Monday, March 31, 2014

Good heavens!  What is it with Mondays?  How do they come around so dang fast?  Can you believe it's the last day in March?  Already!

This weekend just gone held a lot of preparations for my first retreat next weekend.  Just the last minute things left to do and the programs to type up then print and we're ready to rock n roll.  How exciting and daunting!  I have to try not to think about the daunting and go with the exciting.

I also had the opportunity to catch up with a wonderful bunch of women over the weekend.  These women are a small handful I met on another women's website a long time ago and over the last few years, we started having our own little get togethers.  We live all over the city, but every 6 mths or so we catch up over lunch for some girl time.  

This weekend we went out to a little place called Fernvale where they have the best hippy or new age type shop!  A little place called L'Abundance which has lots of treasures within it's walls.  They have a facebook page too if you're interested in taking a peek.

From there we went to a little cafe at Wivenhoe Dam.  What a beautiful place! I've never been there before but will certainly be going again.  

I can't say the weight thing is going well at the moment.  It's stable, just not shifting.  Sigh.  I know the issue is more movement and finding time, no, making time is what I need to do.  I also need to get back into the daily meditation because that's slipped too.  

I'm thinking I might go back to putting things in my diary and on my calendar as they seem to work for me.  Just the little reminders.

Anyways, I best get moving and head off to that place they call work.  Have an awesome day!

PS.. today's pic is of Wivenhoe Dam.


Wednesday, March 26, 2014

How time flies!  I've done it again.. left you alone for days on end... how rude?  What self respecting blogger would do that?  Hmm one that gets busy and distracted and sometimes thinks about the blogging but by the time she thinks of it, is yawning and ready for bed.  I know, sad excuse but true.

So what has happened since I last wrote?  Well a whole heap!!  Sadly, I can't say that 2 kgs I lost while on I was on leave has stayed off... 1kg has crept back on again.  That whole eating regularly thing and moving more makes such a difference!  What I'm eating hasn't really changed too much, but it's not always at regular hours and I'm not moving as much due to my work hours, the fact I have an office job and spend up to 3 hrs a day in the car getting to and from work.  

I do try and get out for a walk at some point during the work day and use the stairs wherever possible, but clearly it's not quite enough.  Plus the irregular meals, particularly later evening meals, probably doesn't help at all.

I've not been keeping up with my meditation of late either and need to get back in the habit of doing it daily, however, I do usually find myself chanting the Gayatri Mantra in the car while I'm driving.  I agree it's probably not the best place to do it, but it passes the time and I feel like I'm getting the benefit of it albeit in not the right way.

Going back to work was full on too.  Stay away from that place a few days to a week and all sorts of things change!  Being away for 10 days can bring even bigger changes.  Gotta love the field I work in.  I've learnt awesome change management skills along the way!  It keeps me on my toes and the job is always interesting.

Last weekend, I took my 5 yr old grandson to Underwater World on the Sunshine Coast as a belated birthday present.  I picked him up on Friday night for a sleep over so we could head up the next morning once we were awake and moving.  My can that little boy talk!  I'm not sure he even draws breath at times.  Very cute and very funny too.  

At one stage I asked him to repeat himself because I didn't quite catch what he said.  He speaks softly at times.  He looked at me and said something along the lines of..'oh Mardi, it's a good thing you're not quite really old yet otherwise you mightn't hear me at all!' I wasn't quite sure what to think of that one but it sure gave me a giggle.

He had a great time on our little adventure and finally flaked out and slept the whole way home.  I dropped him off and then picked up my youngest granddaughter for a couple of hours.  She is such a little darling and just melts me.  Needless to say, I was very ready for bed that night!

Sunday was spent catching up on chores and then Sunday evening was off to the Jazz Club to hear my friend's band play.  Aside from his own band, he's also a part of a large band and they played a set in the middle of his concert. A fantastic night as always and awesome musicians.  I could listen to my friend play all night.  

Tonight's pic is of my friend and I after his gig.  Not the best pic and unexpectedly taken by another friend who'd come along for the night, but kind of nice to have a pic though given we've known each other a few years now and have never gotten around to that.

Lots more happening but I'll save that for another night otherwise you may doze off while reading.  Or need reading glasses!  Thanks if you made it this far.

PS.. it's only about 8 days until my first retreat yikes!!  I'm excited and anxious about it all in one.  Hopefully it goes well.



Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Hi ho hi ho, it's back to work I go!  My how time flies.  I've loved this break I had, from the excitement and busyness of my ever so quick trip to New Zealand followed by the week I had in Yamba on retreat.  

