Counting Down

By the time you read this, it will be LAUNCH DAY!

We opened the shop this morning at 9am.

The Motivator created a gazillion 'The Happy Abode' signs and stapled them to every upright post in town. She created an A-Frame sign to position at our shop driveway and having done that, she created a trail of signs for people to follow.

It was like a humane rat trap! Haha!

Our customer numbers rose considerably for the day.

We also have the young lady who works at the bakery to thank, because she came for a quick visit after I handed her the invitation to our launch party and then returned to work and told every female customer to visit our lovely shop!

I locked the door at midday and The Motivator and I spent some time tidying up and rearranging displays in preparation for the launch.

At some point The Motivator unlocked the door to go outside for something and forgot to lock it when she returned. A couple of ladies made their way through the doors asking if we were open, and we told them that we weren't but they were welcome to come in for a look.

They spent a LOT of money while they were there and declared that they would be back before the end of their holiday.

I guess that now I am a business owner, I have to change my tune and declare my love for tourists instead of complaining about them. We will be relying on them to keep our business operating successfully throughout the year.

Anyway, I have much to do tomorrow in preparation for the launch party, as well as catching up on some housework and some washing. I have no idea what I'm going to wear! So that will take a good hour of the day!

Right now, it's 11.30pm and I need to get some sleep.

I'll see some of you today for champagne and nibbles!

Nite all.

Wonderful People

The world is full of wonderful people.

Each of those wonderful people has a story to tell.

I wish I could sit every one of them down and write or record their stories, because most of them are truly inspiring. Many of them have overcome real adversity. Many of them have really stepped up to the plate and created something wonderful from dire situations.

It's really interesting how different people deal with similar situations. Some educate themselves and become empowered enough to make strong decisions that bring positive change to their lives so that their futures look brighter.

Others feel defeated, stick with their limiting beliefs, give up,  and their lives become stagnant while they wait their situation out, and most of the time, nothing good comes from that.

It makes you wonder.

We have only been open for two weeks, but our shop has attracted many new people through the doors and some of those people share their stories. There have been some 'wow' moments.

Not only are we working in a lovely space, but we are meeting amazing new people every day!

I love it.

We still have much to do.

We hope to at least make a start on covering the training room chairs tomorrow. Even to cover one or two will be a start.

But then ... wouldn't it be great if we were so busy serving customers, that there is no time to cover chairs ha!

Our launch party is on Sunday afternoon between 4pm and 6pm. We have lots of champagne and plenty of nibbly food to keep everybody happy. There will be music (not live) and lots of happy, smiling faces. I'm looking forward to it.

I MUST remember to take my camera!

Anyway, it's approaching 11pm and I have to be up bright and early tomorrow morning. I have to meet someone at the markets at around 7am and then deliver some invitations, as well as post some signs around to attract the market goers to our shop.

So, until tomorrow ...

Nite all.

Brain Explosions

Why does everything take so long?

Every process has itself, a process that requires approval, which in turn requires time.

We applied for our business bank account on 25th August. It took more than a week for them to send us all the information/paperwork required to access our online account, even though they told us it would be ready by the following Monday.

Once we finally had that organised, we linked our card reader to our devices, so that we could have eftpos and credit card facilities for our customers, only to discover that it will take ANOTHER week for the bank account to be linked to the card reader!

Seriously, in this day and age! It's crazy!

Despite these frustrations, life is still happy at The Happy Abode :)

We had yet more happy visitors today, including the manic Little Mermaid.

Our brains hurt from trying to GSD and at the end of the day, we drove into The Bay to buy food and alcohol for our launch party on Sunday.

Now my brain is hurting from trying to organise a private event on Facebook where I can invite only special people to our launch party on Sunday .. it's just not working for me, so I'm going to take a break, get a good night's sleep and try again tomorrow.

Oh, Adoring Husband drove into The Bay today and picked up my photos from the framer who put matt boards on them all. They look fantastic and I have a couple of favourites that I was very surprised about, so I can't wait to hang them properly in the shop - that might take a few more days yet.

Anyway, I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Doing It

So, suddenly our launch party is only four sleeps away!

The last hour of the day at work was used to plan the launch, with an invitation list, a food and drink list, a shopping list, designing the invitation and more.

