Excited and spirited

It's not often I look at my horoscope but as there wasn't much of interest in the news today, I had a quick peak. I liked what I saw so today I am a believer in the stars - tomorrow who knows...


"You feel excited and spirited, infused with an extra dose of impulsive, can-do energy. There's a new beginning in the works, one you can feel in your bones. If you've met with some opposition recently at work or at home, it's no matter. You're determined to make it happen this time. That shouldn't be hard, either, because you are coming at the world full-force, and no one has to wonder about your agenda. Get ready to take some great strides today."


http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/horoscopes

Taxi!!

I thought being mum to 3 kids who do a lot of activities was bad. Try adding in a husband who can't drive for the time being. Nightmare!!

Surgery and DIY don't mix

Jon has surgery to repair a fractured thumb yesterday. The surgery went well and he had a good nights sleep.

His thumb is in a plaster cast and it extends to his elbow.

Now, as a good wife I was more than happy to help him out with everything he needed to do. Having only one hand for at least a week was going to be challenging for him. So, cooking, cleaning, making cups of tea etc, I was totally prepared for.

However, him choosing to fix a roller blind to a wall this afternoon, with my help, I was not prepared for! I didn't sign up for this!

This evening, he admitted as he asked for the pain killers that perhaps doing DIY within 24 hours of hand surgery was not a good idea.

I didn't say I told you so. I didn't need to. We've been together so long that he knows what I am thinking. It's just that earlier today he chose to ignore me.

Oh and an aside, his cast looks like a boxing glove. It's not pink but I like pink.  :)

Busy busy

I'm not really sure where the last few weeks have gone. I am really busy with work, that is a good busy but sometimes I just don't get a minute to even think.

That has got to change. I just haven't figured out how yet.

I am in the process of starting up two more businesses as well as growing this one. I have taken on a trainer to work with me in my personal training business and am looking for another trainer to cover my area too which will free up some of my time to work on the other businesses.

The new businesses are still in the health and fitness industry. I'll write more about them later.

In addition to all that my kids are doing more and more activities outside of school which requires me to become a taxi driver more frequently.

I know this has been mentioned before and I did drop back their activities so now they only do one each, it's just that they are so good at what they do that the time required to train and practice has increased.

Grans funeral is today and I'm really sad not to be there with my family. 

Although I'm obviously very sad that I've lost my gran, it has raised the issue again of us living so far away from the rest of my family. 

Living here is fantastic, we love it. Australia has enabled us to have such an amazing lifestyle and I really don't want that to change. When all is well with family back home I am very happy here, however when things aren't I struggle with it. 

A whole host of emotions are raised, including jealousy and guilt. 

Sadly I can't see the situation getting any easier as my immediate family ages. 

So, what can I do?

Until I'm truly in that situation I won't know exactly how I feel but in the meantime I need to increase my income and savings to a point where I can afford to visit the UK regularly and see my family in good times. So that I can visit when times are not so great. So I can drop everything in an emergency and travel there. 

Earning money and feeling like I deserve to earn a higher income is an issue for another day. 

Today I'm thinking of the wonderful lady that was my gran. The lessons in life that she taught me and my family back home who are dealing with all the practicalities of the day xxx

Music tuition, the lost book and manners

We recently cancelled our sons music tuition. Why? Truth be told he didn't like his tutor, he wasn't getting what he wanted from the sessions, so I called to cancel. And why not? At $35 per week, I wanted to make sure he was getting what he needed. Fair enough I thought.

Not so the tutor. She wanted paying for the full term as per her contract. I haven't signed any contract, I suggest you go away and think about what you want to say to me, I said though that's not what I was thinking!! My recount here doesn't even nearly do justice to how rude she was to me. For anyone unsure, rudeness is quite unnecessary in my book!

Talking of books, we had borrowed one from her and it (quite rightly) needed returning. No problem there. The problem came when she kept hounding me by text message about the book. Does she not know that the post does not deliver on weekends?

In my haste to rid her from my life, I made an error on the envelope and I sent it to the wrong address. I sent it two doors away.

Damn! What to do now? Jon said in not so polite terms, "Ignore it." But I couldn't, I have to do the right thing. Two wrongs don't make a right. We borrowed it, we had to return it.

Another issue, I found the book online, it costs $5. All this stress (and it was stressing me) over $5. Five dollars, seriously?

After going into the post office, calling the Dead Letter Office and more harassing text messages, I wrote to the address that I sent the book to.

Yes! Result, she called me and she still had it. Well, she retrieved it from the bin. She then delivered it to the correct address for me. Some people are wonderful.

I am happy, the book has been returned, the tutor has not messaged me once since, not even to say she had got it back.

Oh well. Time to move on. We can't all have manners. Can we?

Goodnight, sweet dreams

Last night, my Gran closed her eyes for the very last time. Good night, sweet dreams. Love you so very much xx

If you were an animal what kind of animal would you be?

I recently went on a seminar, I guess it was a personal development seminar, it was also a coaching seminar and that is one direction that I want to take my business in so thought it would be worthwhile.

