Archive for Business

Part Time Holidays

08/01/2012 Joh Business, gratitude, holidays, learn, work

I’m continuing my part-time job during the school holidays. I love working there, some days it doesn’t even feel like work. My days off are more precious because they are rarer.

This week a customer came in who is converting a barn and we had a great conversation about all the challenges involved and found the perfect floor covering for her needs. I’m delivering it to them next week and will get to see the project. I meet lots of interesting people making their homes in their own ways and it’s fun to help them select the perfect floor covering.

I enjoy my drive to work. It’s about 45 minutes through really open country. Lots of people complain about the boringness of that drive, but I experience the spaciousness. The countryside changes colour with the clouds. I love it. There are a couple of spots on the way that I pay particular attention to.  Such big views! I enjoy listening to my music and making playlists for the trip.

I had big plans for the shop over Christmas. I was expecting less traffic and getting lots done. We did a bit but were busier than I expected, which is always a good thing, so there are still a few more jobs on my list. I have found a place for all our new tile samples. I enjoy maintaining the displays and getting to know each pattern, texture and size, imagining where it would best serve. Filing it away in my mind so when the right person comes I will know where to find it.

We are getting the computer program and systems into better shape. I need to learn more about MYOB. It is a different package to the one I used for ‘The Butchers Dog’ so there are things I am tweaking. The book-keeping is different. I did the book-keeping for ’Unique Furnishings’ and ‘Total Vision’ manually and I had systems in place to keep informed of the business stats. I am still working towards finding the way to get this businesses stats.

I love the freedom and responsibility my boss gives me to have a hand in all aspects of the business. It feels as though it is my own, yet I am working with a team. There is another sales person as well. We often all have different opinions and this makes for more interesting discussions.

I am immersed in home improvement. I am learning. That is what I love most about my part-time work.

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Macarons, Friends and other Simple Pleasures

15/07/2011 Joh blogging, Business, food, friends, learn, random, reading

Yesterday Br John came for lunch. He was my mentor when I was a first year teacher 10 years ago. We haven’t caught up for probably 5 years. He has moved to another state and is a Principal there. I reckon he would be a good one because he is both human and organised. He communicates well and continues his learning. I always enjoy hanging out with him because he has interesting stories. He’s recently been travelling around Europe on a Marist brother adventure (there is probably a more serious, spiritual purpose). He had great food stories to tell me and as that is what I am most interested in right now, I enjoyed the tales of food.

I had my second attempt at making Macarons. Just before we left the shop a lovely lady came in for a visit from this business Cupcake Therapy. I am not really into cupcakes. Her sister had come in for lunch and told me they’d been to Paris to learn how to make Macarons. I was captivated. I contacted her on facebook and she brought some samples (rasberry with white chocolate filling). It is my current obsession. They are so pretty and delicious. A fortnight ago I made some for Cath for her birthday. I made about 3 batches and ended up with 6 mishapen things. I made chocolate ones because I am a fan of chocolate. I will experiment with different flavours once I get chocolate handled. The ones I made for lunch yesterday were better but don’t look anything like the amazing creations from ‘Cupcake Therapy’. Her facebook page is one of my favourites.

One of the things I really like about Macarons is that it’s delicious way to use egg white. I use the yolk to make mayonaisse and chocolate/lemon tart. I’ve never been a fan of pavlova or other egg white type dishes. Macaron’s are going to take a lot more practise. I have no clue with a piping bag. They tasted great and I don’t think I would ever create the kind of product with glaze and all the beauty of professional ones, but I would prefer them to look a bit more similar. When I do manage something near decent I will take a photo:) Which leads me to my next simple pleasure…

I have been inspired by Jen from Semantically Driven to start taking a photo a day. I haven’t really taken many photo’s lately. I take them of the kids, but I used to always take my camera with me and I enjoyed it. I am going to publish them on tumblr. I have also been watching a few You Tube photo a day clips and thinking that could make an interesting alternative to journalling for students who don’t like writing. I don’t like taking photos of myself… but teenagers seem to be comfortable with it. I will just take photos of random things that take my eye, still I think they will contain hidden memories.

We shopped today because we have a catering job to do tomorrow night. Two friends are engaged and we are catering for the celebration. I love shopping with Darin. We have a lot of fun and even amuse others. An older woman in the market couldn’t stop giggling when he asked me which box I wanted to carry and I said the lightest one. It really tickled her. I enjoyed being out in the sunshine today. We went to Morwell cause we had to go to a couple of places there. We ended up back here for all the things we forgot on the first trip:). I popped into the Art Gallery whilst I was there and looked in the window of the Contemporary Art Space. I felt quite uplifted by it. We went on a walk this afternoon and went ‘window shopping’ in all the homeware and electrical shops on the highway. We got great service cause we were the only people in the shops. We were approached by many sales people. I looked around at all the heavily discounted stuff and thought ‘What’s going to happen to all this stuff if no one comes back to buy it?’ Where have all the shoppers gone?

