Flu jab ... is it worth it?

So much for having my free flu jab ... I got the flu!!! Almost back to normal now just a nagging cough lurking around.

Still no word on my job application yet, they're taking a while.

Weighin on Wednesday brought a 700g loss. I'm picking my brains to find a strategy to get below the 100kg mark. This one is so physcological for me and I'm not sure why. I keep bouncing around that mark and just can't quite get under it. A big part is that I still feel like I have such a long way to go. Remembering back to when I did Jenny Craig nearly 20yrs ago my start weight was exactly 100kg ... that was JUST my START WEIGHT!!! And here I am 20yrs later still at 100kg!!

With some of my friends stopping blogging I've lost my accountability or more importantly that comrardery, the hype that builds eachother up to get through those tough moments. I really need to sort something out here. The local ww meeting closed down months ago and I don't want to go to SureSlim (too expensive for me). And I get so busy, time is an issue.

I'll have to keep thinking on this one. But for this week I've had my first two days OP so that's a good start.

Gotta get moving

I went to his funeral on Monday and my emotions surprised me. I found myself feeling really angry. It felt like such a waste, he had a beatiful wife and kids and so many people around him who loved him. The room was absolutely packed out!!! There would have been over a thousand people there. We were in a side room with standing room only. So many people spoke of what a fantastic guy he was. Such a waste! His wife came up to me and gave me a hug which was really nice.

Onto the weight front ... yeah a yucky gain this week but I expected it. I can never count points properly when other stuff is going on. 1kg up but onto a good week. No more time mucking around, gotta get to those double digits!!

Ohhhh and I almost forgot ... I played netball last night, first time in over 20yrs!!! And I ran (yes ran!) up and down the courts 8 times!! First time I have run on my ankle since breaking it 18mths ago. It's very sore today but I'm proud ... ohhh and we won our game!! 25 to 7 !! yay!!

Back from AWOL land ...

I've been AWOL from bloggerland the last week. Well I haven't been totally not blogging just not publishing my posts and doing them in draft only. I've decided an the end of the week that I'm not actually going to publish them. It's nothing against you guys but I've had a seriously emotional week and dealing with a lot of very tender personal issues which I feel wouldn't be appropriate to put on here.

Now don't going worrying yourselves about me or my family - we're fine. To give you a basic outline - I went to a job last Wednesday that involved a suicide in which my ambo partner and I were first on scene and we were unsuccessful in reviving him and it really hit home because I knew him. St Johns were fanstastic and had a huge amount of support there for me both immediately after and over the next few days. It affected me big time causing me to have nausea and vomiting for a few days and tossing and turning at night. I think I'm working through it ok, however my emotional stress is nothing compared to what his wife and young kids have to deal with. My heart just goes out to her!!!

Next step is the funeral on Monday which might bring a few emotions back up again.

I found my eating was very minimal over the week as my stomach just couldn't face it. But I tried very hard to eat what I could to keep my energy levels up. I weighed in at 100.5kgs this week which is a good loss but a weighin post last Wednesday just seemed so insignificant with what happened that day. So I've chosen to leave it till today to post.

Now I've worked through some of the stuff (blogging privately helped alot with this) I'm back to 'normal' blogging again.

who needs 3 wishes, just 1 ... I want that job!!

Did my first day back counting points yesterday and must admit it gave me a huge sense of being in control again. I ended up having to eat on the run for dinner so as the person I was with was driving through KFC I decided on a Works burger for dinner. Obviously not my first choice in healthy nutrition. I guestimated at 8-9pts making me 1 or 2pts over for the day, not too bad I reasoned with myself.