We do our best work under pressure.

There were not as many paying customers today, but the few who visited us were very happy and vibrant. We had a customer return for her third visit and we even had an elderly male pop in and buy a couple of gifts for family. That was a first!

It's after 11pm and I didn't get to sleep until late last night, so I'm feeling a touch weary right about now.

I spent about 90 minutes on the phone this afternoon, chatting for a while with Vegan Chickie and then Chicklet.

I was talking on the landline, and chicklet didn't understand that we can't do 'facetime' so she pressed all the right buttons and I had to go running to pic up my mobile so that I could accept her FaceTime request.

She took me into the bedroom and showed me how to play one of her iPad games 'monster legends'.

She took me into the toilet while she peed. That was interesting.

She took me on a 'bit of a tour of the place'.

I took her in to say hello to Poppy Barry.

I took her to say hello to each of the dogs.

I took her outside to say hello to SEB the cockatiel.

We counted the eggs that came out of the chook pen.

After about an hour, it was time for me to cook dinner, so I asked her to take the phone to Mama so that I could say goodbye. She was a bit sad that I had to go ... but this was the photo that Vegan Chickie sent me immediately after I said goodbye ...

I loved that hour with Chicklet. To hear her voice say "It's Bozzy Wozzy!!" and to hear her giggling her cheeky little head off brought me such joy. I miss her. I miss them both. They are too far away.

Nite all.

That Happy Place

Today was amazing.

It was our best day yet as far as sales go.

But for me, today was all about the people.

The morning tea ladies all arrived in fine form and brought with them a happy and positive energy that lingered in the shop all day. After more than an hour of fun and frivolity and laughter, they wandered around the shop, some purchasing some of our wares and all leaving with a flourish!

The Tai Chi ladies arrived and were surprised and amazed at our wares. They spent a lot of time selecting just the right item to suit their personality, but some decided to come back later with friends.

The comment that still echoes in my mind is "This is just the sort of shop that the town needs!", which was uttered quite a few times today, but also ever since we opened the doors. It really tickles my fancy that the locals feel that way and I feel proud of us for being the ones to provide it.

More ladies came and went during the day, one even bringing with her, the outfit that she is wearing to a function this weekend, asking me to choose jewellery and a bag to suit. Oh my goodness! I'm now a stylist!!

There was much discussion about buying Christmas gifts for grandchildren and bringing family to the shop when they visit over the weekend. One lady plans to come in every week to buy a new button for her silver snap ring.

Another lady, who works nearby, dropped in during her lunch hour to buy a new handbag. One of her work mates asked me to hold a turquoise ring so that she can buy it for her daughter. Yet another lady put aside a bag that she wants to buy as a birthday gift for her daughter.

Everybody promised to spread the word and bring their visitors and return whenever they wanted or needed something new.

There was such a lot of positivity all day long and everybody wished us luck as they walked out the door.

I believe that tomorrow will also be a fabulous day.

We have IKEA flat packs to assemble, lights to install and signs to design and order, as well as chairs to begin re-covering - and that's just the beginning.

We are also hoping for a launch party this Sunday. Let's hope it all goes to plan. 

I'm off for an early night.

Nite all.

 

Beautiful Day

Thankfully, I was well enough to go to work this morning.

My nose is no longer running, but dripping occasionally, and is bearable. My sneezing has reduced considerably and I feel less hazy in my head.

I think it's a sign that this bug/virus is a strong one - I calculated that it was September 2011 the last time I caught a virus, so it's 6 yrs, not the 5yrs that I first thought. I'm happy with that record and I think it shows that my immune system is pretty strong.

Catching this virus should strengthen my immunity for the next few seasons.

It was a great day in the shop. There were a number of new customers and a visit by some friends, which is always lovely. It was quite an improvement on our opening day last Monday when we made $4 for the day!

I was even able to do the less enjoyable tasks of vacuuming and dusting, which surprisingly, I did actually enjoy!

Adoring Husband dropped in at lunch time, providing a delicious cold meat and salad. He even washed the dishes afterwards. What a man.

He arrived at the same time as The Little Mermaid, whose head was in a better place today, but it was still good to see her leave lol.

