You look so fat!!!! Have you put on weight?? What happened to you?
Ok so these are questions and statements that I would never ask or say to anyone and hope that no one else would (unless seriously worried about a loved one’s health).
Yet, I receive the opposite of these questions and statements on a VERY regular basis. You look so skinny! Have you lost weight? Are you eating enough? What is happening with you?
Granted I have always been skinny and always received these questions for as long as I can remember. However, I have had three different people ask me this in the past two days! When does it end? As a skinny man, it has always been my goal to put on weight, possibly for this reason. I’ve only really been working on my weight gain for the past five years and I want to do this in the best way possible and in a healthy manner.
I train at the gym which I absolutely love and yes I have put on a good amount of weight when I increased my calorie intake by 1000 calories. However, I noticed that my body fat was also increasing. Therefore, my new goal is to put on weight that is muscle mass and not body fat. I want to train well and eat a healthy diet. This takes a lot of time and effort, there is no quick fix. This is fine for me, I’m in no rush. However, the constant questioning and statements about weight is both tiresome and saddening. Now, I know this is not intentional. These are lovely people saying this and they would be horrified to know if I was offended. However, I am honestly surprised that I don’t have more of a complex about this. I guess I’m a tough cookie, quite resilient and do not let comments bother me too much.
Just another side note – unfortunately this is not people saying I’m skinny in a good way. For example, they could say, you’re looking slim or you look very toned…instead of saying skinny with that look of worry and disbelief in their eyes. Another point to note is, my weight very rarely changes on a daily basis. Therefore, I think people must forget how slim I am and when they do see me after a few weeks, they have forgotten and assume I have lost weight or I am not eating enough. People who know me well, know that I am always hungry and always eating. I love my food and am extremely grateful that I don’t need to worry about putting on much weight. Good genes I guess 😜.
Anyway, thanks for reading. That is my rant over. What are your thoughts on people’s own weight? Would you comment on someone’s weight? I don’t think people realise that being called skinny is just as bad as calling someone fat, which I personally would not do. Therefore, it really baffles me 🤷🏼♂️.
Don’t get me wrong, I am more than happy with my progress. Even if I will always be “skinny” 😆
My love of doors continues to thrive. I cannot wait to travel again and see doors from other countries too. However, I do love how Sydney has such an array of door types and fortunately for me, are all in my neighbourhood. If you are also a lover of doors, check out Thursday Doors here. You can take a look at my top 5 doors this week below 👇🏼.
Woollahra, SydneyBondi, SydneyWoollahra, SydneyPoint Piper, SydneyWaverley, Sydney
For today’s post I want to reply to Melanie’s post which you can find here on SHARE YOUR WORLD. I love the idea of sharing our thoughts. Ps. I just missed my spot to hop off the train by about three stops. The joys of being engrossed in the blogosphere 😬.
What very common thing have you never done?
I have never been married to the opposite sex.
Are we morally obligated to be charitable, if we have the means to?
This is a really tough question. I don’t think we are morally obligated but it is the right thing to do. We should want to help others as decent human beings. I feel morally obligated to help Ukraine but feel so helpless as a single entity to do anything significant.
What is the most amazing fact you know?
That the sun will rise again tomorrow.
What’s your favorite sandwich and why?
Chicken and cheese all the way!
Something that inspiresme…
The youth of today inspire me, especially their stance on global warming and wanting to improve the world we live in.
Thanks for taking the time to read my Tuesday Thoughts and thanks to Melanie for the inspiration.
By the way, I actually can’t believe this but I have just missed my train spot again on the return train!!!!! No more blogging for me this morning 🤦🏼♂️.
Happy Sunday everyone. I have been thinking about this for some time now. As well as my love for travelling, doors, flowers, architecture and anything quaint, I am also obsessed with sunrises and sunsets. Preferably sunsets as I don’t like to wake up too early to see the sun rising. I want to share with you every Sunday some of my favourite sunsets (and a few sunrises) over the years and where I have seen them. Hopefully the colours will also brighten our spirits with all the sadness in the world today.
This week I will show you a sunset I watched in Kata Noi on the island of Phuket, Thailand. I met my parents here for a few days as they were holidaying from Ireland and I flew over from Australia. It was amazing to be able to catch the sunset with my parents and spend some quality time with them on my own. A time I will forever cherish.
Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone. 17th March is a day the Irish love to celebrate. We celebrate St. Patrick as he drove the snakes out of Ireland, although he also brought Christianity to the island too apparently, saving the Irish from their pagan ways 😝.