This morning I looked up the KFC website to find that actually the works burger is infact only 4pts!!! I triple, quadrupally tested it ... yep only 4pts! So here I was feeling guilty about nothing! It actually meant I was under points by 4 for the day.

~~~

I've had the wonderful pleasure of being awarded the latest award going round by Linda and CactusFreek ... sounds like I'm describing a flu bug! haha! Not quite the same horrible side effects. Awww ... Thankyou guys ...

Now to pass it on ... given alot of my blogs I read have either stopped or gone private I've only chosen out of the public ones. There's so many wonderful blogs I could choose but have decided on these ones for their 'stickibility' ... that's what weightloss is about ... being in for the long haul and these three chicks I am commending for that!! Well done guys!!

So here's who I pass it onto ... Zanna, Hippygal, and Jen ...

Onto another day ... my day off in the shop so as usual I've jumped on the ambulance for the day. My job application closes off tomorrow so hopefully should hear back next week if I've made the short list ... so hope so! But of course not getting my hopes up too much ... who am I kidding??? My hopes are through the roof!!!

was good but not for me

Greenlane diet week is over and I managed to lose 600g. Not good enough results for me to keep doing it. I'm happy with a 600g loss but the sacrifices I had to persevere with don't make it worthwhile.

I found after the three hard out days I went into a rebellion mode with food. Kinda like the noose is off now so 'LET'S EAT!!!' The book says you can lose up to 4.5kgs in 3 days. We all know that won't be 4.5kgs of fat!! After day three I was down 2.6kgs but of course as soon as I went back to normal eating again my gut filled up again and I was back up another 2kgs over the following 4 days.

So I'm back to counting points again. It's always interesting how take something away makes you appreciate it. Very glad to be counting points again and eating 'normally'.

Onto another eating healthy week. Only 1.3kgs to go to get into double digits!

Simple pleasures

I'm pleased to say I completed my first three days on the Greenlane diet. I now have four days of healthy eating but not to a strict menu. It was really hard going!! REALLY hard! I found each day by the time I got to mid afternoon I was feeling very lathargic, light headed and headachey. Proud of myself that I stuck to it rigidly all bar 2 glasses of wine on the night of day two.

Bill had a friend/customer in the shop yesterday that he was telling about how we were doing this Greenlane Diet. She said "you're crazy!! That diet is for people who are so sick in hospital. They are stuck in bed and can't move all day! And you guys are eating the same amount AND walking around! I don't know how you can do it!"

I hadn't actually thought of it like that. I don't think it will be a permanent thing for me but more of a kickstart to get my motivation back which it seems to be doing.

Lynda and Jules you are totally right! I couldn't remember what he had died of. I had an idea it was something non-related to weight but couldn't quote that on here as I wasn't totally sure. So thanks for pointing that out.

I'm really enjoying his book for reasons other than weightloss as well. It's been very good timing. We are currently going into winter which is always a tough time financially for us. We're having to live day to day budgeting to pay bills and when you own a shop like this the bills are big amounts ... in the thousands so we have to be very tight with our money. Some days it gets us down and very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyway getting back to the book ... this guy talks about another side of life ... one where he had no issues with money, where he was jetsetting all over the world for meetings. Over to London for 8hrs then back again, flying all over New Zealand multiple times in a day, smoozing clients in fancy restaurants, buying big fancy cars and living a life many people dream about. Yet he wasn't happy. He found himself not communicating with his wife because he was too busy being the big exec and by the time he got home he would flop into bed and start all over the next day.

It was a great reminder to me that money isn't everything. I've never had a desire to be hugely rich but enough to cover the bills and a little left over for some playtime is the dream for me. And sometimes I feel very let down in life because we've had to work so hard just to pay the bills. This man made me refocus on the fact that yes we may be broke, but hey we have a great relationship together (Bill and I) where we can be together every night and talk, we can work happily together, take the kids out for a swim down the beach as a family, play 'bat down' out in the back yard as a family and generally we can have the time just to be us, with out the rush, rush, rush of the 'high life'. We have our health and we have to be grateful for those small things because in all reality those small things ... are actually big things in life ...

To simplify it down it reminded me ... 'Don't worry!! Be happy!!'

P.S. - for those of you who asked what happened about Bill's job ... he never heard back so we're taking that as a no. Pretty rude of them not to let him know, but that's ok we're happy with that.

Don't run away mojo!!

