Back to Work

As much as I hate to admit it I am happy to be back at work. Today I realised how much my brain needs exercising. I think way to much and when I am on holidays I do not appear to have something to focus on therefore my thoughts wander into unchartered territory. I have delusions of grandeur about how I should change my life and live quietly, but to be perfectly honest I am totally happy having something to focus on that is not a figment of my imagination. You see I have way too much imagination. Now you could say that is a positive characteristic to have, however living in a surreal world is not good for the psyche let alone managing the realities of life.

Surrealism leads one into a faux pas of imaginary doings that enlist the dream state creating a sense of reality causing misadventure. In other words when you think about it 'the grass is not always greener' on the other side. Why I ask do we not appreciate what we have? Why do we as human beings always seek something better? And who said what we have is not good enough? Whose meter are we gauging the scales of life?

All of these thoughts have occurred to me during the course of my first day back to work. Today I realised that what I have is perfectly fine for me. Yes thats the secret; my life is good for me. What is it you want from life? What is it you get out of life? Me, I get a whole world of things from my current position in the tree of life. I like it here. I like the constant urge to learn, grow and adapt to my surroundings. I like thinking, I like exercising my brain and I like discussing my thoughts and ideas with like minded souls. Yes, only at a University would you find such intense thinking, engage in in-depth conversations on all sorts of topics and discuss, not talk down to or be talked at with others. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am feeling the energy of academia on my first day back. And I love it. I thrive on learning new things. The pace sped up the minute I walked through the door of my office. I thought I would take my time and ease my way back into the daily grind after taking such long shore leave, but whoa and behold I hit the floor running and it took all of 2 seconds to get my brain into gear and away I went. Happily smiling my day away.

Today I experienced the feeling of how much I love my job and how passionate I am in assisting the process of changing the world by manipulating, sorry guiding the minds of our young people...lol Heaven it is and not one student is back at Uni as yet, but my preparation for the year ahead got me thinking how much work is to be done between now and the end of the month in time for enlightening the youth of today with my wisdom, humour and wit, not to mention knowledge and experience. Yes I am happily back at work doing what I do best. Learning, teaching and sharing. And there are others like me. 

Life is good.

Thinking!!!

I've been thinking a lot lately and it amazes me how my brain just starts coming up with a whole lot of things that I think may be better for me. For example I love my job and I love my life, yet when I went on holidays and took the road trip into the Eastern Wheatbelt and then down to Albany I came home feeling like I would really love to live that life. You know the one in the country that is quiet and peaceful, an escape from the rat race. Holidays do that to you, they make you feel like you just want to spend the rest of your life doing nothing but what you want do. Holidays give you ideas like 'take time out', 'don't work so much', 'leave your old life and start a new one'. Why? Because holidays lull you into a false sensation of  'the grass is greener on the other side' mentality. Amazing! It has a way of mellowing one into thoughts of making a run for it while the feeling is still good....lol

You have to laugh because the reality is life requires commitment, no matter where you live. See the holiday feeling gets you caught up in a false sense of reality. Reality is the every day things that you have to do to make life bearable or fun, depends on your outlook. So, since I have returned from my holiday road trip, which I thoroughly loved and will do again without question, I have come to the conclusion that I have a lucky life. And I love my life.

Yes folks, this is the lucky country. Yes I have worked hard, the past 12 months especially has been a big one, yet the rewards have been magnificent and that's the bit that I have to focus on. That's the bit that puts things into perspective. You see, I had lost my focus because I had over loaded on work commitments and had not had enough fun. I had lost sight of what was important and I forgot to play. Life is balance, thats the trick. Work life balance is so important and now that I have identified my energy drain I plan not to do it again.

To add to my list of new years resolutions; cut the dead wood in my life both work and play and create some positive balance. No more running myself ragged. Time to move through life with a scale that sits evenly on the deck so that I can enjoy what I love. I mean what is the point of working yourself to the point where you have no energy left to enjoy what you love. This year I am creating a strategic plan for the year that will give me a work life balance that fits in with my lifestyle and I am going to enjoy every minute of it. Because for the moment I do have commitments and I do need to fulfil those commitments. 

