Channelling

Today, I have been channelling Vegan Chickie and her amazing (insert OCD) organisational skills.

I have notebooks and journals for user names and passwords (even though all of my devices code and save them automatically), website building resources (all the sites for colour coding, colour palettes, free images, photo editing and sizing, fonts etc), affiliates, reviews, blogging ideas, stockists, ebook ideas and outlines, ideas for the recipe page, names of possible guest bloggers and the list goes on!

One might suggest that I have used this 'channelling' as a procrastination tool!

Whenever I come to a hurdle or obstacle, procrastination is my closest friend. I do something constructive while my brain processes the difficulties ahead and then when it (my brain) gives me the go-ahead, I move forward and hopefully OVER the obstacle.

Whatever. I can still see progress and feel like I'm doing ok .. even though I have reached and passed my self imposed deadline.

Believe me, it's frustrating for me too!

I've spent the evening planning my morning tea for Tuesday's LeReve party. I have a fabulous list of delicious food to make .. however, I may have bitten off more than I can chew! I think I can do it!

I'm quite looking forward to the party. I expected that I would become anxious and try to find a reason to cancel it, but there are a couple of new ladies coming along and it will be nice to introduce them to my friends.

We had no luck at the club tonight. Well, I shouldn't say 'we', because half of our table won prizes in the raffle and our partners, husbands, brothers and neighbours, who were sitting outside, almost ALL won something as well! So I will rephrase that ... 'I' had no luck at the club tonight.

Best get some sleep now.

Nite all.

Never ending

I think I know what I'm doing.

It's usually when I'm feeling the most confident, that I discover I have no right to feel that way!

There has been a lot of meaningless chasing up today. iBooks and iTunes and ATO and Amazon and inmotion hosting and Apple and Wordpress. All tiny little things that seem to take an enormous amount of time.

Or perhaps it's just me being too careful, trying to understand stuff that I don't need to understand, following too many links, reading too much information. I'm certain that all this could be finished with just a flick of my fingers but I'm being too cautious.

I'm also easily distracted (as you know too well) and even though I'm working hard at it, my uncanny ability to procrastinate seems to rear it's ugly head when I least need it to.

Today was my deadline day, but alas it has passed without the fanfare that I'd hoped for.

It could be tomorrow, if I can just focus and get a smooth few hours. I know exactly what I need to do .. or so I think haha.

We were threatened with some nasty storms this afternoon. They made lots of noise and the light show was pretty spectacular, but not a drop of rain was to be seen or felt! The psychotic dogs were very stressed and demanded to be let onto the 'storm chair'.

At least I got some washing done today.

I haven't been out on my trike all week. I'm off to bed now, so that I can get an early start in the morning and go for a trike ride, sit by the water for a bit before getting my morning coffee, have a quick visit with The Motivator and be back home to get cracking at my desk.

So much to do, so little time!

Have a fabulous Friday!!

Nite all.

Christmas Cheer

Here I am, way past midnight, watching movies, shopping online and blogging ... talk about multi-tasking!

I just made my first jewellery order, which should be here by next Wednesday, ready to sell on my website .. let's hope I can have the website live by then!

We had a fabulous lunch at the Woodgate Pub for our lady's Christmas break-up today. The weather was glorious. Just a touch windy on the return trip. The food was good. Not spectacular, but good enough. The service was warm and friendly and even though a lot of the regular ladies weren't able to attend today, the group that we had was a good mix and we had some laughs.

Needless to say, I have done nothing else today, except relax with Adoring Husband since I returned from lunch.

I haven't even edited the photos from today, so I can't share them yet.

I did discuss, with a new lady, the idea of taking paying groups on photography outings, to teach them how to use their cameras and how to take photos.

It's definitely time to seriously consider this option in the new year because I've had four different enquiries in the last 12 months. Perhaps it can be my mission for the new year.

I was also invited to art classes, which I am very excited about! The first session will be creating a pottery bust. The classes begin in the first week of January.

So much to look forward to next year! Art classes, my website, a seminar in Sydney in February, babysitting Chicklet in March, Adoring Husband's big 60th birthday bash in October, a road trip at the end of the year. It's going to be a good year.

Now I'm going to attempt to climb into bed before 1am.

Nite all.

The Finish Line

I feel certain that I could have made my website live this afternoon, if not for the near catastrophe that befell me and caused me to lose almost two hours of valuable time.

I thought that I had lost two months worth of work with just the press of a button!

