I was GRUMPY.

They're becoming the best of buddies!

“BROWSING only, NO sales today.”

I SHOULD have put that darn sign up! I so wanted to NOT have ANY sales today so we could show HO that it wasn’t worthwhile being the ONLY shop in the mall OPEN on Boxing Day

 ... or any public holiday, for that matter.

Huge restless waves this morning .... and rain 

HO have this warped idea that EVERYONE goes shopping on a Public Holiday. That might work in the bigger retail centres but our little shop is in a pedestrian mall in the village. 

Our village DOESN’T do ‘Retail Therapy on Public Holidays’ 

..... or so I thought.

A CLOSED mall!

I was GRUMPY. I had to open up the shop at 9 and stay open till 6. There were NO other shops open in the mall ... the mall itself was locked and armed. We’re one of two shops at the entrance to the mall, on the outside of the security doors, so couldn’t even access the ablution facilities. I was stranded .... my only company being the Superette on the High Street and the Newsagent.

Even my usual coffee haunt WASN’T open ... HELP

.... how was I meant to survive without my daily caffeine fix?

A Christmas Hound .... and the caption on her bandanna reads
"Dear Santa ..... I can explain ..."

Why did I choose to work on Mondays and Wednesdays?

New Zealand has this strange policy of moving the majority of Public Holidays, with the exception of Christmas Day, New Year and Good Friday, to the Monday closest to the date of the Public Holiday. All well and good .... and when I first heard about this policy I thought it was a great idea .... until I started working at the shop!

The fur-ball likes my reindeer antlers!

MOST public holidays are celebrated on a MONDAY ..... dam!

Getting her Christmas present.

Our little village CLOSES down on Public Holidays. For some obscure reason it DIDN’T stop customers coming into the shop today .... BIGGER dam!

Sales were better than I expected them to be.

That might have had something to do with me being GRUMPY. All the customers coming into the shop expressed their amazement at the shop being open when EVERYONE else in the mall was closed .... I won’t tell you what my reply was. Suffice to say most of them had a good chuckle .... and spent money .... even though I didn’t want them too!

It was a fun day despite having to work. I had friends pop in and visit, the family pop in and visit .... even the flirtatious milk delivery chap popped in to chat even though he didn’t have any deliveries to make in the mall! Most of the customers were in the mood for a chat too so I wasn’t short of entertaining company. Facebook added to the mix with the saga of the seven dwarfs .... that was a lot of fun too!

So Christmas is done and dusted for ANOTHER year! We celebrate the youngest lemming’s birthday tomorrow .... he’ll be 17!! 

Boy, do I feel old!

Fear .....

“We are all better than we know.  If only we can come to discover this, we may never again settle for anything less.”  Kurt Hahn .. founder of Outward Bound International

Fear .... it’s something we all have within us ...... fear of the unknown ..... fear of what the day will bring ..... fear about the future ..... fear of flying ..... fear of enclosed spaces .... fear of heights .... the list is endless.  How many of us though actively confront thesefears ... actively look at what makes us the unique individuals we

It's a bit grey in my bay today

are ..... and move forward secure in the knowledge that we have all the tools we need to face any fears we might harbour ... they are, after all, all in our mind.

Raindrops dripping off the Strelizia

I spent an enjoyable day with T yesterday .... after a quick walk with the hound!  I’d forgotten how enjoyable it was doing all the girly things with a friend.  An entire day spent indulging our caffeine addiction, talking, shopping ... mostly for T ... so enjoyable spending her husband’s money, talking some more, filling up on caffeine some more .... it was great fun ... and bought back so many memories of the days a certain friend and I spent in the Midlands doing pretty much the same thing on a very regular basis.  T is a deep thinker
 ... highly philosophical - I think ... she might not always agree .... we connect on a level that’s special .... I don’t connect with many friends in this way but T’s one of them. She told me about an organisation ... a form of education and  philosophy really, called Outward Bound.  It’s about stepping outside your comfort zone ... overcoming your fears ... finding your strengths .... discovering WHO you really are ... a personal development workshop using outdoor adventure and challenge as the tools.

I was interested to discover that the founder of Outward Bound, a gentleman called Kurt Hahn, is a Welshman and the organisation was formed as far back as 1941!  T has planted a seed ..... a thought is taking up residence ........

Confronting fears is something I seem to have been doing a lot more regularly in the last decade.  I often ask myself why I waited so long to try scuba diving ... I love it .... it’s another world to discover ... an awesome, beautiful world ... it has an aura of it’s own ... a sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard on land .....  and one I’d never have known if I hadn’t overcome the fear of being reliant on a gas cylinder to breathe ... how ridiculous is that!! A diving accident a few years ago re-ignited that fear .... the difference now though is that I know, with lots of baby steps, I can overcome that fear and dive again ...

BOTH the kitties were there today!

There are so many things in this world I still want to discover .... moving countries has made me so aware that they are all within my reach.  Sky diving has always been on my bucket list and the reality of doing that with Callum last year blew my mind ..... it was one of the most awesome experiences of my life.  It’s something I would love to take further but finances don’t allow at this moment in time ... and several of the significant others in my life aren’t that keen that I pursue this particular interest ... those are their fears, I have to respect them.

As children we have little fear ..... it’s so sad that as we age, we become so much more fearful.  Let’s take roller blading ..... Gareth started teaching me last year .... but as you age you become more fearful of falling ...... and whilst I love the idea of roller blading along the board walk,
the reality of making it happen scares me.
I’m scared of falling over ... not because of how funny it would look .... I’d be laughing just as much myself ... but I’m scared of breaking something .... a part of me, I mean.

Very dark and gloomy

Rainrops .... and even more raindrops!

I can’t afford to have a broken limb ... I can’t be without my morning ramble with the hound ... it’s a basic necessity in my day ... pretty much like cleaning my teeth and eating ..... and caffeine!  It puts my world into perspective and allows me to touch base with myself ..... I’m a better person for it and the impact that has on the people around me cannot be quantified.

I’m currently reading about an artist called Jonathan Harris ...... most of his  work is on-line. What attracted me to him was that he’s completed a similar project to what I’m currently working on .. a photo a day for a year .... but he published his on a daily basis .. I have a different purpose with mine but the idea is the same .... to visually capture a year of my life.  For each of us, our life is our creation ... no-one else gets to do it but us .... I want to be sure that, when I look back through my life, I haven’t allowed fear to stop me from doing the things I’m interested in and that excite me.  Don’t get me wrong ... fear is necessary ... it ensures that we approach things with caution .... but too much fear can prevent us from doing what our heart desires .......