Today: the day that was...

Today was one of those busy days where I simply didn't have time to stop and think. I got to work and ran and ran and ran. People to see, emails weren't sending externally, clients were unwell and needed urgent attention, tensions were increased all around. Lunch was a sneaky half packed of raspberry flavoured m&ms I really should have shared, with a banana scoffed down as a second thought. But when life gets like this, you just get through - don't you.

Running, huffing and complaining don't help. Snapping at a colleague is unhelpful also. Stressing about emails - why bother?

What does help? What was my life line today?

Only answering the phone calls coming in if paged to do so. Or during a designated half hour time frame twice during the day.

Eating those m&ms and enjoying them.

Getting a job application in and feeling proud!

Cycling home at a leisurely pace.

Playing netball and whipping our opponents.

Having the fella make a stellar healthy dinner of chicken soft tacos.

Watering my garden, taking time to smell the tomatoes and zucchinis.

Gosh, if only all challenges were so easily solved. If only all days were fixable! But tomorrow is a new day, more work to be done, feeling calm and having space to have another dose of perspective.

Speaking of perspective - what a view? Using a super ap which knits together images to create panoramas, this phone is sunset over the beautiful country side of Scone in rural NSW. We travelled to the area for a friend's wedding, and had the absolute privilege of staying on the bride's family farm overnight. Their property looking out over the hills, the sun was setting and the sky was fluid, mesmerising and seemingly untouchable. What a beautiful end to a day.

Hope your day has ended well, perhaps with a cup of tea (or gin and tonic).

My place's best feature, so nyoice!

(a tropical lightning storm around 2 a.m. - so powerful, so beautiful, so Darwin)

What is unusual about my place? This is the question asked by Tony from Little Suitcase in the MMAM meme.

Lots of things really. But nothing that makes me cringe too much. And nothing that is really out of the ordinary. We live in a pretty standard apartment. Three bedrooms, an open plan living area, a decent sized balcony. Nothing strange there. We don't live up that high, just on the fifth floor. We get decent reception on the telly, can spy on the neighbours if needed but have sufficient privacy too. What is unusual is maybe where the house is, who else lives around, and that it is in a tropical climate.

We live in the middle of three apartment blocks, all of which have the same street number. This is unusual. You give directions to people and say "come to the middle tower". Lost tradies will approach you down stairs and say things like "where do I find unit 78?", as it could be in any of the three buildings. Our building is named after a war person, some guy who did something heroic. There is a picture of him next to the lift, with a spiel about his accomplishments. This is strange, maybe a little embarrassing also. And everyone who lives in these apartments works for the company the fella does. I really cringe about this, and certainly wouldn't say this is nyoice. If I'd known before we had moved here, I would have found alternative accommodation. But it hasn't worked out too badly.

But what is unusual, and the feature that I love is the view! We overlook the water, seeing the sun rise and set over the sea daily. There is a fishing boat marina just outside, and when a good haul comes in fireworks are set off on the boats. One such catch reached shore last night. It was spectacular to have fireworks exploding right outside our bedroom window. Oh, I will miss this. I've not lived so near to the ocean before and truly love sitting on my balcony and contemplating life. With a good book, a glass of red and the breeze lightly rustling through my pot plants. Please enjoy this unusual feature of my place, particularly as we are leaving it in only two weeks!

Aussie lovin

Just some beautiful pictures of Australia. Oh it is lovely here. And you can never have enough sunsets....