphere was really relaxed and comfortable.

There were a couple of new Happy Abode customers in the group and I was seated near them today, so I networked and told a few other ladies about the shop. I'm still surprised when locals tell me that they don't know about the shop.

We are now seven months open and I really thought that word of mouth and 'time' would have spread the news to the far edges of town by now.

Apparently not.

I arrived home at about 2.45pm so I slipped into something a little more comfortable and took the time to set up my new iPad, which was pretty easy and interesting.

For dinner I caramelised some sweet potato, carrot, onion and zucchini mixed with garlic and cayenne pepper and which I then spooned onto a bed of baby spinach and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. I served that with crispy skinned chicken.

It was quite delicious but I didn't make enough because Adoring Husband was asking for seconds but the pan was bare.

My watch has just told me to get to bed, so I'm signing off right now!

Nite all.

Outta Control

It was a day that began with a plan, but ended totally out of control!

The Motivator had a lot of work to do - unrelated to The Happy Abode - and we set a plan so that she could get it done.

The plan was that she would sit, head down bum up, getting her 'stuff' done while I tended to the customers.

Unfortunately the first few customers that entered the shop made a beeline straight towards The Motivator! They were all in for long discussions and even though she did stop to share in the joy of opening a box that was delivered to the shop ...

... she still hadn't got to her work by lunch time!

Try as she might, there was distraction after distraction including a long and detailed conversation about our dreams/nightmares and some interesting dream analysis, a visit by one of our artists to deliver some new leatherwork for us to sell over Easter and then a visit by the Secretary of the Amateur Fishing Club to collect our donations to the Fishing Classic.

We realised that Easter was almost upon us and we needed signage, new information postcards and business cards so I left work at 4pm with The Motivator still being her creative self and getting all of that organised.

Needless to say, her other work was still awaiting her attention by the end of the day.

Late today, I received a deposit from a lady who is going to attend my next photography course in June, which was pretty exciting for me!

Even though we were both totally distracted from our original plans for the day, it was a successful day in The Happy Abode and quite a lot was achieved, even though it wasn't on the original plan.

Adoring Husband went shopping in The Bay today and returned home with two new iPad Pros. My iPad is almost 8yrs old and has been on it's last legs and struggling to make it through each day for some time. AH uses his iPad for just about everything so his old one was well used and also struggling.

By the time I arrived home from work, he had already set up his new iPad and will now be able to give me instructions for setting mine up when I'm ready!

Wednesday is lady's lunch day and I have the day off work to have some fun with the girls.

This means that I must get some sleep now.

Nite all.  

Soooo Tired

Is it the weather?

I can't seem to raise my energy levels.

Actually, it's my mental energy levels. Physically, I feel pretty OK, but I can't seem to motivate myself to do anything much at all.

This morning, when I had to be at work early for meditation, it felt like the morning was going in slow motion, or should I say 'I' was going in slow motion and the clock was moving super fast! I arrived on the dot of 7.30am just as meditation was beginning.

The work day also went really fast and we had a steady flow of customers to keep us reasonably busy.  We also had a visit from our local artists to discuss and accept some new artwork to sell over the holidays.

We are rapidly selling our range of Intrinsic products, which is understandable, because they are beautiful and have a way of moving people.

Holiday-makers are already filling the town and some of them were here during previous holidays and already knew our location, so we were their first stop, which was nice.

The Motivator enjoyed a treatment with The Gypsy this afternoon and I spent some time laying out my vision board which I hope we can do together tomorrow if we're not too busy.

Looking forward to coffee with the girls in the morning.

Now I'm off for a good night's sleep.

Nite all.

De-what???

What was that word I mentioned yesterday?

Decluttering?

Haha!

Noooooooo.

There was no decluttering done today.

The most effort I made today was putting together a salad to go with our protein tonight.

I accidentally stumbled across my suitcase in the spare bedroom (where Adoring Husband had put it some time ago) and it still contained some of my clothes from the trip to Sydney!!

One of those items was a kaftan that I bought at a temporary kiosk in the mall near our motel.

Those of you who know me, know that I am not generally a kaftan kind of girl - but it is was bought as my anchor - my anchor to the magnesium filtered pool that is in our future!

I wore it today and it's comfortable if you're sitting around doing nothing, but it kind of gets in the way when you're trying to do something like getting clothes out of the washing machine, wiping down kitchen benches or grabbing lots of food items out of the fridge.

So the plan is to get the pool, wear the kaftan and sit around the pool doing nothing! Kaftans are perfect for doing nothing!

I have nothing to show for today.

Nothing to share.

I'm looking forward to some early morning meditation tomorrow and a lovely day at work with The Motivator.

HappyMonday!

Nite sll.

All the Rs

Rest.

Relax.

Rejuvenate.

Revive.

Revitalise.

Retreat.

My day was full of it ... all the Rs.

Spent the entire day in bed clearing my energy, meditating, breathing it out, dozing, eating nutritious food, drinking lots of filtered water, studying, writing and resting.

I still feel a bit lethargic and I have a slight infection in my left eye which is annoying, but I'm dosing it up with colloidal silver gel every couple of hours and I can feel it improving and healing, so hopefully by tomorrow morning, I won't have to worry about it anymore.

Adoring Husband has returned home after a long day in Bundaberg on SES duty and his body is cramping up from being on his feet all day.

I had a big pot of lamb shanks waiting for him when he got home and it was full of healthful veg like carrot, zucchini, sweet potato, onion, tomato, garlic and celery. The usual fruit whip was what followed and now he is under a hot shower trying to relax those tight muscles.

His tomorrow is booked out doing the same thing in Hervey Bay and Maryborough, but that depends on how well his body recovers during the night.

What a pair we are!

Depending on how I feel upon waking tomorrow, I hope to do some decluttering through the house, but we'll see.

My watch is telling me to get some sleep.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

Nite all.

 

Done for the Week

What an amazing day!

It all started like a big ball of hell.

I got out of bed as soon as my alarm went off at 6am and jumped under the shower to wash my hair and prepare for the day.

I needed to be at work bright and early to set up the training room for the final session of my photography course, which I hadn't even finished creating, and still needed to finalise a couple of the finer details once I got to the shop.

Adoring Husband drove to the shop ahead of me, taking with him, my camera gear, the shop cash tin and my wheelie bag with my laptop and paperwork for the course. He arrived well before me, and as I walked in the door, he came through the training room door and closed it behind him.

BIG mistake.

The door handle has always been a bit dodgy and sometimes sticks if you turn it the wrong way, but today it was so much worse, when it actually locked itself fast. It doesn't have a key lock, but has a little slot which under normal circumstances you could turn with a screw driver to unlock it.

But dodgy doors don't fall under 'normal circumstances' and this one was locked fast.

