A Great Speech

My favourite part of a 21st by far are the speeches! Those embarrassing stories that you hope would never come up in life again, they do. And all at one time! It doesn't take much to make me laugh, so most of the time these speeches have me in stitches!

We recently had my cousins Military themed 21st. Growing up he was very go with the flow and embraced each situation he was put it. He had plenty of big and far-fetched ideas but often didn't have the plan to achieve this result, which resulted in some hilarious failed attempts. He would always take them on the chin and turn what could have been a disaster into something that had the rest of us rolling on the floor laughing.

And as per any 21st, his Mum, Dad, Sister and girlfriend had all these stories in the bank and ready to be pulled out again on his night. Along with a brilliant slide show, the speeches didn't fail to deliver and had me and all other attendees laughing very hard.

What Did You Do This Year?

About a week ago I was treating a patient at work one day and he said something that really made me think. This session was just before Christmas and we were talking about how the year had gone by so quickly (like every other year), and he said to me "Well what have you actually done this year?"

It was a really good point, a whole year has gone past and what have I actually begun, finished, attempted, achieved this year? What was I proud of doing, what changes have I made - for the better and the worse?

So for the past week now I have been putting it down on paper. I tried to break it up into work/career, exercise, lifestyle etc. but a lot of it all seemed to merge together. And I don't think I'm anywhere near finishing it yet (hopefully I will be by the time the year ends) but when you put it all in one place like this, you can see that although a whole year has gone by, a lot has happened and I have more accomplishments than I thought I did.

So, what did you do this year?

Converting Another One

Not many people in the group I train with swim. But I'm slowly getting them into the pool one by one. Two of them have now decided that we a forming a Rotto Team (19.7km swim across the Rottnest Channel) for 2015 ...we missed the cut off for 2014, so we have 14 months to prepare.

My biggest challenge was getting someone back in who I fought to get in the water around 10 months ago. The first obstacle was not owning bathers. So I made her a spread sheet of online websites selling training bathers so she could find a pair...and she did - TICK! Then I gave her a pair of goggles - TICK! Then 10 months ago, with two other chicks, I got them all in the pool and started working on technique with them. This probably lasted a month.

10 months on we formed a deal...if she got in the pool, I would go in the gym. And today she did it! She couldn't find her bathers, and forgot her goggles (lucky I have a million back ups) but she got in a covered around 500m. WINNER!! Probably wasn't her most ideal way to spend a Sunday morning and she might not yet be a convert...but I'll get there!

The Morning After

No, I'm not hung over...one of the perks of not drink = never been hung over! I'm talking about the morning after a big long day/couple of days prior where people come out of the wood work a little worse for wear, regroup, and start to work off the festive few days prior.

I put on a free boxing class, as the gym had cancelled all group classes for the two weeks over Christmas and New Year which I advertised to my family, friends, training groups and boxing class regulars; and had a surprisingly big turn out of 15. It was good to see people of all ages and levels of fitness come down and punch the crap out of their partner.

So my 'morning after's' are not about pulling myself out of last nights clothes and swearing to never drink again, but instead reconnecting with my fit fam and working hard!

Christmas Take Two

How my family celebrates Christmas is it is split over two days. Yesterday we were with Dad's brother and sister and their partners and children, today it was Mum's sides turn. Her parents live down in Mandurah which is around a 40 minute drive from where we live. Mum has a sister who, with her husband have two kids also. So our second day of Christmas is spent with the 10 of us down at my grandparents Mandurah house, again another tradition I couldn't imagine straying from.

My 8 year old cousin definitely keeps us all young. Just as we were starting to outgrow the whole Santa thing growing up, this little poppet was born and launched us straight back into the Christmas magic. Her belief in Santa keeps the magic alive and keeps us all excited about Christmas which makes the day that little bit happier.

I love the way our families split Christmas over two days. This means we are not rushing around from house to house, family to family and we don't finish the day absolutely exhausted. The festive season lasts that little bit longer.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day for us is full of family time. My morning saw my waking at 4.45, up and out the door for a 10km run to get myself going to for the day. Once my family was all up and going after my return we sat around our tree for a bit exchanging gifts and just chatting. 

Today, the day was being spent with Dads side of the family at his brothers house. There are twelve if us on this side of the family and the day is spent sitting around p, making fun of each other and ourselves for literally hours. Years in the past we have had less to talk about because we were all located and living in Perth. Now however one of us kids and two parents are now living in Sydney and had made the trip home for Christmas. We thought we'd have the whole family back together for this day, however another cousin, had booked a trip away with her boyfriend who is a professional footballer, so had no other options due to training commitments. as much as she didn't want to miss the family Christmas, she had to make the most of the time she had with her boyfriend and called us from the Maldives midway through the afternoon. We had our annual family photo and left a place for her in the photo where we plan to photo shop her in. 

For us it is a big day spent with the family reunited again, many debates, stories and laughs and could not imagine it any other way. I hope everyone out they had a fantastic Christmas Day spent with family and friends. 

Christmas Eve

Most people have shut down for the remainder of the year and are in full holiday mode. For our family, the tradition is the Christmas Eve Morning Swim.