I found some more products that I'd like to put in the shop and registered with the companies to get their catalogues.

I found a fabulous place online to get my calendars printed.

Adoring Husband had a SES meeting tonight, so I didn't have to worry about cooking dinner. He left at 5.30pm and I caught up on some TV shows that I'd recorded.

I can't believe it's already 11pm.

I'm outta here.

Nite all.

Misery Guts

So ...

I have spent the day in bed.

I've used almost an entire box of tissues, sneezed my brains out, consumed litres of water, eaten lots of fruit loaded with VitC, had home made chicken soup, taken probiotics and kefir, had three doses of raw honey and gulped down some magnesium mix.

My nose feels like it might have dried up and cleared somewhat.

This evening, I changed the bedding and had a shower to wash the germs away. I almost feel human again!

I was a little bit productive in my sick bed by finishing the Facebook page for The Happy Abode and creating an Instagram account. I did some online training on 'product launches' which was interesting and researched places that print calendars.

I wasted a good deal of time creating a calendar, only to discover that the price was in US$ which was far more expensive than I expected! Stoopid sick brain!

Anyway, that's all for tonight. I need to sleep the germs away so that I can go to work tomorrow.

Nite all.

Testing the Waters

I knew that the Howard Markets were on and that River Heads were running a festival this morning, but I didn't know that Torbanlea were holding a big fete.

So with those three events in competition with opening our shop doors, I decided to do it anyway. I opened the doors between 9am and 12pm.

Only three people came into the shop and one of them was a new resident of Burrum Heads, and apparently, loosely related to The Fisher King! She is also a photographer with the same camera as the one I use, so we had quite a long and animated conversation about many things that we had in common, photography being just one of them.

So for that reason alone, I'm pleased to have opened the doors today!

I made two sales and had three visitors.

In the quiet time, I created a blog post for Romance Your Life with Roz. I still have some adjustments to make to the site. I've deleted all but my photography from the shop, and I still need to amend the shop page where I talk about the jewellery and journals that I'm selling. It's been quite a while since I updated any of the pages, so hopefully I will have a bit more time to devote to the site from here on in.

At midday, after I closed the blinds and locked the shop door, I danced through the shop, singing along with Barbra Streisand and whoever the male was that she was dueting with at the time, all the while thinking to myself "I LOVE this place!"

I posted this in Facebook this afternoon ...

So here's the story ...

Now that I'm a working girl, and Adoring Husband has his big birthday bash happening in approx 7 weeks, he's decided to Spring clean the entire house from top to bottom.

This week he did the family room and dining room. Today he started on the kitchen cupboards, emptying them out, cleaning the shelves, culling stuff we haven't used for a while and rearranging for more practical use.

I returned home after 3.5 hours to a shining and completely clear bench top and the inside of the cupboards ... Immaculate!

I had been grocery shopping, so began unpacking the bags.

The last thing out of the bag was a bottle of soda water.

The reason that I have this stuff is because a Naturopath in Canberra gave me a special Magnesium mixture that has to be dissolved in flat soda water.

So ... I put the bottle on the sink and twisted the cap.

If I hadn't had a tight grip on the cap, it would have gone flying and the liquid would have hit the ceiling, but because I kept my hand about a foot above the bottle, the liquid hit my hand and sprayed outwardly in all directions!!

It sprayed me.

It sprayed the kitchen floor.

It sprayed the ENTIRE bench top.

It sprayed the sink.

It sprayed the family room floor.

It sprayed my laptop bag and handbag.

All of Adoring Husband's beautiful work, destroyed in a split second!!

So I would just like to thank the (insert appropriate profanity here) who thought it might be fun to shake up the bottle of soda water and put it back on the shelf at the supermarket. You are sooooo freaking funny hey!?

Since I arrived home, my nose began running like a tap. I've used half a box of tissues already. I'm diffusing 'Easy Air' (which is a do TERRA product) with La Reve Frankincense oil, eaten pure raw honey, taken a strong dose of Vitamin C, consumed three bottles of filtered water, one glass of strawberry/watermelon/lemon/honey juice (freshly squeezed yesterday) and will dose up on kefir and probiotics before I go to bed.

