Sweet Sunday

I did NOT spend all day in bed 😮

I think it was about 10am when I got out of bed and walked outside to dip my toe in the pool. The temp was perfect so I slipped into my swimmers and jumped in. I swam a few laps, floated a bit, did some stretches, took psychotic dog Colli in for a paddle and simply enjoyed the space.

My biggest plan for the day was to photograph the new jewellery, so I took it out to the Bali hut where the light was lovely and used my phone to get some pics.

I had to edit them and post them together on the Facebook page.

Adoring Husband and I wanted to watch the movie “Red” before the women’s NRL grand final between Broncos and Roosters, but we had 40 minutes to kill so we drove to drop off a camera to a customer who had left it with me in a panic because it wouldn’t focus. She had accidentally put it on manual focus. Easy peasy.

While I shopped at Foodworks for AH’s coffee and some avocados, he drove to my shop to empty the bin in the kitchen, which I’d forgotten to do yesterday.

We watched our movie and the footy and AH cooked a leg of lamb and baked vegetables for dinner. It was delicious 😋 

We’ve just watched Melbourne Storm defeat Penrith Panthers in the men’s NRL grand final. What a game!

I’m feeling a bit weary now so I think I shall head to bed.

Nite all.

Productive

It was a steady sales day.

One lady came in with a group of friends and announced VERY loudly “There’s a framed sunset photo as you walk in the door but it’s no better than anything I’ve got on my phone”

To which I responded just as loudly “Well thank you very much!”

Her friends all looked at me with a touch of embarrassment in their eyes, but she didn’t even look up.

While she was trying clothes on in the fitting room, they all left. None of them told her they were going so she was quite put out when she walked into a now empty shop!

She told me that they did that to her when they were all in Phuket one time and she had to find her own way back to the motel which, apparently, was harrowing for her!

She began to show me the sunset photos on her phone and told me that she had one done on a canvas but it didn’t come out very well. I said to her “ That’s the only trouble with phones, they look great on the screen but if you try to print one large, it doesn’t work”.

That’s when I realised that she had a serious hearing problem and needed to be reading my lips to understand what I said ... and why she didn’t look up when I responded to her initial insult.

She responded by walking over to my sunset photo and said “Yes this was probably taken with a good camera.”

“Yes! It’s a Canon 5D Mark IV” I blurted.

“Oh that explains it.” she said.

“No” I replied, “I think it’s more about the person being a good photographer.”

She looked at me and asked “Are you the photographer?”

I nodded.

That was when she realised her error in judgement and feeling flustered, went looking for something to purchase to allay her guilt.

We parted as friends 👍

Between serving customers I cleared some of the hand made jewellery from behind the counter and found some spots through the shop to display them.

I also sat in the training room at my little table covered in yesterday’s jewellery haul calculating prices, removing the wholesale tags and adding my own tags to everything.

I rearranged some of the jewellery in the glass cabinets to make space for the new selection but decided to bring all the lovely pieces home so that I can take photos to post on social media, which I will do tomorrow.

Adoring Husband replaced the weather strip on the back door at the shop in preparation for the inclement weather that has been forecast. He bought grilled fish from the local cafe for lunch - delicious! He washed dishes in the kitchen while I finished up.

We didn’t close the shop until after 2pm and by the time we finished tidying up loose ends it was 2.45pm when we got home.

I got changed, put on a load of washing, made myself an ice cream cone and planted my butt on the lounge.

We sat in a silent room for about 2 hours. AH fell asleep in his chair and I cleared some emails, checked social media, monitored the BOM for the weather that never happened, printed out my kombucha recipe and planned dinner.

I used the leftover Hainan chicken, added diced carrots, onion, spinach, snow peas and some of my creamy home made mushroom soup from the freezer, added a pinch of powdered ginger and chilli powder and OMG the flavour of that nutritious goodness was to die for. 

We are watching the AFL grand final right now and Richmond is leading by 16 points with nine minutes remaining in the game. I’m going for Richmond. My usual team is Carlton who have performed poorly for the last two decades. Prior to that, they were never out of the top 8.