A group of 40 or so keen swimmers gather at Cott Beach at 6.30 for the annual handicapped swim. Everyone was relaxed and carefree and in holiday spirit, coming together for a bit of healthy competition and making the most of our beaches. There is a huge range of ages and abilities that congregate each year, which is why the race is handicapped. You submit your 1km time and the race organiser determines your start time from there.

This year, as per every other year, I am off dead last with a lot of catching up to do. Unlike every other year though there were no stingers, so no one came out of the water in pain and covered in welts. The swim sets up the day for finalising gifts, running around to pick things up and organising everything for tomorrow.

Christmas is upon us!

Kind Patients

With Christmas closing in on us, the practice is starting to wind down and I'm having get patients booked in next year rather then in the week time I would get a lot of them back in, which is not ideal for some of their injury management but is the best that can be done. Our practice is closing for a few days over Christmas which I am so excited about, considering I haven't taken holidays all year, these 6 days off are very much needed!

Seeing some of my patients for the last time before Christmas and the new year, many of them have gone out of their way to thank me for helping them and their families through out the year. The smallest of thanks is all that is needed to make me smile and makes me feel like I have made a difference to these people, their functional abilities and helping them return to the things they love doing.

A Great Cause

The Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal is a community fundraiser that happens around Christmas time nation wide where the Kmart store asks for donations of gifts to give to families that are less fortunate at Christmas time, so everyone has something to open on Christmas morning.

The owners of Imperium Personal Training, myself and another training partner went along to a 24hr Crossfit Challenge where a WOD was started every hour, yep for 24 hours! To gain entrance into the event, all that was required was the donation of a gift to the Wishing Tree Appeal.

Having already trained earlier that morning, we just went along for 3 of the WOD's which were challenging but fun. What could be a better way to spend your Saturday arvo...throwing yourself into a work out and helping kids at the same time!

Outdoor Cinema's

Summer time means the beginning of the outdoor cinema season. In recent years Perth has grown from one location, to five. Definitely a trend that is catching on. The very warm weather that we have had recently means that come movie start time at 7.45 the bite of the sun has gone down but its still warm enough to sit around without the need of a jumper. Perfect.

My friends and I went to see About Time. Arriving at the venue, I wasn't sure what the movie was actually about - I'm not usually a movie goer, so I just get told when and where and I show up. But I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed the movie. Not normally a Rachael McAdams fan, but she did a good job and I would recommend this movie.

So much better when being caught in a cinema, I almost managed to sit still through the whole movie...almost!

Practice Makes Perfect

This morning was the last of the boxing classes I instruct for the year. So I threw everything at them. We did a '12 Days of Christmas' set where they added on the progressive number of combo's for each 'Day'. It was huge! And on the 12th day of Christmas, I gave them 12 times up and down the tree - kick knee upper cross, jab upper knee kick.

I finished with this one specifically for these two guys. They hate it!! All year they have been working on the order and coordination and keeping their pace up, but every time they have messed it up, gotten lost and just started throwing punches at each other, very funny to watch.

So today, after having to work through 11 combinations before even getting to Up/Down The Tree and their brains already popping out their ears from having to concentrate so hard, they NAILED the tree! Got through all 12 rounds without one mistake and kept their pace the whole time. That just proves, you practice something enough and it will be engrained into you, and men can be coordinated!

Back Yourself

There has been a lot of this going on at the moment. Christmas is around the corner, people at work are taking time off which means my patient load is increasing, changes happening left right and centre. I'm finding myself worrying about things that either one, I don't have any control over, so worrying about them is not going to change the outcome or two is just resulting in me being even more stressed and often not being able to complete what ever task it is to the level I would be able to otherwise.

This image popped up just at the right time. Why start yourself off on the wrong foot? Put your best foot forward, back yourself and believe you have it in you. If you think you can, your more then half way there.

Plank Challenge

This is my mum on Day 1 of starting the plank challenge. She is not like me, she tends to give up pretty easily and is not the physical challenge type of person, she likes to get through on the easy road. I was talking about this 30 Day Plank Challenge at boxing on this same day, and she pipes up 'I'll do it!'. I said mum, you know this results in you holding a plank for 5 minutes by the end of the 30 days?? She said well maybe I wont get that far. There we go again, setting herself up to fail.

She had already talked herself out if it before even starting. However she is not at day 7, that's right a whole week into the challenge and she has stuck to it. One the third day she had forgotten to plank and I was heading out, not going to be seeing her until the following day, so I left her a note "Drop and give me 40 (seconds)". When I saw her the next day she had gotten my brother to time her and she did it. So 7 days down 33 to go...stay tuned!

A Clean Car

Washing my car, as I'm sure for most people, is just one of the jobs I put off for as long as possible! My rule is when I get a public holiday, I will wash my car. So the start of the year, my car feels so loved because we get a public holiday almost every month. But between July and December we have one. So true to my typical fashion, I washed my car on that one day in September (despite also having gastro on that day so was totally not able to enjoy my day off). It's now December and my car is feeling particularly unloved!

But with Christmas just around the corner, I was holding off. I have a full 5 days off over Christmas and am not going to know what to do with myself, so I figured saving the washing of my car would occupy almost 2 hours of those days.

My mum however decided that she was going to wash her car one morning - she has a very nice car and likes to keep it looking that way. I was working from home that morning and was walking outside with a friend when she was just finishing up with her car. Going out on a whim, I jokingly said 'Do you want to wash mine too?'