There was a lot of swearing by me. There was a lot of stomping by me. There was a lot of eye rolling by me. There was a lot of name calling by me. There was a lot of huffing and puffing by me.

By the time AH drove home to find some tools to open the door - or should I say "rip the door apart" - and then actually ripped the door apart, I had about twenty minutes remaining to set up the room for my participants.

Truth is, the door is still intact, but the door handle is in a million pieces on the bottom of my desk rubbish bin. It took FOREVER for him to remove it!

I was still ready for the course on time and we actually went out for some photography on the beach where we attempted some 'leading lines', some straight horizons and some rule of thirds photography, using our cameras on 'manual' mode.

It was a huge success and the girls were very happy with the course - so I will ask them to write a review each, which should help me recruit for my next course in June.

The Motivator returned to work today and in one morning, our takings were more than every other day of the week put together! Amazing how the change of energy in the shop brought so many people  through the doors.

The final sale of the day was a gentleman from out of town who bought one of my photos! A big one!

I have tomorrow off work and I am really looking forward to having a lazy day. AH has to go to Bundaberg in his SES role, to help with the Queen's Baton Relay.

The hands of the clock are rapidly approaching midnight, so I'm off to bed.

A BIG Happy Birthday to Vegan Chickie who is out celebrating her 38th birthday tonight!

Nite all.

Serenade Me!

I was surprised to take delivery of our Serenade order today!

I wasn't expecting it until Friday or Monday, so it was a pleasant surprise.

It took me ALL DAY to check everything off the invoice, price it all, pack their protective bags inside them and then figure out how to display them.

There are some stunning bags and purses in the mix and I SO need to control myself and not take three of the bags home just for me! Maybe five of them! Drool Drool

The gale force conditions, combined with the scudding showers, kept people indoors today, so it was a very quiet day in the shop - which was fortuitous for getting stuff done.

Tomorrow is the final session for the photography workshop, so I need to get some sleep in preparation for some practical work on a photo shoot. I hope the weather is conducive to a successful shoot.

It was lonely without The Motivator today, so I'm looking forward to spending some time with her tomorrow.

Nite all.

She's Baaa-aaack!

The Motivator has returned!!

Woot Woot Welcome Home!!

Today, in The Happy Abode, it was completely the opposite of yesterday! Only five people came through the doors all day and while they had wonderful things to say about the shop, our prices and the lovely atmosphere, few people wanted to spend their money.

It's funny how some days (like yesterday), people walk in obviously wanting to spend spend spend and other days, like today, people come into the shop completely empty handed just to have a look only. Sometimes they return days later with friends in tow, but there is certainly no pattern, no rhyme nor reason for the spending or non-spending habits of people.

After almost eight months in business - looking at the available data - the only pattern that really stands out is that every pension day (every alternate Wednesday) we can guarantee a quiet day because pensioners spend that particular day in The Bay doing their grocery shopping and paying their bills.

One thing is for sure, every day is a surprise! Generally speaking, people are extremely friendly and want to tell you their story and share their lives with you and it's one of the things that I really enjoy about having the shop. I hope that we have the shop long enough to develop relationships with the regular holiday-makers and get to look forward to their return every year.

We are just over a week away from Easter and the big Easter Fishing Classic which will be bringing hundreds of people to town. We are expecting new stock to arrive over the next week and we've offered the Classic a number of prizes for their raffles and a monetary donation for the kids fishing prizes. We need to put some signs up around town to attract extra attention and add some signage to where the big classic brings the biggest crowds ... The Lions Park.

My watch is just about to tell me to go to bed, so I shall sign off here to do as I'm told ... for a change!

I have a lot to do tomorrow.

Nite all.

Terrific Tuesday

The energy felt completely different at The Happy Abode today.

My plan for getting to the shop early (8am) so that I could watch the live video call for my course, fell by the wayside when I woke up feeling lethargic and totally unmotivated.

I couldn't even drag myself out of bed until 7.30 and then my brain was lagging enough that I almost left the house without brushing my hair or putting on my make up.

I attempted to partly watch and partly listen to the live video call while I was getting ready, but I wasn't very successful. I left the house at 8.40am and arrived at the shop just before 8.50am with enough time to open the shop on my own, because Adoring Husband had SES duties, just in time to welcome Tweedle Dee (new name yet to be announced) for morning coffee.

There were four of us for coffee and it was 11am by the time our coffee date was over! Talking, talking, talking, talking and more talking!

It was busy in the shop with lots of customers and everybody was very happy and jovial and talkative and sharing and caring. I really enjoyed the day.

Aside from tending to customers, I paid some bills and answered some emails, did the banking and tidied up a bit ... my desk is still in need of some attention - maybe I'll have time to do that tomorrow.

AH helped me close the shop and we did some grocery shopping together before heading straight home.

I chopped up three more pineapples to freeze for our fruit whips, so now we have about twelve bags of it frozen in the freezer. Three bags of banana. Five bags of dragon fruit. Frozen fruit deliciousness for weeks to come!

We had Hainan Chicken for dinner. Yum.

We watched a very juicy episode of Married at First Sight and I can't wait for the final show tomorrow night (Wednesday). It's going to be epic!

Now it's exactly the right time for me to go to bed.

Nite all.

Mondayitis

No such thing as Mondayitis at The Happy Abode!

We love Mondays! We love ALL days!

We had another great meditation class at 7.30am and now have a wonderful bunch of ladies who, like me, are absorbing and relating to everything that The Gypsy talks about and we are all sharing some interesting pieces of our lives every week. There is a lot of love in the room and we are enjoying the healing process.

In so many ways, everyone has some healing to do.

It was a slow Monday, so I spent some time taking decent photos with my camera, editing a few of them to post on our Facebook page, instead of the usual lazy phone pics.

There were a few customers here and there as well as a couple of friends who dropped by and it was a beautiful day outside.

I was excited to sell the first of our new watches today.

Also, while we were at the gift fair in Sydney last month, I found a piece of jewellery that made me think of a specific customer immediately. So we bought it with her in mind. Today, she came into the shop and when I showed it to her, she loved it! She didn't buy it straight away because she wanted to check that she had something to wear it with ... so she went home, checked her wardrobe, and returned twenty minutes later to buy it!

Adoring Husband was his usual helpful self today.

The training room was still set up from my photography class on Friday, so he came early to the shop with me and helped set up the room for meditation and put the flags and signs out for me ... then I remembered that I had left my broth at home, so he drove home and collected that for me ... then later in the day he delivered my camera bag to me, and finally, at the end of the day he returned to help me close the shop.

What would I do without him?

We had duck for dinner tonight, followed by our favourite fruit whip ice cream.

And now, I have ignored my 'go to bed' alarm for long enough. I need to be at the shop before 8am tomorrow to watch a live video call for my biz course, so I'm off to bed!

Nite all.

Starvarated

I can't believe how hungry I am today!