It was a two and a half day 'free' seminar. I have to admit that the first evening was pretty confronting and I nearly didn't go back the next day. There were several reasons for this but one of them was if I am going to open up, do I want to do it publicly, in a room full of people and not only that but whole weekend was being filmed.

Another reason was, we were asked to introduce ourselves to others in the group - no problem with that - but not in any 'normal' kind of way. We had to think about the following question and introduce our selves as such with an explanation of why.

"If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be and why?"

What? I just don't get this kind of stuff. Do you? Like, I have no idea. To me it sounds like the type of question my nine (now 12) year old son would ask.

My brain doesn't think like that. I don't have the luxury of time to think about stuff like that. Should I dare to let my mind wander from work or kids homework or laundry, it usually returns quite quickly to, what should we have for dinner tonight?

Does this mean that I can't be personally developed or that I just will not succeed as a coach? Do my clients really need me to ask that question to help them with their health and wellbeing?

I don't have the answers, maybe I need to do a seminar to help me come to terms with this seminar.

Water Babies

Water babies have arrived at our house.

We've had scoobies and pet rocks and we've had BFF necklaces but Water Babies? Are you serious?

I nearly died laughing when my friend was telling me about the latest craze her kids were following but low and behold, they arrived here today.

They feed them, everyday! They are looked after better than the real pets. They think they have babies. They swear they've seen one have a baby! OMG!

So, what are they?

This is what they are!!

Have your kids ever had this craze or an equally or more bizarre craze?

Volunteer Work

I recently saw a statistic that in 2010, just over 2 million people participated in some form of volunteer work in NSW. 

To me, that is a pretty impressive statistic, especially considering that the estimated population of NSW in 2010 was 7.2 million.

Perhaps society isn't that bad after all. Despite what the media tells us, there are some good people out there.


To date my volunteering has been quite minimal and based mostly around helping out at the kids schools or coaching/training their sports teams.

Do you or have you volunteered? Have you been on the receiving end of a volunteer?

Is the number of volunteers higher or lower than you imagined?

Turning 40

OMG, I just updated the little bio on this blog and realised that I am turning 40 next year?

Will I feel different?
Will my kids respect me more, less or just the same?
Will my ear hair get longer or is that just men?
Will I get to the UK next year?
Will I pay my mortgage off before I retire?
Will I get more time for myself?

What happened when you turned 40? Or, if you're not 40 yet, what do you think it will be like?

Ripping strapping tape from my butt

Ripping strapping tape from my butt and lower back is not my usual nor preferred start to the day.

After a 5 month break from running due to various injuries I ran the 4km Mothers Day Classic. It was the perfect day for a run and I am delighted to say that the run was a slow effortless jog. Those months of hill running and hill sprints had paid off - kinda, apart from the injuries!

However, I was a little tight in the glutes and hamstrings the following day and as such I really shouldn't have gone to an Ultimate gym class.

I got through the warm up and 2 sets of tabata workouts, alternate lunges and push ups, we did a little more running and then into the 3rd tabata session which was full abdominal sit ups, hands above the head to touching toes alternating those with body weight squats. Into the second round of squats I heard and felt a ripping/popping in my lower back, the pain referring right down into my coccyx.

A trip to the physio, some ultra sound and dry needling and a very attractive taping of my lower back and butt and I am now exercise free until at least the end of this week.

I have definitely learnt my lesson this time. It was also quite timely that Liz N wrote about leaving your ego at the door recently.

I need to and will start listening to my body and not to my head. My head wants to go faster, lift heavier, burn more calories, lose more weight. My body is quite clearly saying no, stop, listen to me.

Slack blogger

I always seem to rock up to blog and start with an apology for not being around. Guess what? This is no different.

I will start by saying "Happy New Year"!! I have not blogged at all this year. Well let's look on the bright side (cos I'm all for that these days, not that you'd know cos I don't blog!!) at least we're still in the first half of the year.

Why have I been away? Have I won the lottery and spent the last 6 months travelling the world? Sadly no. What am I saying? Not sadly. I have a great life, seriously I do, it's just very busy. Not that I'm complaining too much, just a little.

I am going to try and use this blog to find the 'real me'. Can you cope with that? I'm not sure how it will go, I could disappear again for 6 months but I hope not.

I'm also using it to try and get back into writing. I am trying to write for my business blog and the main issue I have with that is that sometimes I doubt my ability.

I see so many fantastic writers out there that I consider to be so much better at it than me. Why would anyone want my opinion?

But then I sometimes feel that way about my PT skills and business skills and other times I 'know' that I am really really good at what I do. I'm just different. Especially in relation to the fitness industry, I don't fit the norm, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a place for me. Does it.

OK, I have a client now and will have to sign off. I have not proofed this but I am just going to post anyway, this is practice right and if I don't post now I'll procrastinate and try and make it perfect and it will definitely be 6 months before you hear from me again.

So here goes. Have a great day and I hope to be back very soon. xx