Same Same

Today was the same as yesterday.

No motivation.

Just needed to rest my brain and my body.

I thought about cleaning the windows AND I thought about painting my turtle on the outside wall.

But they were just thoughts.

I took a phone call from a supplier and paid for an order over the phone - I try not to do that on my day off normally but I really want to receive this jewellery quickly so I made an exception.

An email arrived giving me access to a new clothing supplier and I’ve already written out an order for them, which I’ll send through at the end of the week.

We began watching a new series on Netflix called ‘The One’. It’s not bad.

I’m still in my pyjamas as I write this.

The predicted ominous weather that we postponed our trip to Bundaberg for has only just arrived and appears not to be the big event that was predicted, however, the rain sounds lovely, and I think it’s going to last all night.

So I shall sign off and head to bed to listen to this lovely weather.

Nite all

Move Along

Nothing to see here.

I found a surprising photo of me before we changed our diet and lifestyle.

When we moved here from Sydney, I weighed a frail 55kgs.

I had been very sick with a thyroid condition that I had waited too long to have diagnosed. I lost about 12kgs in 6 weeks and developed a heart murmur. My specialist advised me that my heart could literally explode in my chest without medical intervention.

I was also struggling with vertigo, was recovering from diagnosed depression and had just commenced menopause 😳

That was in 2008. This photo was taken 5 months after we moved here. I had gained a few kgs by this time ...

This photo was taken 5 years later and I think I weighed around 75kgs ...

The result of too much partying. Too much alcohol. Too much party food. Too much pub food. Too much stress (from the tornado and Barry’s health diagnosis). Too much complacency.

It was around this time that we changed our diet and lifestyle to create better health for both of us.

Adoring Husband lost 17kgs and was able to stop blood pressure medication and GERD meds.

I lost 13kgs and have maintained the weight loss for 7 years, fluctuating a couple of kgs here and there.

The most recent full length photo of me...

My Sunday has been lazily indulgent. Lots of screen time - iPad and TV.

It has been nice.

AH and I were planning a trip to Bundaberg tomorrow (Monday) but the weather forecast is looking pretty ominous and even the storm chasers are heading to this area for some action. We’ve decided to play safe and remain at home.

I’ll be interested to see what my motivation levels will be like. Could be another lazy one OR I might get productive. Wait and see.

Nite all.

Town Markets

Our local markets were held in the grounds of the hall today.

Our markets are small and nondescript and most newcomers leave feeling disappointed 😞 

The one redeeming feature is the SES barbecue that serves bacon and eggs and sausages & onion on bread or rolls.

I could smell the onions cooking from my shop driveway this morning.

Yum.

Thanks to those markets, I was able to welcome a convoy of ten women into the shop around mid morning. Ten women disappointed in the markets and who wanted to spend some money.

Not all of them spent money and the sales did not break records, but were enough for me to feel good about the day.

I had a nice visit from Aggie.

Other than that, the morning was uneventful.

I came home at 1pm and had a swim in the pool and I must say I was feeling hyper vigilant after Adoring Husband spotted a baby brown snake in our back yard this morning.

While I was in the pool, I found some snake poo on the concrete edging - I know what snake poo looks like because I once owned a carpet python - this is not good!

AH came out to get help taking his footy jersey off and stood in the pool on the first step so that I could reach over his head to pull the shirt off. It was so clever of me to yank it over his ear and send one of his hearing aids flying into the water!

I tried diving under the water to pick it up, but they are so light that any movement of the water sent it scuttling in different directions before I could grab it. The creepy crawly snuck up behind me and seemed to know that there was a foreign object on the floor of the pool that required sucking up!!

AH was standing on the sidelines in a panic cursing and i stopped Wally (my name for the creepy crawly) in his tracks before he could eat the hearing aid. In the end it was easier for me to put my foot on the hearing aid and pick it up with my toes.

It survived the ordeal and is still working. I’m pretty sure AH survived as well.

Eventually, I came inside, changed into some dry clothes and settled in for an afternoon of football. I was much more successful with today’s tips than yesterday’s but Adoring Husband has a perfect score so far!

Dinner was a ‘fend for yourself’ affair.

It’s now well after midnight and time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

Fast Friday

It was weirdly quiet with not a soul walking through the door until almost midday.

The last 2 hours provided good sales. They didn’t make up for yesterday but were satisfying just the same.

I was able to complete a few more fiddly jobs that I’ve put off for a while and I took delivery of some colourful cotton jumpers that needed sorting, pricing, photographing and displaying.

