The Muddiness continues…

Do things happen in three’s? If so, I need to watch out… I have had my second run in with mud. This time, it was a puddle of it.

I was walking along, minding my own business texting loved ones in a very dark, grassy paddock used for carparking and out of the blue SPLASH.. I am knee deep in a mud puddle with a shocked and mud splashed face (and back, hair, tummy, legs) I can tell you, I was anything but expressionless. I did somehow manage to not fall over OR drop my phone in the puddle.

See Exhibit A:

 

So, once I decided I was ok.. all I could do was giggle. Shame nobody else got to witness my funny little incident.. it surely would have brightened ones day.

Anything funny happen to you all lately that made you giggle?

 

My Mug on the Telly.. covered in mud.

That’s right. I had to work for it… and work hard. So hard I was tired for days and days and days (so tired, I havent been able to blog about it till now . It was one of the toughest and most rewarding things I have done EVER. I LOVED IT.

So… I trotted along to an obstacle course training session run by Gold Coast based Terrain Training. I was put onto it by a friend and to be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect – there was one clue I should have looked out for though and she warned me to wear something old… ‘something that can get muddy’… she said… UH OH.

Not surprising, it rained heavily the morning as I arrived and I laughed to myself when I was jumping out of the car and that I bothered with my umbrella…

Before I knew it, I was dragging myself through the mud on my hands and knees pushing a tyre up a hill….I quickly gave into the mud and dropped myself right in it. I can safely say, I’m so glad I did.. playing in the mud is so much fun! I scaled a 2.5 metre wall, climbed under AND over a cargo net, (attempted) the rope climb, balanced my way across a tight rope, bear walked, push up-ed, burpee-ed my way through 2 hours of exhausting and rewarding fun.

It started like this:

Cargo nets are harder much harder than they look – I was FREAKING….

and this is some of the other stuff we got up to.

all while the camera crew from the Great South East TV show filmed us…. did I mention it was raining, I was covered in mud and my hair managed to get plastered to my head? Always the conditions you want when being filmed

So, what’s the point? Terrain Training is an outdoor fitness company who run these mobile obstacle courses which sprung up as a way to train for ‘Tough Mudder’, ‘True Grit’ and other competitions. They also hold them for team bonding activities and for general fitness.

I was a total beginner at most of these activities and even though I get myself to the gym a few times a week I found this very challenging, BUT very much achievable. I wasn’t the only beginner there and the team were there to help every step of the way. I honestly can say it was some of the best fun I have had in a long time and would recommend it to anybody who wants to give it a go. I might even go as far as saying that ‘training in the mud is now on my list of things I love’……

I couldn’t get the video to work unfortunately.. but you can find it on the Terrain Training Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/TerrainTraining 

Their website is: www.terraintraining.com.au

 

 

 

 

I’ve got that Summer Feelin’

I am currently suffering from an overdose of happy endorphins. I woke up with the sunshine and because of mother natures consistent bad behaviour  recently (that which a sullen teenager would be very proud of), I was very excited to see the sun was out and shining hard! So B and I bounced out of bed, summoned our bikes and hit the road. It was a perfect, clear sunny morning and the water here at Caloundra was perfect, glassy and not a breath of wind. We found hills we weren’t looking for, which made for a pretty tough 30km cycle, but we worked hard on the way out and then found a cruise along the beachfront home – if you have never been to Shelly Beach here on the Sunshine Coast, you should get yourself there immediately. It’s one of those lovely sheltered beaches where the grass rolls into the sandy beach, the waves are as relaxing as the morning sunshine just lulling in and gently crashing into the shore. Everybody who has bothered to get up at that time of the morning are just as we were, taking in the very special atmosphere and counting their blessings… life really is very special in this part of the world.  This is what it looked like:

 

We trotted off home and met our loved ones and decided we would soak up a little more of the sunshine and paddle across the passage at Golden Beach to Bribie Island. B and I were in a boat (sorry if there is a more technical term for the TYPE of boat) together and what I lack in technique when it comes to paddling and oars, I make up with enthusiasm  (picture it…). We all made it over alive and without injury and to my complete surprise, none of us fell in – I know – I was impressed too. What we found over there was more crystal clear water with waves to lull about in. The 4 heavenly swims we had more than made up for the biggest fright I’ve ever had when we walked back through some less than clear water and I stood on ‘something’ in the water … this ‘something’ got just as much of a fright as I did and I think it ran (or swam) sideways just as fast as I did – though I think I won in competition for the best blood curdling scream.