From now on when I look at my holiday snaps I will remember this feeling of relaxation and I will capture this feeling of life that makes me feel like I am in the slow lane and not the fast lane and I will take a breath and give thanks for this life that I am blessed with.

However, when I retire I'm moving to the country....lol

A Dogs Life

On the second day of the New Year down on the South Perth foreshore having breakfast with friends something funny eventuated. The South Perth foreshore appears to be the 'in' spot to exercise, walk, jog, run and take the dog for a hike around the river. It is actually quite busy. A lady with a dog decided to let it off the leash when she hit the lawn area. We were sitting under the shade of a bench seat and table while the group next to us were quietly enjoying the cool breeze and the shade of a tree. They were a family of generations. You know the one, grand parents, parents and children. 

The dog ran over to the family group and began acting happily as a dog does. Basically it was doing what dogs do when they get off the leash and the owner is otherwise so preoccupied as to ignore where it went or to oversee it's behaviour. The dog was all over the generational family and I have to say the dog showed no signs of hostility at all, in fact he/she was darn right friendly. The father of the children got very upset and began screaming at the woman, who was a good 100 metres away from where the family group were relaxing. He began swearing at her to put it on a leash and get it under control or he was going to hurt the dog. Now this scene happens everywhere and I have seen it before. So it was not that unusually funny, however my friends and I watched with amusement the conversation which erupted between the dog owner and the children owner, which became extremely hostile at 80 paces.

Despite the fact that this was amusing us, (don't let anyone tell you that there is no free entertainment in Perth) you have to feel for the poor dog because he was just being a dog, you know sniffing around with a big stupid grin on his face at the freedom he had just incurred.

The dog owner became very upset over the hostile engagement with the father and as she called the non-responding mutt she started dialing on her mobile phone. She stood under a tree as the father verbally abused her, calling her dog who now seemed to understand that it's owner was a tad upset and ran over to cheer her up. Dogs are so good like that, they just instinctively know when their owners are having a bad day.

While this was going on one of our friends who is non-indigneous made a very funny appropriate remark. She said 'I bet she is calling her mother'. We all looked at her for clarity. She went on to say that she had been to a standup comedy act recently and an Aboriginal comedian was discussing the difference between 'black chicks' and 'white chicks'. He said 'when white chicks get into trouble they get on the phone and call their mothers, however, when black chicks get into trouble they get on the phone and call their brothers'. 

We all started laughing because you see this is what Noongar chicks do. I mean I do that, I phone my brothers. We continued the banter about this comparison and our friend said recently when she was in Broome and something happened to her, she remembered what the comedian had said and so she phoned her brother (not her mother). She then went on to say her brother just happened to be on his way up to Broome for a visit at the time of her call and arrived two days later. I swear we were all rolling around laughing.

Here's to good friends, lively conversation and free entertainment.

Life is Good.

The First Day

It's the first day of the New Year and I am actually feeling positive. It's amazing. The last couple of months of 2010 dragged by turning into long days, and nights, and I ended up with a little burn out I think. Well not think, I know I ended up with burn out because my brain slowed right down and turned to mush and my body slid to a screaming halt and my emotions ran away leaving me totally numb. Yep burn out, thats what I had. Don't you find it amazing how you just keep on going, knowing that you really need a rest but you ignore all the warning signs and push yourself to the limit. I love my job, but I was seriously beginning to feel tired, so I just kept going focusing on the 20th December because that was the beginning of my holidays and I was so looking forward to it. A well earned rest that's what I needed. 

My holidays took their time in coming but finally, the last day of work arrived and here I am. Up until now I have been busy with christmas and personal responsibilities but at last, here I am, actually on holidays. Today is the first day of my holidays that I don't have to do anything. I have not gone anywhere, I have read a book, watched a movie, entertained my grand daughter, cooked dinner for all, and I managed to wash the dishes after dinner. I even loaded my new kayak into my car because I am going for a row in the morning. Yes I brought myself a new kayak for christmas. Its an up grade to a slimmer racier kayak. I have already taken it for a spin on the Denmark river and I have to say I really like it. Much better than my first kayak. And to top off the good cheer I actually feel really well. It's amazing. The first day of the New Year and I am feeling as though it is a new beginning. It's a bit weird because it has been so unexpected and my life up to this point has been full speed with no hand brake so coming to a screeching halt had me out of sorts.