Yamba was a time of deep reflection, relaxation, new friendships and new experiences.  It was also deeply restful which is a good thing because life has been flat out since I arrived home. 

On my way home from Yamba on Sunday, I stopped in at the Crystal Castles at Mullumbimby.  Always a beautiful place and a nice way to round out my time away.  A friend has been visiting Brisbane since I've been away and I had the opportunity to have dinner with her.  She then had a sleepover as well, so was great to have plenty of time to chatter away and catch up on the last year.

Yesterday was a busy day, trying to get some chores done and then had my brother arrive for a visit.  He lives in Cairns and has also been here while I was away (is there a common theme there? lol).  He and his partner and her son stayed over last night and most of my sons came over to visit, so it was very much a family type of night.

And then today.  Good to be back at work, busy doing the catch up thing and getting my head around the changes that are happening.  Lots can happen in the space I work in during 10 days leave!

Aside from all that, I've finally got the costings together for my retreat in NZ!! Very exciting.  I'm in the process of getting some advertising organised and have now put it on facebook as well.  I'll see if I can figure out how to put a link here!  

Oh and one other little exciting bit of news, I lost another kg while I was in Yamba.  I'm totally baffled as to how I managed to lose 2 kgs while on holidays but I'm sure not complaining.  I'm delighted!  I think it was probably more about eating regularly and moving more, so I'm going to try and keep that up.

Well that's it from me today and I'll see how I go with that link to the retreat info.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rikkis-Soulfull-Retreats/461121457303867?ref=hl

Today's photo was of the full moon near Wellington Point the night I came home.



Friday, March 14, 2014

Ahh two posts in two days... what's the world coming to!!  

Today has been a day of beautiful moments, little surprises, a few tears and a day that has felt somewhat emotional.  I don't mean in a bad way, just a my heart is full kind of way.  

I started my day with a walk on the beach where I watched the sunrise (taking a whole bunch of photo's as well) and enjoyed getting my feet wet by the water as the tide came in.

I had a tarot reading, just for something different and was blown away by how much it resonated with me.  I didn't give the tarot reader any information at all before starting and very limited later on through the reading, so found it rather surprising.  

Today's workshop was around joy not only for ourselves and our own achievements, but also those around us, those close and not so close.  

During the morning, I also received a call from one of my best friend's who I went to high school with.  She lives in our home town and we only get to catch up periodically.  She's getting married in a few weeks and has asked me to go down.  I'm so thrilled for her and she richly deserves to have this love in her life.

This afternoon consisted of a Nia dance workshop.  Can you imagine?  Me, the person who doesn't dance, who doesn't know how to dance, doesn't feel comfortable at all on a dance floor (background story of screwed up religious cult type beliefs of childhood), yet loves to watch others dance and have always secretly kind of wanted to know how to dance, just not game enough to do it.

I'm totally uncoordinated, have two left feet, feel very awkward and uncomfortable, but I did it!  And mostly enjoyed it once I got over that sick feeling that accompanies anything you are resistant to doing.  And what a workout it gives you too!  

This evening, I had a long chat with a new-ish friend (we met mid last year) and facilitator of this retreat.  She has been really supportive of my venture into running my own retreats and tonight gave me a little gift from NZ, as encouragement and support and a token to wish me well in my new direction. I'm feeling very blessed tonight.  

Well this is it for today's post and I will finish by posting a pic of this morning's sunrise over the beach at Yamba.


Thursday, March 13, 2014

Hello out there!

I'm currently in the beautiful little sleepy seaside town of Yamba, staying across the road from the beach attending a Compassionate Heart retreat.

There are 9 of us here, all similar in some ways, different in others, all from different backgrounds and life experiences, yet drawn to this retreat in the interests of taking time out for ourselves, to direct some loving kindness and compassion towards ourselves.

The accommodation is simple but clean and comfortable.  The food is also simple but wholesome.  The view is beautiful, as is the beach.  We have free time before our morning and afternoon workshops that allows for naps, wandering around the local area, going to the beach, having a massage, a singing bowl healing, a tarot reading or anything else we would like to do within that time.

The evenings we've been going out to dinner, somewhere nearby, sampling the local food, enjoying the company, conversation and laughter.  While I still have some things drifting through my mind, mostly in relation to the retreats I will be running (the first in less than 3 weeks time), I'm feeling like I'm more relaxed, that I'm finally unwinding.