I had contacted my host to get some advice on changing my domain name, but he failed to give me all the information (not his fault), so I followed the link that he provided and found the instructional video, which I watched and followed to the letter.

Then I pressed 'enter'.

Everything GONE.

A big fat 404 error.

Page not found.

Nothing.

I spent an hour trying everything I could think of. I scoured both my host's website and the Wordpress website trying to find some answers.

Just as I was feeling the terrible effects of hyperventilation, I decided to ask for help.

Thank goodness my host has a fabulous chat function on their site, so I contacted them again and pleaded for assistance.

A gentleman by the name of David H (different from the first man), was incredibly helpful, investigated fully, explained exactly why it happened and then took ten minutes to restore my website to it's 'pre-disappearance' glory.

When he was finished, he sent me an email with a copy of our discussion and a link to my website.

I clicked on the link.

WAHLAH!!!

There it was on the screen. Just as I remembered it.

I could breathe again.

At that point, I decided that I needed a break. Too many hours in front of that screen over the last three days was crossing my eyes and frying my brain and causing me to make unnecessary errors.

I don't want this to be a stressful experience. The whole idea of the website is to bring me joy and happiness! Today, it did NOT do that.

Luckily, tomorrow, I have a booked engagement, so I will be away from the screen all day. Just what I need. A social outing to help me relax and recuperate.

I'll be fresh and ready to finalise the site on Thursday!

It will be an early night for me - 10pm - and I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Big Day at the Office

I'm done!

No. I have not finished the website.

BUT ... I've been working on it for ten hours today!

I've fine tuned and fixed some of the stuff that I wasn't sure about.

I've created accounts in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, which means I can link them to the site tomorrow.

I've spoken to a printing company about self publishing my book, but even after I provided them with the name of the book, they emailed me with costings and had incorrectly quoted the book title, so they've already lost my business at the first hurdle.

It shows that they are not very diligent and tells me that I can't trust them with my precious baby.

I was excited to have my registration accepted by a wholesale company that stocks my favourite journals, only to discover that for 80% of the journals that I wanted, they are 'out of stock'. That was disappointing.

I am now registered with half a dozen wholesale stockists, so it's going to take some time to wade through their stock to see if they have anything worth putting on my site, but I'll do that AFTER the site goes 'live'.

It's almost 11pm and I feel that I'm about to fall off my chair, so I'm off to bed.

Enough is enough!!

Nite all.

Sunday in a Nutshell

A few minutes with the boys at The Seat of Knowledge.

Coffee.

A surprise stop at The Motivator's house. I had asked her to critique my ebook, which she did, with surprising results! She was impressed.

While we were chatting with the bubba Tawny Frogmouth chick high in the tree, The Motivator noticed the mother sitting on the ground in the driveway!! This is my interaction with her ...

I came home at 11am and spent four hours in my workspace .. with nothing much to show for it! I've asked Adoring Husband to bring my coffee in the morning, so that I don't have to leave the house and can spend the entire day working at my desk.

It took me AGES to cook up a billion pork/chicken meatballs tonight, but at least there is enough left over for AH to have for lunch tomorrow and I won't have to stop work to prepare his meal.

That is it.

Almost 11pm and I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

G.G. Heaven

I must apologise for not posting here yesterday, but my eyes and ears were only for "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" which was a TV mini series revival which took six hours of my evening, from 8pm.

I arrived home from the club at 7.30pm and prepared a very quick dinner (which was reheated leftovers from lunch),  and then I set myself up with junk food, ready to binge watch six hours of two long time favourite TV characters.

It was mostly fabulous .. a couple of slow bits and a couple of surprises. One of the highlights for me, was the cameo by one of my all time favourite singers, Carole King!!

A number of times I felt my emotions overwhelm me as old memories came flooding back and I felt all warm and fuzzy and teary.

It was 2.30am when I climbed into bed, but it took me a full hour to relax enough to fall asleep. Truth be told, I could have watched it again right from the beginning, but I forced myself to practice the meditation breathing until I fell into a deep five hour sleep.

It's now just after 9pm and I can feel my inner snooze button slowly being pressed, so I will finish quickly here and head off to bed. If I can catch up on the missed sleep, I can focus completely on my work tomorrow.

I've just realised that I only have four days until the end of the month, which is the deadline that I gave myself to present my website! Eep! How did that get here so quickly???