In 2016 we visited the grave of St. Patrick at Downpatrick Cathedral
For most of us, it’s a time to celebrate being Irish or to be from the country of Ireland, including Northern Ireland. It’s a time to gather with our friends, drink lots of Guinness, wear our finest green attire and listen to traditional Irish music. It is an excuse for many to have a big breakfast and start the celebrations early. If you manage to stay out celebrating past 7pm, you have done extremely well.
We drink anything green really 🤣
This is also a day where everybody wants to be Irish. Everyone will tell you that they are Irish. “My grandmother’s aunt came from Ireland or my Dad’s great grandfather’s wife was Irish, so I must be part Irish too. We hear that a lot and in most cases I’m sure it will be true. The Irish tend to be everywhere. Years ago, Irish people had big families and many emigrated to seek a better future for their families, especially to America, Canada and Australia.
Being in Australia is a bit different from home and the traditions are a little different. I was working today but will be heading out for dinner tonight. I will be wearing green and I will be drinking Guinness. Even though it doesn’t taste as good here (they say Guinness doesn’t travel well, it’s best to drink in a country pub in Ireland, preferably Donegal 😉).
Will you be celebrating St Patrick’s Day today? Do you have a connection to Ireland? Do you have an Irish heritage? Please do let me know.
“Do you think, given everything that is going on in the world, that children born these days will have a worse or better life than their parents? Why do you feel that way?”
I find it sad to think about future generations living on this earth. The threats of war, natural disasters and pandemics will be in the future for sure. Natural disasters are going to become worse and to the extreme that will have never been seen before. Global warming will be at the point of no return as governments haven’t acted quick enough despite all the warning signs over the past few decades. Why can’t we all listen to what David Attenborough is saying?
We see with Ukraine, Afghanistan and many other countries, the greed of powerful leaders/governments wanting to take control no matter what the cost. Sadly, these people have followers, either due to stupidity or just pure evil. I thought people would learn from wars but I don’t think that’s the case and it will certainly remain for future humanity to have to cope with. What is it all for? What does it achieve?
Also I can see more pandemics in the future too. People not willing to do the right thing for the safety of everyone. Wealthier countries unwilling or unable to help the poorer countries. It’s actually quite depressing to think about it for the children of the future. Maybe I’m cynical because things are so bad at the moment with covid, floods, bushfires and countries being brutally taken over.
I really am hoping the future is bright for the next generations. I don’t want people of the future to suffer. It does worry me for family and friends who are all having children. Thank goodness I’m not having any 😜. What do you think?
Hi everyone. I just wanted to share my thoughts in this post. It’s funny I’m doing it on a Tuesday, or maybe it’s apt as I used to always hate Tuesdays. I always found Tuesday to be a nothing day. Let me explain my thought process there quickly. On a Monday you always had lots to talk about, normally what you had been up to over the weekend just past. On a Wednesday it was hump day i.e. middle of the week. You knew, when you were nearly finished the day, you were heading towards the weekend. Thursday is the day before the weekend can begin so you are in a really good mood knowing that Friday is the next day. Finally, Friday was the best day of the week. You were filled with excitement to be off for a couple of days and have some excitement over the weekend. Ok, so this was before I became a nurse and started working different shifts. From then I haven’t minded Tuesdays as much ☺️. Additionally I really appreciate my weekends off more when they happen now.
Here in Sydney, the weather has been dismal. Constant rain for the past two weeks and with no end in sight. Some places are having 230mls of rain in 24 hours. People are experiencing severe flooding, loss of homes, livestock, and employment. I know we are in the middle of La Niña, the atmospheric phenomenon that occurs here every ten years but this feels so much more. People are saying this is the worst flooding in decades. Global warming I’m sure is having a major impact. Very gloomy here in Sydney, however, I don’t want to complain about it as people are losing everything to these floods.
Feels like being home in Ireland
Also the war in Ukraine doesn’t seem to be slowing down. So many innocent civilians losing their lives. For what? The mind boggles. I know we wanted to hear something other than Covid on the news but this isn’t what I had in mind.
That’s my Tuesday thoughts on this wet, miserable day. Maybe I should start writing some fiction to lighten the mood. How’s everyone else’s Tuesday going?
This amazing piece of art is from my good friend Grainne Knox. You can check her out on Twitter, Instagram etc. Grainne is providing people with this image if they care to donate to the people of Ukraine via the Disasters Emergency Committee here. No matter what the amount is, it can make a difference. It’s a good idea if you’re feeling helpless and not sure how to help.