So, why you ask am I feeling so positive, relaxed and just plain good? I have absolutely no idea. Now you thought I had an answer for that one, but I don't. I just feel that the heaviness of the end of 2010 has disappeared with the ringing of the bells and the lighting of the fireworks that coloured the night sky and  saw in the New Year. I feel blessed. I spent New Years Eve partying with my cousin. We did not drink, but we danced away the night and part of the morning. We caught up with some of our other cousins who just happened to be at the same venue, and we socialised with strangers. All in all we had a really good night and morning and then we went home sober and feeling great. Of course once we climbed into the car the two old girls crumbled physically. My cousin started holding her leg, going ouch, ouch, ouch. I was in the driver's seat, so I leaned over, looked at her sombrely, asking quietly, 'are you okay, do I need to take you to a hospital?' She just looked at me with eyes wide and we both cracked up laughing. My cousin suffers from soreness in her legs and dancing all night and part of the morning aggravated her condition. And I realise that may not be funny to most people but we have a very wicked sense of humour my cousin and I. In between fits of laughter she said 'I know I'm going to regret this tomorrow, but I had so much fun'.  

I on the other hand had on a very nice pair of fashionable black heels that where killing my toes which were begging for release from their confinement. I took my shoes off slowly, opened the door of the car, stretched my legs out and flexed my poor aching toes. Pain seared across the base of my foot however my toes breathed in a sigh of relief. Lesson learned make sure I buy dancing shoes in future. Heels that are lower to the ground and comfortable. My toes took about 10 minutes of flexing and breathing before the pain left me and in between my cousin's ouch every couple of minutes and our raucous banter I was finally feeling as though I may be able to put my foot on the accelerator. I turned around closed the door, took one look at my cousin and said 'okay, I am ready'. Once again laughter lit up the vehicle because honestly we are way to old to be partying and dancing the night away and thinking that we will not suffer the physical ills of the mature aged body. On the way home we continued to laugh as we recalled the fun of the evening. After dropping of my cousin I drove home arriving at the wee hours of the morning and feeling as if the burdens of 2010 had lifted from my shoulders. Not thinking much of this newfound feeling of freedom I went to bed and arose way after noon. Interestingly this feeling of newness, if you like, has stayed with me. And I have to say it feels good.

On the first day of the New Year a couple of things have eventuated. Firstly, I am an early riser, so sleeping until after noon is not my usual style. And I felt good about it. Secondly, this afternoon one of my girlfriends sent me a text message asking if I would like to have breakfast on the South Perth foreshore tomorrow morning. Initially I said 'no' because I was planning on rowing down south tomorrow, so I suggested next Sunday instead. She text me back to say she was not free next Sunday. So I suggested tonight at her place for a bbq dinner. She text me back saying 'no can do, others where set to go for this Sunday morning'. By this time I was over the text messaging and I was curious by her comment of 'others', so I phoned for a quick chat and more information. Turns out she has organised for some of our mutual friends to have breakfast on the South Perth foreshore and she had asked one of her new single male friends to come along to meet me. All this without telling me first. My reaction in the past to this piece of information would have been, bad luck I'm going rowing. But seeing as I am having a fantastic feeling of 'new beginnings' I decided to say 'yes' to the breakfast because to be honest I am totally unsociable at the best of times and I do way too many things on my own. And my burn out had created some un-wellness in my body which I am only now recuperating from. So my New Years resolution, which I made last night is to change my bad habits to create new energy within my life. And guess what it is already working. 

I feel energised, positive and excited that a New Year is upon me. A new beginning, a new start. Let go of the old and bring in the new. Sounds good doesn't it. But.....some old habits are hard to break, so before breakfast I will be on the Swan river rowing, enjoying the sweet breath of early morning before the 'others' get there....lol

Life is good.