Thankful Thursday

My cup, it runneth over, and I know not where to start. Well that and the fact that I have been up for some fifteen hours and my mind is not exactly working at it's optimal level. I am incredibly full of thanks though so hopefully the words will find their own way out.

Today sees my first Thankful Thursday here in my new space. I am thankful that I was finally able to change the name of my Facebook page. It means that A Parenting Life is no more, well at least not for new posts, the site will still stay live it just won't be growing.

So it turns out that the words are not flowing as I would have hoped. Children that refuse to sleep are not conducive to the writing of words. Who would have thought huh?

As such I am making this super short.

This week I am thankful for

* having my mum come to visit over the last month, she was an amazing help around the house and it was just so lovely to see her

* signing up to a new DVD store so I could hire out How I Met Your Mother on account of Mr A cancelling Netflixs only the attendant couldn't get the security device off the cover so he organised for me to get a free copy from another store

* selling enough stock at the markets to not only make it worth our while but worth doing again

So what about you? What are you thankful for?

An InLinkz Link-up

Diving on in

Well as of today it is official. 

A Parenting Life is no more. 

Well it it technically still is still open for viewing but I will no longer be posting there. From here on in all new posts will appear here. Which is a bit exciting, and a little scary.

It is exciting because a fresh start is always exciting. It is a little bit scary because I have not had a chance to set up everything here just like I would like to. Mind you after nearly three months of waiting to set things up just right I am starting to wonder if I would ever actually get around to it.

So here I am, with things not quite right. 

Instead they are a little rough around the edges and not anything like perfect. Much like myself. Which I guess is in many ways incredibly fitting.

So here we are. 

A brand new blog just waiting to be filled with all my words of wisdom.

Sadly though my words of wisdom have been failing me of late. As I mentioned a little while ago back on APL, I have been struggling to come to terms with some of the changes we have been faced with lately which has in turn meant my words have slowed.

Sigh.

I am hoping though that has all come to an end now though. 

Mind you if I keep trying to blog while watching TV that may possibly never happen. Mr Awesome thoughtfully decided to cancel our Netflix subscription on account of being able to access Presto free for six months via our new fang dangled Telstra T Box. Which may on some levels sound particularly cool on account of being able to watch Presto without it counting towards our monthly download limit but since Presto doesn't have How I Met Your Mother it is actually quite a let down.

Since I haven't been able to continue with my How I Met Your Mother marathon I decided to begin a My Name is Earl marathon. Well not at marathon as such but more a it is late at night and I need some background noise situation. I (wrongly) thought that My Name Is Earle would not be a distraction to my writing on account of already having seen so many episodes.

As much as I may have watched so many episodes in the past, I had forgotten how much the show warmed my heart.

It probably comes as no surprise that I love the idea of doing things to right wrongs and making life better whenever you can. There really are so many lessons to be learnt from such shows. Lessons that if it wasn't ridiculous o'clock at night I would possibly be able to go into more detail. 

However it is crazy o'clock on Tuesday morning and I have blogged so I can share with all the #IBOT gang

Brain emptying done wrong

This image, of flood plains out at Kakadu, has very little to do with anything in the post, I just like it. A lot.

I have been sitting here (not here as in the above image, just here as in my lounge) with the laptop open on my lap for nearly forty five minutes now. I had a scroll through the Bidding Wars page to see if there were any bargains I needed to bid on. There wasn't but it took quite a time to decide that.

From there I went and had a quick look to see if there was anything of interest in my newsfeed. There wasn't. Sarah over at Move Fuel Love, had shared a photo of Darwin sunset and the current temperature. It made me want to stab her eyeballs just a little.

It rained for 30 seconds this morning in Darwin and at almost 8pm it's currently 28C. BUT the sunsets sure are pretty  This is Winter in the Top End.

Posted by Move Fuel Love on Monday, 15 June 2015

Not only was the sunset amazing, as Darwin sunsets so often are, but at nearly 8pm it was still twenty eight degrees. Twenty eight god dam degrees!!! The only way I can even get close to such a delightful warmth is if I have the air con cranking up that high.

Oh how times change.

There once was a time when I had the air con cranking at eighteen degrees because I so desperately wanted to snuggle under a doona. Now I have it as high as I can, which actually happens to be only twenty six degrees, just so I don't have to wear five hundred layers of clothes.

