Anniversaries & Celebrations....

Well what a week it was!

Last Monday was the anniversary of Mum's passing and as a precaution I took the week off as I was very unsure how I would be travelling emotionally during the time.

As it turned out being up the coast in the house Mum lived in was hard for my brother and I if we were by ourselves in the house but fine when everyone was there. It triggered lots of memories as we went into the various rooms and a memory would be triggered of the last time with Mum with whatever happened on that occasion.

Being with Dad and Von and Steve was great, Dad was in his element having all his chicks with him, it was bitter sweet as he and Mum used to compete for our attention when we were altogether but now it is just him and no need to compete for our attention. He cooked dinner and fussed around us all. It was great

The scattering of the ashes was done on a beautiful day and I think it was as Mum would have wished. I felt a bit less loaded down with emotion as I rather dreading the whole thing but I was actually quite unemotional about it all during the whole event.

Steve did a beautiful thing of buying a dwarf lemon tree for me and lime tree for my Aunty P (mum's sister) and potting them up in a pretty pot with a little gnome and some of Mum's ashes. It was a very sweet thing to do but with my history of brown thumbs and dead plants, the pressure is on to keep this one thriving.

The week up the coast was ended on a lovely note, with a terrific engagement party hosted by my Aunty L (Dad's sister) who lives on a picturesque property with views to die for. The city folk amongst us all really enjoyed looking at the view of rolling hills, lush green trees dotted with cows and horses.

The family as a whole are so very excited to have a wedding to look forward too as my brother's fiance is a big hit with everyone, she is a darling sweetheart and universally loved by us all which is rather a magnificent feat as we are not predisposed to universally liking an individual, there are usually factions for and against an interloper (in-law to be)

I am terribly excited about the wedding and am very much looking forward to it and am looking to have a frock made up as the current dress fashions are leaving me a bit ho hum. I have a dress in mind and hopefully a dressmaker can bring it to life for me.

This week has really brought home to me that families however they are constructed - whether they are your family or friends you have claimed as family -are so very important. I have really enjoyed reconnecting with far flung relatives and old family friends this week.

Till next time...........

Good news....

I got the role that I had interviewed for. It is the senior librarian role and comes with a fairly significant burden of responsibility, none of which fazes me. However, I am having to learn the art of discretion and diplomacy. The most innocent of remarks can get you in hot water and very very quickly too. I've already had a please explain about some loose comments made outside the "safe zone". Hopefully I won't repeat that mistake again. I have a fairly innocent mind by that I tend to mean what I say without secret hidden meanings behind it and forget that some are suspicious and will seek to laden more meaning than intended to a remark that I make. I suppose that makes me somewhat naive and non-politically savvy. I shall have to live and learn that skill I suspect.

I am really excited about the role and hope that I obtain the skills & experience I need to ensure that I obtain the role permanently in due course.

I am about to resume my studies for Semester 2 and hope I do just as well or better in this upcoming Semester. I think I have a far more clear understanding of what it takes and how to pace myself along to ensure the best outcome barring any unforeseen hiccups.

I enjoy being busy and productive, I guess that's become fairly self evident. I sometimes wonder why, is it because I have no partner or kids to sublimate myself into caring for? Or is it that I am just a happy camper when I am busy doing stuff?

Humph Kitty Flanagan just disparaged author visits at libraries on 7pm project on Channel 10, indicating it's a snooze fest. Hmmm I guess you can't please the ignorant nor the stupid

Until next time ...

Waiting for news....

is never very much fun! Currently I am awaiting the results of my interview last Wednesday, it is for the role that I am currently acting in and I feel that I have the ability, confidence and nous to really make the role sing for me.

However, whether I conveyed that in the interview remains doubtful. I had the interview with two people who know me very well, both my strengths and weaknesses and I found it hard to perform my song and dance in front of them. If they had been strangers or at least people I don't see very often it would have been easier.

I know that if I don't get the role I will be very very disappointed with myself for a little while, however, I will bounce back for I am resilient and practical about these things in the long run but I will indulge in a royal sulk for about 20 mins or so if I am unsuccessful. I had some formidable competition so I will have to wear the results with good grace etc for the next six months should it not go in my favour.