I wonder if I can beat it by morning?

It's just after 9pm and I'm off to bed right now to sleep the bug away.

Nite all.

Beyond Tired

It's been a big week!

Our first week is done and dusted, although I am very tempted to go to work tomorrow and open the doors for a Saturday morning just to test the waters, but I'll see how I feel in the morning.

It was another successful day today with visits from friends, holiday makers from down south and the yoga ladies.

I met the owners of the building for the first time today and they seem like a nice couple, especially Lady Gaga. The Rooster seemed a little bit cocky but not too bad. He told me to put in a coffee machine and I told him that we weren't allowed to sell food and drink from the shop. His response was "I own the building and I say you CAN!"

Anyway, it was yet another pleasant day spent in our lovely workspace, and there was no visit from The Little Mermaid. I saw her from a distance late this afternoon, but that is all.

My visitors included Tweedle Dee, Maid Marian, Woman of Many Talents (with grandchildren in tow), Arty Farty Queen and Bridging Hippy.

While I was working, Adoring Husband drove into The Bay to pick up my photo prints from Harvey Normans and deliver them to the framing place where they will be fitted with matt board before being displayed in the shop.

He came back to the shop with the chicken that I cooked last night and he'd made a delicious little salad to go with it. We sat together in the shop dining area to eat lunch totally uninterrupted.

Just as I was about to walk out the door to leave work this afternoon, Arty Farty Queen pulled up on her bicycle, so I welcomed her in and turned on the lights to show her around. It was a quick visit and she purchased a gift for a friend before she departed.

I arrived home with plenty of time to make myself acceptable for the Bowl's Club. We had a good crowd there tonight and it was nice to catch up with a few friends who have been away, some out of the country.

After a night where none of us had any luck, AH and I drove the Leggy Blonde and Father UP home before coming home ourselves to make a quick chicken + concoction dinner.

AH went to bed quite early and after about an hour, I had to massage his back because he was in a bit of pain.

Now, I am off to bed because I'm feeling the weight of my week on my very tired shoulders.

Happy first day of Spring!

Nite all.  

Winning

We are winners.

Not only do we have a wonderful workspace to spend time in every day, but each day our customer numbers are increasing and they are loving the stock that we have available!

I almost have enough names to start my first photography course and we are feeling very positive about our future.

It was reported that The Little Mermaid was having a bad day today, but she stayed away from our shop, so it was nice to not have to deal with her struggles for a day. I did speak to her at lunch time and she told me that she was not in a good space and I wished her well. It's tough for her AND for us. She is the only one who can help herself and her issues are complex.

We had a really good day with visitors to the shop and with sales. Visitors from earlier in the week returned, some bringing family and friends with them. So word is spreading and we make sure that everyone feels welcome, and when they show genuine interest, we show them through the shop to the treatment room and the training room.

Adoring Husband and I drove into The Bay straight after work to get a couple of things for the shop and to order prints of some of my photos, which will be displayed on the shop walls. I got a bit carried away with some clothes shopping because there are big sales on at the moment and I bought 4 tops.

It was dark by the time we left for home, which felt really weird because we are never out that late. Our usual routine is to be home and eating dinner at 6pm!

I cooked up some chicken for AH's dinner and he made a salad to go with it. I also baked a chicken so that we would have cold meat for lunch tomorrow. Strawberries were on sale and I bought three punnets so I juiced them with watermelon and mint and raw honey, which was delicious.

It's almost midnight! Time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

Late

It's already well after 11pm and I need to get to bed.

My body is still adjusting to working life!

We had an amazing day in the shop today.

The Little Mermaid only visited once, and that was to get my postal address so that she can send me postcards from her travels in the boat.

I saw an old local sitting outside the post office this morning and I asked him to tell his wife about our shop and to tell her I'd love to see her. It was only about an hour later that she appeared at the shop and found lots of lovely items to purchase. She had a great time, as did I attempting to add everything up!

We had quite a few customers today and some lovely friends came to visit, as well as some local business owners and other sales people. Everybody commented on the great energy in the shop, which we worked hard to achieve so it's nice to hear those words from so many people.