'Alright' she says. I almost fell over! Scored!! So now I have a nice clean car, that is feeling the love again and I didn't even have to do it. Not only I'm I thankful to have a clean car which is much nicer to drive in, I'm thankful to my mum for doing this horrible task for me.

A New Direction

3 months ago, I thought I had my career path all mapped out. I had a 5 year plan and the steps in place to get me there. Throughout the last few years of high school and all through uni I knew I wanted to finish my degree and become registered in BC Canada to move over there and work, indefinitely. Which is why it was only a 5 year plan...I would reassess when I got there. In May of this year, I applied for the Alliance of Canadian Physiotherapy to start the registration process.

I knew it was going to be a long, time consuming and expensive application and I had heard stories about people getting fed up with the board and changing their pathway, but I was sure it was what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. So I went back to uni, paid my fees to get my transcripts and all the stuff I needed from them, got together all the supporting documents and had them all officiated by a Notary Public member (more money) and sent them off. There was a lot of back and forth about signing in the correct places, etc. and finally I was accepted as eligible to sit the exams BUT before I could do any of this, I needed to complete a 10 week online health systems course.

I was starting to second guess my decision. Did I really have it in me to fork out another $4000 plus all the travel and accommodation expenses to finish this, potentially 3 years later? I was also starting to question my profession as well. I like working as a Physio and helping people return to activity and achieve their goals, but I wanted more. Something that has played at the back of my mind for a while now...becoming a Personal Trainer. This would involve me more in the side of health and fitness that I love.

So after a good two weeks of tossing up between continuing my application which would not teach me anything new and take a lot of time stress and money, and becoming a certified personal trainer, the PT course won and I applied. The best thing being, this course is internationally recognised so can still go with it to Canada is that's what I decide in the long run.

Outside

To be honest, today I was really struggling to find something to be thankful for. Don't get me wrong, I know I have thousands of things in my life each and every day that I should be thankful for, but today I couldn't appreciate them. Normally when writing my post each day I don't really have to think too hard about it. I see something, do something or remember something that makes me smile and that's it! Another day down. But today was truly one of those days. I normally write my post in the morning, but it had gotten to 2pm today and I was still stumped.

I was feeling trapped and claustrophobic. I was trying to distract myself with work, study, even Pinterest didn't cut it today. So when I couldn't handle it anymore the only thing I could think of to do was go and sit outside. I have always been an outside person, but had you told me that 6 months ago I would have disagreed with you. I don't know if it's the fresh air or the open space of the fact that my family might leave me alone when I'm out there, but sometimes things are just better when your outside. 

So I sat. I couldn't focus on anything. I had a book there, I'd brought some work out with me to do but couldn't bring myself to do that either. I just sat there. For an hour. When it came to me, thank god I can get outside.

People Taking Out Time

Last week I was in the Christmas Pageant with my dance kids. On some of the floats were Channel 7 stars and other known celebrities. On the Aladdin's Genie float my dance school was allocated, we had a reported from Today Tonight's, Cassie Silver. Given most of the 8 year olds I had with me don't watch Today Tonight so had no idea who she was and proceeded to ask her 'Are you famous?'.

I am thankful for how good she was with my kids. With the fame question she replied 'Oh not really, I'm just a reporter on Today Tonight'. My kids respond with 'My mum watches that show!'. And as your typical 8 year old tends to do, they just kept fire questions at her. She was so good with them, answered all their questions, gave them all a hug and had photos taken with each of them.

On the float two behind us was Samantha Jade. So at the end of the pageant, when the floats were pulled into a holding pen and lined up next to each other, the girls were held on the float until all the surround floats had arrive, for safety reasons. So they saw when Samantha's float was drawn in as well. Despite being cold and out for a long day, she came over to say hi, have a quick chat with the girls and again got me to take photos with each of them. I am thankful for these people who take the time out of their busy lives to absolutely make these little girls nights!

A New Challenge

Your body gets use to the exercise you do on a regular basis. The best way to keep it guessing and continue to smash your fitness goal? Try something you haven't done before.

For me today that was inverted kettle bell push ups. It was probably only 6 months ago that I found regular push ups difficult and I was really lacking upper body strength. By constantly challenging myself, working hard and being consistent this week I have been doing these kettle bell push ups on both my knees and a few on my toes (still working on them) I have been trying to do triceps push ups and clapping push ups.

There is always something more you can do, don't just stay within your comfort zone. Keep challenging yourself and you will be surprised at what you can actually do when you work for it! Next up: Pike Push Ups...give me a few years!!

Endurance

I have talked about my fighting fish Franklin before. He is now almost two years old which I'm sure in fish years is something close to one hundred but he just keeps swimming! And just when you thought he would be content with life underwater, he tries his fin at living on land.

I was cleaning his bowl, and when I do so I keep him in the measuring cup you can see above while the water is neutralized with the stuff I put in it. He has to stay in the cup for around an hour and during this time, I was treating a friend from home.

Once I had finished with her I came out to put Franklin back in his bowl, and looked from cup to bowl and back to cup again....he was no where to be seen. What on earth has happened to my fish?!?! I looked up slightly to see him lying dead still on the bench. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I gently touched him and he started flipping around so grab a spatula from the kitchen draw and tries to get him back into his bowl as quickly as I could. The amount he was jumping around was almost like he didn't want to go back into the bowl...hard core fish!

