End of one season, start of another

(this is where I spent half of January)

So that was Summer, eh?

I love Summer but there are parts of Winter I love too, just not as much as Summer.  I'll miss the sitting out in the sun after dinner with a cool drink, not having to take forever to get dressed in the morning, not waiting for days for the washing to dry, being outdoors without having to take a coat and umbrella and getting social just because its sunny outside.

Winter has its good points too. There's comfort food and the fact that its actually enjoyable to cook, that its lovely to get snuggly in bed (unfortunately really difficult to get out of bed though), there's no sweating so its good to get out and get active and there's comfort food (did I mention that already?).

But I didn't come here to talk about the weather (ho hum), I wanted to say I'm on an 'up' today (as opposed to yesterday where it was all too hard). It may be because its Friday, or because I had a productive day at work and feeling that I've got a little more of a handle on things.  I'm also excited at the prospect of promoting not only the great stuff the people at my new workplace are doing for kids, but also promoting Mr Moneymaker's new business and life long dream.

He's selling the stuff that he loves, at last. A life-long lover of sport (not to mention the Nugget's personal Sports Manager), he has set up his own sport equipment brand, Cigno Sports and his days consist of choosing, selling and generally playing with, Soccer Balls (did you know that cigno is the Italian word for swan???).  I've even spent quite a few hours entering HUNDREDS of contacts into his database and though its been a bit of a risk (to the point where I may have to change his name from Mr Moneymaker to something else), its starting to build up.  The majority of business will be coming from Soccer Clubs in Queensland, NSW and Victoria so if you're involved in purchasing equipment for your club and you want quality, give him a call (don't forget to tell him I told you first!).

As for my new role, I'm so proud to be working for a company that has such a great concept and that can really make a difference to a young child's life.  The company is called Yoga To Go Kids and it takes the philosophy of mindfulness and well being along with a great habit for young children to take into their adult life. I've been there about four weeks now and I've been talking to the schools and the yoga teachers and seeing feedback coming back from the kids and the school teachers. Its wonderful what they're saying about the effects the classes have had on all the kids - the quiet ones, the loud ones, the hyperactive ones and the troubled ones. I'm really impressed and I want to tell everyone.

Yoga To Go Kids

Now my next move is to get the word out there about both businesses, not so much through this blog (though I will put a couple of buttons on the side here), but to promote through Facebook and Twitter.

Now if only they could afford to sponsor me to go the Digital Parents Conference in March! Oh well, that boat may have to leave without me. Literally.

*Joining With Some Grace for FYBF*

Memoirs and Blogging - IBOT

I've been getting out lately - it helps to force myself to get out there when the black mood descends. Last night I was invited to a talk at Officeworks by Stuart Bocking and Jason Morrison from 2UE and from BRW on running a business.  They had lots of useful advice on tax, depreciation, legislation, promotion on social media and websites and how to apply for a government grant, things that every business needed to know but weren't aware that the so much information and assistance was freely available to them.  You'd think I would nod off with all that exciting banter, but surprisingly I didn't have to feign interest.  It actually made me want to start my own business.  One day.  Not for a while.  Too scary.

They put on a great free event for local businesses with nibblies (wish I hadn't eaten dinner beforehand!) and a goodie bag which made my kids very happy - who doesn't love stationery!  To top it all off they gave away some great door prizes to most of the attendees.  I was a lucky recipient of a HKC Multi-Touch Tablet!  It was really heartening to see a successful company like Officeworks wanting to help the small business owner.

Tonight was an event more up my alley.  A couple of well respected bloggers (and ones I've been lucky to meet before), Zoey Martin and Eden Riley, spoke with Jo Case about Memoirs and Blogging at the NSW Writers Centre in Rozelle.

It was a nice and intimate affair with Eden and Zoey sharing their stories on how and why they started blogging and how different it is to writing a memoir.  Jo Case had published a book on the story of her life and about her son with Aspergers.  She also blogged for awhile and also had a lot of input on the differences between blogging and writing a memoir.

Now to be truthful my initial motivation to go tonight was just to hear Eden and Zoey talk about blogging, I had even forgotten that the ad in the SMH Spectrum had said it was also about writing memoirs.  I've had it in the back of my mind that I would one day write a memoir as I haven't been able to take writing fiction seriously for a long time.  Not that my life has been stranger than fiction (some people may beg to differ), but the more I think about people's real lives, their relationships and family history, the more I believe that the truth is so much more entertaining and enthralling.

Does this mean that I'm about to take on the great personal story?  Can I hold the interest in myself for the amount of time and dedication it takes to actually produce a book?  Do I have the ego big enough?  Probably not, but maybe I could use it as a stepping stone to learn about my parents' stories in more depth and present that as a great read.

This brings in a whole lot of bumps in the road that I've been grappling with for awhile.  To tell the whole truth I will have to bring up some painful stuff that not everyone involved will be happy with and it also brings up the problem of do I KNOW the whole truth?  Probably not and because there were so many skeletons in the family closet I don't think I'll ever know the truth so it brings me to the decision of making a fictional memoir.  Writing some truth and embellishing other truths.  That way everyone will be happy, right?  mmmm.....

p.s. To those siblings reading this, let me know what you think would be the right way to write this story right!

**Joining with Essentially Jess for IBOT.**