On another more positive note, I've had a wonderful birthday weekend. The actual birthday itself was terrific, yes I had to work but my workmates spoiled me royally and indulged me with delicious chocolate mudcake. Then I had a stitch 'n bitch night with girlfriends where I was surprised with a lovely gift from a gal I've met once or twice before and knew it was my birthday courtesy of Facebook and gave me a lovely butterfly shaped notepad, twas lovely.

Then it was my birthday lunch, now I've had a phobia about setting up birthday functions in my honour for fear of non-attendance by invited people, but my dear friend Kath, gave me a gentle wake up call by reminding me that I am surrounded by people who love me and would, of course, attend a birthday function in my honour, so thanks Kath, I had a great day. I get strange ideas in my head sometimes and need a rational voice to sort me out.

So I have vowed to have a birthday function of some type every year from now on!

Til next time

Au revoir

Today is my birthday...

and it's usually a time that I reflect on how blessed and fortunate I am. I usually start with thinking about the fact that I am single, white, western woman who has the independence and as a consequence financial wherewithal to please myself (up to a point), there are many of my sisters who don't and suffer badly for that lack of independence and finances.

Then I think about myself in relation to other people in my life and why they are here with me, family tend to be a given but I choose to be with them and keep in touch with them and I do so for many reasons but number one is because I love them. Then there are my friends, who really are the family you would choose for yourself if you didn't already have a family that you are deeply connected with. I have friendships that I have made long ago and that are still going pretty strong and made ever so much easier with technology, because let's face it without Facebook or other social networking options we would be limited in how many phone calls or texts one would make.

I have new friendships that are proving to be wonderful, fulfilling and interesting and have exposed me to new opportunities and experiences. I have friendships that have been challenging the way I think about things and made me be more accountable for my actions and thoughts. Then there are my colleagues who wherever I may be make my days at work fun and enjoyable and make up a bit of a motley family unit too. Where I am at the moment, we have experienced many sadnesses together and celebrated the highs together, we pull together and work really well. I would have been lost without their support in the last 18 months and they made things so much easier than they may have been otherwise.

All in all I am a very blessed and fortunate person to have many wonderful special people in my life

Greetings.....

It has been awhile hasn't it. It seems a lot of bloggers I know have been a little slack in the posting department but it seems to be a busy time of year.

I've been thinking about happiness and what it is for me. Happiness to me is finding something every day that makes smile, giggle, guffaw or shriek out loud with laughter. Now those of you who know me, know that I have not a delicate tinkling laugh, no, there isn't anything remotely resembling delicate about me. I have a raucous laugh and I am proud of it, it identifies me very well. People frequently hear me before they see me and are often smiling before they find me. This is good I like to share my happiness in the ridiculous. I take pleasure that I make my colleagues giggle or laugh everyday even when they often haven't a clue what they are smiling or laughing about except that I am doing it. It brings an energy and uplifts the atmosphere. When I do storytime I am in there unleashing my inner child, dancing and laughing and using silly voices.

When I am doing the morning money, the music is on and up loud and I am singing, which has people laughing and grinning when they arrive to work, because my singing voice has to be heard to be believed it is so bad, but frankly, I don't care.

It is not to say that I don't have sad, quiet or blue days but I am blessed that they are few and far between and that I am not cursed with clinical depression which strikes a few of my nearest and dearest friends and family regularly and they have to fight tooth and nail to flog the black beast back down to size.

I think that being happy and sharing my happiness in everyday life is a gift I am blessed with and it is my obligation to share that positive energy and make the people around me enjoy the moment or the day or however my positive impact may last.

If I start the day happy then it cannot be a very bad day because I am already on top of the happiness heap.........

Ahem, Hello, erm I know it's been awhile

But holy guacamole life has been busy...Yes yes I know I say that everytime but c'mon you know its true.