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Dad, how will we get power without a power station?

11/07/2011 Joh Business

I know lots of people around here are pretty concerned about the future. I like the idea of clean energy, who doesn’t? We do need to change the way we do things. I am not a politically motivated person so I wouldn’t dream of getting into the politics of it. I think there will be a gradual change and that people don’t need to panic as much as they are. It’s not going to stop overnight, so we need to be sensible about it. There are probably a lot of people who have been through this when the old SECV privatised who could give really useful advice… if we don’t just slip into vicitim mode.

I hope there can be some optimism from the people of Latrobe Valley eventually. If we don’t find some positive about the future, this loss of employment will lead to a population drain that will become a self fulfilling prophesy. The thing is everything is changing. I hope we can be a part of changing things for the better and not sit around blaming and feeling sorry for ourselves for too long.

There will be new opportunities.

I was cleaning up at the shop today, I reckon there’s about half an hours work left down there tomorrow before we hand over the keys. The streets were empty when I was there and with the cold windy weather it was gloomy. Truth is, it’s been like that for a while. Most retailers that had lunch at our place were very concerned about how quiet it is. People have been nervous about Carbon tax and job losses. Well, now we know. I hope things can pick up now for the retailers because some of them are providing great services that we will miss if they disappear. We need to really think about where we put our dollars and support the things we want to keep. I’m hoping I’m not alone in believing our CBD with it’s unique and individual businesses is worth keeping. Chain stores are available just a drive down the road. Vote with your feet people.

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Almost Done

08/07/2011 Joh Business, family, gratitude, learn, love, work

This week were are cleaning up and removing all our stuff from the shop. We’ve made quite a few trips. I didn’t realise how much stuff we had taken in from home and bought along the way. It’s empty of our stuff now. I just have to go in and clean up. I want to do it on the weekend so everything will be ready to go for handing over the keys early next week. I have felt a bit sad a couple of times, but most of the time I feel quite positive about it all. It’s been a great experience and I’ve learnt a lot. Although it was a brief time, it was a significant one for me.

The kids are here for the weekend. Tonight as they were going to bed, I headed for a bath and R (4) found this very strange. She thought the bath must be for her. “Only kids have baths, grownups don’t have baths”. I just got to her in time before she started peeling off her pjs for another dip. I said to her “But they are so lovely I’ve never stopped having a bath.” I think she agreed with me about baths being good, but I’m not sure she things adults deserve them, especially when it’s time for bed:).

After my bath they were still restless so I took a picture book upstairs to read to them. I read the first one, then E (6) competently read the next two. She is a great reader. I love watching them as they grow and learn. She is quite literate and even asked me why there was a ‘K’ in front of knew. I was very impressed. I love that she asks what every word she doesn’t know means and she looks at it carefully like she’s found a new mystery.

I feel very blessed right now. There are so many helpful people in the world and I am finding support in many places I didn’t expect. It has been challenging to let go of something I really believe in and love. I think we have made the right decision though for lots of reasons and I am thrilled with all the goodness that is coming from our venture.

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Iinet – Thumbs Up

05/07/2011 Joh Business, gratitude

I know I have complained about products/services on my blog before, but just to show I am equally happy to give credit where it’s due, I have to say I have found iinet excellent. Every time I have dealt with them on the phone I have been surprised by the excellence of their people. They listen to what you say. They help you solve problems. I have my phone line and internet service with them. There is no locked in contract.

They send you an email when you have spoken to anyone there, for feedback. It takes 2 seconds to fill out so I am happy to give feedback!

I reported my telephone wasn’t working on Friday and a ‘Telstra’ repair person was here Saturday and he fixed the line. They are crediting me with the 2 days I was without a phone. I was a long time customer of Telstra, but the constant service difficulties and the bad feeling left when I phoned them about it, as well as extra expense, caused me to switch to Optus. Optus was cheaper but really frustrating to deal with when anything did go wrong.

Iinet astonishes me at their difference. Good service can be done and they are doing it.

I feel treated like a person. Their prices are reasonable and the service is great. I recommend them.

I am not receiving any financial or other benefit from this post. It is not sponsered. Just an observation:).

