I love today’s topic. It’s good to reflect and remember to be grateful for things happening in our lives. Too often we become caught up in our busy daily lives and forget to be thankful for the positive things around us that we often take for granted.
1 – As corny as it sounds, I am firstly grateful to waken up, alive and healthy. Not everyone has this luxury.
2 – Being away this weekend in Mudgee with my amazing partner as we celebrate 15 years together.
3 – I’m grateful that I had a great sleep last night, 8.5 hours to be exact. If I have 7 hours sleep at night, I am doing really well. So to wake up and check my Fitbit that read 8.5 hours sleep, I was delighted.
4 – Grateful to have no rain this morning. It is supposed to be stormy all week, so to waken with no rain and blue skies on the horizon, that makes me really happy.
5 – Thankful for a lovely breakfast this morning and having a walk around Mudgee. It’s a really quaint little town with lots of character. I will be creating a blog of this town very soon.
Mudgee, NSW
I cannot wait to hear what everyone else is grateful for today 🙏🏼.
Many of my friends and followers on social media think that I don’t work 😆. I guess this could be for two reasons.
1 – I post frequently on social media, especially Instagram and I do go out a lot. I love walking and try to do this every day, so even if I’m posting pictures of my walk or by the beaches, it’s normally as I’m out and about before or after work. We work 8 hour shifts here as nurses in Australia. Therefore, we can actually do things before or after work. Unlike back home in Northern Ireland where I would have worked 11 or 12 hour shifts. On my days off, I love to go out and see places. I enjoy eating out, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner (never all three in one day 😉). So I think this could give a false impression that I don’t work when I actually do work full time.
2 – I don’t have children. This absolutely gives me freedom to do my own thing, go out when and where I please and I have no ties to be home at a certain time. Also I have no pets as yet. This is something I am really interested in, maybe a couple of dogs in the near future. So having no commitments enables me to carry out my life how I please ☺️. If people on social media compare my social life to theirs, they really shouldn’t. If they have decided to have a family of their own. That’s amazing and it’s their prerogative. They will have many amazing things in their life through experiences with their children (something I do not).
I do work hard in my career but I have a good work/life balance. It may simply appear that I do not work as I often post about the fun things I’m doing. I wouldn’t necessarily be posing about my times in work. To be honest I am more than happy if people assume I don’t work much or work at all. It’s rather amusing. When people say, “Do you ever eat at home?”, it makes me chuckle. I eat at home 5 or 6 days a week. There are worse things to complain about in life than people thinking I don’t work.
To be honest I have never really thought about my writing or style of writing. I don’t write fiction. I simply write about my experiences, more so, my travel experiences. If I was to think about my writing and what I like about it, it would maybe be the following two points:
• I don’t take my writing too seriously, it’s not a chore for me and I like it that way. That’s not to say that blogging can’t be serious. I write how I speak generally. Therefore, I feel I have a light hearted style of writing. Hopefully people can relate to my writing and see that it comes from a good place.
• I find writing in my blog to be very personal and a good tool for self expression. There’s just something about writing that allows you to put all your thoughts on paper (so to speak) and you instantly feel good about it. Maybe it’s also the fact that I don’t have a huge following and I don’t know many bloggers in person here so it makes it easier to be open and frank. To be honest, this challenge is really the first time I have had the courage or motivation to be more open on my blog. My previous posts have been about travel and so I have not needed to show my more vulnerable side.
There you have it. Short and sweet. I like my writing as it’s light hearted, personal and a great way to express myself.
Any one else have the same thoughts? Please let me know.
First of all, can I just say, congratulations to everyone who has it made it through the first week of the blogging daily challenge 🙌🏼. Is anyone else really enjoying it? This blogging daily thing is really good actually. Luckily I have some distance to travel to and from work and fortunately I travel by train. This gives me plenty of time to get my thinking cap on, switch off from the world and write a simple blog.