The day passed quickly, as usual.

I was picked up by the Silver Mermaid at 2.45pm for what was supposed to be an afternoon of art + beverages out at Raintree Acres, but instead it turned out to be just beverages!

Three hours of fun and frivolity with a bunch of hilarious women. Fun and exhausting!

I was one of the first to leave and was grateful for a lift home with The Motivator. Who knows how long those crazy women will carry on for, but I am definitely getting too old for playing hard and all I could think about was ‘how soon is too soon for bed?’ 🥴

Sad but true.

Speaking of ‘too old’ ...

Vegan Chickie and I have been looking at photos of ourselves from ten years ago compared to today. She has aged beautifully...

While I have begun the downhill slide into aged oblivion...

The photo with baby Chicklet was ten years ago (aged 50). The photo with me wearing a cap was 16 yrs ago (aged 45) and the pic on the left was taken 3 weeks ago (aged 60 + 10 months).

Bit of a shock to the system! But I’m alive and that’s always good 🤗

This week is the start of the NRL footy season, which Adoring Husband and I are very excited about and I started up the family footy tipping competition again. 

Three games have already been played and I’ve only tipped one correctly so far. Not a great start but there is a long way to go!

Now it’s time to sleep. I’m feeling very weary.

I choose 1 and 14.

Nite all.

Absentee

Adoring Husband was absent from around 5am when he left to catch the early morning train to Brisbane to visit the Parkinson’s professor.

He woke me to say goodbye and of course I couldn’t get back to sleep so I got out of bed and made myself some breakfast and a cup of tea, then sat in the lounge room and watched the rest of the movie that I started the night before on Netflix.

I left the house at 8.15am and rode my trike to work.

Halfway there I stopped to chat with Bonanza Man.

He purchased a house and moved to town in early January and has a 9 yr old blue healer called Braxton. He’s a lovely man and is so far very happy to have chosen this town to retire to.

I got to work at 8.40am but had to visit the supermarket before opening up. I still managed to do all of AH’s usual dirty work to open the shop by 9 am.

Not that it mattered because I only had three customers all day with very small sales. I haven’t checked but I think today was my lowest sales day for the year so far!

That’s ok.

I completed a lot of small fiddly jobs that I usually set aside in favour of the bigger jobs so by the end of the day, I felt like I’d been productive.

My cleaner came and did more talking than cleaning, but that’s ok too.

I had to rush home on my trike through soft rain and made it home about 20 minutes before the heavens really opened. We received about 2 hours of steady rain but I haven’t checked the gauge.

I spent the afternoon with my feet up watching Netflix.

I ate a very unhealthy meat pie for dinner - Beefy’s GF - and it’s sitting heavy in my belly. I’ll drink lots of water and wash it through my system.

AH should be home in about an hour and I’m already in bed watching the footy. I’m wondering whether I’ll still be awake when he arrives!

Nite all.

Whoa for Wednesday

It was a full house for meditation this morning. I had to lock the door early and sit on a chair outside the door to the training room because all seats were taken!

A few newbies and 4 men in attendance!

A few of the girls remained behind for a chat and The Gypsy had to leave early for an appointment.

The Motivator attended meditation and stayed behind for a chat with the girls and after the girls left, she stayed longer for a chat with me, which was really nice.

Up until she left, I had no customers and it was almost midday when my first walked through the door.

The afternoon was slow and steady but overall, it was a very quiet day.

My desk is a mess and covered with lots of jewellery that arrived in the mail over the last two days that still needs to be priced and displayed.

Adoring Husband drove into The Bay and ran some errands for me but I gave him the wrong measurements for some canvases and now I have large canvases that will make me rethink my future plans in the art room.

No biggie.

AH picked me up at 2pm and it was nice to come straight home.

All I needed to do was grab my washing off the line but it was so hot on the western side of the house where the clothes line is, that after 15 minutes standing out there folding the clothes as I removed them, I actually had to leave them out there and lay on my bed! I felt quite light headed and a bit weak!

It must be my age. 🥴

Peking Duck with vegetables for AH’s dinner. I had some licorice tea because I really wasn’t hungry.

I’m watching MAFS while AH gets organised for his train trip into Brisbane tomorrow. He is overdue for his visit to the Parkinson’s Professor.

I think I’ll go to bed to watch the rest of the show now.

Nite all.

Back to it.

I didn’t get much time with my girls this morning.

There were a LOT of customers for the first 2 hours that I was open and they took my coffee time!