It would be fair to say that winter and I are not the best of friends. I mean I do love being able to go for a run bang smack in the middle of the day and not dying from heat exhaustion but there is just a small part of me that is longing to be just a little bit warm without having to stand under scolding hot water. Because FYI it turns out that constantly showering in scolding hot water leads to a rather dry scalp which then in turn leads to dandruff.

There was no dandruff in my hair when I lived in the tropics and it bugs me insanely that my locks are constantly infiltrated with little white flakes now.

Sigh.

When I started this post, oh so long ago now, thanks to the concentration of a goldfish and being called on to go pick up the husband from hockey, I had planned on joining in with the ever so lovely Miss Cinders for her monthly emptying of the brain. Only when I went there just now I realised I completely and utterly missed the brief.

I thought (very wrongly) that it was a free association writing thing where you just sat and wrote whatever hair brain idea passed between your ears. As I have so clearly done. But it is not. Well not entirely. There are some loose statements to answer.

Double sigh.

Luckily I have more than one blog so I can pop over to APL and do it there. And even more luckily (totes acceptable grammar in the blog world btw) it is Tuesday and I have blogged so I can join in with EssentiallyJess and the IBOT gang

Blog like there is nobody reading

While some might struggle with the concept of blogging like no one is reading, for yours truly here, it is a piece of cake. There is no one reading, well next to no one. Given that this little space of mine is incredibly new and I haven't really told people about it yet it almost goes without saying that next to no one will be reading whatever I write here.

Which is actually a bit sucky because over the years I have realised that I do like to think that people are reading the various random thoughts that have managed to escape my brain and enter the wonders of the internet.

I have never been a writer that has written only for myself to read. In fact quite the contrary. I seem to only be able to write when I am under the impression my words will be read by at least someone rather than no one. Well apart from a few tormented teenage diaries that I went out of my way to ensure were never read but that was well before the internet existed.

As much as this space here is a new one for me, I have been writing on the internet for many years now. From memory, my first post is dated January 2008. While it is currently over on A Parenting Life, it was originally over at Rhianna's Random Rambles or something like that. It was never a space I felt very at home in, even though I designed and created it myself. Perhaps that was the problem though, all the headers were made by me with very little graphic knowledge and I couldn't help but feel it was gaudy and rather ugly.

Over the years though I created APL as a place I loved dearly and was incredibly at home in. Before I left on #ouradventureofalifetime last year my readership and community had peaked higher than ever before. It felt all kinds of awesome. I felt like I was connecting to people regularly and sometimes even making a difference to people thoughts and days.

Once we hit the road though blogging regularly became rather difficult. Mainly because the road we hit was in the middle of nowhere and without internet reception but also because we were just so busy living life. Mind you even when I did manage to get something up on the blog it wasn't nearly as well received as my posts were before we left. Which was the exact opposite of what I had expected to happen. Before we left I was certain that sharing our adventure would lead to even more readers than ever before. Turns out no one was overly interested in reading about how great it was escaping from normal life.

I had expected that once life returned to normality that the blog would immediately return to the state it was in before we left. Needless to say it hasn't and suddenly it no longer feels like home. Which makes me a little sad. I had thought the answer was to be found here at Rhianna Writes because that is such a cool name but sadly that hasn't been the case, well at least it has not been the case yet but in all fairness it is still incredibly early days.

More than anything I want to be a writer. And have done so for as long as I can remember. It is the whole reason I started blogging. A platform to make myself feel like a writer.

There was a time when I was actually paid to write articles and have them published online. It wasn't a lot of money but it was enough to make me feel like a real writer.  They were mainly parenting related articles because I had read somewhere that you should write about what you know. As a stay at home mum I felt I knew little else than parenting. Which is how I came about the name A Parenting Life.

Even though I am still a stay at home mum and my life revolves around parenting it is not a topic I want to exclusively. Mainly because as I delve deeper into the teenage years I find myself less sure of what I am doing and therefore not in a position to write about parenting unless it is how to do it badly. Which is again one of the reasons I though Rhianna Writes might be a good idea.

One of the biggest things I have learnt over my time as a blogger though is that it is imperative to comment on other blogs. Which is perhaps where I have fallen down over the last twelve months. Something that I hope to get back now that life has settled back down a little.

