A Wet January!!

Well its been raining on and off all January with indespersed moments of humidity and heat.
Glorious colonial weather.
I am trying to imagine the first settlers surviving in weather like this in the conditions of 1800's Australia.
Women in full length petticoats, jackets and boots and men in dapper shirts and vests!
That would have been tragic - imagine the heat stroke!!!!!
There is many a tale of women catching their dresses in the flames of open hearths and going up like a Roman candle - there was no medical team to rush to their aid 200 years ago.
Fancy falling into a river dressed in petticoats and all the trimmings?
Thank the Lord for thongs ( flip flops ) t shirts and shorts for both men and women....oh and whoever invented the washing machine should get a Nobel prize.

Just when you get settled ...things change.

Sometimes it can be hard to accept change.Sometimes it is needed but we try to avoid it because it disrupts our schedule. This year has not started well - no, not from a health point of view...phew - all is well in the Manor on that level.
But in the way of persistant small niggling changes that seem to shift one's own axis for a while.
Instead of spinning off in one direction you are made to stop the wheel and then pick up enough momentum to spin the other way.
It seems that I cannot get into the flow of 2012 without the bloody wheel stopping again.
Good thing that I have the Good Lord Arek my beloved husband to keep me laughing and focusing forward...
oh and also the dream of laying prostrate in the glens of Glencoe listening to the wind rustling through the trees hopefully sometime soon..

This country is still rough around the edges...

This selected pic says it all about living in the colonies!Australia is a melting pot of the rest of the world.Naturally it is still tough and rugged - mother nature still has a handle on this place - she rules. Droughts at one end of the country and floods at the other end. The centre is scorched dry with a huge rock in it.
So many walks of life, so diverse, so much passion - you CAN do anything you want to , you can strive to be anything you want to be, even a Lord and Lady!
Being stuck on an island though makes us forget what is going on in the rest of the world. We are hidden away and isolated and often belittle what we have - but its only because the woes of there rest of the world are not in our face - we just see them on tv.
We have things in the bush that can kill you.
We have animals that fight back.
And with the amazing array of religions, customs and cultures that are settled and live side by side I think overall we are pretty tolerant.
So this is where I am right now, and I am grateful to be here.
Happy Australia Day.

Proudly a GREY ENTREPRENEUR..

oh so thats what I am..a "grey" entrepreneur according to "A Current Affair"...a new phenomenon in Australia? I dont think so..what else can we do - no one wants to employ anyone over 50 any more..we are thought of as has beens who know nothing.. isnt that the case? So we have to make our own work. Over 50 year olds cannot afford to retire anymore - they will have to work till they drop dead at it. Retiring at 65 is now a thing of the past! Take your vitamins all of you "oldies" and become grey entrepreneurs!!! Cause being on the the pension is f**cked.And if you are anything like me...being in my fifties sneaked up on me when I wasnt looking. I swear I was only 25 a few years ago? 

It feels like I never left?

I have been back to work for over a week now. Totally rested after a few precious days off with the rest of the clan at home and in Melbourne.
Now it is onward and upward as I fight off the desire to just hide in a corner and let the world leave me alone.
I am happy to be back "working" as I am a small business owner and profit depends on no one else but me.
If I do not work I do not make any money and the rent has to be paid!
I can either fail miserably by doing nothing or get into it for another year and try to come out the other end with some money in the bank.
I love the space my business partner and I have created ( we run a healing centre just outside of a major  suburban shopping centre ) and our space is calming, relaxing and ...well..... healing.
But today has added a shade of grey to the pallette of life as my partner's father passed away last night from a short illness - so she is taking a few days off to grieve and attend to the duties of a daughter.
I have taken the helm of the ship and will try to steer it beyond the rocks of doom for at least the next week and then life will go on..... as it does.

and that was the holiday...

Took a few days off to travel with my both daughters to Melbourne - a place that is a fantasy land of food and drink from all ethinic backgrounds.So, of course this lady indulged!
Japanese dumplings and okonomyaki ( omlette ), greek cream cakes, borek from Queen Victoria Markets ( a must have ) and much more.
I shopped much more than I needed to and spent too much money on "stuff " than one just cannot buy in the colony in New South Wales.
I did the Haunted Ghost Tour of Melbourne in the pouring rain but loved hearing the stories of the city's deep dark past.
Also took the free shuttle around the city and went to the Art Gallery ( a very cultured thing to do!)
But then it was all too soon time to head home and thats when things turned ugly!
You see this delicate little Lady suffers from vertigo, and one very turbulant journey home meant one very severe attack!
So I was not a pretty picture - vertigo for me as worse than labour pains, far worse..it is a suffering that I cannot bear until it is over. Any movement, light , sound everything irritates me as I try to battle with the pain in my head and the nausea that comes in waves.
Today as I sit here I can say that it is over but there was a while last night when I could have reached for a gun.

This building is one of the many gorgeous old buildings in the city centre.

This is on the front of the Gothic ANZ building - a must see!

Last days of freedom..

I have a few days left of "semi freedom" before the cycle work begins again next week.
I have moved our business to a bigger office this year hoping that maybe that will impress the Philistines and maybe, just maybe this year I will actually earn some money.
I have been busy scrubbing, unpacking, moving, painting..all highly strenuous activities for a Lady of the Manor.
So much so that my back is making angry noises telling me to stop what I am doing forth with!
I have had an enormous amount fo help of course, one cannot do these things on one's own, and my business partner and her husband have done much of the heavy work - so I say that we have both had much less of a holiday this year than most others.
The place is looking schmick though..
We are therapists - we provide gentle alternative healing therapies such as Reiki, Energy Healing, Hypnotherapy and Counselling and so it is the gentle, finer arts that we indulge in and seek distinguished types who would appreciate such interactions and find them beneficial to the balance of one's mind, body and soul to come and pay us a visit and leave behind their woes and a purse full of money and leave with a much more integrated disposition.
So I enjoy my final chances to sleep in a bit and in a few days I will even venture to Melbourne for a short break with my daughters.I look forward to it.