I have no idea how long he was lying there for, but the fact he was so still yet still alive, I recon about half an hour. So what can I say, in my family we like to challenge ourselves and do things at an extreme level, and my fish is no exception...living in water? Too easy! Let's try dry land!!

When Flowers Bloom

This was a bunch of flowers I was given by one of my tiny dancers. When I received them they were all closed up. Two days later, it was like they had exploded!! Such a beautiful colour which really brightened up my room and make you feel happy each time you walk past them!

Christmas Trees

Normally every year our house has our Christmas Tree up on the 1st of December without fail. It is marked on the calendar, there is time blocked out in the diary and up it goes. I'm very sad to say that this was not the case this year. December 1st just so happened to fall on the weekend of the dance concert so I wasn't home for more then 20 minutes at any one point throughout the day, my parents were interstate and my brother....well who knows where he was but it's not like I can rely on him to get the tree up anyway, he'd just do it wrong!

After the craziness that carried over from the weekend, and getting my parents home, the tree didn't go up until Tuesday the 3rd, devastated! But now that's it up, actually we have two this year, I get my daily dose of sparkly lights and colour. I was excited to put all my new decorations that I had been given from my dancers this year as well.

I love seeing really well put together trees. You can always pick those ones that have been planned and where a lot of effort has been put into the construction and decoration of the tree. The beautiful lights and themes of trees are exciting and brighten the day (and night) and just remind me of the happiness that comes with the Christmas season.

Beating The Crowds, And Flies

My friend and I started our Sunday morning early. Growing up as swimmers, your body becomes so use to waking up before 5am that even on the weekends, 5am rolls around an PING your awake! So we were at the beach together and pounding the pavement by 7am.

The best parts about being an early riser? The sun is still coming up, there are no flies, and there are not many people up at this time with you. So everything is peaceful and still and you can find a car park no problems!

By the time we had finished our 8km walk the rest of the world had started waking up and finding a car park was getting a little tricky for them. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day and people were flocking to the beach. And 8.30am must be the wake up time for flies as well. We were happy to be able to escape them as quickly as possible...should have brought my fly disco ball!

The Christmas Pageant

For me the Christmas Pageant really starts off the festive season. Before that, it's just December. But from the night of the Christmas Pageant I feel like Christmas is just around the corner and this event starts the season off with a bang.

Growing up as a dancer I have been in the Pageant more times then I can count and just when I thought I would be done with it, I'm called back for one last year with some of my kids on the float out school was allocated this year.

We practised our smiles and waves and calling out Merry Christmas for the few hours we were held in the Convention Centre before making our way to the float and the girls were so excited. We had a Channel 7 news reader as our personality on the float with them and she was lovely with the girls and kept their excitement alive.

Walking through the streets of Perth I think the crowd continues to grow every year and it was fantastic to see so many people out on the streets waving and smiling. So it's here now, Christmas is upon us!

Pinterest

Pinterest for those who haven't used it before is like an online pin up board. You scroll through pictures and web links and put the ones you like in your organised 'Boards'. You can find anything on Pinterest! DIY craft ideas, workouts, fashion, quotes and sayings recipes, pictures of holiday destinations, gift ideas ...everything is there.

I have recently started a page for my work as well - Sportswise Physiotherapy where patients can go and find diagrams and video links for their home exercise programs, how to do their own taping for their injuries, injury prevention and tips for maintaining their physical ability.

But that reason I'm thankful for Pinterest today is because it made me stay still. After the massive past few days I've had with dancing, work, and everything else that is going on, I am exhausted. But my nature is that I cannot stay still for more then 15-20 minutes at a time. I can't do nothing. I have to do two things at once all the time and sitting for any more that 15 minutes makes me frigidity and restless no matter how tired I am.

So today I sat down with my laptop and managed to stay in the same spot for around 40 mins, distracted by scrolling through this website. So while my brain on really had to process the images that were popping up on my screen, my body got to rest for 40 minutes instead of constantly getting up and going to hand washing, cleaning, packing, unpacking...whatever would cross my mind of things I needed to do.

Palm Trees

We have a few of these trees around the place, mostly down on the foreshore or along the river, pretty much in the places I run. And I think I like to run in these places because I love these trees. When I see them I think of two places - Hawaii and LA. I'm sure these trees are found in other places then just these two, but they are what spring to my mind.

I have been to Hawaii, and while I'm not normally a summer person, I loved the laid back tropical feel of the place, and there were palm trees everywhere. LA, I have never been to but is somewhere I would like to get to sometime soon. I have seen so many photos of the palm trees on Santa Monica Beach which looks amazing, so when I see these trees lining our river, that's where my mind jumps to.

Running along, often struggling when I come across my favourite trees, the struggling is gone just for a few moments and its like I'm on a mini vacation in my mind. Then I'm past the trees and the struggling returns, but it was worth it.

The Big Day (third and final part)

Just a short one to finish off. Getting home from the concert very late at night and still coming down from all the stress, excitement, laughs and tears that there was no way I was anywhere near going to sleep yet. So instead I unpacked all my bags, seeing how many odd shoes and pieces of costume I had come home with and taken all the flowers, gifts and cards out of my car.