It all started with a big cup of chicken bone broth, followed by eight small chicken n pork meatballs with home made spicy tomato sauce, followed by a glass of kombucha, followed by a plate of home made ice cream, followed by home made crackers dipped in home made guacamole, followed by a dragon fruit.

I didn't eat it all in one hit!

It's 6.30pm now, so that was over ten hours and tonight we'll be having porterhouse steak with salad for dinner and a fresh batch of home made ice cream for dessert. The ice cream is made from frozen pineapple, banana, dragon fruit, coconut cream, pure maple syrup and a pinch of salt, all chucked in the blender or food processor.

I sat in bed and did some of my studies until about 1.30pm when I got up and watched a great old black and white movie with Bing Crosby - 'Going My Way'.

The only housework that I've done is a couple of loads of washing and I'm just about to make the ice cream for after dinner, but I have to say that I'm still feeling very tired and a bit run down. I think I'm all 'peopled' out.

It's our first caffeine free day today. Adoring Husband has decided to go completely Paleo again because he has gained so much weight. Too much coffee, potato, bread, cookies and rice. I will probably still have a coffee every now and then when I'm at work, but I'm happy to get rid of the other foods that I mentioned.

A H is currently cooking our steak on the barbecue and I have prepared the salad to go with it, so it's time to end this post.

It will definitely be an early night for me.

A big hullo to The Blonde Bombshell, who I know has her phone working now and hopefully gets to read this every day while she's in hospital. I'll have to make it all a bit more interesting!

Nite all.

To The End

I think I'm a bit exhausted.

It's been business as usual, but also a long and tiring week, especially trying to complete the final day of the photography course today so that I could present it to Ms Extraordinaire after work this afternoon ... and that was difficult because I'd only just completed Day Two of the course the previous day.

Yes, yes ... I DO my best work under pressure, but once the pressure is released and complete, I fall into a screaming heap and really require some 'time out' to rejuvenate and regenerate.

That's what Sundays are for, and boy am I looking forward to this Sunday. I'm going to withdraw from the world for about six hours and be very gentle and kind to myself.

It was another quiet Saturday at The Happy Abode. Again, with the Baker and the Dress shop closed, people are going elsewhere to do their shopping and the rest of us are suffering, but as I've mentioned before, we need to figure out a positive plan of action to bring the people to us - all of us who are attempting to run successful businesses need to work together.

At least I had time to create the final part of the photography course, paid some invoices, prepared the banking for Monday, chatted with a couple of customers, emptied all of our bins, tidied the kitchen and cleared some work emails.

Adoring Husband came to the shop just before 1pm to help me close up and take home the cash tin, so that I could go straight to Ms Extraordinaire's to present the remainder of the course before she goes on holiday on Monday.

The more I learn about that woman, the more in awe I am and I shake my head in disbelief at how talented, creative, organised and efficient she is and her humility and honesty are heart warming. I like her a lot.

To give me time to wind down from work, she showed me through her house, pointing out different things that she had changed since moving in, showing me her AWESOME craft studio and all of the amazing creations that she had taught herself to make.

Her home is like a treasure trove, with surprises around every corner, stylishly decorated and with so many practical features to make life easier as they pass out of middle age and tread lightly into their twilight years. Her confidence that she will reach the age of 100 also makes her excited for all the creative pursuits she can follow and all the holidays and adventures she can experience.

After I finished showering her with accolades, we sat down and concentrated on what was left to learn about her camera and about photography. We reviewed the last two weeks of lessons and then went into her garden to practice some of the theory that she'd learned.

Her garden was another of her creations full of treasures and unusual plants, thriving with beneficial insects and birdlife and obviously the love of her life.

So my afternoon was thoroughly enjoyable. I was there for an hour longer than necessary, but I didn't look at my watch once, because I was very much enjoying my time with this lovely lady.

I finally found my way home to Adoring Husband who had prepared dinner for us and we sat down in front of the football with a plate full of delicious food to relax for the remainder of the day/evening.

Super Saturday football will finish earlier than usual tonight, so I expect to be in bed early.

I am feeling decidedly weary.

Nite all.

Another Woopsie

Adoring Husband informed me today that I didn't do my blog post last night!

That would be because I was frantically trying to finish creating 'day two' of my photography course - as you know, I do my best work under pressure - and even when I went to bed at 11pm last night, I still hadn't finished and had not figured out how I was going to fill three hours today.

This morning, I had an epiphany and it all fell into place perfectly.

Another lady joined my class today and I love the group who are incredibly keen to learn and are very proactive as they search through their cameras to find the various settings, helping each other and asking all the right questions.

One of the ladies is off on holidays on Monday and can't make the final week of the course, so I have volunteered to present the final three hours at her house after work tomorrow. She is a very good customer of The Happy Abode, was the first to put her name down for this course and was the first to pay in advance to ensure her place in the class. I'm happy to be flexible and accommodate her needs.

Hopefully, it will make all the difference for her holiday photos!

There is a camera to which I've been introduced in this class and two of my ladies have one. The Nikon Coolpix P900. It's worth around $600 on sale and from what I've seen, it's pretty amazing. The lens is 24-2000mm and takes amazing photos of the moon! It's very light and compact and I believe it would be a great camera for travel - especially for a less experienced photographer.

I never thought I'd be one to promote a Nikon, but so far, I'm very impressed with this one.

Because The Motivator is currently in Sydney, Adoring Husband was kind enough to 'man' the shop while I taught the class today. Unfortunately, he didn't make a sale, but luckily the day improved as far as sales go!

It was a pretty quiet night at the club tonight with only two of the usual crew in attendance. I won a little on the pokies but the ticket seller for the raffles forgot about me tonight and before I knew it, they were drawing the raffle and I didn't have any tickets to check.

It's now 10pm and I'm off to bed.

Before I go, I thought you might be interested in this video.  We are ALL deficient in magnesium - even if your Dr tells you that your blood tests show that your magnesium levels are good, this is not correct, because a blood test cannot measure accurate magnesium levels.

You might have trouble absorbing magnesium from food if you drink a lot of alcohol, if you have kidney problems, take certain medications, are Celiac or have long-lasting digestive problems.

Symptoms of magnesium deficiency are nausea, poor appetite, sleepiness and muscle weakness. Extreme cases can cause muscle spasms, cramps and tremors.

Over time, low magnesium can weaken your bones, trigger bad headaches, heighten your nerves and can damage your heart. It can also lead to low levels of calcium and potassium. Surgery can significantly reduce magnesium levels in your body.

Sooooooo ... here is a video to demonstrate how to make your own Magnesium Oil, which is the quickest and easiest way for your body to absorb magnesium - through your skin.



Easy peasy!

Nite all.

Windy Wednesday

Cyclone Linda has been downgraded to a Low, but she is still packing a bit of a punch with gale force winds causing havoc in the area.