I also have four days to submit a photo in this month's Flickr challenge, which is themed 'beverage'. I doubt that I'll get one in, but you never know what will present itself between now and then!

Meanwhile, The Motivator discovered a Tawny Frogmouth nest in a tree that branches over her driveway, so I got myself some lovely photos of the cute little chicks and I will attempt to get more every couple of days to track their progress.

It was my sister, Squirt's, birthday yesterday and the best I could do, was a collage of photos to post on her Facebook page and a singing message left on her voicemail. So if you actually read this, which I doubt, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SQUIRT!

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lady Lynn who also celebrated her birthday yesterday! xo (I know that she reads this lol)

I attended an essential oil party today. The brand is Le Reve, they are made in Australia, and I was so impressed with the quality of these oils and other products, that I'm hosting a party on Tuesday 6th December at 10am ... so all of my lovely coffee ladies, I hope that you can attend and I will provide morning tea!

The party is so that I can order MORE! They will make lovely Christmas gifts too :)

Anyway, enough of this frivolity. I've taken too long to write this and it's suddenly 10pm!

Nite all.

Light Me Up

The Christmas lights are up!

There is still one more item to add.  I ordered a Santa sitting on an outback dunny, online and it came without the power box, so that should arrive next week and then our Christmas display should be complete!

I left the house quite early this morning while workers were here installing solar lights in our kitchen/family room. We now have a new solar panel on the roof and four bright solar lights making what was once a dull area in our home, nice and bright.

The remainder of my day was spent socialising in the morning, showing off Ms Mac to anybody who cared, and in the afternoon, Adoring Husband and I drove into The Bay to stock up on junk food for my Gilmore Girls binge watch tomorrow night.

While we were in town, we lunched at Wild Lotus, which was nice, but I ignored my full button and suffered all afternoon with a very full belly!! It's been a while since we ate there and it was quite busy, but the service was still good, as was the food.

We picked up our FROG box on the way home.

No work on the website today, but tomorrow is looking good for some desk time.

It looks like I could have an early night. It's not even 10.30pm and I'm headed to bed right now!

Nite all.

Distractions

Well, I finished the ebook, but Ms Mac distracted me with all of her wonderful new features and I just didn't get around to linking the ebook to my website! Ah well, I still have a week to get that sorted.

I registered a business name .. because some of the wholesale sites wouldn't accept just an ABN to sell their goods and wares to me .. and I figured that I'm going to be so successful that I didn't want anybody stealing my thunder!

I was very surprised to discover that "Romance Your Life" was not taken as a business name or as a trademark or as a domain name.

So that will be me - Romance Your Life - coming soon! Watch this space.

Adoring Husband has been very busy (with a little help from me) finishing Christmas lights today, but unfortunately you will have to wait until tomorrow for a photo, when all the solar lights are working properly.

Don't walk past my house at night if you suffer from epilepsy, because the flashing lights could cause you some difficulty!

It looks very Christamassy!

This Friday is the BIG day - Gilmore Girls! Four new 90 minute episodes of "Gilmore Girls - A Year in the Life" becomes available on Netflix at 6pm Friday.

I can't tell you how tempted I am to stay at home and forego my night at the bowls club, so that I can watch it from 6pm!!

Tomorrow, we are heading into The Bay so that I can buy some salted caramel coconut ice cream and some potato chips, as my 'junk food' to binge on while binge watching Gilmore Girls. Because that's what you do.

Another fun thing ... three of my favourite movies over four nights, starting tonight with 'The Holiday', Friday night with 'Love Actually' and then Saturday night with 'Notting Hill'.

Of course 'Love Actually' clashes with Gilmore Girls, so that's out, besides, it's only a month until Vegan Chickie and I watch it together, miles apart, on Christmas Eve.

It seems that my life completely revolves around electronic screens at the moment - television or computers!

Big day tomorrow. Skylights being installed in the morning, two friends to visit with Ms Mac, a trip into The Bay and the FROG box to be collected.

Things to do. People to see. Places to go.

Nite all.

She's Here!!

I had almost given up hope, and a strong wave of disappointment was just about to wash over me, when I heard the heavy rumble of the delivery truck outside my house.

The tracking information showed that my MacBook Pro was in Maryborough this morning, so I was counting on a delivery today!

In all of my delivery experiences, the truck has arrived pretty much spot on 12.05pm, but just to torture me, it was almost 12.30pm when he finally pulled up.