Anyway, it has been a good day and I’m hoping to go for a dip in the pool tomorrow, depending on the weather of course. There’ll be a photo shoot and perhaps some art play.

The shop is now closed for my mini break and won’t reopen until Thursday 29th October. I’m looking forward to the break and have almost all that time booked out with play dates!

I hope that Vegan Chickie, Chicklet and Mr Perfect have settled into their new family home tonight and are feeling all snug and warm together.

Now it’s time to go cheer out the end of the game.

Nite all.

Forgot Twice

Emma from “Merchants of Venus” booked today’s appointment with me three weeks ago.

I put it in my diary.

I haven’t even looked at my diary for three days so when she phoned at 11am to to tell me she would be running 30 mins late for her 12:30pm appointment, I got a surprise because I’d forgotten she was even coming!

When she came through the door at 1pm, I got another surprise because I’d already forgotten (again) that she was coming! What the hell is wrong with me!?

After looking at her old Facebook page 3 weeks ago, seeing her work and knowing I would love it, I had set a sizeable budget to spend. I was swept into that shiny sparkly vortex and spent almost three times that budget.

I know it will sell so the purchase is a definite investment and while the initial outlay is hard to swallow, I can’t even feel guilty because the quality and the uniqueness of her work is divine.

I selected, for myself, a beautiful Prasiolite ring that matches perfectly to the bracelet I picked up from Tinkerbells on Wednesday. Prasiolite is one of the rarer crystals and is a very soft green colour. I tried to take a photo of it just now but the light is poor in the bedroom and it doesn’t do it justice.

There are so many pieces I’d love to keep for myself, but I will show self control.

We spent three hours together AND get this ...

I was wearing a white top and denim blue linen pants. She was wearing a white skirt and a denim blue top.

I was wearing a blue topaz ring and a white pearl ring. She was wearing a blue topaz ring and a white pearl ring.

I was wearing a necklace of raw aquamarine. She was wearing a necklace of cut stone of blue topaz.

We were totally colour and gemstone co-ordinated!

We had the same length hair - she was blonder. I was ten years older.

She lives in Mullumbimby.

She is BFFs with Melanie Woods whose jewellery I also sell in the shop.

I liked her a lot and I REALLY loved her jewellery ... obviously.

It was a slow sales day which gave me a chance to tidy up behind the counter a little in the morning and create some more files. I had visits from three chatty customers who took up quite a bit of time, which was fine by me.

It’s nice to be winding down knowing that I have a mini break coming up - although I’m still waiting on two deliveries that should have been here at the beginning of the week, so I’m worried about how I’m going to receive them now.

Now it’s time to sleep because I’ve smothered myself in ‘sleep soundly’ essential oil and I can already feel it taking effect.

Nite all.

Silly Me

It has been 8 days since I drank coffee!

I have been drinking a cup of tea every morning when I get to work and that seems to have kept the withdrawal headache away - I’m pretty sure there is almost as much caffeine in tea as there is in coffee BUT I take my tea black and it’s the dairy I’m trying to avoid.

I’m feeling better for it.

HOWEVER, last night, at 8.30pm, I decided to take a cup of tea to bed with me.

BIG mistake.

HUGE!

I used essential oil, meditation and then listened to an audio book - finally, some time after 1.30am, I fell asleep.

For some strange and unknown reason, I was awake at 5.25am.

I started my day with celery juice and a banana. A cup of tea at work. Lunch was chicken, sweet potato and baby spinach with a sweet mustard dressing. Dinner was a cup of the broth from Hainan chicken and vegan ice cream in a GF cone. I’ve had a litre of water.

I took it pretty easy at work today.

I sat at my desk and priced over 100 products before displaying them.

I paid my phone bill the second I opened it.

I photocopied a stack of receipts and filed them.

I worked on a budget for the next couple of months.

I served customers.