One lady in particular, who wanted to buy some clothes. She has MS and is quite weak with tricky co-ordination so she required some extra help. She took a good hour of my time but she bought quite a few items and has certainly added to and improved her wardrobe.

I paid for 2 orders of stock -  handbags and clothing.

I made new files.

I photocopied.

I stapled biz cards to paper bags.

I made lunch.

I priced some new jewellery and displayed it.

I set up for journaling 

In journaling, we practiced some art work and designed some of our pages, planned our title page and selected some fancy paper to add to our designs.

After journaling, Adoring Husband and I set up the room for meditation and AH vacuumed the shop while I folded the old preloved clothing and packed them up ready to return to their original owners.

We were home by 4.30pm and I did a couple of loads of washing and cooked salmon steak and salad for dinner.

Best get some sleep so that I can be up bright and early for meditation.

Nite all.

Manic Monday

We had such a lot to do in The Bay.

I had a list, but I took a couple of the less important things off the list before we even got in the car because they were frivolous visits to expensive boutiques - ‘Luxe’ and ‘Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves’ - and time was fairly tight wth all that we needed to do.

Tinkerbells could NOT be taken off the list.

I purchased a smokey quartz ring and put a bracelet on layby and then set my eyes on a gorgeous pendant that I will definitely make mine if it’s still there on my next visit!

We drove to Bunnings so that I could replace the 8 litres of Floetrol that we used in the last art class.

We picked up the specialist referral from Adoring Husband’s doctor (just a renewal for the Parkinson’s professor).

Stocklands received some of my money when I found a cropped denim jacket, two cotton singlet tops and two t-shirts - after all that culling of my wardrobe, I had to fill some empty space!

Grocery shopping of course.

Next we drove to Urangan Fisheries where we bought 3 sand crabs and 1 kg of king prawns. 

The dental surgery needed to issue AH with some paperwork to read and sign before his appointment, so that was our second last stop.

Cocoas for AH’s afternoon coffee and I decided to try one of their smoothies - not a fan - had four mouthfuls and threw the rest out when we got home. It was pineapple, mango, passionfruit and banana but tasted very bland.

We picked up our mail from the post office on the way home and there were some small packages with new stock for the shop.

I made fresh crab sandwiches for my dinner and I’m feeling pretty worn out now.

I think I need to sleep.

Nite all.

Four Faces Of Woman

In honour of International Women’s Day (8th March), I attended a one day retreat called Four Faces of Woman, at the Toogoom Hall.

There were a dozen women from various age groups and backgrounds gathered together, each bringing a plate of vegetarian food to share for lunch and each prepared to experience some self healing and show some love.

It was six hours high in value, and even though this is my fourth retreat, I still got a lot out of it and had ‘aha’ moments that took me by surprise.

There was a lot of emotion in the room especially from the newbies just beginning their healing journey and I was able to practice shining my loving light in their direction to show that they were in a safe space for healing.

The Gypsy asked for my assistance for a few of the exercises and I felt completely comfortable even though 8 of those women were strangers to me.

It was a great experience and well worth sacrificing my Sunday in bed.

Adoring Husband was there to pick me up at 4pm and I was feeling pretty tired by that time.

I used Saturday nights leftovers to create a curry for AH’s dinner so there wasn’t much effort required there.

Now it’s 9.30pm and I’m feeling the need to put my head on the pillow.

Nite all.

As Expected

As expected, it was very quiet in town this morning (thanks to Howard markets).

I took photos of new stock and posted to the Facebook page.

I cleaned the kitchen and emptied the bins ready for the weekend.

I checked and deleted many emails.

I put some clothing from old stock on a sale rack and repriced them.

By midday, my sales were very low and I was feeling a bit low myself, but I walked into the training room where something caught my eye.

There are about 60 meaningful memes, which I printed out, laminated and stuck all over the walls in that room.

The one that caught my eye today says ‘Being okay if it happens and okay if it doesn’t happen is a very powerful place to be’.

When I read it, the message actually lifted me and I said out loud “Of course! It really doesn’t matter if today’s sales don’t break records! It’s not going to put me out of business!”

As I left the training room and closed the door behind me, a lady walked through the front door and within ten minutes, had spent a LOT of money!

Trust that the universe will provide 🤗

If I hadn’t cancelled today’s art class, I would have ended up with 7 participants!

Two women on holidays who attended at this time last year came in to sign up AND a girl who works on Fraser Island wanted to attend with her mother. Add them to the three left on the list and it would have been a good sized class which would have brought over $300.