The winds are strong enough to keep people inside, which is not so good for business and it's a struggle to keep our signs upright - even the A-frame on the footpath was blown over a number of times.

Gusts over 60kph have been recorded today, which is a bit scary and can be quite damaging. It was strong enough to blow open our big glass shop doors.

Only three people braved the weather to become my customers today, but that gave me lots of time to tick a few things off my 'to do' list including contacting the Amateur Fishing Club regarding donations and sponsorship for the big fishing classic at Easter.

I feel like I didn't stop all day, but I can't even remember most of what I did!

I mailed Vegan Chickie's birthday present this afternoon - surprisingly BEFORE her birthday! I didn't even brave the wind gusts to check our mail during the day, instead waiting til after I closed the shop.

Adoring Husband helped me close the shop and picked me up from work - I decided to leave my trike at home this morning because the weather was looking ominous and I wasn't sure that I could pedal against the wind!

We did a mini grocery shop where I bought three more pineapples to chop up and freeze ready for more fruity ice whips in our future. The pineapples are still sweet and juicy, so I think I will grab another three tomorrow. Pineapples are perfect for such a short period in the season, so I want to make the most of them while I can.

Pineapples are great for strengthening liver function and my liver was weakened by the medication that I took for my thyroid ten years ago, so I'll be pumping them into my belly whenever I can, along with other yellow fruit and veg.

Pineapples contain manganese which helps develop strong bones and connective tissue.

Eating pineapples helps reduce the risk of macular degeneration. They contain significant amounts of bromelain which aids digestion, helps reduce severe inflammation and helps in treating osteoarthritis.

Because of it's abundance of Vitamin C, it helps reduce mucus in the throat and nose and even though it's sweet, it's low in calories.

They are also delicious when ripe and in season!

Adoring Husband went a bit overboard when I asked him to buy some coconut cream today, so I made a big chicken tikka curry for dinner with cauliflower rice and papadums for dinner. There was some leftover fruit whip from last night which we had for dessert.

I was thwarted in my attempts to have an early night last night, so I will attempt to do so tonight!

5 Ways To Tell If A PINEAPPLE Is Ripe

Nite all.

Not Quite!

So, this morning, I woke up with a bright and positive state of mind.

I set alarms on my phone for every hour, with special messages to myself, the first being "Have an AMAZING day!"

The second "You are doing GREAT!" The third "Get up and DANCE!" The fourth "Organise some lunch!"

and so on ... each alarm had an upbeat, happy and danceable song, so every hour, my mood was lifted and my energy increased.

I also set a total for the day's takings in my head and said it out loud many times.

The day was totally enjoyable.

Only four of us were in attendance for morning tea, but we had some good laughs and shared some funny memories from our youth. Funny and rude!

There was a steady flow of paying customers through the door, which was nice, but I didn't quite reach my imagined total ... I need to practice manifesting my imaginings!

I welcomed The Little Mermaid into the shop for the first time in five months. I feel that she is on another downhill slide, after being clean for that long. I hugged her hello and she held the hug for a long time, releasing me with silent tears in her eyes and whispering "I can't breathe, I'm having trouble breathing."

I asked her if she was feeling anxious and she listed off a few things that she had experienced in the last couple of weeks, including her stepson's wedding in Perth and a psych assessment. She did say hello to the morning tea ladies and left wanting to say more, but waving herself away and leaving abruptly.

After the ladies left, I took photos and created a collage to put into our ad for the newsletters.

I designed and finished the ad for all the newsletters and emailed it through to each editor.

There was more pricing and displaying to do with journals and jewellery.

I booked an appointment with The Gypsy for a new town resident.

I checked the mail, ordered my lunch and ripped up all the cardboard boxes to put into the recycle bin.

Our front door needed a good clean (as Adoring Husband pointed out)  but it seems that a lot of what looks like dirty fingerprints on the door frame are actually stains and I couldn't remove them ... but at least it's clean!

Another lady phoned to ask if she could join my 'already started' photography course (I agreed to accept her request).

I counted and set aside the banking.

By this afternoon, my desk was looking disgusting and I couldn't figure out where to even begin to clear/organise the horrific mess that lay before me! So I put that on my 'to do' list for tomorrow, which means that I'm going to have to work hard on the positive re-inforcement when I wake up in the morning!

Just before I left the shop this afternoon, there was some very heavy rain. The heavy showers didn't last long enough to cause any water damage in the shop and there didn't appear to be any leaks before I left. There has been no rain since - thank goodness.

AH helped me close the shop and then joined me for some grocery shopping before driving home ahead of me as I pedalled home.

Our dinner consisted of bangers (delicious pork sausages from the butcher) and mash and lots of greens, followed by a frozen fruit whip - I used frozen banana, pineapple and dragon fruit in the processor with coconut cream, maple syrup and a pinch of salt. I sprinkled shavings of premium organic dark chocolate and chopped macadamia nuts over the top. Phwoar it was good!

I expect to be in bed nice and early again tonight for another early start tomorrow, when I will ...

Nite all.

PS Happy birthday to Gentleman Jim for 13th xo

Peaceful Monday

I really enjoyed meditation this morning.

There were only four of us plus The Gypsy, but between meditations, there was some great discussions and even the newbie engaged in some interesting banter.

It was so good, we went about ten minutes over time and even then, everybody lingered.

We had three deliveries today. One was a box full of watches, one a box full of journals and notebooks and the other was just for me and had clothes and jewellery.

I didn't get a lot done today because I spent so much time chatting. I chatted with The Gypsy ...  a lot. I chatted with customers. I chatted with friends. I chatted with the insurance assessor. I chatted with the real estate agent. I chatted with the delivery guy. I chatted with Adoring Husband.

The only productivity in my day was checking off, pricing and displaying the watches.

My desk is covered with 'to do' work and the back table is now covered with journals and notebooks to price and display.

I really have my work cut out for me for the remainder of the week, including getting our ad ready before Wednesday for all three newsletters and preparing my lessons for the photography course on Friday, returning some damaged stock to suppliers, contacting suppliers re missing items from deliveries, getting the lease sorted and more.

Tomorrow is coffee morning with the girls which, as usual, I am looking forward to, but I definitely need an early night and a good night's sleep, so that I can power through the rest of the day and get stuff done.

I'm feeling rather weary!

Nite all.

 

Day of Rest

So I made an executive decision today and stayed away from The Happy Abode.

Everything that we planned to do at the shop today, can be done during the week - except the vacuuming which I will do early tomorrow morning before the meditation class.

Instead, I stayed in bed until about 1.30-ish doing my biz course stuff, which was quite draining!

I got out of bed and decluttered two drawers and the top of my dressing table - this produced three grocery bags - one for the rubbish bin and two for the charity bin! It took me about 40 minutes to do that and then I needed a nap, so I climbed back into bed and slept for about 40 mins.