With that in mind I think this is a perfect place to end this post, it was inspired by Raychel who has founded Blog Exchange and since it is Tuesday and I have blogged I am joining in with EssentiallyJess for IBOT so there may well actually be a chance this post will get read. Also joining in with Kristy for I must confess

Where nobody knows your name

Back home, before we started #ouradventureofalifetime, I had not lived anywhere else. For thirty six years I lived in the one city. Which meant I knew a lot of people.

In my much younger years I worked in one of the most well known shops in town and partied like there was no tomorrow. Which meant a lot of people knew who I was as well.

Which was kinda cool. It left me feeling a bit like a rock star. People were forever saying hi or giving me a smile as they walked by. It felt good.

Even after I had left that job, stopped partying and started to grow up and become a mum, I still felt like I knew lots of people. There would be no ducking down to the shops without making sure my clothes were at least somewhat respectable because what if I saw someone I knew?

Not that I was full face of make up kind of person or even anything remotely like that, but the full of holes house clothes were exactly that, for the house. Certainly not for wearing to the shops regardless of how quick I thought I was going to be.

Nearly fifty percent of all shopping trips took longer than they should of because I would inevitably bump into someone I knew and got chatting with. Now the check out operators look at me strangely as I try to make conversation with them as they pack my groceries. If I don't my whole day could pass without adult conversation.

It's a funny thing moving to a new place where you know no one. Or at least next to no one. I can count on one hand the people that I know where we now live. Which obviously makes the chances of me running into anyone at the shops somewhere between none and buckleys.

Which in some ways is not a bad thing.

Yesterday I procrastinated on going to the shops despite desperately needing some milk. I just couldn't face getting out of my house clothes. And thats when it dawned on my that it really didn't matter if I went to the shops in my daggier than daggy house clothes and double pluggers because I am just another face in the crowd that nobody knows.

Mind you as I was wandering around the shops gathering my milk and things (because it is impossible to go to the shops and only get what you went for) I walked past a lady who was also clearly wearing her house clothes. Only she had taken it one step further than I and was wearing socks with her thongs. And was clearly not phased in the least by what anyone might have thought. 

Her partner sheepishly pushing the trolley a little behind her perhaps not so much but again that seemed of little concern to sock and thong wearing lady.

Because at the end of the day what others think, whether they know you or not, is not what matters or counts. As longs as we are comfortable in what we wear or what we do or what we say that is all that matters.

Joining in with Alicia for Open Slather

A fresh new start

Sometimes when you least expect it someone will make an offhand comment and it will suddenly sound like the best idea ever. That happened to me just the other day and now here I am with a fresh brand new blog just waiting to be filled with my words of wisdom.

There are still many creases to be ironed out, layouts to be designed, Facebook pages and various social media channels to be changed or created. I am still deciding exactly what path I will take. I am in love with the idea of a rebrand and something new and exciting but the thought of losing all my followers makes me a little sad. 

For now though the domain is secured and working so that is the first step done and dusted. 

The Interview

Image with thanks to tsk and found here

The butterflies in Sally's stomach were fluttering at break neck speeds. Two weeks before her twenty first birthday and this was her first ever real job interview.

Sure she may have been working since just before she turned fourteen, but she hadn't needed to interview for it and after seven years with the same company she had more than found her comfort zone. One that right now she was wondering why she felt the need to leave.

Nervous didn't even begin to describe how she felt as she approached the door. Taking a deep breath she pushed against it and walked on through. Her heart was beating so fast it felt as if it may very well burst on through her chest.

As she approached the empty counter her eyes scanned the room. None of it was quite as she expected. Hanging on the walls in a rather haphazard and disorderly fashion were a few mobile phone accessories. Sally had been expecting an interview with a leading telecommunication agency to become their newest sales manager. She was now wondering exactly how leading they really were.

"Hello" Sally called out towards the back room.

"Coming" a female voice called back.

Sally heard a chair scrape across the floor followed by the shuffle of footsteps. An overweight woman appeared in the door way and walked to behind the counter. Her clothes were of a bright floral pattern and looked like they belonged on a hawaiian holiday. The amount of make up on her face could easily have been shared amongst fifteen teenagers.

"How can I help you?" The woman asked in a less than helpful tone.

"My name is Sally I have an interview at..." Sally started but, was distracted by a man who was pacing around the back room while on the phone.