Study is progressing as study does, with lots of reading and thinking and then comes the writing. Which is why I am posting on my blog, it is part of my retinue of study or assignment writing avoidance techniques. I like the assignment I have written, whether the marker does is an entirely another thing. But c'est la vie. Being an external student requires one to maintain a sense of perspective and commonsense, it is very easy to feel completely and utterly alone when you are really really not, lots of my colleagues are studying and doing very well. But commonsense and perspective are sometimes hard to come by late at night on the weekend.
Another assignment I am enjoying researching is all about Second Life & Libraries but I am a single task at a time kinda gal - so focusing on the other assignment at the moment. Second Life can wait till next week.

On a brighter note I am booked to go on a cruise on 24th April, my very first cruise ever, a fact my sister (a travel agent) is jubilant about, she has been on my case to take a cruise for a long time. I have firmly resisted for years because I am terrified to the marrow of my bones of drowning. I have no idea why but that hands down for me is the number one very bad no good way to die. The movie Titanic has a lot to answer for. This fear is odd since when I was nobbut a young lass we used to spend the Christmas holidays on my dad's boat, we lived on it for weeks at a time and I don't remember being in terror when on the boat, but then my dad was a superhero in my eyes so I probably had a bone deep faith that he would always save us if something went pear shaped on the boat.

So I am determined to enjoy myself on the cruise, with recreational reading, reasonable consumption of fruity cocktails with umbrellas in them and loafing on a sun lounge featuring fairly high on the list of things to do.
I am going with a mate who is a real go getter on the activities front so I am sure I will be entertained as often as I choose to be. There will be another lass coming along whom I haven't met but I trust Dawn with bringing her along and I am fairly easy going and it is only seven days so the risk of stroppy tanties happening is fairly low.

I have got a good strong start to this module of Karate, I am really enjoying this Kata - Pinan Shodan - it is a kata I struggled with the first couple of times I did it, but repetition has done the magic trick and I can recall it with reasonable ease and perform it with marginal competence - no kata is ever perfectly executed - humans are not perfect therefore kata cannot be perfected. The instructor who has been doing the majority of instructing for our class this module has been riding me hard and really pushing me out of my comfort zone. Calling me up out front to demonstrate the kata to the lower grades and it is well know that the best way to learn something is to teach or demonstrate it. I am benefiting from that although I feel daft when I screw things up which I do most nights and sometimes several times a night but you live through it and feel better for having learned from it.

Cycling unfortunately is something I have not had an opportunity to do much of yet. Time is a precious resource and allocated according to need. But Goldie waits faithfully for me to take her out for a spin. I need to organise a play date for Goldie and Iris to meet and cycle together. Iris is a gorgeous Amsterdam bicycle that my friend Kath purchased recently. So the motivation is there to get out there and cycle but presently time is a little short but I will get there soon I promise.

Finally, this coming week I return to my substantive role after having been in higher duties of one kind or another since November 2009. It has been a marvellous learning opportunity and I have had a wonderful time developing skills and thinking about the direction and trajectory of my career and I have decided that the role of Senior Librarian in a hub library is just tailor made for this little black duck. Now I don't know how long it will take for me to secure a role but I am a patient lass and always always always achieve my goals. I may make like a tortoise and seem to take forever but the tortoise won in the end didn't he.

That about wraps it up for this time, and now I am not going to make any rash promises about my next post, it'll happen when the time and muse strikes

Cheerio for now

My My Where did the time go..............

It's been a while since I've posted hasn't it. I guess not a lot of post worthy things have happened to me. However I am feeling re-inspired to post more regularly on my blog since I attended the PODcamp conference at the Gold Coast Library which dealt with all things related to social media. It was a very interesting day looking at various social media and it's impact on people's lives. So I feel somewhat re-invigorated about being more active in my online presence.

However, the more pressing news is that tomorrow is the official kick off day for studying. It's something I am fairly anxious about but figure I just need to start and the rest will fall into place. I do have a colleague at another branch studying the same subjects so that will be good to have a study buddy who understands or doesn't understand what you do or don't understand too.

That's about it for me for the moment, hopefully I won't be as tardy posting the next instalment