There was a text from The Motivator who is enjoying some self-care time/work/family commitments in the big smoke ...

I hope she doesn't mind that I've used her photo here - she took this from the ferry this afternoon. What a beautiful day in Sydney!

It was time to remove myself from the bedroom, so I showered and washed my hair, dressed and found my way to the lounge room to watch some footy with Adoring Husband.

We prepared the leg of lamb and the tray of veg to put in the barbecue (our oven is still on the blink and we need a new one, but we can't decide whether to get a new one now OR wait for the kitchen refurb OR have gas connected and buy the big A stove/oven that we've been admiring).

Unfortunately, after we put the food in the barbecue, we both became engrossed in voting on the website for the Logies (something we have never done before!) and time got away from us. The veggies were burnt black and the meat was overdone, so then we were on a rescue mission. Ugh.

A bit of seared zucchini later, with some buttered mushrooms, mixed with the veg that could be saved and some home made gravy. We ate it with the meat which was still edible, even if overdone. It was still pretty good.

I was going to make some fruit whip for dessert with pineapple and dragon fruit, but there was no coconut cream in the pantry, so that will wait for tomorrow now.

It's now 11pm ... far out! How did the time pass so quickly???

Nite all.

That Time Again

I'm very happy to have reached Sunday.

Even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Happy Abode and love spending time there, in the last thirty days, I've only had two complete days away from Happy Abode business. I've even spent my Sundays either at the shop for a period of time or working on my photography course at home or going to The Bay to get things for the shop.

Yes, I had four days in Sydney, but it was all about Happy Abode business and was exhausting! I have to add that it was fun and worth the exhaustion, but I need to practice some rest, relaxation and self care, because I've used almost all of my happy energy and I need to generate some more.

This Sunday, I have to go to the shop with Adoring Husband to drill a hole in the wall to hang a mirror, measure up for some shelving for storage and then vacuum the floor. So it won't be my day to fill my cup, as I'd planned, but I can rest in the morning.

It's exciting that the football season has begun for this year. I'm already doing poorly in the footy tipping competition at the club and only have one correct out of five so far!

It's only 9.30pm but it feels like midnight! I'm soooooo tired.

For anybody who cares, The Blonde Bombshell is doing well. Her recovery will take 2 - 3 months at this stage. She has a broken bones in her neck and back, as well as a broken rib, but the doctors are happy with her progress and happy with the surgery that she underwent a couple of days ago. She is, apparently, in good spirits and her husband will be able to join her in Sydney by Wednesday. So that is good news.

We spent most of today pricing and displaying the 'Intrinsic' range of products on the main table in the shop and rearranging some other stock. We've added a small 'sale' table to the mix as well.

Our new line of watches will arrive next week, along with the Waterlyn journals and then the following week will see the delivery of the Serenade range of bags and purses, and hopefully the new Ivys range will arrive too.

The fun part will be figuring out where to put it all in the shop.

For now though, I'm off to bed.

Nite all. 

Happy Outcome

My mind was on another planet this morning.

I wanted everything to be perfect for my very first course.

I have trained people before. In the Public Service, I trained classrooms of staff in new work processes and new programs. I ran seminars three times a week for up to 20 people at a time educating people about their rights and obligations, about privacy and confidentiality practices and more.

But I have never designed, created and delivered a course myself.

So today was a pretty big deal!

Even more so because we are a small community and if my course sucks, the town will know about it pretty quickly, and nobody will sign up in the future and the grapevine would make my name mud in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

So this morning, I was running around like a chook with its head cut off, trying to set it all up perfectly, providing folders and pens for the participants, a plate of grapes in lieu of lollies, a jug of cold water and clean glasses.

I plugged in my laptop for emergency googling, set up some props for practicing photography, put my handouts in the right order and gathered the photographic examples.

I rushed through the supermarket to get milk for coffee and some sweet biscuits for morning tea and decided on two types, both of them gluten, egg, dairy and nut free - which in the end turned to be the perfect choice!

Fifteen minutes before the start I realised that the cold water bottle was almost empty and so was the box of filtered water, so I rushed back to the supermarket to buy a bottle of water. As I was returning to the shop, I patted myself to find the keys and suddenly realised that I had left the shop unlocked and the keys were sitting on my desk!

My head was somewhere far, far away.

This course is for three hours every Friday morning for 3 weeks, and initially I was wondering how the heck I was going to fill three hours, let alone nine! But surprisingly, the three hours went very quickly and I had the perfect amount of theory and practice to easily fill the time.

I love my class of students because they were engrossed and intrigued and happy with the information I shared today and they enthusiastically practiced their shots with my props and wandered through the shop finding other examples to practice on.

I gave them homework to complete this week, which they were very keen to do.

It was a great morning and we learned a lot about each other at the introduction part of the course and then at morning tea.

Afterwards I was incapable of doing much at all - my mental energy had run very low!

It was exciting to see our 'Intrinsic' stock arrive today (from the lady who I cried on at the fair). We unpacked it and checked it off. Tomorrow, we'll price it and creatively display it. It's just beautiful!

Now it's after 11pm and I need to rest my weary bones.

Nite all.

Time's Up!

I have the first part of my course complete and ready to present tomorrow morning.

I'm not feeling very confident but I'm also not feeling too disturbed by the prospect because it's a very small class of two.

With so many people originally on the list, there was not one date or set of days that suited every single person. They all wanted different combinations so I had to make the decision to set dates and then if people really wanted to participate, they would find a way.

I had three people lined up for tomorrow, but one has withdrawn. I'm very happy with the two ladies who will join me and I think it will be an enjoyable course and a great way for me to present my first ever Beginners Photography Course.

Anyway, it's almost 11pm and I need to be up early to get morning tea for the course ladies on the way to The Happy Abode, so I'm off to bed now.

Nite all.

Rearranged

We had a shop full of people this morning, six of us at one stage, rearranging the cabinets,  furniture and stock. Now we look as good as new and the shop even looks bigger!

I didn't think to take photos, but I will tomorrow and share them in tomorrow's post.

This week has been one full of sad and shocking news for me.

I was disappointed that nobody told me about my friend The Publican, who passed away while we were in Sydney, and I only learned about it on Thursday afternoon, which was the day of her funeral so I had missed it.

She is in a better place now and no longer in pain and I have paid my respects in my own way. May she rest in peace.

Today, I received a phone call about my good friend, The Blonde Bombshell (aka yip yip), who was involved in a bad car accident while towing a caravan near Cobar yesterday. She is currently in Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney where she had surgery on her spine today, while her husband is in Orange Hospital having surgery on his left hand.

We all feel so helpless up here and I know that we all wish we were closer to be able to help them in any way possible. Luckily their much loved dog Molly survived the accident too and is waiting to be picked up by family members.