To make matters even more torturous, it arrived just at the end of my lunch preparations. So I had to finish the cooking process, eat my lunch, tidy up ... THEN Adoring Husband announced that he needed help to untangle some Christmas lights (seriously!).

It was my good fortune that it took all of 12 seconds to complete that job, so I made a hasty escape to my workspace with the new MacBook in my hot little hands!

She is so smooth and light and shiny new and slimline and fast and clever and different ... I have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me.

Within ten minutes, she was up and running and I spent the afternoon getting to know her.

I'm pleased to say that I finished my ebook before Ms Mac arrived ... at least I thought I had, until I realised that it might require a 'contents' page and a summary ... so I will do those tomorrow, and then figure out how to link it to my website.

The Motivator emailed me some links to a few wholesaler's sites, where I can source silver jewellery and various accessories, so I subscribed to those sites as well as to a big Gift Fair that happens in Sydney and Melbourne a couple of times a year.

So, my achievements for the day include, all but finishing my ebook, pinning my new 2017 calendar wall planner to the wall behind my desk, clearing 300 emails, subscribing to 4 wholesaler websites and the Gift Fair, printing out the itinerary for my return flights to Melbourne in March, cooking lunch and dinner, decluttering my desk and setting up Ms Mac.

I'm a bit excited about how much I can achieve  this week. I'm feeling very motivated and inspired!

It's almost midnight and I'm off to bed to listen to some guided meditation ... my brain is very hyped up tonight so I really need to focus on calming it down before sleep.

Have a great hump day.

Nite all.  

Fully Wasted!

I sat up until after 2.30am watching the four nations football final between Australia and New Zealand, and for some unknown reason I woke up at 7am. That is not enough sleep to function effectively.

Needless to say, my brain wasn't in the best place for website building.

I did come VERY close to finishing the ebook, but most of my attention was aimed at my new academy books, which arrived in the mail today!

The goal workbook for both business and life, the diary/planner, the poster calendar/planner and the pad of 'to do' lists.

Once I get the website/business up and running, all of these resources are going to motivate, encourage and support me through my first year.

I am on the precipice!!

Apart from lack of sleep, my biggest downfall was eating grilled fish and chips from our local cafe, for lunch. The fish was fantastic, but chips ... oh the chips ... I do love hot potato chips, but it's been so long since I ate a whole plate of simple carbs and my poor body was not prepared for the insulin spike. By 2pm, I could barely keep my eyes open.

I climbed onto my bed and two hours later, I opened my eyes!! I still felt very lethargic and lay in bed reading for another hour.

So there was my precious afternoon completely wasted.

My new laptop did not arrive today and I fully self sabotaged my first full day for working at my desk.

It's now 10.30pm and I am going to bed early.

Tomorrow I will be full of energy and I will absolutely make the most of every hour available to me!! No procrastinating. No sabotaging. No excuses.

I've got this!

Nite all.

Do Not Disturb

What a weekend!

Saturday was an early start to get some housework and washing done and prepare dinner in advance, for Best Cousin in the World's overnight visit.

Adoring Husband and I were invited to The Blonde Bombshell's house for birthday drinks on Saturday afternoon, so I decided to bake her a birthday cake .. except my oven has decided to play silly buggers with me, so I had to improvise and found a delicious paleo, raw chocolate cake to make.

I've never used this recipe before and I made it non-paleo by adding chocolate whipped cream as one of the layers. I made extra so that there would be enough to create three small tarts for us to have for dessert with Best Cousin in the World.

There was lots of chocolate and lots of strawberries and blueberries and lots of nuts. I loved it and will make it again for AH and I to indulge ourselves.

AH, with his sore back, didn't accompany me to the Blonde Bombshell's house, but dropped me off for an hour. He picked me up with about 20 minutes to spare before BCIW arrived.

We began drinking wine almost as soon as she walked in the door. AH barbecued our steak for dinner while I made the dressing for the salad that I'd prepared earlier in the day and reheated the boiled jacket potatoes. It was an easy dinner and BCIW and I sat up until midnight catching up.

It took me about 20 minutes to stack the dishwasher and clean the kitchen before heading to bed where I fell into a coma for seven hours! I considered adding a short blog post before bed, but my bed won that argument .. well it wasn't much of an argument that close to 1am.

There wasn't much time with BCIW this morning. She left to pick up Marco Polo from the hospital and ten minutes later, The Motivator arrived to pick me up for the next leg of our survey work for the Frack Free Burrum Heads group.