Stephanie, the Le Reve essential oils lady came to the shop to show us her new products and I've booked a party to be held at the shop on 13th September at 2pm. There is a beautiful new collection of 'Shakra Energy Oils' in a beautiful silver zip up pouch. New candles, perfume and a new scented reed diffuser too.

Early next year, Le Reve are releasing a new range of skincare products which sound fabulous, so we will be keeping in regular contact with Stephanie and one of us may even become a consultant!

I created and ordered a photo book with 40 of my photos to display on the main table in the shop. I'll also have a few of the photos enlarged and printed with matt board frames to hang on the walls.

We hope to finalise the insurance stuff tomorrow too.

Now I'm off to bed!

Nite all.

Feeling the Way

Day two at The Happy Abode was lovely.

We had three brief visits from The Little Mermaid. She may be small but she has a booming voice is a touch intimidating to anyone who doesn't know her. She startled an elderly lady who was in the shop during one of her visits. She claims to be leaving town, so hopefully she will not be a problem in our future!

Three of the ladies visited after they had their coffee at our usual haunt, even though they were supposed to actually have their coffee with us in the shop!

We had fifteen visitors to the shop, another two names for the photography course and we made sales!

I created a notice to put in the local notice board, which will hopefully direct more people to our shop and bring more interest to our workshops and courses.

I attempted to insure the shop, but the man that I needed to speak to was in a meeting and THEN when he finally made contact 3 hours later, he told me that he was retiring but could refer me to somebody else on the Sunshine Coast who could help me. This meant he had to send me an email to which I had to respond with the word 'yes' and then he passes my name on to the new people!

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

I've started to create a photo book to put on the central table, which people can browse through to select photos for purchasing. I'll have a small selection of those photos printed and displayed on the shop walls too.

We need to cover the training room chairs and buy some desks so that the first workshops can go ahead.

I need to create the photography workshop!

So much to do! So little time!

Still loving the space so much :)

It's 11pm and I need sleep.

Nite all.

Done and Dusted

Opening day is done and dusted!

I love being in that space so much. It makes me very happy.

We had a visitor before we even opened the doors this morning. Another business owner dropped by to have a sticky beak before anyone else got through the door, which was kind of uncomfortable because we were madly rushing around trying to tie up loose ends before we opened for business.

At the end of the day, I retraced our steps to count how many people actually came through our doors and we had 22 visitors in six hours.

Unfortunately, one of those visitors was The Little Mermaid, a resident of our town who lives on her boat on the river, but who has many serious problems ranging from drug abuse, alcoholism and mental health issues. She cried a lot and talked nineteen to the dozen about all of her current problems, emptying out her bags onto the floor of the shop and showing me all of her official papers and describing how difficult life is for her.

It was sad and I felt so bad for her. I hugged her before she left the shop and wished her well. She has tried so many different avenues and it seems that a lot of departments and officials have let her down and it's difficult to know how to help her.

I do know that she needs to be heard and I can listen. I also know that our shop is not the place for her to be during her episodes, so I have a plan for her future visits. (My Centrelink experience coming to the fore here!)

We certainly had some interesting characters through the door, including some locals whom I have never set eyes upon before today.

One elderly lady who had some crazy stories to tell and who wants to do both the photography course and the journalling course. I can't wait to hear some more about her life!

There were a few holiday makers who noticed our signs and came to investigate.

Lovely friends dropped in, some with their take away coffee, and some just to wish us luck.

So we had a slow but steady stream of people and in between we got a little bit of work done.

Even though our plan is to work 9 - 3, we didn't leave the shop until after 5pm.

I have a long 'to do' list for tomorrow that's for sure, and we'll be having the girls in for coffee in the morning.

It's 10pm and I need sleep.

Nite all.

This is it!

Tomorrow morning is the moment we've been working towards!

I have to be at the shop by about 7am to clean up the mess around my desk, vacuum the floors and display my silver chains on the timber trees.

I brought my white timber display trees home and painted them teal tonight. It's taken me two hours to give them two coats of chalk paint and I have to seal them before I go to bed. It's already 11.30pm and I desperately need to sleep!

It's been a great day adding the final touches with a little help from Shiny Shonny who joined us for a glass of champagne to celebrate our achievement.