If you get to catch up on this blog and you read this Yip Yip - get well soon, heal quickly and hurry home.  We missed you at trivia tonight and at coffee on Tuesday and at the club on Friday night. Do everything right and take good care of you xo.

It's getting close to midnight, so I'm off to bed.

I have approximately 24 hours to finish creating my photography course so tomorrow is going to be a big day!

Nite all.

Just Ask Me!

It has been five months since the first storm that caused water damage in The Happy Abode. 

2nd October 2017 was our first experience, but apparently there has been an issue with leaks ever since day one of this building's existence.

So it's now five months later, the problem has not been fixed and we have experienced our third rain event with water damage.

One of the annoying things about this situation is that today, they found where the main leak was ... and it was exactly where I said it was the first time.

This man doesn't like to take advice from females and he doesn't listen, choosing instead, to speak over the top of us.

I noticed today, that he also doesn't like to listen to the professionals, because the roofing guy wanted to do a couple of things today, and he spoke over the top of him and said "don't worry about that, it'll be right."

All I can say, is that it had better be right, because my patience is wearing very thin.

This is how we left the shop this afternoon - just in case of more heavy rain - it was looking very ominous all around us this evening, but so far we've only had light rain.

We met the owners of the other shops today and we told them that we were very interested in the shop JATOE. We had long discussions about nothing in particular but brought up the fact that we would like to be in a better position on the street.

You never know what might develop from those discussions.

We had more stock arrive today and there should be even more by the end of the week, so now we are rearranging the shop to accommodate more cabinets and we're ready to order a couple of tall glass cabinets to go with the three that we already have.

We're struggling to figure out where to put all the stock that will arrive in the coming weeks.

My photography course commences this Friday and I still haven't finished creating/designing it!

I've got 48 hours lol.

Don't worry. I do my best work under pressure!

Happy Hump Day.

Nite all. 

Pyjama Party

I have enjoyed a 24 hour pyjama party all on my lonesome.

I remained in bed until 4.30pm working on my business training stuff.

*As I write this, I have just received a phone call from The Motivator telling me that the shop is flooding! I can't even get there to help because Adoring Husband is at the Sandy Straits attending an SES meeting! Ugh! I feel so helpless and the rain is relentless and loud and so heavy!*

As I was saying ...

I got through two weeks of the training in one day and that included printing out some money mindset affirmations and sticking them all over the house where Adoring Husband and I will see them every day.

This will help me remain positive and motivated in my head while we build up the business and will hopefully stop me from slowing down or putting on the brakes ... as is known to happen.

It also included a lot of journalling/writing.

I am STILL in my pyjamas and am now on the couch ready to watch MKR before climbing back into bed ready for a big day at work tomorrow, which will obviously include some cleaning up from tonight's rain.

The landlord is going to cop it from us after this. The repairers came into our shop without permission, cut a hole in our ceiling leaving a mess all over the floor of the training room which we need to use and they STILL have not fixed the problem!

It's been 45 minutes since I heard from The Motivator and she hasn't responded to my text, so I'm hoping that things are ok. At least the rain has stopped ... for now.

I need to leave and wallow in my stress.

Nite all.

A Bit of Happy Work

I'm a bit tired.

I was awake at 4am and dozed on and off for a couple of hours until Adoring Husband delivered my coffee just after 6am. I got out of bed at 8.30am, showered and prepared myself for a trip into The Bay.

I was on a mission!

I had an idea to cover some of the less attractive parts of our new-old cabinets with washi tape, so we went in search of some teal coloured tape.

Our first stop was Spotlight. I found some teal tape, but it was in a pack with six other colours and each pack cost almost $20. I would need four packs to do the job because each roll was only two metres long. A total of $80 was much more than I planned on spending.

Our second stop was K-Mart. They too had washi tape which was MUCH cheaper, but none of the colours fit my brief.

Our third stop was Office Works (my favourite shop). The problem with Office Works, was that I found washi tape ALL OVER THE PLACE. There was no designated area for washi tape! We wandered all over the shop looking for it and found it in four different spots.

I selected a pack of five. Each roll was ten metres long and each colour was a different shade of teal. It only cost $4.97.

Adoring Husband found what looked like a big fat Texta of black ink, but was in fact, a container of water based black paint that seeps through a thick Texta type nib. So I bought that to paint the legs of the cabinets which were looking a bit the worst for wear.

I also bought some throw rugs, which I though might look ok laid over the base of the cabinets, but they turned out to be too narrow, so I'll take them back.

I think it took about 90 minutes to do the washi tape and the leg painting. I hope that The Motivator likes it! I believe that they look a whole lot better now, than when we brought them to the shop on Friday.

Tomorrow is my day off and I can't wait to spend the majority of the day in bed with my training stuff  and maybe doing some more of my photography course (which, incidentally, begins this coming Friday!)

We stopped off at Dan Murphys before we came home and stocked up on some alcoholic beverages.

We ate duck breast with salad for dinner and I whipped up a quick pineapple whip ice cream, of which AH ate two servings ... ok I admit it ... I ate two servings as well.

It's after 11pm and it's time for me to sleep and rest this weary body.

Nite all.

The New Abode

I'm done!

It was an interesting day.

So many people, new faces, came to the shop today, all singing praises about how beautiful it was, how reasonable the prices were, how it was like the secret shop tucked away, how did this town get so lucky to have such a wonderful shop?

Unfortunately, praises don't equate to sales.

It was The Motivator's day off and I spent the time in between customers/visitors cleaning the glass and polishing the chrome on the new display cabinets. They were all in pieces in the training room which made it easier to clean.

I didn't realise how grotty they were until I began to wipe and found some interesting spots, sticky tape, inky marks, thick dust in the tracks where the glass sliding doors fit, glue spots, sticky splashes, grease smudges and more.

With interruptions, it took three hours to clean them, but the sliding doors still need some work.

Adoring Husband came to the shop at midday and began helping me empty some of the old display cabinets and shelves so that they could be moved and rearranged to make way for the new ones.

We spent so much time agonising over where to place everything to maximise the space and have it still look welcoming. The original plan that was imagined in my head, did not work at all, so the process was painful! I almost tossed one of the cabinets altogether!

Eventually, we found a layout that was acceptable, however, it still needs to be approved by The Motivator. We removed the table that was at the front door to make way for a cabinet and then had to find space for all the stock that was on that table.

I rearranged a LOT of stock, but did not fill the cabinets. Some of the new stock that's being delivered in the coming weeks will find a home there.

We had to clear the training room and vacuum all the mess that was left by the roof repairer last week, in readiness for the meditation class on Monday morning.

Adoring Husband left the building at about 5.15pm and I arrived home on my trike at 6pm.

The job is still not complete, but I'll return tomorrow afternoon and tie up the loose ends.

Right now, we both feel like we've been hit by a truck!

Those cabinets were awkward and heavy and fragile, so it was quite difficult manoeuvring them through the space and we had to move other furniture to make room to squeeze through.