I had a complete technology break while in NZ and this is the first time I've been online since coming to Yamba.  I'm enjoying this technology free time.  I have had mobile phone service here, but I keep it on silent and just check on occasions.  It's good.  It gives me breathing space, time for me.  To recharge the batteries.

And speaking of batteries, my laptop battery is about to go flat ~ well the update there is it died, just as I'd finished typing the word flat.  Good reason to put it away and have another wee technology break.

So now it's evening, I've enjoyed an afternoon of meditation and a delicious Mexican dinner.  I even tried a watermelon marguerita!  Not bad from this non drinker.. acquired taste, took me a little while to get used to it, but I managed to drink it albeit over a couple of hours.

Anyways, that's it for tonight.  My mind isn't up to thinking deep and meaningful, so will finish here and see if I can download the pics I've taken here.  They're pretty much all beach pics, but there's a few to choose from. Slightly different angles, one end of the beach, then the other, waves splashing... I know I know, I easily end up with dozens of pics of the same thing!


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Hello dear reader

I'm back again!  Already!!  I know, I know, hard to believe I can get my act together to put two posts up in less than 24 hours isn't it?  I'm heading off to a retreat in Yamba today and I'm unsure whether I will have internet access, so figured I'd do a post now and pre-warn that it may be another 6 days before a new post appears.  

One of the things I forgot to mention yesterday was that I decided to weigh myself. I admit I wondered if it was a good idea given that I'd just had 3 days in NZ and hadn't eaten a home cooked meal for around 4 days or so.  Imagine my excitement and delight to find I'd actually lost weight!!!  Yep, you read it right.. lost weight.  A whole 1.5 kgs.  

Was I surprised?  Heck yes!!  That was totally unexpected.  I don't have to eat to gain weight, I only have to smell delicious food, not taste it.  Not that I ate badly while I was away but different meals, eating out, I even had some gelato one night and ice cream another afternoon.  

But when talking with my friend and thinking about it, I realised that it was probably aided by the fact I don't eat before I fly (anxious flyer but that's a whole other story) and although often ravenously hungry once I land and am on terra firma again, I don't tend to eat a huge meal.  And that was certainly the case in NZ given it was almost midnight their time when we arrived.

The food I did have was delicious, but probably fairly balanced and I moved more than I usually do (my day job sees me sitting in an office, creating reasons to go for a brief walk at regular intervals).  Walking to chase photo's mostly but also just wandering to enjoy the views.

So do you want to know about the food?  Oh my gosh!  Can we say scrumdiddlyumptious?  Everything we had was delicious.  Although some of that may also be because we didn't have to prepare it :).

First up was the chicken, brie and cranberry tartlet I found at the Christchurch airport.  Whoever said that airport food was dodgy?  This was great and just a perfect size for a late night small meal.

The next morning on our travels, we stopped at a little place in Geraldine for breakfast (the name escapes me but it was a lovely little cafe and gift shop) and had a decent cooked breakfast of bacon, poached eggs, tomato, hash brown and a small sausage.  I went without the toast and was still unable to eat it all. We also got a piece of ginger cake for the road, but didn't end up sharing that until late afternoon.  In fact, our breakfast kept us going all day until we had the cake!  

Dinner that night was at a Japanese restaurant in Wanaka called Sasanoki and was very nice.  Just a good mix of things, sushi, gyoza's and curry, not too heavy a meal when shared between two (we had single serves and shared it all) and I'm hoping the manager's wife will do a cooking class for me at my retreat.  We followed dinner with a visit to the Black Peak Gelato shop. Gotta love gelato!

Saturday morning I had a meeting with a caterer at a little coffee shop called the Urban Grind in Wanaka.  If you ever have the opportunity to go there, do so.  They make the best hot chocolate I've ever had!  Not too sweet but oh so yummy.  For breakfast I had smashed avocado which was a little like fresh guacamole and was decoratively served around 2/3's of the plate, with roasted tomato (thickly sliced roma tomatoes), on ciabatta bread that was lightly toasted and ever so soft in the middle, with a rasher of bacon on the side. The presentation was great and it was one of the nicest breakfasts I've had in a while.

After my next two meetings, we headed down to Queenstown for a scenic drive and came back through a quaint little place called Arrowtown.  It's an old heritage town and was once a Chinese gold mining town.  They still do some gold panning in the area and I'm told there are still some finds to be had.  We managed to find some other treasures there, enjoyed wandering the little township and had an awesome lunch at a place called the Stable.  Again, I'd highly recommend it. My friend had a potato and leek soup, which also had a little bacon in it, served with ciabatta bread that was delicious.  I had a pear and blue cheese salad that was sublime!  The pear was marinated in red wine and spices (such as 5 spice), there was mixed lettuce, walnuts and the blue cheese.  One of the best salads ever!  