Adoring Husband also came to assist hanging the wall tapestries and the door blind.

There is still much to do in the morning before we open the doors, so I need to sleep ...

Well, I forgot to post this last night! That's how tired and discombobulated I was!

It's now opening day and I am sitting at my desk waiting for customers to walk in ... and we've had quite a few this morning ... but it is very quiet right now.

It's a beautiful day and The Motivator and I are loving our space. It feels lovely to be here and we are very HAPPY!

I will write another post tonight to tell you all about my day.

Morning all.

Two More Sleeps

Just two more sleeps until we open the shop to the public!

Today was full on, pricing stock and working out how to display it all.

Right at this moment in time, the shop is a cross between 'a shambles' and 'a fabulous space' but by Monday morning, it should have all fallen into place perfectly.

It's well after 11pm and we worked for almost ten hours today. No doubt tomorrow will be the same, so I'm off to bed to get some sleep to regenerate and rejuvenate.

There's nothing else to report really.

The same CD played over and over all day and we sang stupidly to most of the songs..

We had a couple of visitors including two happy fur babies that loved to cuddle.

We had an early lunch at 'A Taste of Burrum'  and I had grilled barramundi with salad, which was DELICIOUS!

It was a happy day and we are still enjoying this process!

I'm working on my dream :)

Nite all.

Nowhere Fast

Today was one of those days where it took a long time to do not much!

We spent a lot of time on the phone with the bank creating a business account, then a lot of time online printing out and completing all the paperwork, then a lot of time at the Post Office processing the application. Then a lot of time scanning all the paperwork and emailing it, before snail mailing it.

We spent some time reviewing the new logos so that I could message the designer to make some minor changes.

Adoring Husband removed the old blinds and replaced them with the new ones. He drove into town and collected the clean rugs from the dry cleaners and he drove to Craignish to collect our FROG box.

I don't know how we would have managed this last month without him. He has been crazy amazing, continually putting his hand up to help in so many different ways. Sometimes he's been a pain in the butt too, but mostly he has been our saviour.

The weekend is going to be the making of us as we attempt to stock the shelves and do the pricing and make an inventory and create the display cabinet door bells and the front glass door cover and the cushions and hang the wall hangings and OMG the list goes on!

We'll do our best work under pressure! I have faith in us :)

Adoring Husband is going to be at the shed assisting at this weekend's first aide course.

I took photos with my camera today, which I haven't downloaded or edited yet. I'll take some more photos on Sunday night or Monday morning to show the work that we've done.

So much fun to be had!!

Oh and I won $38 in Powerball this week ... a pleasant surprise ... and the first prize has jackpotted to ten million dollars, so I'm going to win that next week. Haha!

It's already after 11pm, so I'm off to bed. So much to do! So little time!

Nite all.  

So Little Time!

We left home at 8.45am.

We returned home at 5.30pm.

We spent that time in The Bay and today's check list goes like this:

• Appointment at the bank to discuss business account options
• King Kong to get big bells for the front door and little bells for the glass cabinets, journal stands, a big white vase and some big artificial sunflowers for beside my desk.
• Stocklands for more journal stands, check and buy this week's lotto tickets, change the lenses of my distance glasses at OPSM, drinking glasses and teal rugs from Kmart and beanbag beans from Target.
• Spotlight for material to cover the training chairs, blinds for the front windows and back door.
• Bunnings for a bracket to replace the broken one, check the prices of wet/dry vacuum cleaners and find a dead bolt.
• Aquavue for lunch.
• Go Natural to get ice cream and yoghurt.
• Office Works to pick up an order and to buy any other lovely office stuff that our hearts yearned for - because, well you know, it's Office Works!
• The security shop to check out deadlocks.
• Big W to get a vacuum cleaner.

That's about it for the day! We dropped off all of our goodies at the shop and checked our mail at the Post Office and finally headed home.

I DID remember to take photos of the shop this afternoon!

Now I'm off to bed so that I'm alert and ready for another big day tomorrow!

Nite all.

Coming Together

It's all coming together nicely and I still forgot to take photos!

It's been such a long day, I can't even remember what we filled it with.

Adoring husband fixed the door and the leg of the big counter that the previous owner left for us, but then we changed our minds and decided to get rid of the big counter.