Unpacking was done by around 12.30 and still no where near bed ready, I sat down and started reading the cards written by the girls and their parents. The messages I read and the effort all of them had gone to to thank my for working with their children all year was amazing and brought me to tears (again). I felt so appreciated and thankful to have worked with such precious kids and their families, a lot of them for many years now and realised just how much I am going to miss seeing these gorgeous faces every Saturday morning. I want to wish these kids all the best for the big bright futures they all have ahead of them!

The Big Day (part two)

Excitement, nerves and tension every where. From the second I arrive at the venue I am run off my feet. I have kids arriving without their first costumes on, without their hair braided and earrings still in. The photo on the top right was taken by my aunty (I teach my cousin - top left) while I was lining up my Kindies for their tap when I realised that one of them had black tap shoes - their costume was beige tap shoes. So I was running around trying to find a pair of beiges ones we could quickly borrow when my aunty calls out "Chloe are you having fun yet' ....ARE YOU KIDDING! Hence the laugh.

Back stage, I had a one of my juniors come up to me and say 'Miss Chloe, I can't remember the dance at all!' Bless! I told her that as soon as she heard the music, it would come back to her. And it did. All my dancers did a fantastic job. For the first year since I began teaching my Juniors didn't even need to look at me in the wings to see what came next. They smiled big, stretched their feet and smashed their dances.

My Kindies were gorgeous! They made it through both dances without any massive stuff ups and got huge cheers from the audience. I am so proud of all my kids. They all did an amazing job and had so much fun with no tears (except from me) this year!!

The Big Day

People often say that about their wedding day, but that is no where near my radar yet. No my big day is Concert Day. Despite the hours of rehearsals and run throughs I've had with my kids leading up to today, it didn't stop my nerves waking me at 3am. Deciding not to fight it I was up and starting to pack bags of hair spray, safety pins, sewing kits, spare stockings and costume pieces and glitter.

We had out final class in the morning where we brought all the groups in at the same time and ran through each dance once, one final practice and it let them watch each others performances.

I'd quickly run into the office to sort out some music issues and when I came back into the big studio where we were running the dances I was surprised  by all my kids standing in the middle of the room holding a giant card which all of my 60 kids had written in and a big bunch of flowers to say thankyou and goodbye. It was so sweet and started my tears for the day.

The girls left the studio that morning, heading off to have their hair done and to start getting their tights and makeup on, excited and ready for the night they had worked all year for.

Finding Prickles

Another very far fetched one! These prickles are what I pulled out of my hair after a training session at the foreshore. This session takes place on a fairly decent grass hill which always seems to involve us running, lunging, burpee'ing and crawling forwards and backwards up and down that hill. On that hill, there are plenty of prickles and we cover the whole thing, so the prickles are not hard to find.

How I got prickles in my hair though, I have no idea! It's not like I was somersaulting or log rolling down the hill. But I pulled 5 of the things out when I got home. That is what I can skill. So although I may not be thankful for the actual prickles, I am thankful for something that makes me need to be pulling prickles out of places they shouldn't be!

An Urban Desent

I was driving home through the city from a morning run in Kings Park on Sunday morning as was stopped at the traffic lights to look up for just a second and see people dangling off the top of this very tall building! After my double take, I realised they weren't just dangling, they were abseiling down the side of the building.

Looking closer at the bottom of the building I saw banners up advertising the Abseil for PMH. This was an event where people got sponsorship to lower themselves off the side of this huge building, all raising money for our states children's hospital. At first I thought, wow these people are nuts, but once I found out the reason why they are doing this, this thought changed to pride in these compete strangers for doing something most of them would be terrified of.

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try

 

This is something I saw written not too long ago when I was trying to change some big things in my life and I was terrified. Now I try not to let the fear get in the way and try to look at the bigger picture. These people did not let their fear get in the way of helping thousands of sick children and as a result raised over $378, 000 for the sick kids of WA. 

Black Swans

I was with some friends down at the river late afternoon one day and these big black birds were all around the place. The black swan is out state bird and can be found on  the crest of Western Australia, so we have them everywhere.

Before today I have never really had an encounter with these birds. But today these two started swimming towards and then waddled out of the water, bee lining directly for us while we were sitting by the river. They started to get pretty close, so I stood up to try and send them back in the opposite direction. Then the one on the left hissed at me, I ran!!

These two birds had guts, since when were swans so stubborn? There were no bushes or anything that could signify their nest around us, so we think it was unlikely they were being protective of their eggs. So as much as having a swam hiss at me was not ideal, good on them for not being intimidated!!

One of my friends did manage to stand her ground though and eventually the swans did turn around and swim away, it wasn't until then that I could come sit down again!

My Car

I honestly don't know what I would do without my car, and in particular my huge boot! The picture above is my car packed for my Sunday. I have my dance bag for my tech rehearsal and all the cards and bracelets I had made for my kids, from there I was heading to the pool to race in a swim meet so I had my swim bag and my gear bag in the blue crate. After that I was off to bootcamp so I had my gym back and all the equipment that was needed for that such as skipping ropes, mirrors to write the program, speakers, cones and a couple of towels, and finally from there I was heading to Matilda Bay to catch up with some uni friends so I had another change of clothes for that one too.

