Welcome to Inspiring Max’s 2017 Christmas Calendar countdown. This year I have decided to mix it up a bit and do the twelve days of Christmas.
Every Christmas is colour themed in our family. All family members despite age can nominate any colour or combination of colours and lobby others to get their vote. Last years winner and the colour of this years Christmas Calendar was Grey and Lavendar, affectionately known as Gravendar.
If we were having coffee I would tell you I can’t believe its nearly 5 months since our last coffee. Doesn’t time fly when you don’t keep an eye on it. Today I was also struck by how quickly I have lost my writing skills. From writing nearly everyday in my old life, I am struggling for inspiration today. I know it is purely because I haven’t written anything for a while, so I’ll make a commitment to myself to get back on track as I have missed you all.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that back in March my husband and I finally got our furniture delivered from Sydney. It was very exciting to see the big truck pull up outside. Finally, our move was complete. So we did what anyone in our situation would do and had a glass of bubbly (champagne) to celebrate. Yes, it tasted good.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I love the Sydney Royal Easter show.I love to spend hours walking around the pavilions — arts and crafts, food, leisure and kids — they are all amazing. Some people are so talented. I love the creativity especially in the fruit and vegetable displays every year. Each area creates a display using the fruit and vegetables they grow in a design that depicts where they are from. This year my 3 favourites were
If we were having coffee I would tell you about my brother and his partner’s housewarming party. It turned out to be code for secret wedding. It was very exciting and caught many family and friends of guard as they had dressed for a backyard BBQ and ended up having their photo taken with the happy couple. Fortunately, my father who was in hospital was able to get a leave pass so was able to attend. As for me I was very suspicious they were up to something and was very happy to be proven right. I loved their wedding cake — chocolate mud cake topped with cute umpa lumpas to match the chocolate factory theme of their house warming.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how great it has been catching up with family and friends since moving back to Newcastle. Recently we meet some of our diving friends for dinner at Valentine Bowling Club and while the catch up was great, the sunset over Lake Macquarie was amazing. I had forgotten the joy a simple sunset can bring.
If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world? Let me know in the comments.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how I am enjoying getting back into regular blogging by participating in Blogging from A – Z 2016. My theme is loosely based around Australia and my travels, so it has been fun remembering and sharing my knowledge and fun. Despite being a bit behind I will complete the task by the end of April.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how surprised I was to find white spots on the underside of the water filter when I finally changed it last night, later than it was meant to be changed. My son is convinced it’s just the charcoal changing colour and I am happy to go with that theory as the thought of me swallowing anything else filtered through my water is a bit much for me to cope with.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that this week I clicked over 20,000 views on my blog. When I started Inspiring Max less than 2 years ago I didn’t dream this was possible. Now I ask myself how long will it take me to reach 50,000 views and I tell myself that if I work hard at it, maybe 18 months. I would also tell you how grateful I am for my regular followers as well as random viewers I receive. I would also tell you that I love that my blogging community grows daily.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how frustrated I am with the inconsistencies around new parking laws in Australia. In New South Wales at least I was recently booked for parking less than 10 metres from the curb. The ironic thing was that my daughter and I had discussed in the morning the distance we were parked from the curb and estimated it to be 10 metres. However looking more closely, after the fine, we realized we had parked less than 10 metres from the curb, but we weren’t happy that all the cars parked on the 4 corners of that street should have been booked not just us — no one else was.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I enjoyed catching up with our special friends last Saturday drinking French champagne together. I am grateful to have special friends that even though we only catch-up with them randomly these days due to commitments with life, we always just pick up from where we left off after our last visit.
If we were having coffee I would ask you what you have been up to this last week, let me know in the comments.
If you could hire someone to help you, would it be with cleaning, cooking, or yard work?
I have 3 cleaners in my real world and I would never go back to life without them. They came today and my house looks and smells beautifully clean. Given the opportunity I would also love to employ a cook as I usually spend part of the weekend preparing meals for the week ahead as I get home to late to be bothered. In reality, I don’t think I want anyone to help with the yard work as it’s my husband’s job and it keeps him busy for hours. If someone did it for him, he would be inside the house, making noise and distracting me from my writing.
What makes you laugh the most?
Laughter in our house is a common occurrence. Some examples of where it comes from include:
What was your favorite food when you were a child?
I don’t know that I had a favourite food although when I could choose what I wanted to eat for my birthday I always chose prawn cutlets. I still love them however the size of the cutlets have shrunk over the years.
List at least five favorite flowers or plants.
Roses are my absolute favourite.
I also enjoy daffodils and the smell of jonquils. My favourite Australian plants are kangaroo paw and wattle.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
Last week I was grateful to spend Saturday night enjoying the company of our special friends of many years and Sunday visiting with all sets of mine and my husbands parents. This week I am looking forward to some quiet time and to getting more organised and catching up on the Blogging from A -Z 2016 challenge.
As it has been six weeks since our first coffee catch-up I think it is time to catch-up again. Due to feedback from our last coffee, this will be a random regular event—a bit like my real life coffee catch-ups. If you missed our first coffee, you can catch-up here.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I enjoyed our trip to the cinema yesterday. My husband and I saw Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks. It wasn’t my first choice for a movie, however it looked okay and it was being shown at a time suitable to us. From the start I was invested and intrigued. Based on true events, Bridge of Spies is a story set during the Cold War. An American lawyer played by Hanks is recruited by the CIA to go to Berlin and negotiated the release of a spy plane pilot shot down over Russia. Produced by Steven Spielberg it is full of drama, has great casting and as expected amazing location photography. If you have a few hours to spare it is definitely worth a look.