What makes me laugh? Anything really. I laugh a lot. I love when you laugh for no reason. It could be something silly someone said or you said, or an action or a memory. When you laugh so hard that you cannot stop. Even if you want to stop. For me it often happens at the most inappropriate times. When I really shouldn’t be laughing. It’s never ending, tears are tripping me and my stomach hurts, sides splitting 😆. Even then I cannot stop.
My friends normally end up joining in, even if they don’t necessarily want to. Laughter is so infectious. I used to get into trouble at school for laughing so much, especially in the library when we were supposed to be super silent. I can’t count the amount of times that I was told to leave the library or class room for laughing so much and distracting others. Even through my university days and studying nursing, I would have many outbursts of laughter. I have one friend that just makes me laugh so much and vice versa. When we are together, it’s just a laugh fest. Not very good when you’re trying to learn or be productive.
I also think I laugh when I’m nervous or stressed about something. It’s almost like a coping mechanism. Have you ever heard the saying, “if you didn’t laugh, you would cry”.
However, I believe laughter is good for you. Good for your health, good for the soul. We need laughter. Especially when times are tough. Laughter is a good outlet to let negative things go and enables you to reset. It’s the best medicine. Unless of course you have just had abdominal surgery. Then I would suggest not to laugh too hard 🙈🤣.
Good morning folks. This one was tricky. I’m thinking who inspires me? I couldn’t think straight away. The more I thought about being inspired, the more I was confusing myself with what it meant.
So I did the old fashioned thing and looked up the word in the dictionary. According to Cambridge University Press (2022) to inspire someone is “to fill someone with confidence and desire to do something”.
I would say my family, especially my Dad would definitely fill this criteria. He is always filling me with confidence and telling me to do whatever makes me happy in life. I am really grateful for this mentality. Not to take life so seriously. Life is short and we need to make the most of it. I have always been instilled with the importance of having a good work/life balance. My Dad inspires me to be a good person, have morals, work hard but to enjoy life at the same time. Making my Dad proud is definitely something that inspires me through life and he is always letting me know that he is proud ☺️, that’s a great feeling. I’m lucky to have such an open minded, generous and caring Dad 🙏🏼.
This is a good question to get you thinking. It took me a good few minutes to think what is something I wish I knew how to do. I feel like if it was something you really, really wanted to do, then you would make it your goal to do so, no matter how much time or effort it would take. In saying that, life often gets in the way of these goals. Other factors, like finding the time, finances, family and friends, employment and just generally having a life will all play a key role in whether you have the opportunity to learn something new.
I would love to speak multiple languages. It was always my dream, right through my school years, to university to now living and working in Australia. Seeing how multicultural it is living in Sydney, you can see the advantages of speaking more than one language. Especially being a nurse. I would love to be able to converse to my worldly patients in their own language, more so when they cannot speak English.
Growing up I would speak German with family and learned the language at school. I then picked up French at school too and absolutely loved being able to speak in two different languages (not perfectly by any means). The ability to communicate in German and French whilst visiting those countries was the dream.
However, as I grew older and left the studies behind (for reasons still unknown now) I slowly forgot what I had learned and taken for granted previously. Now I lack the confidence to communicate in these two languages, especially German. I would love to gain the courage to practice this language, especially as I have family from Germany. The last time I visited Germany, I was speaking at a market stall to order some food and the teller answered me in English 😆. I think he was happy that I had simply attempted to speak in his language.
I think I will get back to revisiting these languages, especially German in the future. I might enrol in some classes to revise the language. It’s just making the time is the issue for me but if I really want to do it, I can make it happen. As for other languages, I’m sure I would have the resources. I’m just not sure how difficult I would find them. Also I guess my priorities are not there yet. At the moment I’m focusing on my career, fitness and travelling.
Therefore, this is something that I wish I knew how to do. How to make the time to learn multiple languages, even just one or two. Also, what is the key to knowing multiple languages?
Let me know your thoughts or what you wish you knew how to do.
I’m not sure I had a favourite toy. I was obsessed with 80s cartoons, “funnies” as they were known then to me.