It was a good sales day and the time passed quickly, but with only 4 hours of sleep, I was feeling very weary by the time I got home. I tried really hard to stay awake but I fell asleep in my chair so I decided to climb into bed for a nap.

A nap that lasted almost 2 hours!

This meant we had a late dinner at almost 7pm! Unheard of!

It’s almost 10pm now and I’m about to return to my bed WITHOUT tea. 

Nite all.

It’s Somebody’s Birthday

For three weeks I’ve been racking my brain every day trying to figure what I could do for Adoring Husband’s birthday.

I’ve been telling everyone that his birthday was imminent and I didn’t know what to get him or how to make it special.

Nobody else could come up with an idea and I hoped that I would have an epiphany at just the right moment.

This morning at 7.15am, he was helping me open the shop in preparation for the meditation class, when one of my customers was filling out the COVID register and asked me what the date was - as I said it out loud, I realised “OMG the day is here! How the hell did it get here already!?”

😳😩😳

I am a bad wife.

For all that this man does for me on a daily basis ... I should have been on the ball and making this day special from the second he opened his eyes.

I decided to close the shop early at 1pm, and made a sign that said “It’s my husband’s birthday and he is a most amazing man, so I’ve decided to close the shop at 1pm and show him some birthday love. Thank you for understanding and I hope to see you tomorrow!”

We drove into town and I shouted him lunch at the Dayman General Store cafe where we ate a Buddha Bowl with Thai fish cakes followed by a choc berry tart. He had a coffee and I had a detox hydrating juice.

This is his birthday gift ...

I know right?! I wanted to get it out of lay buy but decided to wait until I was feeling richer. He stopped at Tinkerbells and handed me his card. My reward for forgetting his birthday? It’s just not right.

Tourmaline, peridot, clear quartz, moonstone and pearl.

I fell in love with this Larimar ring too, so I purchased it (not with his card).

We picked up the FROG box on the way home and stopped to get protein for dinner.

I did share my special GF dark chocolate rocky road with AH 🥴

It’s now 11pm and I’m listening to him gently snore beside me. That means I need to sleep before the gentle snore becomes a steam train snore.

As I wrote in his birthday card - he is my hero, my rock, my security blanket, my great love, the man of my dreams and the love of my life.

For all future birthdays, I will do better.

Nite all.

Perfect Shoes

My new shoes are absolutely perfect for work.

It was a busy day and I was on the move and on my feet all day.

Adoring Husband and I got to the shop early to clear the art stuff away and set the room up for morning tea and the journaling class. It took us about half an hour.

My girls arrived for coffee and I got to spend a little time with them before those pesky customers interrupted us again. The girls soon departed with their own plans ahead of them and I got busy in the shop.

At lunch time a delivery arrived so between customers, I unpacked and priced it all. I didn’t have time to display it because I had to make copies of today’s lesson and set the places at the table, so I stored it in the kitchen until tomorrow.

The cleaner arrived early so I directed her to where I needed the work done and the journaling girls arrived soon after. It was a good session. It always is.

As the girls left, AH and I folded the tables, vacuumed the floor and set the room up for meditation in the morning.

It was after 4pm when we left but physically, I was feeling much better today than the last two Tuesdays. Mentally, I was more tired because I forgot a few words during the class and I had to describe what I meant so the girls could tell me the word I was after! Gawd 😳

My shoes felt like slippers and my feet and legs felt fresh and strong at the end of the day. I love them and I think I’ll go get a second pair!

We had protein and salad for dinner.

It’s now almost 11pm and I’m going to ‘snort’ some Sleep Soundly essential oil and then fall asleep to the sound of a guided healing meditation.

Nite all.

Roller Coaster Ride

That was my day.

I had to be in The Bay today, which meant I couldn’t be here at the shop to receive deliveries, which I know are due but I wasn’t given tracking details so I couldn’t be sure that they would arrive today.

A dilemma!

I decided to ask the neighbouring business if they would accept my deliveries for me and I would make a sign for the front door to direct the courier to their door.

They very generously agreed to do that, which I was grateful for because I know how busy they are right now.