Firstly ... 'Me' ... the guy's name that wrote Diary of a Fat Man is Paul Jeffreys. (published by Penguin Books) Hope that helps. I must admit I tried to do a search on the net to find a pic for yesterdays post but found very little info on it. I wonder if they pulled it from publication when he died.

This new menu plan is working out great for me! (the Greenlane one I talked about yesterday). It's really hard to stick to and I'm finding I'm getting really hungry (like stomach majorly growling at me hungry) between meals. I think this is a good thing for me right now. I got so used to the points system where if I got hungry I just ate and used the points from another day.

Get this ... I've EVEN gone to black coffee/no sugar!!! (normal is white/1 large tsp sugar) And it's not actually too bad!

As you may recall I had beetroot for my menu dinner last night. I had raw beetroot there that I was going to cook up. But not wanting to add sugar I found a recipe to roast them with garlic and balsamic vinegar which in theory sounded devine ...ehem ... 2.5hrs later everything else was cooked and we were still waiting for the beetroot. I gave up, took it out of the oven and decided to boil it ... half an hour later I thought they must be cooked. The kids had eaten everything else on their plate so I peeled the beetroot and dished it up. "YUMM!! Beetroot like grandma does!!" came their excited replies. They started hooking into it as I peeled Bill's and my portions. "Umm, it's okay, not quite as good as grandma's beetroot" I heard them say. As I took a bite of my beetroot I was discusted!! It was revolting!!! Still crunchy and raw!!! Those poor kids ate their beetroot without another word! I just couldn't eat mine! YUCK!! I gave in and went and got a can of the stuff out of the cupboard. "You kids want any more of the canned stuff?" "No mum I'm full" Poor things! lol

We finished the night off with our allotted ww icecream and baked apples.

This morning it was worth it all with a loss of 600g on the scales for my weekly weighin! Very happy given I've only been on this plan one day.

My food for today is ...

Breakfast - 1 boiled egg, 1 slice dry toast, 1/2 banana

Lunch - 1 cup cottage cheese, 5 snax crackers

Dinner - 2 Frankfurters, 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup carrots

Snack - 1 cup ww icecream, 1/2 banana

My mojo may very well be on it's way back!!

Anyone seen my mojo? ...

I'm trying desperately to find my mojo again. It's totally vanished and do ya think I can remember where I left it???

While waiting for the pager to go off at the ambo station the other day I picked up a book and started reading. 'Diary of a Fat Man'. I'm usually against such 'tacky' books but his writing style actually grabbed my attention.

It still goes against the grain for me reading a book about a guy who loses 64kgs to 'gain his life back' (his words) and then dies 6mths later!! But hey still a good read.

I'm about a third of the way through it and one of the diet's he does (twice a year) is the 'Greenlane Diet' named because Greenlane Hospital uses it for all their patients waiting for open heart surgery. It's remarkably simple and cheap so I thought 'what they hey? I'll give it a go'

It involves a very strict diet for three days and 4 days off, 3 days on, 4 days off etc. I think I need a bit of structure at the moment to get me aysse into line!

This is todays food ...

Breakfast - 1/2 grapefruit, 1 slice dry toast, 1tblsp peanut butter

Lunch - 1 slice dry toast, 1/3c tuna

Lunch - 1 cup green beans, 1 cup beetroot, 2 slices lean meat

Dessert - 1 small apple, 1 cup ww icecream

Feeling good so far but only upto lunchtime... see how I feel on day 3!!!

Feel good about this one

I know I've been a bit scarce of late. Things are still crazy busy.

Weighin today gave me a 1.8kg loss showing that lasts week gain was infact fluid as I'd thought it was.

Not sure if I told you guys but I missed out on the Tauranga ambulance job. Wasn't too worried as I didn't expect to get it.

I've now sent my CV off for a job that's come up in Thames, for a Patient Transport Officer (2 days), and Frontline crew (2 days). And the cool part is they are asking for an officer of my level (primary care 2 officer).

So basically means for 2 days a week (12hr shift) it will mean transporting patients between hospitals and the other 2 days on ambulance. (then 2 days off) And Thames is only 35mins drive away so I can easily commute.

So fingers crossed

Proud moments

*UPDATE*

Oopps!! I forgot to post the pics of Lee-anne's wedding. Here they are (below)

I've had my head buried in the sand the last week. Not wanting to admit the bad food I've been consuming. I think it started by the fact that I felt I did really well eatingwise at Lee-annes wedding and came home to a yucky gain. Then it went downhill from there. The whole thought of 'what's the point?' filled my brain.

So when my official gain showed up on Wednesday I couldn't bring myself to blog it. 104 yucky kilograms!!!!

Then two days later it was back down again to 101.7kg!!! That's just cruel! But I'm back ontrack again after a couple of days of sulking and wallowing in my pity!

Lee-anne's wedding was absolutely beautiful! She was stunning! She asked me to post some pics for her till she gets back from sunny Rarotonga! (lucky tart!)