So I leave my boot space to be packed for my day, but in my passenger seats I have just my general life. This is where all my bootcamp stuff lives, I also have two spare towels, a jumper, pair of shorts, pair of bathers cap and goggles (you never know when your going to be able to squeeze a swim in!) and a blow up dolphin...don't ask! There is bug spray deodorant, strapping tape, pen and paper, road maps...you name it, it's in my car! Nothing like being prepared.

I have some friends who don't have their licence yet and some without cars and I honestly don't know how they get around to everything they need to do in their days. Without my car I would not be able to do half the things I fit into my days!!

Drawings

 

I get given drawings done by my kids all the time, this is the most recent one I received. Some of them draw them for me at school, some at home, and others while they are waiting for their class. These kids put so much effort into their pictures. I get pictures of me with them, of houses, flowers, people under trees and then I get the really inventive ones which have glitter and shapes cut out, or the ones where you paint on one side and fold the paper in half so it transfers onto the other side as well.



 

I love seeing the pride in their faces when they give their creations to me, that makes me just as happy as the actual picture. I have them all hanging about my bed room window where I can be reminded of the effort these kids put into something a simple as a picture and their big smiles when they give them to me. I reminds me to be proud of what you do - give everything you do all the effort and focus you can and be proud of what you produce. Or when in doubt, go draw something!

Comebacks

I quit elite level competitive swimming in May this year. The training and pressure I was putting on myself for racing was becoming more of a burden to me and my health then the motivation and enjoyment of the sport. So imagine the surprised looks of my old coach when he found out I was competing at the next State meet.

Three weeks ago, with the small amount of swimming I've done in the past 6 months compared to what I use to do, I decided to enter a 50m Free. I wasn't a sprinter when I was competitive, and I am no more a sprinter now, but 50m Free was always the race I enjoyed the most, so it seemed like the best one to go back to.

I walked through the doors of that stadium and it was like I had never left. There was the same smell of chlorine, sound of the starting gun and 8 people entering the water, with the pounding kick that would follow their breakout strokes. But all of a sudden there was also the pressure and expectations, the nervousness that builds while you sit in the marshalling area and the questioning of why you are doing this.

The swim turned out ok, slightly off my time but all things considered a decent race. And while I am glad that I come back to race, I am glad I made the decision to quit competitive swimming in May and this just confirmed it for me.

One Week To Go!

I'm sorry about all the dance related posts, but it is November. And this is all I am doing, well maybe not the first two, but breathing and dancing, yep that would cover my last 72 hours for sure!

Dress rehearsal. Chaos! we had kids running, crawling, climbing changing in hallways, standing on chairs while we put shoes on, pinning costumes onto them. We lost costumes, found costumes, worked out we were missing costumes, broke and then fixed costumes...utter chaos!

However, once the costumes were on -  the best we could get them done for the day, and my littlies were on stage, they impressed me. They knew what they were doing, where their positions were and what came next. The only thing they didn't do was smile. But that will come!

So one week to go and I'm counting down the days, but things look like they might just work out ok!

Keeping Traditions Alive

Ever since I can remember, my Nanna would make a Christmas Fruit Cake for each of her children every year - my dad, his brother and sister. Unfortunately my Nanna passed away last year. Christmas 2012 there was no Christmas cake and we still had an empty chair and candle for where she would have been sitting on Christmas day.

My aunty was going through some of her books and things at the beginning of this year and came across the recipe book - well diary from the 1960's where she had stuck in recipes she had collected over time. Known to have done a bit of baking in the past, the book was passed on to me. And so was the roll of making the families annual Christmas Cake.  

So I converted the ingredient quantities from the Imperial System in which she had hand written them at that time to the Metric System and started the three day process of making enough cakes for the family. Day 1involved combining all the fruit together and covering in brandy to let soak for 24hrs.
Each cake needed 4 hours in a low temp oven, and you could only cook one at a time. So Day 2 I made two separate cake batters, managed to get one cooked and out of the over before I had to go to work, and had the second prepared and in the tin for when my mum got home. I had written her clear instructions of what time it had to go into the oven so that it would be close to ready when I got home from work and training later that night.

Finally Day 3 and I made and baked one more cake, got them all out of their tins and wrapped up in glad wrap now ready to sit for around 3 weeks. So I am thankful for being able to keep this family tradition alive even without my Nanna still with us, and for the trust my family has in me to maintain this tradition.

Timing

Two weeks out from the concert and things are finally coming together for my Juniors. My kindies...they're so cute it doesn't matter what they do on stage, they are going to capture the audience regardless. Last year for example, I had the cutest little boy with a big mop of ringlets and all he did was stand there! Even after the dance had finished, the rest of his class had left the stage and the next item had started, he was too busy watching!

But my Juniors, there is some expectation on them to remember their own dance and be in time with the music and with each other. Just last week I was worried and starting to get frustrated. I start the end of year dances pretty early with this class because I know how much time and repetition they need to remember it. So after last week which involved a lot of yelling out steps, corrections, patterns and hand positions from me, I was apprehensive about what I was coming back to this week.

Happily surprised! They remembered to skip with their hands, to have their foot popped when doing their hips and their timing was much more in sync. I'm now actually excited about their concert performance and feel they are going to do me proud!