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Life Magic by Ruth Ostrow

03/07/2011 Joh Business, gratitude, reading

I read Life Magic in an evening. It was published in 2007 and I found it at the library. I’m loving the library lately. I enjoy looking up the catalogue online and placing books on hold and then getting an email to say they’ve arrived. You can access most of the libraries in Victoria and the books usually arrive within a week. Today Darin and I went and found a magical pile of books from browsing, which was also interesting. It’s like going to a free bookshop. I love it! It’s very convenient to be able to renew your books online also. It’s made the library much more accessible for me.

‘Life Magic’ was a pleasurable read. I never tire of reading books about creating your life the way you want it. The basic premise is usually the same, but I always get some small distinction from it and I think reading a variety of descriptions of how it all works keeps the philosophy fresh in your mind as well.

I’ve had a beautiful weekend. I have to say I am feeling great right now. There is much to do, but I have the school holidays to get organised. I had to make a lot of calls on Friday and I wasn’t looking forward to the conversations I had to have. People I am dealing with have been so kind and helpful. I feel very blessed right now. Darin is feeding me great food. The weather is crisp and sunny and we’ve been walking. Life feels gentle.

I have a new project for next term that has already materialised, quite effortlessly, I am really excited about. I am also quite happy to be working in schools in between the new directions. It’s great to have the luxury of getting my finances handled with work that is fun.

I really like the way Ruth Ostrow writes. She has a common sense yet magical way of looking at the world and she often writes about things I’m interested in. She has a blog.You can follow her twitter feed @OstrowRuth In 2007 I subscribed to her once when she was blogging for The Australian, but it dried up so I deleted the feed. I am so pleased to add her magical voice to my reading list again!

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New Moon in Cancer – Solar Eclipse – 1st July 2011

29/06/2011 Joh astrology, Business, gratitude, work

Yes, it’s eclipse number 3. Every two weeks for the last six weeks! Same old thing applies… change, letting go, new beginnings. You can check out all the eclipse info on Aquarius Papers, always a thorough treatment of the astrological climate. I enjoyed the post from Jessica on Moonkissd: The Twig and the Apple Tree. I like a lot about that post. I like that she chose to listen to the story one more time, because it’s true that each retelling reveals something new. I like that the visionary farmer missed meeting the man at the first fair. The post smacks of having patience and trusting. Strangely enough, I am being patient and trusting right now… so naturally that’s what I will see when I read this.

I love Cancerians. Some of my best friends are born in this time. They are home makers, creative, resourceful and stylish. I am very into those qualities.

People are asking me what I am going to do now. I don’t know. I’m fine with that. I guess being called in every day to CRT (Casual Relief Teach) helps. It’s keeping me busy. I am teaching in a new school as well and I am enjoying the newness. The school is walking distance from my home and has lovely new buildings. I’m enjoying it. I was at my old school today and I also very much enjoy the ease of knowing where everything is. One of my colleagues asked me today if I had made the right choice to leave school. My answer was quick and honest. Yes! I feel released.

I went to an accountant tonight after work to work on the financial things going on right now. I had asked around about accountants and no one had heartily recommended one. My dad had given me the number of his accountant he’d used when he was in business, who he was clearly impressed with but I couldn’t get an appointment with him. I’d been given a new person and when I checked out that persons facebook page I didn’t feel like I would connect. So I found one amongst my customers. I always asked them where they worked when I was chatting to them. A few had mentioned they were accountants. One of them I got that feeling I could trust. Turns out he’s born the day after me. I seem to have a natural affinity with Sagittarians:). The meeting went well and I am confident I will emerge from this experience with my head above water.

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In Between

25/06/2011 Joh Business, gratitude, learn

I read this post yesterday and felt it was quite accurate for me: Aquarius Papers: The In Betweens. We are not continuing The Butchers Dog at our current location. We needed to sign a lease for a further 3 years and as we haven’t achieved our sales goals, things were not looking too promising. I am not really sure what I’m going to do in the long term.

I have totally enjoyed my experience with The Butchers Dog. I have learnt plenty and made a heap of mistakes. I did struggle to let go for a while. I really believe that takeaway food could be healthy, delicious and was working towards all kinds of ideas. I liked my customers and we have made some lovely friends there. It just wasn’t sustainable right now for lots of reasons. I will possibly document some of what I learnt on the blog I created for the business. I learnt some good shortcuts that may be of use to others who go off half cocked like I do:). When I was looking for information I found it very time consuming. Perhaps I could provide some of the short cuts I eventually found.