See!? Trust that the Universe will provide 🤗

Needless to say, I’ve had a lazy afternoon saving my energy for tomorrow’s ‘Four Faces of Woman” one day retreat in Toogoom with The Gypsy and 14 other women. It’s a 6 hour retreat that is going to take a bit out of me so it’s probably a good thing that my class was canned!

It’s only 8.30pm but feels later so I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

Oldie But a Goodie

I am watching the old 1974 movie “Earthquake” as I  write this. It brings back memories. I was 14 yrs old when I first saw this movie and it had me absolutely terrified! 

1974 was a hell of a year for movies:

• Towering Inferno
• Earthquake
• Chinatown
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• The Great Gatsby
• Airport 75
• The Man With the Golden Gun
• Blazing Saddles

just to name a few!

Anyway, I had a good day at work. An average day of sales until the last half hour and I finished with another flourish.

I expect tomorrow (Saturday) will be very quiet because the Howard markets are on - that always leaves this place feeling like a ghost town in the morning.

I packed up all the preloved clothing that has been on the rack for 4 months and replaced them with my preloved clothes that I decluttered on the weekend.

I steamed the rest of the new clothes that didn’t fit on the rack a couple of weeks ago and put them up for display.

There is so much to do and the time just flies by. That’s certainly nothing to complain about and I’m keeping on top of everything so far, which is surprising!

My heart still flutters when I unlock the doors each morning and I love my happy place.

I had a guy phone me during the week from some Govt dept to talk about small business support & improvements plus OH&S practices. He asked me “if there was one thing you wish you could change about your business, what would it be?” I honestly couldn’t think of anything at the time because I love everything about it.

With hindsight, to feel 100% secure in my future, I would love to OWN the building that my shop is in. That’s the only thing I’d change.

It was nice to come home and put my feet up. Adoring Husband is in charge of Friday night dinner so I could relax.

I received a phone call from Number One son and we chatted for about 30 minutes. It’s been a couple of months since we spoke so it was really great to hear from him.

It’s almost 11pm so it’s time to splash the sleepy essential oil about and close my eyes.

Nite all.

Thriving

What a day!

Not just great sales, but they were big sales!

I took delivery of new handbags and sold one before it even hit the shelves.

I met an 80yr old lady who spent an hour in the shop telling me her story. Oh what a story! She was inspiring and I hope she comes back often because really enjoyed listening to her.

Come to think of it, I had quite a few elderly people in today and they all spent up big and they all knew exactly what they wanted.

I made the decision to cancel the art class.

I created new folders for two new suppliers.

I chased my large heavy “Open” sign up the driveway where the strong gusty winds blew it! Luckily there were no cars passing at the time or there could have been nasty damage!

I picked up my new Lorraine Lea bamboo mattress topper from The Motivator’s house which Adoring Husband helped me put on the bed this afternoon. I lay on the bed and could have stayed there for the rest of the evening except I had to cook dinner.

Curried chicken and vegetables for dinner. I filled it with sweet potato, potato, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli and zucchini.

Now, at 7.30pm, I’m ready to climb into my comfy new bedding with crisp clean bamboo sheets and hopefully sleep like a baby.

I think I’ll take some sleepy tea with me.

Nite all.

Lock It In

The people were streaming through the doors at 7.30am for meditation and 8 minutes later I had to lock the doors because all the seats were taken!

It was a great class, as always, and everyone remained afterwards to speak to The Gypsy about how they related to her choice of theme this week.

Everybody left feeling happy and well prepared to take on the day.

I’ve had a few regulars drop out of my art class for this Saturday and if I get one more cancellation, I’m considering cancelling the class altogether. This is not a bad thing. People are taking advantage of open borders and heading in all directions to see their families while it’s possible, so it’s all good and I’m not taking it personally.

It was another good day of sales and I was inundated with calls from my usual suppliers and a few new ones! I need to break a few sales records if I want to buy everything on my new wish list!

Some new stock arrived in the mail.

I did some bookkeeping and filing, paid some bills and partially tidied the kitchen which is still a mess from the last art class which was 11 days ago!

I’ve been selling a LOT of snap jewellery and buttons in the last couple of days so it’s time to put in a new order because I’m running out of bracelets.

Adoring Husband arrived early to help me close the shop, even though he’s only capable of carrying the flags in, every little bit helps.

We did some grocery shopping and when we arrived home, we BOTH took advantage of our pool in this hot weather and spent about 40 minutes in the water under the shade of the big umbrella. I swam a few laps while AH wandered around aimlessly. It was nice.