Flies

Before you jump to conclusions, no I'm not thankful for flies! I'm thankful for ways to keep them away.

Summer in Australia = so many flies. If your outdoors you are constantly swatting at these annoying flying insects. At a training session one afternoon, one chick announces she has a solution for our fly problem. This girl is from South Africa and this is something her grandparents showed her to keep them away. The idea is you get pieces of alfoil and put them in a clear bottle of water and put that bottle in the sun.

The thought behind it is that flies have so many eyes facing in all different directions, so as the light reflects off the foil which is floating around in the water, it comes at the flies into many different directions, hitting lots of their eyes and they don't like it. To them its a big glaring disco ball...makes sense.

So after talking her idea up for over a week, she called her grandma and asked how exactly to make this bottle and it was brought to training. The first day she had it there, the wind was so high that I think there would have been no flies regardless of whether the bottle was there or not.

Second attempt - still a bit of wind but while I was sitting on the grass I was swatting, so we may as well give it another go. And you know what, while the sun was out (probably for only about the first 30 minutes) I think there were less flies. It wasn't as windy as it had been the first day we'd tried, so this could be a potential solution for our fly problem!! We'll keep you posted.

Getting Into Weird Positions

I'm flexible. I don't know if it's my dance and gymnastics history (yeah it's probably that) or it just comes naturally to me. I'm the kind of flexible where the typical standing quad stretch does nothing. I have to go into a hip flexor stretch, then add the knee flexion and probably a psoas stretch on top of that...I might feel something. Or a kneeling hamstring stretch with one leg straight out in front where your typical person has trouble touching the ground, my elbows are on the floor. So yeah, I'm flexible.

Flexibility is on of these spiral effect things. You gain some muscle length and you can move deeper into a stretch, or have to add a component to continue to feel a stretch, which turns into a whole new position to feel anything. The more flexibility you gain, the stranger the positions you can adapt. Take yoga for example. You start by bending one leg so you foot is sitting over the top of the opposite quad. you then bend forwards and wrap your hands around your outstretched foot. Too easy. So bend that straight leg to plant your foot on the floor directly in front of your hip. Now wrap your same arm around that leg and behind you to meet the other hand and grab hold at the back and voila...human pretzel!

I do a class that focuses on mobility and maintaining joint range of motion and muscle length. I got sent a link to a video by Mobility WOD guru Kelly Starrett, and was pretty much told to make it happen. So I did. Lying on my back, with hips abducted and hips and knees in 90 degrees flexion, the aim is to get you butt as close to the wall as you can, with your feet still pointing perpendicular to the floor and maintaining your hip abduction. Once there, you maintain your foot position and rotate a knee in towards the wall. All of this with a giant rubber band hooked over your knees and around your back pulling your leg bone into your hip socket.

My flexibility meant that it was possible for me, some of the not so bendy....very entertaining!

Getting It Done!

At the end of each dance year, I have made personalised cards for each of my dancers, each with a hand written message. My first year of teaching I would have only had around a total of 20 dancers, so only 20 cards. Over the past 7 years, my numbers have slowly grown.

This year I made a total of 63 cards. I folded 63 pieces of card, cut and bordered 63 dance pictures, wrote 63 names in 3D glitter paint, bordered those and then stuck all these pieces onto each card. The key to this process...production line! A good production line meant I could make all the cards in less then 2 days. The part that took the longest was writing in each of the cards. I like each of them to be individualised and I sometimes get stumped on what to say, so the writing took over a week to get through.

This year I decided to add an extra challenge to my end of year production. I made each dancer a knitted beaded bracelet. I use to make a heap of these years ago, but haven't made any in the past four years at least. I made them with pretty much whatever I could find...buttons, sequins, bells, beads and they are all different.

At the time, it felt like I would not get the numbers out in time, but like many things in life you just have to get it done. Happy to say I got through them all with a week to spare!

Significant Jewellery

I rarely wear jewellery, but when I do, it is most often these three bracelets. These three because they have a lot of significance with my life. The first is my Pandora bracelet which I was given for my 16th birthday and have been slowly accumulating the charms. Every single charm has some significance to something I have done, achieved finished or something about me and all of them have been given to me by someone else. 

I got the running shoe after I had competed in the National Athletics Champs, I was given one fish for swimming, another fish because my dad calls me Blowfish, a graduation had when I graduated high school, the book stack when I graduation from Uni, the purple flowers because my favourite colour is purple and it was from a friend who I call blossom, ballet shoes for dancing...it keeps going!

The second bracelet is my Thomas Sabo pearl bracelet which was given to me by my school friends for my 21st Birthday with my birth stone and a C. And the last is my Tiffany and Co bracelet which my best friend gave me for my 21st.

Like I said I don't often wear jewellery, but when I do I love wearing these bracelets because they remind me of some of the amazing people I know and some of the things I have done.

Saying Goodbyes

For everyone in the dance world, you know that November is Dance Month. There are rehearsals and costume fitting/alteration mornings, Tech Rehearsals, Dress Rehearsals, Stage Runs, Staff Meetings and weekly classes thrown on top of all that. If you're involved in dance, say goodbye to your social life during November!

Well at the Studio this week, the news is out that this is my final year of teaching after 7 years of being the schools Kindies and Juniors Jazz Tap teacher and 18 years of dancing at the school myself. There are two girls that I am still teaching today who started in the dancing world the same year I started teaching them. One is my cousin (Spiderman in the above picture), and the other is this gorgeous little one.  