The Blonde Bombshell issued an invitation for coffee and cake this morning, but unfortunately, I was committed to completing the survey.

The Motivator and I were both dreading it, after our poor results during the week and I came very close to phoning her to cancel, but I'm glad that I didn't! We were very well received today and all but two of the residents gave us their details and stated that they did not want gas fields in our community.

Of the two who turned us away, one man stated that if the good lord gave us coal and gas, then we should mine it and he was 'all for progress'. Another man who works in the mining industry didn't want to get involved.

It only took us 90 minutes to finish our work and we decided to reward ourselves with a coffee at the cafe and sat in the air conditioned eating area to debrief and share a gluten free pear and walnut muffin .. which was delicious!

I arrived home some time after 1pm. AH and I had been invited to a lunch time barbecue, so I phoned the joyful duo to let them know that we would not be attending. AH's back is still sore and I was well and truly done for the weekend.

This allowed me to spend almost four hours at my desk where I completed three more chapters of my ebook, researched some more wholesale sites and caught up on some emails.

Dinner was super easy tonight. Leftover Hainan chicken and I added the leftover chopped vegetables from the other night, so it took twenty minutes to prepare, then leftover raw chocolate cake for dessert.

I looked at the clock at 9.30pm and expected that I could be in bed by 10.30pm, however, it is now half past midnight and here I am still tapping away at my keyboard!

The four nations rugby league final between New Zealand and Australia is about to start and I'm considering sitting up to watch it. Perhaps I will watch it in bed .. see how long I last.

I am looking forward to having a week without commitments and finally making some progress on the website. Wish me luck!

Nite all.

 

It's in the way!

Life gets in the way sometimes.

It's definitely getting in the way of my website that's for sure!

I had big plans for this week AND for this weekend. Thursday and Friday were going to be MY days to lock myself away in my workspace and completely focus on the website. Life got in the way, when family, errands, cooking, psychotic dogs, housework, birthdays and friends required my attention.

My only commitment for Saturday was an hour for Frack Free Burrum Heads in the morning and the remainder of the day was for the website. Now, I have birthday drinks in the afternoon and a family visitor for the night.

Sunday was going to be totally free for me to work in my office. Now, we are committed to a barbecue lunch with friends!

I don't want to complain, because it's so nice to have friends and family to fill our lives with social events and visits, but at the same time, it's frustrating to have such big plans that continue to be thwarted before they go into full swing.

On Monday, I expect my new Macbook Pro to arrive, so most of the day will be spent setting it up. I expect that all of my Academy books for 2017 will arrive on Monday or Tuesday too, and they will take time to organise and fill out.

Aside from that, I have Wednesday morning coffee with the girls, and the rest of my week is free. I am NOT going to accept any invitations - unless it's something really special! Ugh! All invitations are special. There is no hope for me.

At least I was clever enough to send my sister's birthday present today. She should actually receive it before her birthday! This is becoming a habit ... once upon a time, I would send her gifts 6 months after her birthday.

It's time for me to sleep now. I'm done for the day.

Nite all.

Messy Stuff

After my morning coffee, I got about 90 minutes of work done on the website before we headed into town to visit Marco Polo in the hospital.

All things considered, he was in fine spirits and we spent an hour making fun of his situation, comparing injury stories and wondering why his attached machinery was sending off alarms that were not immediately answered!

We brought him some fresh fruit and a newspaper and Marco Polo was grateful that the golf was on TV to keep him occupied during his much longer than expected stay.

He's itching to get back to work, so I think hospital is the best place for him right now! Hopefully, he will have a speedy recovery so that he can be back in full swing sooner, rather than later. When you love the work that you do, it's difficult to find self control!

We said our goodbyes and did some necessary shopping before picking up our FROG box and heading home.

I had time to unpack the groceries, cook Adoring Husband's dinner before he headed off to SES training and I had another hour or so at my desk.

When I sign off here, I have to make up a batch of dog food, so my day is not quite over yet ... even though I wish it was!

It's already 10pm so I'd best get moving.

Nite all.

Team Dynamic

The Motivator and I formed what I considered a dynamic team today, and headed off with all of our 'frack free' paraphernalia to ask people how they felt about gas mining in our area.

Having no experience whatsoever in door knocking and cold canvassing, we had a little practise in the car about what we would say when people answered the door and how we would present our spiel.

