Into the Wild

The Sydney single scene is madness! Female tigers ditch their stripes and eagerly bolt down George Street whilst throwing back the local river water- vodka. They have been locked away in their cages all day and now they are ready to perform as the clock ticks past five on a Friday afternoon. Down to the river they bound as they are off to tackle their pray… Blissfully unaware of the pack moving in on them the penguins wait. They can be found huddled together around Ryan’s River waiting for Hendrix to flow over the ice cold rocks into their dry salivating beaks. Alas it is the weekend, time to drink away their worries and forget about all the chicks to feed when there are not enough fish in the sea. This unusual bread of Penguin comes in all shapes and sizes. Although predominantly black from behind they come in short, tall, large and small. What appears to be ideal pray may turn around and suddenly not be all that he seemed. Tigers with a well trained eye know there are some things to look for when assessing a penguin, consider the pads on his feet, the colour of his chest, the cleanliness of his hair and most of all the smell from his beak! Ladies, don’t be fooled by a cluster of penguins; no two are alike leaving them unpredictable for any tiger who considers them as pray. To some it may seem unusual to find both Penguins and Tigers in the same place, but this world is every bit as weird and wacky as it seems. There are no rules to guide how you play the game only that you must be over eighteen enter, anything else is fair play. Remember, if you are stepping into the wild this week try not to stand too close to the river as your eye sight may become limited, your tiger instincts may become out of control and in some situations you could start to pounce on meat too young for your years or too old, tough and grey. To avoid this disaster keep a fellow tiger close at all times. Other tigers can be the difference between surviving in the wild and being devoured by a penguin when you least expect it.

An UnChair Affair

You know you are not going to have a good day when you get to work and your chair is missing! I have been in my job for two years now and without know it I have formed quite an attachment to my chair. I had not thought about this until I arrived at work yesterday and it was gone! Now I can't get comfortable on the new grey chair that sits in it's place. The gray chair is not welcome under my desk and it I get the impression it feels the same way about me. The back of it leans so far towards me that it feels as though it wants to push me off, on top of this the arms on it don't fit under my desk. This chair and I will not be friends.

Humble

Around this time of year people take some time to reflect and think about what they could do better in the year to come. Having lost two mobile phones in the last 5 months my first new year’s resolution is to not lose my phone all through 2011! My second (amongst many) improvement area is that I would like to focus more on being “humble”. When I talk about people who I respect and admire I find myself so often using the word “humble” to describe them. I tend to think this means quietly confident. I love this quality in people! I don’t consider myself a humble person. I get so excited when I do something well that I tend to tell anyone who will listen. I’m a “talker” and I don’t think being such a chatter box is going to help me with this but I’ll give it a go. So, in 2011 I would like to improve at my job as much as I can so that I can be confident in new and daunting work situations. I want to be quietly confident and remain open to change and new ideas.
In the January issue of Cosmo 2011 they explain that you should have an inspiration board so every day you can face the future which you want to build for yourself, and ultimately through hard work and positivity you should achieve your dreams. These images and words of inspiration should be ideas not objects to purchase in the store. My first word will be “Humble” and I am about to go write it on a pink post it. What would your word be?

Image from http://connect.in.com/princess-diana-crash-photos/images-princess-diana-3-332741542142.html

fuzzzzz

Today one of my clients sent a big bunch of flowers to me at work just to say thanks. The card read “To Emily, thank you for all your hard work! You’re the best! From …” out of nowhere I got this incredible unexpected validation that I am doing something useful which people appreciate. It was one of my most satisfying moments of my professional career thus far and I have been carrying the flowers around the house, room to room so I can look at them wherever I am.
Around Christmas everyone gives out warm fuzzy messages in cards saying how much people mean to them. What I am wondering is why do we wait? Why wait for a special occasion to tell someone they are doing a good job, are a great friend or that you appreciate them. Yesterday was the day to start telling people how special they are, did you? If not its better late than never so get your warm fuzzy face on!