This meant we were able to get into The Bay early to run many errands before attending a very important funeral.

First stop was Office Works for plastic envelopes, price stickers and file boxes. Nanas pantry was next for our favourite ginger and lime balsamic dressing. Su Jus Cafe for a juice and some slices to take to Owen’s celebration of life. Truckloads to stock up on paint for the next art workshop and I did a little detour into Shoe Frenzy where I purchased some shoes and a bag. (Photos tomorrow)

Adoring Husband popped into HBW while I was doing that.

Bunnings for some Floetrol. Spotlight for a big purchase of 31 canvases.

By then, it was time to attend the funeral.

It was perfect.  Brave messages of love and loss expressed on video by some family members, because we all know how tough it is to stand up and speak at a loved one’s funeral.

Strong friends who spoke and expressed the feelings of all friends in attendance - even if they didn’t realise it at the time.

Beautiful music, amazing stories, a life time of photographic memories, overwhelming emotion and a fitting send off for Grumpy Pants, who wasn’t really grumpy at all.

Afterwards was a huge gathering at their home where stories were told, warm hugs were shared and loving support was provided for our Bombshell who was holding up well, all things considered.

Gone too soon. He will be missed. May he Rest In Peace.

It was a relief to get home where we hugged each other feeling gratitude for obvious reasons. I prepared an easy dinner and we planted our butts on the couch. 

Now we are both exhausted and ready for bed.

Nite all.

Always Something

Yes it was my day in bed 🌻

Before I tell you about it, here is a brief rundown on my fructose information.

I wrote everything down except the name of the doctor who provided the info!

Vitamin D is important for helping your body fight all disease and especially the Corona Virus, but even the smallest amount of fructose will inhibit your body’s ability to absorb Vitamin D. If your taking Vit D supplements but still eating fructose - you’re basically wasting your money.

Another one is glutathione which cleans your cells and helps you fight viruses, but fructose inhibits your body’s ability to produce glutathione. 

The third thing, in relation to Corona Virus, that fructose does, is completely surround and cover the Corona Virus and create an armour around it so that your immune system cannot identify it. It can then create havoc through your body because it’s camouflaged by the sugar molecules.

Read your labels because ‘high fructose corn syrup’ is the most damaging and is found in soft drink, biscuits, cake, pastries, breads, lollies, sauces, salad dressings, bottled fruit juices etc.

The second worse is sucrose (which is 50% glucose and 50% fructose) and it’s found in packaged breakfast cereals, grains, processed meat and sauces.

The fructose in fresh fruit and vegetables is safe and beneficial because it’s a complex carbohydrate with fibre and reacts differently in the body. People with diets high in fruit and veg have less oxidative stress.

To undo any damage you’ve already done ... remove fructose and sucrose from your diet, practice intermittent fasting, exercise, eat more fresh fruit and veg and get out in the sunshine.

That’s it.

I started my day by watching some news videos on the US election candidates - interesting. I got out of bed to make myself a cup of tea (Adoring Husband was on SES duty) and then returned to begin designing my 2021 calendar.

I usually create them through Vistaprint because every year they have a half price sale, otherwise it’s just not viable for me. They haven’t had the sale this year so I had to do some research to find a different provider. I was lucky enough to come across a site that was advertising great discounts but I had to have it completed by midnight of 18th Oct (today!) 😳

The problem with these calendars is that there is no option for adding words so I couldn’t put descriptions or titles under the photos and I had to improvise by creating my own title on the front page photo before adding it to the page.

I only ordered and paid for 30 copies and then announced on the shop Facebook page and my personal FB page that I was taking preorders. In the first 2 hours, I had 22 names on a list for preorder!! So I jumped in and ordered another 40 calendars. That’s it! 

Except for a break in the middle of the day when AH and I had to pick up some paperwork from work, shop for some lunch food and then make lunch, the calendar took most of the day to complete. I found the website easy to use but frustrating with it’s lack of options.

I did some bookkeeping and calculations, ordered some stock and paid a bill.