Unfortunately, it was too big to move, so Adoring Husband had to destroy it, which was no mean feat. It took a long time, a lot of noise and a big mess to get it into pieces small enough to move and dispose of.

The Motivator received a surprise parcel of stock that she ordered a LONG time ago. Beautiful colourful timber jewellery that we displayed on our new ladder-style cabinets and which look lovely with the Cenzoni leather bags and wallets.

We rearranged the glass top counters and the small cube units. I displayed some of my journals and notebooks on one cube unit, but we ran out of the little display stands, so that's on our list for tomorrow.

Our glass column cabinets look great in the window and it took us a while to figure out where to put the big table.

Tomorrow, we have another day in The Bay with a 'to do' list a mile long, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Ticked Off.

Two amazing things happened this morning.

1. The real estate agent actually came to the shop to answer our enquiries.

2. Telstra said they would be at the shop between 8am - 12pm and they turned up at 8.15am!

We now have phone and internet connected!

The Motivator and I had a business meeting.

We had just started to assemble some furniture when the cleaner arrived.

Before he even started, there was an issue about the equipment that he brought with him - this young guy (Josh) was sent to us with specific equipment, that just wasn't capable of doing the job that was required. He apologised profusely and did the best he could, but the carpet did not get cleaned as well as it should have.

I sent both a private message via their website and then an unfavourable review via the survey email that they sent me this afternoon.

Josh did a great job of cleaning our windows and doors. He was a lovely young man, very polite and courteous.

Before he cleaned, The Motivator and I moved as much furniture into our office area as possible - this part of the carpet is the cleanest in the building, so we decided not to clean it - mostly because we had no way of moving everything out of the space to have the entire carpet cleaned.

So while he was cleaning, The Motivator and I bought some lunch at the fish and chip shop - grilled fish and salad - then sat in the lounge chairs outside our shop in the shade and enjoyed the cool breeze while we ate said lunch.

It was a very pleasant couple of hours.

When Josh left, with yet another apology, we began assembling the table and chairs that The Motivator bought yesterday, but then we were interrupted when she remembered a Skype interview that she had made an appointment for, so I finished assembling the chairs, while Adoring Husband put together the table.

The whole set looks fabulous under the down lights in front of the yellow wall.

We selected the material that we'll use to cover the training chairs.

Adoring Husband and The Kiwi (who stopped in for a visit and offered some help) broke one of the legs off the big counter when they attempted to move it ... truth is, it was already damaged badly, so it didn't take much to break it completely.

We re-hung the blinds for some privacy/security for the night.

By this time, it was after 6pm, so we packed up and headed home.

I made a quick curried mince with rice for dinner, followed by fresh strawberries and coconut ice cream with home made strawberry sauce for dessert.

It's now rapidly approaching 11pm so I'm off to bed so that I can be fresh for a big day setting up shop tomorrow.

Things should move along quickly now!

I will take a video tomorrow to show how the shop is coming along.

Nite all.

Checked Off

Today's check list ...

• Confirmed with the logo designer to create two logos as described.
• Looked for the Estate Agent to verify some information - message left.
• Two shop counters repaired by Adoring Husband, assisted by me and then painted by me.
• Training room cleared of most paint gear, i.e. ladders, drop sheets, paint tins/brushes etc
• Shop vacuumed.
• Paint scrubbed off the carpet.
• Cleared stuff no longer required in the shop.
• Blinds attached to front doors. One then broken and removed! Newspaper reattached to door!
• Explained what the shop was about to 3 random visitors.
• Showed Brad through the shop describing our plans.
• Participated as a guinea pig for local fish and chip shop, being the first to taste and review their new grilled fish recipe. Bloody bewdiful!

Did a quick savoury mince dish for dinner.

My body is feeling a bit the worse for wear tonight. It's already approaching 10pm and I'm off to bed right now!

Telstra technicians are coming tomorrow to connect our phone and internet. The cleaners will be here after that to clean our carpets and windows, so we need to move some stuff out of the shop and clear the floor for them.

We'll be taking my swinging pod chair to the shop at some stage tomorrow or Wednesday.

Still so much to do.

Time now for sleep.

Nite all.