After a while, we gathered our courage, climbed out of the car and headed towards our first house, me with the bright yellow 'Lock the Gate' sign in my hands (hoping that it would indicate to the residents that we were not selling religion) and The Motivator with our lime folder full of information packs.

First house - nobody home (except the dog)
Second house - nobody home (except the dog)
Third house - nobody home (except the dog)

Next street.

First house - a man rushed through his open garage door to stop us in our tracks. "No thank you!" he said with a combination of assertion and aggression.

We told him that we weren't selling anything and asked if he knew about the possibility of gas fields in our area and he replied "Yes. I have relatives working in the industry so I'm not interested in anything you have to say".

So we thanked him for his time and moved on.

The next gentleman we came across had previously worked in the industry himself and with the same combination of assertion and aggression, declared that he didn't want 'that mess' coming into our community and wanted to help in any way that he could.

The last house that we visited was the home of Tweedle Dee. She and her husband, Tiny Tim, gave us a warm welcome and offered us tea/coffee/water and then sat down to listen to our story. They both asked lots of questions and enthusiastically supported our cause. It was nice to end our day on a more positive note.

We had been advised that weekends were better for this sort of thing, so we will try again on Saturday.

I got to spend some time on my ebook this afternoon and I sourced some jewellery wholesalers for semi precious gemstone jewellery to sell on the site. So I feel that I accomplished a little today .. though not as much as I'd have liked.

While I'd hoped to spend all day working on the website tomorrow, we have to head into The Bay to visit Best Cousin in the World's husband, Marco Polo. MP had an argument with a grinder and caused enough damage to his leg that he required surgery and a stay in hospital, so we will go in and offer some TLC and perhaps we will make fun of him a bit too!

I didn't have an afternoon coffee today, so I am feeling quite drowsy. It's almost 11pm, so it might be time to sleep.

Nite all.  

Me and the Amazon

Not actually Amazon .. Amazonite!

I asked Adoring Husband to stop at Tinkerbells on The Esplanade this morning as we were driving past.

For some time now, I have been thinking about buying myself a ring with a turquoise stone or similar because I seem to be attracted to that colour (along with yellow) and have often selected that colour to wear.

Before I entered the shop, I glanced in the window and was immediately drawn to a ring on the rotating mirrored stand. I read the word Amazonite, so I entered the shop and asked the woman if I could try it on.

I also asked to see her range of turquoise rings.

As soon as I tried on the Amazonite ring, I loved it and knew that I wanted it. None of the other Amazonite rings appealed to me, so I turned my attention to the rings with Turquoise stones. There was only one on the tray that drew my eye and when I tried it on, I couldn't decided between the two rings that I loved, so I bought both!!

The one with the larger stone is the Amazonite.

It's quite amazing that I was drawn to this stone because for all the time that I spend in front of my computer screen lately, I discovered that:

Amazonite: At a physical level, it blocks geopathic stress, absorbs microwaves and cell phone emanations and protects against electromagnetic pollution. It calms the brain and the nervous system, alleviates worry and fear and dispels negative energy.

For healing, it benefits conditions like osteoporosis, calcium deficiency and tooth decay and rectifies metabolic deficiencies.

Turquoise: Enhances communication, releases inhibitions, dispels negative energy. It promotes self-realisation and assists creative problem solving. It dissolves self sabotage. It's an excellent stone to protect against panic attacks.

For healing, it is anti-inflammatory and detoxifying, enhances the psychic and physical immune system and supports the assimilation of nutrients. It heals the whole body, but especially the eyes and the stomach.

So I am very very happy with my purchases and I bought a couple of Christmas gifts today, as well as a beautiful 2017 calendar for myself. I also found a new board to create my next vision board. I have so much planned over the next few months, I think I have to make a priority list!

Anyway, it's only 6pm so I now have an evening free and may even have an early night to bed!

Nite all.
 

Super Flop

With all the hype over the supposed super moon tonight, I simply HAD to pedal down to the beach and attempt to capture the spectacle with my camera!

There were a LOT of people with the same idea and surprisingly, there were others with tripods and cameras with long lenses, lined up along the shore line waiting for the spectacle with me.

For all of the full moons and super moons that I've waited for on that same spot, there has never been anyone else with a good quality camera, let alone a tripod and long lens attached.

Others were sitting in their fold up chairs or on the structures that were there, snacking on their nibbly food and drinking wine and beer. Some were pacing along the beach watching the horizon expectantly.