I found this on an old memory in Facebook ...

It’s almost 11pm so it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Super Effort

It was a super effort by me today.

I slept for a solid 9 hours last night and was woken by my alarm at 7am. I obviously needed it but I certainly wasn’t ready to bound out of bed full of vim and vigor! I stayed in bed until the very last minute!

There was much to do between a steady flow of customers and it was an above average sales day for a Saturday. Still no locals through the door - and I only mention that as an indication of how many people are in town filling the caravan parks and the holiday rental homes.

The real estate agent has even made comment about how busy they are and how they’re looking for more cleaning staff for the holiday rentals!

In a ‘normal’ year, this would be the beginning of the quiet time when we start praying that there will be enough sales that the rent will be covered. Instead, the town is as busy as peak periods and I’m praying that I can keep up with rapidly moving stock.

I managed to get all of my paints mixed and each work station prepared before the art class started so that was a blessing. Adoring Husband filled the water containers that sit in the middle of the tables and he set up the tea/coffee station for me. He is also a blessing.

The class was a touch smaller than usual and surprisingly, one of the new ladies who prepaid on Thursday, did not turn up at all! 

Quite lucky really because I probably wouldn’t have had enough resources to cover everyone. I was JUST able to stretch what was there to make it work for today’s group.

It was a different situation because one of the girls brought a very large canvas - approx 80cm X 80cm - which we had planned in advance, but the photo she showed me last week made it appear a bit smaller than it actually was. It took quite a bit more paint and pouring medium than I expected.

There were some good results today and I really liked mine except a stoopid fly landed on it and decided to go walkabout, adding his own touches to my creation! See if you can tell which one - you should be able to see the fly still attached!

I haven’t forgotten the fructose post and I hope to share it here tomorrow, but right now I am ready for sleep.

Nite all

Puzzled

I am still puzzled by the large number of visitors in town and I am still exhausted 😩 

Another huge day of sales and in between customers I attempted to set up each art station AND get the new stock unpacked and out on display. I’m running out of space!

I still have to mix paint tomorrow, but the room is pretty much ready for class.

By the end of the day, I was certainly dragging my feet to the car and I was struggling to stay awake on the couch. Mostly because Adoring Husband snored last night til late and then was up and about at 3am making a racket. After he left for work at 4.45am, psychotic dog Colli decided to howl at the garage door and I had to get up twice to her!

Ugh!

It’s almost 8pm and I’m already in bed.

We actually ate dinner at 4.30pm! Just the usual Friday night fare of chicken wings.

I’m about to turn the telly on to watch the football, but I doubt I’ll last very long.

I had a short but interesting post ready to share with you about fructose and it’s relation to immunity and in particular the Corona virus, but I think I’ll save it for tomorrow because I honestly couldn’t be bothered right now.

Nite all.

Brussels Sprouts

Far out Brussels sprouts!

Today was another crazy day with a never ending stream of customers and not a local to be seen!

Amazing! 😳

Sales were great and it took me all day, between customers, to unpack a small shipment of beautiful sterling silver jewellery that I’d picked up from the post office at 9am.

In the last hour of the day I began rearranging the displays in the glass jewellery cabinets.

Adoring Husband arrived a little earlier than usual and set up the tables in the training room so that I can spend Friday preparing for the art class on Saturday. There will be three newbies in the class this week!

At 1.30pm the delivery truck pulled up outside and a gentleman removed two boxes from the truck and brought them through. I haven’t even touched them yet but I believe they might be my Intrinsic order.

I’m sure there will be another delivery tomorrow so one way or another, it’s going to be another busy day!

There is a new rep coming to visit next Friday and she also has her own business called “The Merchant of Venus”. I had a quick look at her stuff online and I can’t wait to meet her and see her beautiful and unique jewellery. I’ve already selected four pieces that I want for myself!

I arrived home to be greeted by the excited shrieks of psychotic dog Colli, which was quite a relief because this morning AH called me outside because she had fallen over on the step, had thrown up and then was frozen on the grass and wouldn’t or couldn’t move.