"...f*&k no!!" he yelled into the handset

Sally looked back at the woman, suddenly forgetting the rest of her sentence.

"Oh that's right dear, so you do" The woman's demeanour suddenly changing. "Just take a seat, he shouldn't be too long and then he will be right with you" she continued as she motioned to an empty chair for Sally to sit in.

"Thanks" Sally stammered as she made her way over to the chair and sat herself down. Exhaling a breath she hadn't realised she was holding on to. The butterflies eased off somewhat.

Sitting there looking around at what she assumed was some sort of show room Sally couldn't help but hear the man's booming voice as he continued on his call. She wondered who he was possibly talking to. Every other word seemed to be f*&k. By the time the call had ended Sally's nerves had well and truly dispersed. This interview was by no means going to be as intimidating as what she had imagined it to be.

"Hi I'm Will" the man said as he appeared from the back room "you must be Sally, thanks for coming in and sorry about all of that" he went on. Waving his hand in the air as if to just dismiss all the profanities Sally had heard

Sally jumped to her feet and suddenly felt the butterflies return.

She couldn't help but notice the way Will seemed to look at her. His eyes never leaving her and half a smile on his face. It created a stirring in her that she wasn't too sure on how to interpret.

Determining age by appearance had never been one of Sally's strong points, but she figured that Will had to be at least thirty, probably even close to forty. Despite numerous crows feet around his eyes though there was still something rather dashing and youthful about Will.

His light blue business shirt had been freshly ironed. Crinkles were begin to form from the wear of the day. His grey slacks still had firm crease lines and she couldn't help but notice the shiny black shoes he wore. While he may not have sounded much like a business man on the phone two minutes ago, he certainly looked the part.

"Come on through and have a chat" Will said as he led the way to the back room, readjusting his pants and tucking his shirt in again as he went.

The back room was much more office looking than where they had just been. There were a number of desks with chairs on either side. Some had computers that looked like they may well have been some of the first PC's ever invented.

Will sat down behind a desk and offered Sally a chair on the opposite side.

"So tell me a bit about yourself and why you want to come and sell my phones" Will said with a smile while staring right into Sally's eyes. Something she found a tad unnerving yet sexy all at once.

Sally may only have been young but she was old enough to know that she was not exactly what most would call ugly. In fact quite the opposite. While exercise was not something she regularly took part in, spending most weekends dancing at nightclubs had helped keep her enough in shape to not worry about too much flab.

Her brown hair was highlighted with various shades of fire engine red through it. A year or so earlier she had shaved all of her hair off, but it had now grown so there was a enough length to style it into a rather funky do. Sally liked the way she could get bits of it to stick out everywhere or slick it back. Depending of course on how the mood took her. It really was hair for any occasion.

Today she had opted for a combination of the two. Slightly slicked down at the front with spiky bits at the back. The kind of hair that said I am hip and young but I have a mature grown up aspect to me as well. Or at least that is what she thought it said. Which to Sally was all that mattered. Sally had a tendency to exude confidence despite not  necessarily always possessing it.

Once she started talking the words just started to flow from Sally's mouth. She explained how while she loved her old job she knew there was more she could do. As a small family business, that the family was still heavily involved with, she knew there was only so far she could go and given her ambitious desires to go far in life she needed to look for something else.

A brief stint as a temp with the biggest national telecommunication company had shown her that she didn't need to go too big too soon but she most certainly wanted to work within the telecommunications industry. It was an innovative and exciting new area that would be bound to change the way that people lived their lives.

By the end of the interview Sally felt completely at ease. She again found herself scrutinising Will's appearance. He had a certain charm that she couldn't quite put her finger on. There was something very manly and grown up about him. Unlike the boys that she lived with.

"Well I think that is about it for now" Sally heard Will say. "Thanks for coming in, it was lovely to meet you, we will be in contact shortly, make sure Janet has your number" he went on as pointed to the lady in the floral outfit.

"Oh, ok, thank you" Sally replied as she stood up. Slightly disappointed that she had not been offered the job on the spot. Everything had seemed so positive while they were talking her inexperienced mind had just assumed the job was hers for the taking.

Walking out the door Sally turned to close it behind her. It had a glass window in the middle of it and she found herself looking through it staring at Will, who just happened to be staring right back at her. Perhaps there was still a chance the job was hers after all.