How this Summer our House Renovations made me Happy.

This summer for us was the real deal. Last summer we moved into our dream home, a 1960 ranch style house (made with pale pink silicon brick and enormous steel windows) but were too busy unpacking to notice anything until the boxes were unpacked.Living in Australia we celebrate Christmas in mid summer and this year we hosted the family Christmas - in our family that's 28 people. Everyone was so helpful and brought something to contribute; one family brought the turkey (thankfully sliced and prepared), another brought the plum pudding and so it went on. The host is in charge of decorations and sets the theme. This year it was gold, green and red with white linen cloths, fine china and my mum's silverware. I was so proud of the end result.

Getting to the nitty gritty of how my house made me happy this summer was the pride my partner took in getting everything ready. We have huge windows throughout the house and they were cleaned until they sparkled. The inside of the house was cleaned until it was gleaming and the yard was manicured and patio spotless.

Then three days before Christmas he decided to pull up the carpets and polish the floor boards. Three Days Before!!! What was he thinking? I imagined dust and debris and odours galore. Workmen in the house while I was trying to put the finishing touches on everything. I thought I'd go out of my mind. No workmen - he decided to do it on his own! Thankfully with the help of his dad (who built the house back in 1960) they set out pulling up the carpets. Meticulously working section by section they pulled, extracted pins nails and staples as they went revealing a beautiful timber floor beneath. The smile on my partners face said it all - he'd remembered from his early childhood how beautiful the floors had been all polished and the most gorgeous honey colour similar of that to the pale mid century Danish design timbers.(Danish design credenza pictured)

Wow - it was stunning - I had to eat my words. I didn't need the stress that close to such a large event but the end result was well worth it.
He was so pleased he decided to pull up the stone tiles in the entry hall and laundry too but that's another story ...

If I could find a picture of us on Christmas day I'd post it and you'd seen how ridiculously happy we were ... being the host and hostess leaves you no time to take happy snaps. Indeed this summer I've been very happy.

and this time ... it'll be alright on the night ... was true

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Getting back into the swing of things

After one week back at work, there are changes I've noticed already.

Week two sees more staff return from leave and the busier the office gets the less casual the staff attitudes and appearance. Gone are the floral thongs and the flowing skirts and back to the sandals and fitted skirts. Soon the sandals will swap for closed toe flats and the jackets will start to make an appearance. There is a direct correlation between looking professional and working professionally. As the attire changes so does the attitude or maybe as the attitude changes so does the clothing. Perhaps its competition that drives us. Perhaps there is less supervision, self-motivation, and discipline fall to the wayside. Perhaps when others are on leave you picture them taking it easy and you do likewise. *shrugs*

It would be interesting to see how much bandwidth is used by the staff that work over the Christmas / New Year break. Facebook, web forums, personal email, job vacancy sites, streaming music and or video, eBay and maybe even posting on Blogger are all temptations. Access seems so much easier when there is no one to look over your shoulder.

I am getting sleepy and wanting to do all those things now that I have typed that so I took a break to adjust my chair. Thinking positively, this is a perfect time of year to take stock and review what you have achieved and what is still outstanding. It is good to do that on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis but the big one is when a new year starts. All those tasks like fixing up the filing, streamlining office processes and such. Looking forward you can start thinking about budgets, goals and targets you would like to reach and looking historically at your work / life balance and thinking about ways to even out the balance. Write notes on what you are pondering and discover ways you can work smarter and not harder.

Speaking of balance Pilates started back for the year too and I went in with a headache and some lower back pain. The instructors tailored my session to suit and helped me stretch out the surrounding muscle groups to ease my tension. I felt much better after the 75-minute session. Simply breathing properly and using your core to exhale and you are feeling the benefit already. My posture seated, standing and laying down are all very much improved. I have a long way to go and am in pain daily but I can make a difference and lessen the pain by implementing some very simple changes.

Some of these are:

• Breathe into the back of your rib cage
• Expel air by tucking your tummy in
• Relaxing your shoulders
• Relaxing your limbs
• Tucking your chin in
• Keeping your hips and shoulders square
• Tucking your pelvis forward
• Walking heel toe heel toe etc
• After 45 minutes of a repetitive task stretch your limbs and
• Adjust your eye focus
• Close your eyes from time to time and relax your face
• Stretch your facial muscles by pulling faces

For my particular injuries I need to do many chin tucks every day and back bends every day to stretch out the areas that constantly spasm and when I think I've done enough, do some more. I used to let the Physiotherapist or Chiropractor do all the work but I always knew deep down that unless I was going to put effort into rehabilitation my back would continue to deteriorate.

My goal is to dance again as my passion is never quite fulfilled by watching.

In the meantime I'll remember ... it'll be alright on the night

It'll be alright on the night

A familiar catch phrase that helps me get by when I'm feeling overwhelmed or under-prepared or nervous or childlike or scared - get the gist?

Even though there may not be 'a night' so to speak it always helps me settle down and get back to what I was avoiding or perhaps starting something new.

This is my something new. Not mindblowing yet I know but more thoughts later. When I relax into it I'm sure it'll get easier.

Always remember ... it'll be alright on the night