Someone asked me where I thought the moon would rise and I pointed to my chosen spot. The men disagreed and pointed more than 90 degrees to the right, to a spot that would be obscured by trees and claimed that we would miss it rising and wouldn't see it until it rose above the trees.

I'd forgotten to take my phone so I couldn't check the app to see exactly where it would rise, but crossed my fingers, hoping that my guestimation would be closer to the spot than theirs.

I guess that there were approximately 30 or 40 people in the vicinity and everybody was chatting and drinking and eating and socialising while I stared at the horizon.

There was a lot of cloud. It appeared to be thin cloud, but enough to obscure the rising moon. I noticed the arc appear above the horizon well before anybody else and I grabbed a few shots as it rose into the only clear space available.

Unfortunately, the hazy cloud was enough to stop the sunlight from reflecting off the surface of the moon and it was barely noticeable.

After I selfishly got my shots, I decided to point it out to the gathering crowd and suddenly there were phones and cameras aiming in that direction and shutters were clicking all around me as I packed my gear away into the back of my trike.

I knew that was the end of the show for quite some time.

As I pedalled home, I kept looking behind me, wondering if the moon would rise above the cloud, but instead I noticed that the cloud in the East was changing colour as the sun set in the West, so I did a quick U-turn and headed back towards the river.

This is what greeted me as I reached the water ...

It was quite beautiful.

Earlier this morning, it was my mission, along with three other members of the 'Frack Free Burrum Heads' group, to meet with the Federal Member for Hinkler at the Lions Park to discuss our issue about gas fields in the area.

He knew nothing about anything, claiming that mining in Queensland was under the jurisdiction of the State Government and that the Federal Government was not permitted to intervene.

He listened to our concerns anyway and I gave him an envelope containing the dvd about how gas fields have affected other communities and also some paperwork with lots of information to add to his education, which he promised he would watch and would read.

I wish I'd thought to throw my camera in the trike basket and then had someone take some photos. We need to start a portfolio of our group's activities and actions supporting our cause.

From there, I bought some coffee and visited The Motivator who wasn't well enough to attend the Lions Park meeting.

I cooked a big lunch for Adoring Husband who had a full morning and then a full evening of SES commitments, so he needed some sustenance.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do any website work today. Tomorrow will be busy in The Bay and then Wednesday I'm busy gaining support for our campaign to make our community a 'mining free' area.

Perhaps I can aim for Thursday and Friday to get some more done on the website.

Nite all.

Home Again

I didn't get much time with Chicklet this morning before I left, but we squeezed as much as we could into the little time that we had.

My taxi arrived right on time and I had a very chatty taxi driver, who wanted to know my thoughts on improving health by changing lifestyles.

Even though he looked like he needed to heed some of my advice himself, he was concerned for his partner who was struggling with some emotional issues after the deaths of both of her parents recently (both in their 90s) and her physical and mental health seemed to be suffering.

It made for a very short taxi ride and I really enjoyed our talk.

I had called the taxi a little early, so that I could visit my favourite shops in Cooroy before the train arrived .. forgetting that it was Sunday!! Everything was closed except the coffee shops.

So I ordered a coffee and I sat on a stool at a tall bench table near the shop window. Three older people, two women and a man, sat at the low table behind me. One of the women was in her late 60s, was obviously Jewish American (she did mention during the conversation that she and her husband were Jewish) and she dominated the conversation, quite loudly, for the thirty minutes that I was eavesdropping.

Her husband (who is back in Sydney) is suffering from a form of dementia which she described as Adult Attention Deficit. He had been a very successful business man in his time, which she was surprised about because his father was a gambler and did not achieve any financial success, and she had made her own fortune dabbling in the stock market!

Their home in Sydney was recently valued at $4million and it has 5 bathrooms! Her husband's parents were one of the first Jewish families to arrive in Sydney and they built their first home in Surrey Hills.

Her husband was somewhat of a hoarder and she recently brought people in to clear out the garages and some rooms that stored his parents furniture and belongings. When he found out, he was not happy about it.

She was offering stock market advice - something about franked shares (she lost me) - and shared her concerns about the fate of the stock market in 2017.

It was stinking hot in Cooroy today.

At the train station, I met a lady by the name of Joan, whose daughter and son-in-law had recently bought the Miriam Vale Pub and she was heading up there to visit them. She told me that she didn't like the train trip between Gympie and Maryborough. She said that it always seemed to drag on.