I will do CRT work until I work out where I want to head. I am not feeling impatient about it to be honest. I feel really lucky that I have work I can do that is enjoyable enough to give me the finances while I have a big think. I would like to try working in some other schools, even though it is really comfortable and easy at my old school and I get to catch up with lots of people I love. I reckon I could learn more from being in different schools and seeing how other teams approach learning and engaging young people.

I have a few projects that I am interested in pursuing. I have only committed in small ways to them, so when I am not working I will be putting more time into them to explore if any of them could become a viable way to head into my future. I am pretty excited really and I am ok about ‘not knowing’. I have been here before and something great always comes along:).

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Remembering the 90s Online

17/06/2011 Joh Business, gratitude, reading

I am still borrowing Darin’s laptop and keeping up with important things with my phone and ipod. I think this year is the most separated I’ve been from technology and the Internet since the mid 90s before I was on the Internet! Interestingly though even without my own personal laptop I can do more, faster than I could then. The internet was time consuming then. It was much slower and there was a wait for a page to load. Most of the particpants were on the other side of the world so posting to a bulletin board still meant a long wait for a response. There was nothing there, compared to now. I couldn’t do my banking, bill paying, apply for jobs, ask questions about products, shop, file tax returns or any other mountains of other ‘in person’ things I used to have to do. There was probably only one person I knew in real life that had an email address I could email to. In comparison, I can post an update on ‘The Butchers Dog’s facebook page and have instant responses and even customers within an hour. Now I only know a handful of people who don’t have a facebook page and I have to remember to call them and invite them to things or update them on important facts about me that I assume everyone knows.

I read this article recommended on the ‘Atlas Shrugged’ facebook page: Forbes: When it Comes to Wealth Creation There is No Pie. I was struck with the reality of how much richer my life is even in the last 10 years.

Anyway the update is that it was actually me who damaged my computer! It was liquid damage. This post in March ‘Sticky Keys’, preceeded all my laptop troubles. I don’t know why I didn’t connect the dots sooner! I have been given a quote which is almost half the price of a new laptop. I am going with it because why create more landfill? I have been watching the passing traffic of people going to the Cobbler in our arcade where our shop is. I really like his business, it’s very eco-friendly, yet old fashioned too. I like seeing people get things fixed instead of throwing them away. My laptop will be back with replacement parts early next week… woo hoo!

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Full Moon in Sagittarius – Total Lunar Eclipse – 16th June 2011

15/06/2011 Joh astrology, Business, learn, love, work

This full moon eclipse is in my sun sign. I have always loved it. The rest of my chart is pretty earthy and watery, so this fire sign gives me the passion and courage to do a lot of things I wouldn’t without it. When I first began learning about astrology, I identified totally with Sagittarius and it didn’t bother me a bit! I loved most of the attributes. Read Mystic Medusa’s take on Haute Sagittarius – Low Sagittarius. I can identify with the good and the bad.

I keep reading that eclipses are nothing to fear, it’s just a time of opening and closing doors. One of the astrologers I ‘like’ on facebook Astrosparkles has written a great note about this eclipse : Getting to the truth (or heart) of the matter. It covers all the essentials you will need to decipher how this eclipse could play out for you.

Tonight Darin is at his ‘Men’s Cooking Class’ he has been teaching at the Neighbourhood House. This week has been quite intense business wise. We have some pressure and decisions we need to make about our lease and we are looking at ways to expand and as always with a business there are many different ways to go and choosing one and committing to it requires head miles. I am enjoying this time alone to think. It’s been an interesting week and all kinds of information has come to me in interesting ways. I certainly know I am alive right now:).

I was a CRT today. I can’t call it teaching because it is a shell of what a teacher does. It’s actually relaxing (sorry to any teachers reading this). I guess it is like that because my heart is not invested in it. I am in and out. I don’t get too involved. My skill level at teaching has more than advanced the ability to manage a class of students, dish out work from their regular teacher, and support that work to be completed in the class. The ease sometimes makes me wonder what the hell I am doing slugging it out in a small business. I guess I am a sucker for a learning curve. That’s not to say I couldn’t learn more as a teacher, but I felt frustrated in that system. I liked the people and the school I worked for. I just don’t believe in that education system anymore. There are a lot of Sagittarian themes right there in that paragraph!

Anyway I will leave you with a quote from another blog I’ve started reading from the post ‘More About The Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse’

“Yes” is the Sagittarian motto. Sagittarius is possibility, options, hope, faith, trust, luck and chocolate (I lied about the last one….chocolate is actually ruled by Venus). Still, you get the idea. Sagittarius is a sign that brims with happiness.

Eclipses have an intimidating reputation but they are really just open doors. And tomorrow the door should open onto something really nice.

and whether or not it is sensible, that is exactly how I feel tonight.

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