At the end of one of the Juniors weekly classes, this little poppets mum came in with tears in her eye and her hands shaking as she was getting her phone out and asking if her daughter could have a photo with me. I was guessing she had just found out I was leaving. My mum just so happened to be at my classes that day as well - she comes to watch them during class time so she doesn't have to come to the concert and gives her ticket up to someone else. Seeing this mother upset triggered the tears in mum as well.

I then got a call later that night after another rehearsal from a father of a girl in my Juniors Class who has been with me for 5 years saying his daughter has just found out I was leaving and cried the whole way home in the car. Teaching for 7 years means that I have been with a lot of my little ones for well over half their lives and have watched them grow. These girls often make and break my week and I love them all so much.

Saying goodbye to my kids, and the people who I personally have grown up with over the past 19 years is going to be hard come concert night...cue the tears!

A Line To Follow

Whether it's a line on the bottom of the pool, the boundary line of an oval, the line on a foot path or a long road. Give me a line to follow and I'm a happy girl!

When I was racing open water, I preferred racing in the rowing regatta lakes then at the beach. Yeah the water at these places tasted like algae, was brown and murky and you could barely see a meter in front of you, but there were lines of buoys down the whole lake. And what are the buoys attached to? A line of rope that is about a meter below the surface of the water. So once the race field had spread out a bit and you had your own space to swim in, I would get as close to the buoys as I could and look hard for this yellow rope. Once I had my line to follow, the race became a whole lot easier. I just had to remember to clear the buoys every 5m.

When I have a line to follow, its one less thing I have to worry about. There is something telling me which way to go and I can forget about directions. It creates a sense of calm in me...sounds weird I know. A line can be more or less endless, or as long as you want it to be. If you get to the end of it, just turn around and head back the way you came.

Rock Tape

Kinesiology Tape/KinesioTape/Rock Tape is relatively new to Physio treatment. There are thousands of ways to tape different muscle, movements, restrictions, facilitations and stimulations and every Physio will have a different way of taping.

As with anything new that comes onto the market, some people are very sceptical about the tape, whether it works or whether it is all in our heads. I love the stuff. I have been using it personally for over 5 years now to help manage my own injuries, and am starting to use it more and more in practice on my patients as well. Given there are some people who don't really think it helped them or facilitated them very much, but there are more people I treat that agree with me and love it.

The idea is to apply the tape in the direction of the line of pull of the muscle (to prevent fatigue and allow recovery of a muscle) or in the direction of the movement you want to facilitate. When I put the tape on, the muscle feels instantly supported and when I use that muscle, there is less resistance and heaviness in the movement. The muscle is stimulated to remain in a shorter position, decreasing the length tension relationship and preventing the excess use of the muscles energy, letting it recover.

Some may not agree, but I personally love the stuff and it has helped me through so many injuries allowing me to keep doing what I love.

Party Rock Anthem

I taught a group of Year 12 Borders at an all boys school a hip hop dance for them to perform at their Annual Borders Ball. The boys had chosen the song they wanted to do, Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO was the one, and pretty much all the boys wanted to do was shuffle. So I was brought in, to not only teach them to shuffle, but to string together a few other simple steps for them to do over and over again.

The boys were good fun to work with and (most of them) tried so hard week in week out. Not many of them being natural born dancers they had a lot to pick up in a pretty short amount of time, but were completely happy to make absolute fools of themselves and have a good time while they are doing it.

Every time I here Party Rock Anthem now, I can't help but think of these guys and have a laugh to myself.

Receiving Thanks

Last week I treated a lady who has severe emphysema and is down to less then 10% lung function in both lungs. She is on oxygen 24 hours a day, extremely frail and is using all her accessory muscles to get air in (this means she is using muscles that she should be using for arm and head movements instead to help expand her lungs and get in as much air as possible!).

After using these muscles for a job they are not suppose to do, they have become sore and tired. She reported to be in constant pain which is affecting every aspect of her life. She saw a male physio at our clinic last year, but came to me this year because she was embarrassed. So I took her on and treated her.

I got into work today and there was this note in my diary. What makes me happy, is spending 20 minutes with this lovely woman has made her feel better at the time, as well as improved her quality of life.

Color Running

If you have never done a Color Run, I highly recommend you do. The idea: you start of clean and white, you finish covered head to toe in powder paint which tends to all mix together and you end almost brown. The paint hits you most during the Color Festival at the end of the run. But to get covered, you have to run first.

It is advertised as a 5km run, but for all those non-runners out there, it is not even close to 5km so there is hope for you yet! You run through colour stations during the run which is where you get hit with single colours at a time, so this is when you look a little more like a rainbow then a brown puddle but you get hit with no where near as much colour due to the number of people running through these stations at any one time.

But the Color Throw is like nothing I have ever done before. All together thousands of people throw packets of power paint into the air. What I didn't expect was the powder to completely block out the sun and it to be so dark under this cloud of paint. And it goes everywhere - you breath it in, it goes up your nose, in your eyes and ears and down your clothes. For a bit of a clean freak like me, it was definitely an experience I had prepared myself for and I swear I was still scrubbing the paint off my body days later!