While there I got talking to a lady (who I'd never met before) and turns out she is the mother of the guy that interviewed Bill for the new job he was going for in Rotorua! How bizzare is that?? And then she ends up being at our table at the reception... too weird! Still no news on how Bill got on yet.

Yesterday I attended a funeral of a young 26yr old guy who died of cancer. Very very sad! He was a truck driver and fire brigade officer here in Waihi. So they had a full ceremonial farewell for him with the Fire Brigade, Police and Ambos in full formal uniform. The casket was on top of his fire truck and behind we all marched in perfect rows of four ... Firies, then us ambos, then police. We marched behind right down the main street. Hundreds of people lined the streets and everyone was in perfect silence!! Was a very emotional moment!! The sense of pride felt by us all in respect for one of our own was overwelming!

After the funeral we marched back to the fire station and behind us was a long line of logging/freight trucks about 15 of them all up. And as we reached the station each of the trucks drove by slowly and one by one pomped their horn in goodbye, it went on for quite some time. Everyone had tears in their eyes! There was a moments silence then the fire station siren went off for a last call for him. The officers got in their fire trucks and they slowly drove off for a private family cremation. Every single person had tears in their eyes! What an amazing sendoff to one amazing officer who was taken much too soon!!!

Did aliens take my patient????

We are still waiting to hear back from Bill's interview. Overall the store manager wanted to hire him, the 2IC was very insecure about him and they were offering a much lower salary than expected.



But I'm taking one day at a time and see what happens... will keep you posted :)



I had an ambo job at 1.30am this morning. I never do night jobs well ... it always takes about 10mins for my brain to kick into action.



On our way there COMMS came back saying two patients were at Waihi Police station so they reassigned our paramedic and one ambulance there and sent us (the other ambulance) to the scene to check there were no other occupants hidden, lost or abandaned at the scene.



When we got there we had a good look around the smashed up car and in the bushes, had a chat to the fire brigade and police and there didn't seem to be any patients unaccounted for.

I gave an update to COMMS ...

"We are R23 code 2"

Their reply ... "Sorry, Waihi Beach1 can you repeat that message!!!??!"

"We are R23 code 2 ... ohhhh ... ummm ... ooops ... sorry, correction ... (pause) ... we are R35!!! code 2"

I was so embarrased ... My boss's boss came on air next to say "Thankyou WaihiBeach1 you can stand down and return to station" with a chuckle in his voice ...

why was he (and everyone else listening to the radio) laughing???? ....

... because ... what I was supposed to say was ...

"R35 code 2" which means ...

R35 ... ambulance stand down ... code 2 ... patient gone by other transport

What I did say was ...

R23 ... PATIENT DEAD!!! code 2 ... and gone by other transport!!

I can't believe it did that!!! HOW EMBARRASING!! and infront of all those people!
Hmmm ... think I might be up for a blooper award on that one at the mid winter ambulance awards.

...

I'm very excited to say we are off for the weekend to go to Lee-Anne's wedding. Bill and I without the kids. The last time we went away without kids was ... I can't honestly remember!!

We've organised a babysitter to stay overnight with the kids, staff in the shop and my ambulance rosters to be covered... a big mission but we did it!!

Then we rang the babysitter to check we were all good for tomorrow and her reply "ohhh am I staying overnight??? I didn't know that ... ohhhh ..."

WTF???!!!??

We told her that at the start ... lucky Bill was on the phone to her not me. He was much more polite than I would have been!!

So yes to still do have a babysitter ... just as well!!!

We're off ... and boy do I need it!!!

Yay go Lee-anne!!!

MEN!!!!!

How am I today??

Interesting question ... Numb would be one word. Angry another, helpless, manipulated, alone, lost, nervous with a small amount of maybe I'm over exagerating and it's all about nothing!!!

I certainly hope I'll wake up tomorrow and it's the latter.

As I type this Bill is driving to Rotorua ... for a job interview!

Yep! We have a business we run together, yep I am trying to train as an ambo officer which takes a good 40hrs a week, yep we have 4 kids together.

Why??? Because for the last 3 winters we have struggled financially, because he's lost the passion for the shop, because he's bored.

So much spinning through my head. My life is at a crossroads and will turn in a dramatically different direction depending on the decision of one man in an office in a supermarket in Rotorua!!!

I'm mad!! I have followed this man all around the country for the last 13yrs of our marriage so he can persue his dreams. The whole reason we have this shop is because HE wanted it, not me! And now that he's bored of it he's thrown his toys out of the cot and followed another idea. Leaving me to pick up the pieces.

What will happen to my ambo work?? I really don't know! I finally found a passion. For years and years I sat at home without a passion, no reason to wake up in the morning. Then I stumbled across something that made me feel like I was useful. Now I may have to throw it all away.