It turns out that she was sitting in the seat directly behind me, but we didn't chat any further once we boarded the train.

My senses seemed to be heightened today, especially my hearing and I really tried, unsuccessfully, firstly to read and then to watch a movie.

I could hear -

• young kids talking about animals
• older men discussing life on the farm
• the lady behind me was reading quietly to herself in an audible whisper
• phones with their different sounds announcing the arrival of texts
• the hiss of drink cans opening
• the rustle of plastic food bags opening
• announcements over the PA system
• the hum of the train engine
• the whoosh of the sliding doors as people left the carriage to use the loo
• the jingle of coins as people counted their coffee money
• zippers opening on back packs
• the rattle of the steward's keys
• the tapping on the keyboards of laptops
• the deep voice of the man speaking in a different language
• the clearing of the throat of the man four seats behind me
• the child learning to whistle and continuously practising throughout the trip.

Worst of all, was the stench of nicotine after the 15 minute break at Gympie where the passengers were given permission to disembark and have a quick cigarette. Ugh. I wrapped my new book around my face and inhaled the delicious scent of crisp new paper.

I was very relieved when we finally pulled up at Howard Station and there was Adoring Husband, waiting for me, in full SES uniform, which is orange .. and I was wearing orange pants and orange top .. oh dear. Haha.

The Nikonian shared a photo that she took while she was here, which I quite like .. she made the old bag look presentable and I was happy for it to be shared on facebook too. She is a good photographer .. I knew that I could count on her to get a good one.

I think I'm going to need an early night, because I didn't fall asleep until late last night, had broken sleep and then woke very early this morning. I'm feeling decidedly weary.

Nite all.    

Chicklet Heaven

She's funny, smart, imaginative, creative, artistic, thoughtful, loving, confident, assertive, encouraging, tech savvy, crazy and an amazing problem solver. She has a pretty positive outlook about most things and her attention to detail when she's focussed, is surprising.

Two days isn't very long, but it's about quality, not quantity.

Today, we started with her whispering a secret request for dinosaur lego, followed by instructional tutoring in Minecraft.

We played dinosaur cards - which came with one of four dinosaur books that I brought with me. We built our castle and played dragon vs knight ...

We watched 'Chicken Little' and while I read a few pages of my book, she watched some of 'Hotel Transylvania'. When I wasn't feeling well this afternoon, we played Plants vs Zombies while I lay on the bed. We coloured in and made some pictures in a playground app. When her iPad went flat, she built a Minecraft world for me on my iPad...

We had dinner time, then bath time and then story time .. which was a book about Poo at the Zoo.

Tomorrow, it's time to go home, but I'll be back in a few weeks. It's been short, but very very sweet. I love her so much xo

It's almost midnight, so I'm off to sleep.

Nite all.

Grey and Gloomy

Well, I must say that the Gods were not kind to us for this photo shoot.

With yesterday's 40kph winds and stifling heat making it impossible to get any type of decent shot, except for a couple deep in the bush where the wind couldn't reach us, and then this morning when we woke at the crack of dawn to catch the perfect morning light .. only to discover that it was a grey and gloomy day, completely overcast and not at all conducive for beautiful beach shots.

So we gave up.

We will hopefully squeeze in a shoot during my next visit to the Sunny Coast in December and then we will aim for some more time in my town early next year.

A huge thank you to The Nikonian for her time and her patience, the wine, the gifts, the food and the fun. We both have dreadful memories. So many conversations weren't finished because we couldn't remember names or words or what the hell we were talking about.

I forgot to give her the other half of her birthday present and I forgot to feed her breakfast this morning.

She forgot some of her camera gear and all the spare food from her garden that she could have shared with me.

It doesn't matter, as long as we remembered the wine and the camera - probably the two most important items for a good time!

As I type this, I am on the Sunny Coast, sleeping in Chicklet's bed while she camps out in Mama's room.

We didn't get much play time this afternoon, because I arrived well after 3pm, but we had some sticker fun and I had to search for some dinosaur cards that she had placed or hidden strategically around the house. We had bath time and read one of the new dinosaur books before bed.

Tomorrow will be a BIG play day.

Before I sign off for a good night of sleep (the dogs got me out of bed three times during last night, so I am feeling weary) ..

I have to wish Grannymus a very happy birthday for the 10th November. I hope you had a marvellous day and the family spoilt you just a little and that you got to feel some love. xox

On that note, sleep for me.

Nite all.