My brain was supposed to rest this afternoon, but while I put my feet up, one of my clothing reps sent through a stack of photos of a new line of tops and dresses, so browsed through them and wrote down what I WANT to order - although I have so much happening in the next month, I might have to hold off on that one.

For AH, I cooked up a big batch of chicken, mushies, onion, garlic, spinach, asparagus, tomato, broccoli, cashews and a touch of grated cheese over the top.

For me, I cooked a thigh fillet separately, chopped it up and tossed it through grated carrot, chopped tomato, cubed avocado and mango and chopped shallots. It was delicious.

Now I’m in bed and I can’t believe it’s almost 11.30pm!

Nite all.

Easy Day

Due to illness, The Gypsy wasn’t able to run the meditation class this morning.

She texted me very early this morning, as well as all of the regular participants.

I still opened the shop just after 7am because there were a couple of people, who are not regulars, who suggested they might attend, and I didn’t have their contact details.  One of the regulars didn’t receive the message because she lives in an area with poor reception and she turned up early so we sat in the meditation room with our morning beverage for an hour and chatted about “woo woo” stuff which was very enjoyable.

There are quite a few items on my “to do” list ... like designing and creating my 2021 calendar, clearing the storage cupboard, changing the jewellery displays in the glass cabinets and cleaning under the counter ... but today I decided to take it easy and conserve some energy.

There will be a lot of stock arriving over the next week, so that will keep me busy and take a lot of energy to get sorted.

Thankfully, it was a steady day of average sales that didn’t take too much out of me and we were home by 2.15pm.

I dipped my toe in the pool water but it was a little chilly so I changed into my slobberdog clothes and sat on the couch watching my favourite quiz shows on TV until I had to make dinner.

We didn’t have any protein out, so the easy option for me was a grazing platter with the new chilli tuna, my usual smashed avocado mix, alfalfa sprouts, carrot and cheese, capsicum, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and celery sticks, cocktail onions and GF wafers.

It was a nice chilled dinner.

It’s 9.30pm and I am listening to AH snore beside me.

Sleep time for me too!

Nite all.

Clarification

I just want to clarify that even though I am always on about being tired and busy and constantly needing to put my feet up, I am still LOVING “Roz’s Happy Place”!

Today was a crazy busy day! 

I did get to spend about 30 minutes with my girls before those first pesky customers arrived!

From 9.30am til 11.30am I did not stop! Holiday makers galore! All having a ball together and shopped til they almost dropped - a couple declaring that they would return later in the week.

Lunch was a necessity, to give me the energy to finish the day.

Last weekend, I found a family owned and run company from Queensland that sells Aust tuna in glass jars. Here is the link to their website ... Little Tuna

I received the three jars yesterday (tuna in olive oil, tuna in spring water, tuna in chilli) and took the Tuna in olive oil with me to work today for lunch. I mashed an avocado with lemon juice, coconut yoghurt, salt, pepper and chopped shallots, then stirred through some of the tuna.

Of course, I taste tested the tuna before doing that and it was DIVINE! Absolutely nothing like the tinned tuna you get from (mostly) Asia, which in comparison, tastes like ... um ... wet paper?

This one is meaty and full bodied and flavoursome.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch!

Between customers in the afternoon, I printed out all the copies of this week’s journaling lesson for the girls and set the table with the weekly lollies and glasses of water.

The class was amazing because one of the girls had received her professionally bound book of her family ancestry in the mail yesterday. We’ve been talking about it and waiting for her to receive it for two weeks, so it was a big deal to see it, touch it and read some of the amazing stories in it. 

We were inspired to follow up on our own ancestry and to create an amazing life journal.

We finished right on 3.30pm and AH and I cleared the room and set up for meditation in the morning.

There was no protein at home for dinner so we stopped at the butcher and selected some lamb rump steaks for AH to cook on the barbecue while I prepared a salad. Watermelon for dessert.