Pork Loin Chops cooked on the barbecue with mushroom and red wine sauce accompanied by honeyed carrots and buttery cauliflower and broccoli for dinner.

We ate dinner at 5.30pm and now it’s 7.15pm but feels like 9.15pm! So I think I’ll go to bed to watch MAFS because I’m feeling weary again. I’ve been awake since 5am.

Nite all.

Speedy Gonzales

That’s how fast the day flew by!

Like Speedy Gonzales!

It was never busy with multiple customers in the shop, but whenever somebody walked out the door, within 10 minutes somebody new would walk in.

Morning coffee with the girls was great because we were only interrupted twice (for a change), but once it reached 11.30am, I didn’t get to sit down for the rest of the day.

I made myself a cup of tea at 1pm and only drank half of it.

Needless to say, sales were very good! Not record breaking, but a great start to the week after my time off.

Following 2pm was the journaling class so I did get to sit down for that!

AH arrived at 3.30pm to help me set the training room up for meditation and we shopped for dinner before heading home.

Fresh Snapper fillets that I coated with GF breadcrumbs, shallow fried and served with salad.

AH’s back doesn’t seem to be improving and the pain fluctuates between bearable and excruciating. Who knows where we go from here. 

For me, it’s good to be back at Roz’s Happy Place.

N

Early start for me tomorrow so I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

Hi Ho Hi Ho

It’s back to work I go 🎶

Today was a little bit productive but I didn’t do anything on my list.

I remained in bed until 11.30am doing nothing in particular. Checked emails, played games, facebooked, opened the mail that Adoring Husband collected for me.

Lunch got me out of bed and when I sat down to eat, I had an epiphany! AH had been watching Prime Video and I remembered an old mini series called “For The Term of His Natural Life” which aired back in the early 80s starring Colin Friels and Anthony Perkins among many others.

I did a search and found it!

That was my afternoon set. I remember having the hots for Colin Friels back then and I really enjoyed the series. Also, if I remember correctly, it won a lot of awards and for its time, it was fantastic. It still held my attention for 5 hours today.

AH drove me to do his job this afternoon and then to the shop to set up for morning coffee and the journaling class on Tuesday.

I threw together a chicken, cashew and vegetable concoction for dinner, which, even if I do say so myself, was REALLY DELICIOUS!

MAFS was the most important part of my evening agenda and of course, Pop Master trivia.

I hung more washing on the line in the dark. I removed and folded all the dry clothes before bed.

It’s now rapidly approaching midnight! How in heaven’s name did that happen!?!

Nite all.

Something!!

I slept well (I love my pillow).

I dilly-dallied in bed and Adoring Husband served me my warm lemon water.

At 10am I decided to hang out the washing that was in the machine and toss another load in.

I changed into my swimmers and went straight out to the pool. The water was divine. I swam a few laps and enjoyed the serenity for about 20 minutes before sitting in the sunshine and soaking up some vitamin D for another 20 minutes.

I hung out my washing and put another load on and decided to decluttered my wardrobe, but first I made some lunch.

Rice paper wraps with chicken, avocado, cucumber, spinach, carrot, spring onion, mushroom, capsicum and a dressing of sweet chilli and lime. They were fiddly to make but quite delicious.

I walked into my wardrobe and pulled EVERYTHING out and laid it all on the bed. Clothes, handbags, scarves, hats, shoe boxes, bags of books and all the other junk I’d hoarded in the last year or more.

I was brutal.

I threw away a garbage bag full of clothes. None of them were salvageable with paint splatters, worn and frayed, stains and holey pyjamas.

There is a large pile going to the shop to be hung on the “pre-loved” rack.

I emptied out ALL of my handbags and found so many receipts, business cards, unused tissues, toothpicks, expired keycards, pens, USB sticks, camera cards, letters, money (nothing significant) and other crap.

I vacuumed the floor of  the WIR (decided to do the lounge room as well) and then began putting what remained on the bed back into the wardrobe.

Then came the pyjama drawer 😳

I threw away 4 old pairs of very loved and sad looking PJs, but that drawer is still very full of very loved, very comfortable PJs. I love PJs.

This chore took a good 4 hours and my back went out in sympathy with AH. I had to sit for a while before preparing dinner - barramundi and salad - quick, easy and 😋 delicious.

Surprisingly, I don’t feel tired at all! Having cleared all that clutter, I feel more energised!

I wonder if I’ll be motivated enough to declutter the jewellery tomorrow? Wait and see.

I’m now going to bed to watch the end of MAFS.

Nite all.