We rounded off the morning with a good game, some drinks and some of the best lamb I’ve ever had (and I have had some amazing lamb), slow cooked for 6 hours and covered in the most delicious sauce anybody has ever had.

Everybody is ‘guts up’ as we call it now and we are waiting for the summer storm to hit. This has been the summers day I’ve been hanging out for months to have which is a relief as I consider Easter to be our farewell to summer – it’s last hurrah before winter comes.. otherwise known in sunny Queensland as non-swimming weather.

What are you up to this easter?

“I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days – three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.” John Keats

Fixing a bit of Grumpiness

As much as we like to pretend, none of us are 100% happy 100% of the time. Every now and then we all get a little grumpy and sometimes you have to let yourself be. Go through the motions and spit yourself off the ride as quickly and painlessly as possible with as little impact to loved ones as possible and perhaps a few heartfelt apologies if your cheer up strategy doesn’t work as quickly as you hoped.

Here is my scenario. B and I are driving along in the car. I am driving, he is the passenger. We are both quiet, I suspect I may be a little grumpy, so I am trying to stick to small talk, nothing risky while I work it out. A car is in the right hand lane next to me. Just an ordinary, white car. In it are ordinary people doing ordinary things. I’m annoyed by it. I’m not sure why I’m annoyed by it, but thats because there is no WHY. There is no justifiable reason for me to be annoyed by it other than the fact that it is there.  It’s confirmed, I am not just grumpy, but unjustifiably grumpy.

The potential for irrationality is high. This could end badly and my potential victim is B – the last person who deserves to cop the brunt of cyclone Les while he is just sitting quietly enjoying a lovely friday afternoon. But instead, I think that this irrational grumpiness…well it’s actually pretty funny. So I tell him. I just put it out there. Perhaps initially as a warning – ie don’t make any sudden movements or we are both at risk…

“I think I’m Grumpy” I say.

Logical, calm B says “At anything in particular?”.

“Pretty much everything in general, but that car next to us especially”. Then we both start laughing. Immediately my grumpiness fades, not to be seen again for the rest of the evening and the car goes back to just being a car. A regular car, nothing demonic about it. Grumpiness is fixed and bonus we have a really good giggle.

How do you cheer yourself up?

Things I Love #7 – Birthdays of Loved Ones

Birthday’s are fantastic fun. Especially when they belong to somebody else. A double especially when it’s somebody you love very much – because lets be honest you get to celebrate just as much as them anyway! 

It was B’s birthday on the weekend. So I thanked him many times for having a birthday, cause a weekend away was just what I needed! 

B is hard to buy gifts for. It’s not just because he is particular about the things he owns and likes to cull often and with brutality. Having just blended two homes into one, it’s a tough gig for me to justify all of the lovely things that ask me to bring them home from the shops like homeless puppies. I  like to think that my present buying ability is something to brag about (perhaps I should pop this on my resume?) but he outdoes me big time. Men are often not so amazing at it, so he gets double points for his great gifts. He really thinks about what to get me, things that I have unintentionally dropped in conversation over a year and things I wanted, but couldn’t justify. Isn’t that the point of a gift – something lovely and luxe and unreasonable that you wouldn’t buy yourself? He is also very selfless and always giving to other people, always making sure that it’s not about him – to the point of distraction, so I love getting it right for him on his birthday, it’s one of the only chances I have without him interfering.  So, the task was set – something thoughtful, personal, useful, luxurious, unreasonable and impressive – no biggie (eeeeekkk!) 

I wandered the shops all day in a daze – drove to other shopping centres – shook my head at alot of (what would normally seem like excellent) suggestions from lovely helpful sales assistants and eventually settled on some french stuff. Thank my lucky stars he loved it – and in true birthday style, I get to enjoy all of it too – double win. 

We spent the weekend in lovely Broken Head, which is in the Byron Bay area – also known as one of my favourites. It’s a lovely little quiet camping ground which has a ‘locals only’ feel about it. So for a few days, we pretended to be locals. I even managed to organise some sunshine. This might not seem so extraordinary, but here on the Gold Coast, we have endured what can only be described as never ending rain. Weather here has been abysmal and mother nature has some serious explaining to do. BUT against all odds the sun came out the whole time we were there – like a little pocket of clear skies above us only! It’s amazing how much impact the sun has – people were instantly cheerier and kept looking up at the sky in awe. Strangers on the street were talking to each other about how great it was – such a lovely happy grateful simplistic vibe. 