Put your foot down and say NO! you say?? Do you not think I have tried that? My husband is a very stubborn man!

What do I do now?? Not much I can do that I haven't already tried. My hands are tied and I'M PISSED OFF!!!

Thankyou letter

Another 400g gone this week. Definately not complaining about this one, given I did indulge in a little bit of chocolate over Easter. Not huge amounts tho. What I did find was that the 4 or 5 easter eggs made me cave in to other temptations.

I'm definately an all or nothing personality, so when I slip up in one area I find it hard to keep tracking my food and stay OP. I know all the theory behind this and did manage to stay ontrack ... just. I guess my focus was gone this week.

But that's all good because this is the first day of a brand new tracking week for me and I managed to squeeze in with a loss. So what am I actually complaining about?? lol Not actually sure. Guess I need to refocus my motivation and give myself a kick up the butt and be grateful the scales were nice for the few indescretions.

Onto other news...

The shop was crazy busy over Easter! It was our biggest Easter yet, one day we were up by over $2000 for the day (compared to Easter Saturday last year). That definately helps ... ohh except for the fact that Bill paid $3000 to the wrong person last night on internet banking!!! A big $3000 whoopsie!!! The stupid bank wouldn't help us because we couldn't tell them our phone pin number! And of course he had to pay another $3000 to the CORRECT person ... I tell ya sometimes I think that man is a natural blonde under that dark cover!!

Ambulance has also be crazy busy over easter with so many people here at the beach. No major catastrophe stuff which is good. Been doing study this week (for my Nat Cert in Ambulance) on irregular heart rhythms and then recognised an odd ecg rhythm strip on a job and was able to query what heart condition she had. Very cool feeling to have my study actually come together on a job.

There was a letter this morning in the local paper from a patient I took to hospital (well it was the mother of the 18mth old patient) ... rather than reword it I'll type it in here for you ...

Volunteers' effort a priceless asset ...

This letter is dedicated to all the mainly volunteers who work for organisations who assist people within the Waihi area.

Our son has a severe condition where quick response from a doctor and St John is essential.

We are highly impressed and very thankful for the unselfish effort the people of Waihi/Waihi Beach put into this mainly volunteer work.

We were recommended to move closer to the hospital but we think we are better off living in Waihi where midical first aid is extremely professional, quick and effective.

Thankyou all very much to the people who support and help us.

A town is just as good as its inhabitants - Waihi rocks!!!

When people ask why I love ambulance so much .... this is why!!

See you can lose weight over Easter ...

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!

See? You can have easter eggs and lose weight!! Just do what this easter bunny is doing for 15mins prior to consumption This easter will be a pretty uneventful one for me. I'm doing an ambo shift today and working in the shop for the rest of it.


I heard an interesting thing on the radio yesterday from an obesity campaigner (preventing obesity in children). They said not to limit chocolate for kids over easter, infact feed them up on it if that's what they want. They had my attention with that statement! Because one or two days of eating chocolate is not going to make a huge difference in the big picture. It's the everyday treats that we should be trying to limit.


Very true!! Infact in my opinion if we don't give ourselves a little bit of chocolate every now and then I think as females we deprive our central nervous system ... and turn just stark raving mad!!! Well me anyway! Infact, I also heard on the radio yesterday (yes I was actually working, not just radio listening all day) that 33% of women feel they need chocolate every single day.
I don't think I'm quite like that, but certainly need it every now and then, just a little to keep those mad, crazy neutrons in my brain from exploding!


How bout you guys? Are you going to give in to the chocolate urge?

who needs a soap opera ...?

I'm very happy to report a 100g loss today. Much better than the horrid gain I thought I would have. It's just the kick start I needed.

Thankyou all so much for your wonderful comments. Blew me away with your support.

I'm still getting used to this new computer with it's little quirks, but we've come to be quite attached to eachother now. The first night the internet kept freezing and I got frustrated and closed it, giving it some abusive names.

I've since learnt it was infact the modem/internet that was playing up not my laptop. I had to apologise for the name calling. Must have worked because she's behaved well ever since.

Had to take Malachi (10) to the doctors yesterday. The school had rung up to say he was in the sick bay with a 'croupy' cough. I said to the office lady over the phone that I don't think it would be croup. Kids grow out of that around 5 or 6. He had it a couple of years ago and was considered very old for it then at aged 8.

I went down and picked him up anyway and on hearing his 'bark' cough had to admit to the lady that she may be right, it did sound like croup (damnit I had it when I'm wrong!! lol).