If we were having coffee I would tell you about my continuing de-clutter at work. Over the last few weeks I have gone through all the cupboards and drawers, throwing out information that hasn’t been needed for years and organising everything else so it can be found and accessed. I even found some photographs of staff from about 8 years ago and my new staff didn’t always pick the younger version of myself. The new look office is going well and people are taking the time to comment. We have also started a treat roster and everyone is excited to take turns and bring in some special homemade treats to share.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how excited I was to carve my first pumpkin last weekend. I had no idea to begin with but with the help of Dr Google I learnt quickly. My daughter helped me with the design and although my pumpkin wasn’t the winner of our Toastmasters Halloween competition it was fun.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that I am looking forward to preparing for Christmas which is now less than 8 weeks away. My family has a colour theme and this year it is Berry. All colours that berries come in are welcome. As my favourite colour is purple I will be looking for purple-blue coloured clothes. I am hoping to find something suitable before my work Christmas party to kill two birds with the one stone.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how I am refocusing on completing the editing of my book on eating disorder recovery. I have about half the book to go and would like to hand it to the editor in Jan 2016 which I think is achievable as long as I keep working at it. Seriously before I began this journey I never realised how much time goes into the editing process of a book. I think I just thought magically happened—definitely not so especially for non-fiction books.
If we were having coffee I would ask you what you have done and how you have been since we last met. Let me know in the comments what you have been up to.
If we were having coffee this afternoon I hope it is at this amazing coffee shop my work colleagues introduced me to yesterday while we were attending training. Alma Bar and Kitchen on Stanley St Darlinghurst coffee was so good that I returned on my home for a second cup. To my surprise and delight as my second cup was as good as the first. Next time I have a day out in Sydney I will take a little walk and visit my new favourite coffee shop again. Next time I might add a yummy cake to my cappuccino.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how I love Sydney in Spring. I love feeling of the sun on my skin for the first time after the layers of winter. The city comes to life by the colours of the flowers starting to bloom and the lifeguards beginning their patrols of our beaches again.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I enjoyed the free tickets my husband won to the movies last weekend. I will be doing a movie review in the upcoming weeks on the film we saw Blinky Bill: the movie. It made me laugh and I carried on smiling all day.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that I walked out of a restaurant recently because I was furious with the chef. Apparently it is too hard to sprinkle mushrooms on only one-quarter of the pizza my husband and I wanted to share, so he refused to do it. I wouldn’t have minded if the mushrooms were part of a prepared sauce but I thought the other was ridiculous and left because I couldn’t support such a precious chef.
If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I have enjoyed returning to daily blogging through my participation in the latest Writing 101 course. I am meeting many new friends, gaining inspiration and visiting many new blogs.
If we were having coffee I would tell how excited I was this afternoon to achieve a year-long goal to de-clutter and remove several in and out trays that took over the bench space in our office for years. Everyone had used them as a dumping ground for odd bits of paper for years. Now I don’t recognise my desk and its awesome, it may have taken all day but it is worth it and I surethe empty space will create better feng-sui.
If we were having coffee I would ask you how your week has been. Let me know in the comments what you have been up to and if you would like us to have regular coffee catch-ups in the future.
Of all the technologies that have gone extinct in your lifetime, which one do you miss the most?
For me, technologies have been a great addition to my life however I think they have been at a cost. It’s the art of communication that I miss. The planned time to communication what is going on in my life with family and friends in personal or by personal letter.
I love sitting down regularly talking one to one with others, getting to know them or keeping in touch on a personal level. The problem is everyone is so busy these days that this doesn’t happen regularly anymore.
I used to love the anticipation of waiting for an expected letter in the mail, the joy of reading about their lives and thinking about what to put in my letter in return mail. The motivating factor for me was remembering the quicker I wrote back, the quicker my next letter would come. Email doesn’t have the same excitement for me as although I still receive them, these emails get lost in my sea of daily emails and I fail to reply quickly.
Christmas cards are another nearing obsolete way to communicate I enjoy. Last Christmas we were away so my excitement of receiving regular mail that weren’t bills and hearing about family and friends lives didn’t happen. Neither did our Christmas letter telling them and reminding ourselves what happened in our world during the last 12 months. I find this a great memory jogger and as all the family is involved in its creation, we know it is an accurate record for our future.
While technologies continue to advance us in so many ways let’s make regular plans to make dates with the special people in our world—even a 5 minute “how was your day catch up” can make a difference and may open the doors to longer more personal conversations.
At what age did you realize you were not immortal? How did you react to that discovery?
Immortality is a funny thing. I don’t think I ever thought I was immortal, however, when I was young fear was not something I considered before doing anything. I don’t see this as a bad thing either. Before being a teenager, I can clearly remember playing with snakes, jumping of the 10 metre diving platform without any care or training—just for fun and swinging on the swings so high that I nearly went the whole way around. It was a feeling of freedom.
Somewhere in my teenage years fear crept into my life—or maybe it was just an understanding that things can go wrong. This was confirmed in my senior years of high school when I was affected by two fatal car accidents. One involved other school students and the second, a personal family friend. They were all my age. Death suddenly became a reality—not something to focus on, but a reality. This same year, my beloved grandfather also suddenly died while on holidays—unfortunately I never got to tell him that I became a nurse.
Yes, there are a lot of things that can happen—good and bad. But, if you focus on the bad you will never get to experience the good. It is for this reason that I decided years ago to always focus on the positive. Even in difficult situations there is always a silver lining—something to be learnt from it. This is how we grow through pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. Afterall, there are only two guarantees in life—death and taxes. And while my personal goal is to live to be 100 with a great quality of life, if I don’t get to achieve this goal, I want to look back on my life and say with confidence—fear didn’t stop me giving it a go.
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/finite-creatures/