I'm looking forward to crawling into bed tonight and sleeping late tomorrow.

There will be a trip into The Bay tomorrow to find something that will dress up the cabinets and hide some flaws.

Monday is my day off, so I'll spend the entire day in bed! Can't wait!

Meanwhile, have a fabulous Sunday!

Nite all.

What do you practice everyday?

I just had a local gentleman (of dubious character) in the shop complaining very loudly and very aggressively about the new real estate agent.

The old RE had a direct debit system in place so that his rent could go directly from his bank account to their bank account and he never had to worry about it.

The new RE doesn't have that system in place and it means that he has to organise with his own bank to send his rent payment to their account, which in turn, means a bank fee that he has to pay.

I suggested that since he only lives around the corner, he could drop into the RE office once each fortnight and pay the rent over the counter. After all, he comes to the shops to buy bread and milk - it would be easy to do that and he wouldn't have to pay fees.

Without even pausing, he cut my idea down in flames stating "WHY should I have to do that? It's not my problem that the new RE hasn't got their act together! They should be accommodating their customers! If they don't fix the problem, I'm just not going to pay rent!"

My next suggestion was that he may need to begin looking for new accommodation for when they evict him.

He didn't like that idea either haha.

I know this gentleman (still dubious) quite well from his visits to the Seat of Knowledge and his life is filled with dramas. He plays the victim beautifully and his middle name should be 'negative' probably in capital letters. I generally like to avoid contact with him because he loves to spread his anger far and wide.

Right after he left the shop, I received this in messenger from a friend ...



Amazingly appropriate, and I almost ran out of the shop to chase him and have him watch the video!

Today (2nd March) marks the 39th anniversary of my oldest child's passing. He would have turned 40 this year in October.

I'm feeling a bit sad and melancholy, just momentarily as I remember.

At the same time, I'm trying to coordinate the purchase and pick up of some shop display cabinets in Maryborough this afternoon. It seems the Universe is conspiring against me, but I think that between Adoring Husband and myself, we might be able to work it out.

I had a very quiet morning in the shop but it's been much busier this afternoon - which is unusual because it's usually the other way around.

I'm feeling a bit peckish - might be time to order some lunch!

This is a very early post because I wanted to talk about the angry man and the video coinciding.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend.

Afternoon all and ...

Nite all.

Back to Work

Now that the carpet is dry, I started the day putting the shop back together.

It took a bit longer than I expected, but we got there in the end.

We took delivery of a small order that I'd made a few days before I went away, so those items needed to be checked off, priced and displayed.

I unpacked the few things that we brought back with us from Sydney, priced them all, set aside the special order for Tweedle Dee and placed the remainder on display (except a one-off chain that I fell in love with and had to buy for myself!).

We listed and tallied up all the orders that we made in Sydney and then audibly gasped at the total!

We also rubbed our hands with glee at the thought of all those lovely items arriving through our shop doors at staggered times in the coming weeks. It will be an entire month feeling like Christmas.

There were also a few customers to tend to during the day.

Between us, we were pretty much done in at the end of the day.

For me, looking after the shop on my own, dealing with the stressful weather event/damage and then tearing through three intense days at the fairs in Sydney, I felt a little low on energy.

For The Motivator, who endured long hours of travel, some incredibly intense emotional cleansing over 8 days, more long hours on the plane home, not being able to access our room for quite a few uncomfortable hours in Sydney and then tearing through three intense days at the fairs in Sydney, she too was feeling low on energy.

But we made it through the day, have each selected a day either side of Sunday to take off work and try to regain some of that energy that we're lacking.

I'll be in bed immediately after Gogglebox tonight. I love Gogglebox!

Happy Friday everyone ...

Nite all.

  

Jiggedy Jig

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig.

We were totally organised this morning and left the motel at exactly 8am as we planned.

Our taxi fares from the airport to the motel when we arrived were $42.50 for The Motivator and $57.00 for me. These totals included tolls.

We decided to use Uber to take us to the airport this morning. I ordered the Uber at 7.55am and our driver was putting our suitcases in the boot at 7.58am. Obviously, it was peak hour traffic and our driver asked us which way we wanted to go. We told him to go whichever way he thought was best.

If you're not aware, no money changes hands with Uber. When you sign up to use the service, you provide your card details and they take the money automatically when the trip is over. Uber send a confirmation email after every trip with the total of the trip and give you the opportunity to rate their service.

This Uber trip took twelve minutes during peak hour (my taxi trip from the airport via taxi on Sunday took 18 minutes and I'm certain that he went through every toll known to mankind) and the total cost today was $25.05!

Our driver's name was Yao and he was lovely. Very polite and helpful and efficient.

Every Uber experience that I've had (5 times now), has been positive and very satisfying. If I have a choice, I won't use the regular taxi services in future. Uber is always at the door within 5 minutes, always take the shortest most direct route and always costs about half the price of a taxi.

Anyway, there was hardly anyone (compared to my last visit to the Sydney airport) waiting in the queue to check in so we were fairly quickly checked in and also passed quickly through security.

We found a nice little cafe called 'Chur' for breakfast where we ordered avocado smash on GF bread with tomato salsa. I had a latte and The Motivator had peppermint tea. It was all nice except for the bread which tasted more like a cake than bread. I had two mouthfuls and decided to just eat the smash and salsa.

Before we went to our gate, I ordered a 'heartbeet' juice from the juice bar - pineapple, avocado, beetroot, apple and banana. It was divine!

It was a great flight home. Good weather and we had three seats between us to spread out and enjoy the flight. The landing was a bit 'iffy' because the pilot aborted on the first attempt and we circled around to try again and even the second attempt was quite a heavy landing.

Adoring Husband was waiting at the gate and once we collected our luggage, we drove straight home and dropped off The Motivator before doing some grocery shopping and grabbing a coffee and then heading home.

It was lunchtime so I went directly to the kitchen to cook up some chicken to have with a salad for lunch. I haven't removed my butt from the couch since.

It has been a lovely lazy afternoon catching up on my recorded programs like MKR and Married at First Sight. Adoring Husband cooked up some chicken wings for a snack-like dinner and here I am blogging early in the evening so that bedtime can also be early.

No photos today.

Have a happy Thursday and perhaps I'll see you at The Happy Abode!

Nite all.

The Next Fair

Honestly the last two days have been so long and so full and so busy, I can't even remember the order that we did things, but this is how I think it happened ...

We returned to the Reed Gift Fair this morning to find the Serenade stand. It was the most difficult stand to order from ... so many beautiful bags and wallets to choose from, we struggled to limit ourselves and ended up spending our entire budget in one hit!