So I could ramble a little more about our weekend adventures, but I wanted to share a little simple treasure I found in Bangalow (another lovely little nook in Northern NSW – if you haven’t visited before, get yourself there). When it was home coming day, we town hopped. First stop was Utopia Cafe in Bangalow – everything in Bangalow is lovely, but this place I loved especially because they had yellow coffee cups and I love yellow. it’s such a bright happy colour and there should be more of it around – because there isn’t, I took a pic to share with you all:

Finally – to come back to the theme of birthday’s I will break one of my rules and use a shakespeare quote, cause it was a rather romantic weekend and it’s nice to reflect on getting older in a romantic celebratory way – as they should be: 

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” 
― William Shakespeare

 

How To Design the Perfect Interview Outfit

Reblogged from The Pinstriped Suit:

Dressing for an interview is a crucial element in winning the job. Although it has been said that it’s the man (or women) not the suit that matters, the reality is that first impressions are everything.

So the question is, is it possible to over dress for an interview?

I’ve had the privilege of sitting on both ends of the table and in my opinion, I don’t think it’s possible to over dress. 

Read more… 441 more words

Interesting reading - picking your outfit for interviews is very important.

The R Word and interesting jobs

What’s your favourite R Word? Romance? Ritz? (sun) Ray’s? At the moment, I’m a bit focused on two R words. Sadly, they are not my favourites, but they visit from time to time. Redundancy and Rollercoaster.

Well, they are calling it a Restructure. Don’t mistake what I’m saying, it’s Required. It’s a good change for the Role and I’m excited for them. I’ll stop with the R thing now

It’s important to remember when these things happen that it’s not personal. They have done it the fair way to make the change that they need to make. They did not single people out and it’s not a reflection of performance. There are positions there which I am welcome to apply for, which are similar to my role, but with a few things tweaked. BUT I see this as an opportunity!

I can 100% honestly say I love my job and I am very grateful to be able to say that. I come home knowing that the work that we do contributes to the lives of real people and helps to save their lives. It’s also wonderful to work with the kindest, selfless members of our community. People who give up their time to give to somebody they don’t even know – it’s goosebumps stuff and I’m proud to say I’ve worked hard for the past 2 years and been very blessed to contribute to that.

Sometimes it’s good to be given a reason to jump up and get moving. To have a quick look left and a quick look right and take another step. It’s exciting times, hop on the rollercoaster and see where it spits me out. (hopefully a tiny bit closer to home, because I can find a number of more inspiring and creative things to do above staring at and following the back of somebody else’s car twice a day!).

A quick sub note on the Rollercoaster word. Although I am totally ok with what is happening and I am optimistic as always, there are a few minor downs. It’s a bit stressful and tiring and exhausting and it’s ok to be a little bit sad and frustrated with it for a bit, but that’s also what motivates you to do something about it – there is the silver lining!

I have found some funny jobs in my searching. This morning it was ‘Professional Tree Climber’, ‘Lifestyle Advisor’, ‘Fan Development’. Wonder what kind of fun job title I can get myself?

If you are reading, I’d love to hear from you. Have you ever been made redundant? I’m sure it all turned out ok for you – so please share your experience and help keep me on the up of my rollercoaster Also, wish me luck with my interview this morning – hope I like them and the feeling is mutual

Everything is just wonderful.

Another weekend has passed and although there are no big trips, big adventures or fancy photos to report and I was missing my B (he is off saving lives in another location this week) but I still had a truly lovely weekend.

It was one of those very well balanced weekends, time for housework, time for a sleep-in, time for nice food, time for a glass of wine and a gossip, but most of all, good times with my loved ones.

Feeling especially grateful for my ‘old friends’ , their lovely kids (especially the free affection they hand out) and the little things. Sunshine, stunning sunsets, good wine, big smiles and goddaughters who just about squeal with delight when they realise you are still there the next morning. These things are some of life’s most wonderful thing that I’m very lucky to have.

We were treated with some moreton bay Sand Crabs caught by one of my non-crab loving friends (I cannot recommend more highly that you all get some of these kinds of friends). The best recipe I’ve had for sand crab is serve with fresh bread, lemon, good white wine and loved ones (it’s spoilt without the final ingredient).

I hope that you are all having a lovely time and stopping to enjoy the wonderful things in your world too.