Sure enough the doc confirmed it ... a very surpising case of croup in a 10yr old. He had a really loud audible wheeze you could hear from over a metre away. Not much the doc could do as to give him steroids late in the day would mean him being up all night (makes them ultra alert).

So we hoped and prayed he wouldn't get worse overnight with the temperature drop. Gave him some panadol before bed and rang the ambulance crew on duty to prepare for a possible callout if he did worsen.

But surprisingly enough he slept through the night and seemed alot better this morning. So I think he's over the worst of it and managed to get better himself without any further medication.

Well that's my day's 'shortland street' episode.
Back to normality again ... touch wood!

Where would I be without you!!

TTOM finally turned up yesterday ... 6 days late!!! Yes! I thought I was pregnant, not what I needed this time in my life. I was secretly stressing out about it which just made it worse.

So I had two weeks of PMS and my hormones were sending my brain in a spin. Making everything seem so much worse than they actually were.

And then I had a call from my brother asking if he could have my (his) computer back. I had it on long term loan. He offered for me to buy it from him but this wasn't an option (it was a very high spec laptop, very expensive). Added to my raging hormones was the fact that I wasn't able to keep my feet on the ground in blogland.

It was amazing to me how much support I actually get and missed both from reading your blogs and updating on here. Without it I felt lost!

Consiquently my eating was just stupid. Which of course didn't help with my headspace. I felt like I was in a downward spin. Like a skydiver who had their parachute in a knot. I didn't know quite how to get myself out of it ...

Then .... yesterday ...

... my darling husband gave me a present ... my very own brand new laptop!!! Yay! I was so excited, my superman flying down to cut my parachute ropes and pull out my reserve!!

I'm very lucky to have the wonderful man I do!! Not that I'm a fickle female who can be bought with some gift. But it was the fact that he knew how much my blogging meant to me and how lost I seemed without it, that he went out of his way to make me happy.

I love you Bill!! Thankyou honey!!

Damn! Damn! Damn!

Bill bought me a lovely new charm to celebrate my 20kg loss mark ...

In his words it's 'graduating past 20kgs lost' ... graduation cap. I wore it with pride all week. Now I feel like a complete hypocrit because with fluid and my week before TTOM craving sugar, sugar, sugar ... lead to a 1.6kg gain this week ... BUGGER!!!

Not much else to say really... stupid teary hormones have started today too ... Sometimes it sucks being a woman!!!

I'm still here

Firstly ... THANKYOU all so much for you encouragement!! :)

Quick update to let everyone know I'm still alive. Too tired to do a proper update tonight, just got back from 7hrs continuesly on the road on ambo. My boss had to stand me down, to stop me collapsing!! Been all over the countryside!! I'm k..nackered!!

I'll pop back tomorrow when my brain is actually working...

Happier than a cat with 10 fish!!!

I was shocked to see a weight of 101.1kgs on the scales this morning ... I stood in stunned silence for a moment. My weight has been the same all week (if not slightly up) and thought I was going to have another 100g pathetic loss like last week ... but no!!! 

1.6kgs gone!!! And that means .......

... I'VE LOST 20KGS!!! Yabba Dabba dooooooo!!!!

No make that 21.5kgs I've lost!!! *big grins*

Sooo ... you know what else that means???  A new photo (finally) to put on my blog ...

Before ...

20kgs gone ...

Don't really like to skite but there's no one else I can skite to, so sorry guys ... I'm quite chuffed even if I do say so myself!!!

Hmmm ... now which charm to choose!!

What some positive words can achieve ...

Thanks for all your concern about Bill. It certainly was a shock at the time, but have since heard of others who have had similar things happen. Although we are still no closer to find out why, the doctor has told him he is fine to go back to work and carry on with life as normal.

No more incidents have happened since and he's feeling 100% better.  I'm at least content in that.

...

Had a very cute little 5yr old girl in the shop today.  Her mum and dad have an account with us.  She came up to the counter with a couple of iceblocks and nervously asked if she could put them on the account.  I looked out the window to catch mum's eye who was waiting in the car.  With her nod of approval I treated her like I do her much older sisters, asking her name, and then got chatting to her about what class she was in school and who her teacher was. We had a lovely chat together and she excitedly ran out of the shop skipping off to her mum's car, smile as wide as could be!

Next minute her mum came in and asked me if she asked to put the iceblocks on the account correctly. "Yep! She did really well"

"Ohhh she was so excited to be just like her older sisters and do it by herself... but she was worried tho. As she hoped out of the car to walk in here she was saying to herself 'I can do this! I can do this! I can do this!!' "

My face lit up ... how cute!! If only we could all positive self talk as innocently as this little 5yr old and acheive as much, despite the fear of walking through that door!!!