Back to Wanaka late afternoon and we decided to mix up our dinner experience.  It started with a visit to Patagonia Chocolates, a sample of their chocolate and a single scoop of hokey pokey ice cream in a cup which again we shared. I'm not much of an ice cream eater, but NZ ice cream is awesome.

From there we went to The Spice Room which is an Indian restaurant that was recommended to us.  We shared their mixed platter which consisted of 2 small lamb shiskebabs, some tandoori chicken, a vegetable samosa and 2 onion pakora's served with rice.  Very very nice!  We found ourselves a little cafe bar afterwards where I enjoyed a local red wine and K enjoyed a little citrus cake with passionfruit icing, again very nice.  

We decided what the heck, we may as well also check out Francesca's Italian Kitchen which had been on my to do list, but we knew we wouldn't be able to fit in a meal so went with the cheese platter instead. I LOVE cheese and although the cheese platter wasn't a big one, the serving size was just right and was a perfect end to our evening.

And that was pretty much the excitement of our culinary explorations in NZ. We headed back to Christchurch on Sunday to fly back home, but didn't have anything out of the ordinary to eat on the way back.  Today's pic of course will have to be a food pic.  Alas it was the only food photo I thought to take, thankfully it's a good one!  It's of our lunch in Arrowtown on Saturday.

Enjoy!



Monday, March 10, 2014

Hello dear reader!!  

It's me again, presuming there is at least one of you out there reading this little blog of mine.  My apologies for the desertion over the last week or so. It's not that there's been anything happening, there's been lots!!  I have valid reasons for not posting the last few days, but absolutely no valid reason for the days prior to that.  So it's grovel and catch up time and today's post is going to cover the excitement and awe of the last few days.

On Thursday night (Mar 6th) I flew to Christchurch New Zealand with my dear friend K. I'm not a big fan of flying so it was great to have company on the trip.  We arrived around 11.30 pm and it was a pleasant surprise to find a cafe open at the airport, given the time of night that it was.  I have to say that Christchurch International has delicious chicken, brie and cranberry tarts! 

It was almost midnight by the time we got to our accommodation for the night and of course we were still wide awake partly due to the time difference.  NZ is 3 hours ahead of QLD time in Australia.   I set the alarm for 7 am as we were picking our hire car up at 8 am.  We did manage small 2 hr bursts of sleep between the trying to wind down to sleep and the chattering we did.

We were up and collected our hire car on time and were on our way towards Wanaka by 8.30 am.  Of course we needed to stop along the way and get breakfast which we did in a little place called Geraldine.  We had a breakfast fit for royalty and took a slice of ginger cake with us for later.  

I was sooo excited to see snow on the mountains as we neared Lake Tekapo. I thought it may be too warm for any snowfalls yes, given it's only a few days into autumn.  Lake Tekapo with the Good Shepherd Church and Lake Pukaki were both moving in their stunning beauty.  The water in the lakes is a turquoise blue and is crystal clear.  

Arriving in Lake Wanaka a little after 3 pm was quite emotional for me.  I so love this place. There is just something about it that draws me on a deep level and brings me a sense of peace and calm.  Almost a feeling of belonging.  

So what did we do in this place that has such a hold on my heart?  Well, we had a whole 39 hours in the area and in that time I (or I should say we as my friend K was along with me as my PA hehe... and a good one she was too!) attended 4 meetings, checked out 5 eateries ~ all of them superb and they gave us the opportunity to sample delicious local foods, was given more leads and/or suggestions for retreat activities, managed to squeeze in some sight seeing, obtain some little treasures, make plenty of precious memories and take 274 photos!!!  I've managed to pick out just 63 to share on facebook, however, I will share some here too over the coming days.

The trip in itself was very successful and was beyond what I was hoping for.  I now have the task of trying to narrow down and complete my program for the retreat, finish the costings and do the advertising.  The manager at the lodge where I'll be hosting the retreat is also happy to do some advertising there too.

All this means I'm delighted to announce that Rikki's Soul~full Retreats will be hosting my first NZ retreat from November 3rd - 7th, 2014 in beautiful Lake Wanaka.

I will share more of our shenanigans and photo's over the coming days, but for today's pic I will share one of my favourites of the trip which was taken yesterday morning at Lake Pukaki near Tekapo.