Right now, I’m watching Junior Masterchef and wishing some of those kids could be employed by us to cook in our kitchen once or twice a week! I’m drooling.

Now it’s time for me to head to bed.

Nite all.

Canned Date

One of my favourite quotes is “Being okay if it happens and being okay if it doesn’t, is a very powerful place to be”

So the fact that I had to postpone my big plans for today was really no big deal. It will happen in good time.

I spent the entire day in bed creating my next two journaling lessons. Six hours of work - which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I was surprised that it took so long. 

Then I did some calculations and discovered that to create each lesson, it has taken, on average, three hours per lesson. That means I’ve invested 21 hours so far (7 weeks) and there will be at least another 5 weeks.

That’s actually pretty good going.

Adoring Husband waited on me by providing my lemon water, broth and coffee. He made me a lovely salad for lunch and I made myself a green juice for dinner.

Now I have to go clear all of my paraphernalia from the bed so that we can sleep!

I regret not having a dip in the pool today, but it was 4pm before I knew it and I only realised how late it was because a rep phoned me.

Time flies when you’re having fun.

Nite all.

I’m lazing by the pool as I write this.

It’s a glorious day and while Adoring Husband was participating in some SES training, I chose to rise a little earlier than usual, make myself some breakfast of bacon, avocado, cherry tomatoes and coleslaw. 

I completed some chores around the house before rewarding myself with a swim, a float, some aqua-aerobics, water dancing and then put my feet up while lazing in the swinging egg chair.

While lazing, I found this on Facebook today and simply had to share. I’m sure it will resonate with you as it does me!

***************

“I asked a friend who has crossed 70 & is heading towards 80 what sort of changes he is feeling in himself?  He sent me the following:

1  After loving my parents, my siblings, my spouse, my children and my friends, I have now started loving myself.

2  I have realized that I am not “Atlas”. The world does not rest on my shoulders.

3  I have stopped bargaining with vegetable & fruit vendors. A few pennies more is not going to break me, but it might help the poor fellow save for his daughter’s school fees.

4  I leave my waitress a big tip. The extra money might bring a smile to her face. She is toiling much harder for a living than I am.

5  I stopped telling the elderly that they've already narrated that story many times. The story makes them walk down memory lane & relive their past.

6  I have learned not to correct people even when I know they are wrong. The onus of making everyone perfect is not on me. Peace is more precious than perfection.

7  I give compliments freely & generously. Compliments are a mood enhancer not only for the recipient, but also for me.  And a small tip for the recipient of a compliment, never, NEVER turn it down, just say "Thank You.”

8  I have learned not to bother about a crease or a spot on my shirt. Personality speaks louder than appearances.

9  I walk away from people who don't value me. They might not know my worth, but I do.

10  I remain cool when someone plays dirty to outrun me in the rat race. I am not a rat & neither am I in any race.

11  I am learning not to be embarrassed by my emotions. It’s my emotions that make me human.

12  I have learned that it's better to drop the ego than to break a relationship. My ego will keep me aloof, whereas with relationships, I will never be alone.

13  I have learned to live each day as if it's the last. After all, it might be the last.

14  I am doing what makes me happy. I am responsible for my happiness, and I owe it to myself. Happiness is a choice. You can be happy at any time, just choose to be!

I decided to share this for all my friends. Why do we have to wait to be 60 or 70 or 80, why can't we practice this at any stage and age?

******************

I’m trying to decide now whether to clean the bathroom or continue lazing by the pool. Perhaps I can reward myself after cleaning, with another dip and laze!

Later - I didn’t clean the bathroom and AH arrived home from training, so I joined him in the lounge room and watched a Netflix movie instead.

We began watching a Netflix series called “Virgin River” and I cooked a corned silverside and cabbage for dinner.

I believe I’ll be going to bed to watch Junior Masterchef - not a show we usually watch but the lead up over the last couple of months has really drawn us in so we’ve watched the first little bit and we’re hooked!

I have a day planned for tomorrow which I’m really looking forward to, so it’s time for me to sleep soon.

Nite all.