November

The world is spinning, around and around. People are winning they jump from the ground.
I’m still standing, standing tall. Making changes big and small.
My life is simple, not moving fast. Day to day, settled at last.
So I watch others with a smile. Knowing it might be me in a while
But for now I keep my pace, wondering through my life, not entering the race.

Converted

It's not easy to admit this but I am officially writing this on my mum's iPad. I am on the couch watching a rather ordinary Tom Hanks movie and holding onto hope that it will get better. A week or two ago we got foxtel IQ, at least I can fast forward the bad bits. Technology is not THAT bad.

ipad fever

Over the weekend my mum (who has never used a computer before) became the proud new owner of an ipad. Why? Who knows! My darling mother, in my opinion, is good at most things. When it comes to cooking she’s a star. I don’t know if the passion is there to make her the best star in the sky, but she has many skills which I appreciate on a regular basis. Mum’s main cooking skill is her ability to toss all the left over’s from the fridge into one dish, add some egg and milk around it, put it in the oven and call it quiche. Most of the time it’s brilliant.
Another skills of mum’s is problem solving, with a little bit of stress rash on her neck mum can fix almost any day to day problem, she has juggled three demanding daughters and my dad who might aswell be a child too at times. Now she juggles a house hold with grown up children and children in laws who refuse to fly the nest (at least on a long term basis). Mum designs houses in a flash as she scribbles floor plans on glad bake with such ease. She comes up with designs that are so great she has a team of builders, tilers, electricians and other tradies constantly in a state of impressed shock.
Anyway, you get the picture. The point to this babble is to say that she has many talents however technology is not one of them so why start now? According to answers.com the first PC was made in August 1981. I can remember my dad bringing home our first family computer when I was about six. This means mum has had access to a home computer for around 17 years. In this time, despite the constant teasing and many conversations going way over her head, good old mumma K has never even shown an interest in turning one on. My grandmother commenced using computers about 12 years ago as she got into Photoshop, from that moment on all our birthday and Christmas cards featured our faces superimposed into green fields or stuck on top of some random's face in a far away destination. She called these masterpieces granny graphics. At the peak of her computer passion my grandmother offered to assist my sister with her uni assignments on computer stating that she would have them done “easy as pie”. This may have been helpful and not condescending if my sister wasn’t studying to be a graphic designer! (My grandmother is another story for another day!)

So why is it that we are experiencing a technology invasion? Iphones are everywhere, even I am trying to justify purchasing one. People are starting to genuinely believe they need things which they clearly don’t. Pretty much my mother now has a $1000 photo album to take to sewing. Technology is taking away so many of life’s treasures. I loved looking through photo albums with my Nan. How are we going to explain this to our grandchildren “now deary I would like to show you photos of our family history however my ipad became obsolete 40 years ago and I never learnt to back up so our family history went down the drain when my battery died”.

I just don’t understand or appreciate this huge tecnology take over. They are always making something new and it's a constant battle to keep up with the times! For all my teasing, I liked that mum looked in a cook book rather than printed something off a web site. Now she can just google I feel sad for the pages in cook books that go unturned all over the world thanks to computers. Personally for me I like the clutter that comes with being behind the times. I enjoy having my big red diary and pen, a gps, a camera, a phone and an ipod in my handbag. Having a device that could do all these tasks in one would ruin the fun and make me look far less official!

So mum, if your ipad now leads you to start blogging and you come across this, remember the good old days of paper, pens, printing photos and CD's. You are one of the only oldies left behind the times, in a land where there were no computers. I like that you refused to conform and I hope your ipad does not mean that your cook books will sit unopened and our photo albums unloved. I hope you still do Sudoku once a week when they come in the paper rather than letting your ipad have all the fun. Mostly, I beg you, stay off Facebook!!!!!!! It’s bad enough having a mum with cooler toys than me let alone have everyone knwo about it!