As a child it was Thomas the tank engine, which is still going to this day. If I was placed in front of Thomas on the television screen, I would have sat there for hours, not a peep from me, so I’m told. Apparently my nephew is now the same also ☺️
Then growing up in the 80s, I became mad for Thundercats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Gummi Bears etc etc, any 80s cartoons really. They really captured my imagination. I used to love going to my Grandads house as he had cable tv. Therefore, offering a lot more funnies all throughout the day and not just in the morning. I used to get up super early in the mornings, just to race to the living room to watch the funnies.
So basically, any toy, figurine, comic, annual, video or video game, I was hooked if it featured any of my favourite 80s cartoon characters. As I grew older, I became infatuated with my first games console, the Sega mega drive. Playing Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter or Streets of Rage were my favourite games to play. Anything also that you could play with more than 1 player. Micro machines too come to think of it.
Can anyone else relate to this? An infatuation with 80s cartoons or games consoles? Please let me know.
This question I had to think a little about. These days, just leaving our home is leaving our comfort zone, with the omicron virus everywhere. Nobody wants to become the next victim to corona, especially as we have to isolate. However, I feel like this is not a true challenge for me when leaving my comfort zone.
I like to think of the emotions you experience when leaving your comfort zone. For me, it’s feelings of dread, fear, embarrassment, nervousness, anxiety, stomach doing summersaults etc. Even though you know these feelings will not last and you will get through it, you cannot help but shed these emotions.
I last had these feelings when I had my first day of teaching this year. As I’m sure many of you are aware, I am a nurse. Therefore, I am used to teaching others, new staff, colleagues, student nurses etc. However, this is normally on a 1 to 1 basis. Recently, I became a teacher of nursing. It’s a completely different kettle of fish. Standing in front of a large number of students is daunting. Especially on your first day. Luckily for me (and the students) I got through it ok. I was nervous on the inside but hopefully managed to hide that. The more I got into it, I actually really enjoyed it, being able to share my knowledge and experiences. When the students seem to enjoy the class, it makes all the nerves worthwhile and you’re happy they you’re having a positive impact of their future nursing careers.
So my advice for others leaving your comfort soon is to know that it will be short term. The dread won’t last forever. Everyone experiences these feelings when leaving their comfort zone. Furthermore, we grow as people when we leave our comfort zones. It makes us stronger, braver and more confident in ourselves. It is a good thing to challenge ourselves, push ourselves out of our comfort zones and grow as human beings.
The Indian Pacific – Sydney to Perth. You can read all about it here. It is a railway journey travelling across Australia and it takes a few days. Maybe not the most conventional road trip but I still consider it a road trip, albeit by rail.
You sleep here, wine and dine, meet other travellers and stop off at a few different locations along the way, all whilst taking in the magnificent views of the Australian outback. It kind of reminds me of Australia’s version of the Orient Express.
This trip is on my wish list big time. Unfortunately, it’s so hard to plan anything like this due to the ongoing pandemic and restrictions constantly changing here. Hopefully, one day, I will be able to experience this amazing road trip by rail.
If I were to travel by car. I would love to drive from Perth to Broome, driving up the west coast of Australia. The only thing is I would like to drive with a few other people. Safety in numbers. Have you ever seen Wolf Creek? 🙈
Thanks for reading guys. I cannot wait to hear what your favourite road trips would be.
What an interesting and rather deep question for the first day of bloganuary, where we are given a daily prompt to encourage us to blog and interact with other bloggers. I’m happy that it’s a question that we can all relate to and offer our own perspective. This is also a question that features on every season of RuPaul’s Drag Race 🙂
I really wish we could offer some advice to our teenage selves. It would certainly help you through those tumultuous times and allow you to see the light at the end of that long, dark adolescent tunnel. Being a teenager is hard enough in itself, hormone changes (voice breaking, pimples), discovering who you are, trying to act as a grown up, without all the extra challenges that are thrown in for good measure. Being bullied by other teenagers, for no other reason, than for their own amusement, having family and at home issues, struggling with school, living in a small minded country town and balancing a part time job. All of these issues I struggled with on a daily basis. Throw in the confusion of sexuality and coming to terms with being gay and at the time, trying to be a Christian, I’m surprised I managed to crawl out of my teenage years alive. I know I am not alone with these issues. We all have our own struggles to deal with and there are many more struggles that I am so fortunate to have escaped.