Should I say that we have actually tripled our budget over the two days! OMG

After that stand, we went in search of the stand with those lovely silver chains that have been so popular. I searched for it yesterday to no avail and I couldn't remember the name of the company, so I was looking for the same layout as last year. It was no wonder I never found it, the guy who owns the business decided to do something completely different this year!

I must have walked past it three times yesterday and not recognised it!

Anyway, I finally found it and grabbed a business card and grabbed every chain that they had available, spending yet another fortune.

Next was an amazing company selling beautiful, yet reasonably priced watches for both men and women. Silver, Gold and Rose Gold with really lovely bands and styles. We are now concerned about display space and are wondering how we are going deal with that dilemma.

From there, we decided that it was time to head out to the other gift fair. It was already 11.30am and we walked out to the shuttle bus area to find a bus was leaving in 5 minutes - excellent timing.

It took 30 minutes to shuttle from one fair to the other, and unfortunately, we sat in the seats over the front wheels and within 15 mins I felt like I was going to throw up, so we moved back a few rows, which felt so much better.

When we arrived, we immediately went in search of The Motivator's friends, who had a stand there. We found them quickly and spent about 30 mins chatting and looking at their beautiful wares, before wandering off to check out the other stands.

We stood in the middle of the enormous building and said "Let the Universe take us to where we need to be" and began walking.

The Universe took us to an amazing stand called 'Intrinsic' and a lot of you might recognise the products ...

The gentleman working the stand told us about the products and showed us some of the lines and The Motivator asked "Did your mother design all of this?"

He replied "No! My wife." and pointed to a young lady standing across the way.

She immediately walked over and said hello. I tried to say how much I admired her work and out of nowhere, I burst into tears!! I was a blubbering wreck and I have absolutely no idea why or where that came from! So embarrassing.

This woman's name was Adele Basheer and she wrapped her arms around me and gave the longest, warmest most comforting hug that I've had for a long time. She was so beautiful and kind and then spent the next hour with us talking about her dream for her business and why she does what she does. All through the conversation, I struggled to hold it together - I just felt so much love emanating from her and felt that she genuinely wanted in some small way to change the world and make it just a little bit better.

In the end, we ordered a starter pack and I can't wait for her products to arrive and for us to display them prominently in our shop. She really was a beautiful soul and I love her work.

We went searching for some food after that and found the last GF offering as the food carts packed up - today was the last day for this particular fair.

We said our farewells to The Motivator's friends and caught the bus back to the Reed Gift Fair, where we walked around for yet another 90 minutes and found even more beautiful products - which we did NOT purchase, but took the details so that we can purchase in the future.

One funny thing happened - we were looking at the Oasis line of drink bottles and flasks, when a young man from the stand began chatting with us and giving us price lists and catalogues, when he asked where we were from and we told him the name of our town. He said "Oh I know that town! My Grandfather lives there!"

So I asked him who his Grandfather is and discovered that he lives right around the corner from me! We've had drag races between him in his mobility cart and me on my trike! What a small world it is. This young gentleman will come visit our shop the next time he comes to town.

We finally dragged our tired aching bodies back to the motel room, where The Motivator had a power nap (ten minutes) before freshening up and heading out to meet a couple of girlfriends for a social catch up. I was supposed to join them, but honestly, my body felt like it had been hit by a truck. I ached from the inside to the outside and couldn't bear the thought of moving another inch, let alone attempting to be friendly and social.

I think that the fact that I only had 3 hours sleep last night didn't help. I don't know why I couldn't sleep but I just lay there for three hours. My body was aching and I was cramping up and I felt really uncomfortable. Finally I fell asleep some time after 3 am and my alarm went off at 6am.

So I'm feeling rather battered and I wonder if my body is trying to fight off some kind of virus because I certainly don't feel myself.

On that note, I'm going to sign off and attempt to get some healing sleep.

We fly home tomorrow after our whirlwind shopping trip, and even though we totally blew our budget, we feel incredibly happy with our purchases and with the contacts that we've made. There are certainly fun times ahead!

Nite all.

Ten Thousand

That's how many dollars we could EASILY spend at the gift fair.

That's how many steps we walked today at the gift fair.

That's how many stands there are at the gift fair (perhaps I exaggerate slightly).

That's how many people made their way through the gift fair.

We are exhausted.

So far, we bought Cenzoni bags and purses, LOTS of Ivys bags and scarves, some beautiful SHE jewellery, lovely Cinnamon jewellery and we took the details from some amazing stands that we will order from after we return home.

It took us seven hours to do less than one floor of the gift fair. There is still another floor that we just touched on in the last twenty minutes of the day and which we probably won't get back to tomorrow because we have another gift fair to attend in another location.

We shared a mango this morning as we walked to the gift fair. At 1.30pm I had to buy a coffee because I had a raging headache from lack of caffeine in the morning. We only drank one bottle of water all day and only peed once! So we were absolutely running on empty by the end of the day, as you can imagine.

We sat down for dinner at 6.30pm and each had a crispy skinned salmon with fresh seasonal veg and a lemon butter sauce followed by creme brûlée with raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. We had two cocktails each and the final bill was hilarious!

Back in December, when we first decided to attend the gift fair, we discussed the costs involved and how much of the trip that the business, so early in the piece, could pay for. We decided that we would really be more budget conscious with our meals this time round. That idea went straight out the window!

However, we figured that since we didn't eat breakfast or lunch, the money we didn't spend on those meals could be added to our imaginary budget for dinners! The food has been divine and we have been indulgent and we have also enjoyed every bit of it!

Here is a photo of the clouds as we came in to land in Sydney ...

I need to sleep now. I can't believe it's already 11pm!

Nite all.

The Winner is ... Sydney

The day has gone pretty smoothly.

I arrived at the airport on time.

The plane arrived in The Bay early. The plane left The Bay early. The plane landed in Sydney early ... through heavy cloud, scudding showers and winds at 40kph. We had an excellent pilot and I wasn't scared at any stage ... some passengers applauded when we landed ... but I've had a lot worse landings than todays in my time!

I caught a taxi to our motel where I found The Motivator waiting patiently after she had rested up from her flight from Bali.

I unpacked my suitcase and caught up on some of her news and shared some of my news.

All the while that we were talking, we were attempting to get ready to go out in public, but by the time we walked out the door, it was too late to catch any of the gift fair, so we walked through the mall and did some clothes shopping.

We found a lovely Chinese restaurant and shared Peking duck, Twice cooked pork with hot spicy sauce and a huge bowl of garlic broccoli, which was to die for! The Motivator had a wine and I had a Margarita.

We talked and we talked and we talked and we talked some more. Then we talked and we talked and we talked. So much talking! So much to catch up on! So many ideas spewing out of our heads, hearts and minds.

Now we are in bed talking talking talking some more and I need to sign off because The Motivator keeps talking to me and I can't concentrate on what I'm doing.

I just read that last paragraph to her and she is laughing out loud.

I give up now lol.

Nite all.