The advice I would offer myself would be to :
Believe in yourself. You will accomplish many great things in life, both in your personal and academic endeavors.
Do not worry about what other people think of you, it is irrelevant.
It is ok to be a gay man, there is nothing wrong with that. You were born that way. Just as people are born heterosexual. I love the question: When did you choose to be straight? Erm, I didn’t choose, I was born that way. EXACTLY! It’s the same for homosexual people. I wish I had heard this as a teenager, instead of feeling ashamed and scared. I think my family knew I was gay from as early as 6 years old. Looking back on life, I think I knew subconsciously from about 15 years and I didn’t fully come to terms with this until I was about 21/22 years old. Insane really how society plays such a part in this. I am so happy to see times are changing for the better and teenagers hopefully do not have that cringeworthy and terrifying moment of having to ‘come out as gay’.
Do not let small minded people define you. You are going to travel the world and meet so many open minded people who are welcoming and will teach you so much about life.
Do not worry about having few close friends at school. When you go to university, you are going to become so popular and well liked, just for being yourself and will make the most wonderful friends for life.
Do not worry and stress about your family situation. Things will settle when you move out of home and you can all put things in the past and get along with each other better than ever.
This is the advice I would give my teenage self. I think it honestly would have helped me through those tough years (don’t get me wrong, I had many, many great times as a teenager). Let me know what advice you would give your teenage self. I am honestly so intrigued by this question. Thanks #bloganuary, great first question to kick off the new year.
Thanks for reading everyone and Happy New Year. Here’s hoping 2022 will be better than the last two years.
It’s a funny time we’re living in. I’m not even excited for the new year to be honest. This time last year, after having lived through 2020, I was super excited to see the back of that year. 2021 had so much promise and potential to be the year things would return to normal. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. It actually ended up being worse, especially here in Australia, where we were to have our longest lockdown to date.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a terrible year by any means. For me personally, I had some incredible highs regarding my employment endeavours. The biggest low, however, was not being able to travel internationally for a second year in a row. Meaning it’s been 2.5 years since I have seen my family and friends in person.
I had hoped to celebrate the end of 2021. More so as it was my first time taking a break since our lockdown had started eight months ago. Granted, we had a lovely Christmas and were able to travel locally within our state. Unfortunately our holiday plans were cut short and we’re now in isolation at home. Covid numbers have continued to soar here in Australia, as we have also seen worldwide. The omicron variant is just so darn contagious.
I became a close contact and therefore had to isolate. It was on the cards. People here have been trying their hardest not to get caught by the virus, so that plans over Christmas would not be ruined. Anyway, my time ran out. Even having to get a PCR test here has been a shambles. Many testing centres are closed over Christmas. Rapid tests are near impossible to get a hold of and if you do manage to grab one, be aware, it will cost a small fortune as prices have been jacked up by the retailers.
On the plus side, it is nice to be at home for a few days. Sorting things out, cleaning, organising and relaxing. At least I will feel well rested and refreshed for the new year and heading back to work. I’m grateful to be negative from covid, presumably thanks to my booster shot that I received a couple of weeks ago 🙏🏼.
I hope you all have a really wonderful 2022 and that things will improve for us all on a world scale. I am really excited for the blogging challenge set out by WordPress this month, Bloganuary. Has anyone heard of this? It will provide prompts daily for us to inspire and encourage us with blogging into the new year. Is anyone else participating in this challenge? How is everyone else feeling regarding the new year ahead? Excited? Anxious? Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks for reading guys & gals, take care and stay safe.
WrookieSchU 