I think it’s a lovely gesture and I love this image. It is very relatable for Ukraine today with the sunflower being their National flower 🌻. I also love the idea of sunflowers growing everywhere.
Today I am show casing the sunflower as it is the national flower of Ukraine. I cannot stop thinking of this country, it’s people and it’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Hoping for a miracle.
Welcome to my second Doors of WordPress post. I am posting today because it is Thursday today and there is an amazing Thursdays Doors group in the blogosphere that showcases the most amazing doors. You can check it out here https://nofacilities.com/category/thursday-doors.
Please let me know which one is your favourite. I have written the location where I found each door in the caption below the photo. Note they are all from New South Wales, Australia ☺️.
If you’re looking to check out somewhere different near Sydney, then this could be your next stop. Situated near Botany, this park has it all, including a walking trail, a sports oval, themed gardens and ornamental animals, a maze, shaded walkways and picnic benches dotted around the park.
If you’re intrigued to know who Sir Joseph Banks was click here.The life size elephant plant sculptures are pretty impressive.The animals, although not real, make you believe you’re walking through some kind of zoo from the past. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m sure kids would be even more impressed.The tiger pen…you wouldn’t get this close if they were real 😝Beautiful sculptures Stunning scenery along the water
This park is a lovely way to spend a couple of hours on a sunny morning/afternoon. It’s always a blessing to find a new spot to discover and explore.
Cee from Cee’s Photo Challenges has a Flower of the Day challenge. You can check it out here. I thought this would be a fun post to show some of my flowers as I have quite a lot on my camera roll. They just aren’t popular on my Instagram feed for some reason, therefore, they are rarely seen. I’m delighted to show them off here on my blog. A big thank you to Cee for creating this challenge 🙏🏼.
Tulips from the Walled Garden at Glenarm Castle, Northern IrelandOrange Coneflower, Swords Village, IrelandMontbretia, Cremorne Reserve, SydneyGuarianthe skinneri, Fiji Fire-star Orchid, Fiji Bird of Paradise, SydneyDaffodils from Queen’s University Belfast
Thanks for having a look. All photos taken by me. I have so many more if this post becomes popular enough 🤣.
I just want to write a quick post to say thank you to all the amazing bloggers out there. This community is amazing for encouraging others, inspiring others and making everyone feel extremely welcome. To everyone who reads my posts, likes them and leaves a comment, I sincerely appreciate it. It’s true that when you know people read and take an interest in what you have to say, it really drives you to keep writing and sharing your experiences. I am delighted to have found this community and make new friends.
I wrote a post a few months ago to show some pointers that I have learned along my blogging journey and was keen to share with others. I still stand by these points today. You can check it out here and hopefully it might offer you some advice, especially if you are taking the first steps on your blogging path.
I have wanted to create this post for some time as I have a real love for doors, as strange as that may sound. I really like anything quaint, so if I see a door remotely quaint, I cannot help but admire it. I thought I would do a blog series showcasing doors in and around Sydney, just a few at a time. Whenever I see a door worth showcasing, I will add it to my list of Doors of WordPress. I may even display doors from other parts of the country or even other countries too. Please let me know what you think ☺️. I have numbered them and added their general location.
Ps. I have realised that it may not even be the door that I love but it could also be the entrance or even the building.
1 – Hunter Valley 2 – Surry Hills3 – North Bondi4 – Paddington 5 – Taylor Square (open door 😉)
Thanks for checking out my doors and please let me know which was your favourite?!
Wayne ✌🏽
Pps. I have just been informed by other amazing bloggers that there are others writing posts about doors and buildings. I am so excited to see these and join the doors community ☺️. Join me in checking out the below sites.
This tour was part of our Field of Light tour. After the lights, we headed upwards to the vantage point. There we were offered some tea/coffee and biscuits to watch the sunrise (this was needed due to being so early 😉). Needless to say, the sunrise was unreal. Even though we had witnessed a sunset, seen Uluru up close and from afar, this sunrise still managed to massively impress us. Take a look for yourself below.
Sun is rising Waiting for the sun to rise 🌅 The colours 🤩Sunrise with Uluru to the right. The way the sun hits is just stunning.
So we have now come to the end of my Uluru blog mini series. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures and are maybe now inspired to visit Uluru for yourselves. As I mentioned previously, we travelled here for a weekend break and didn’t quite get to see everything on our list, although I am overjoyed with what we did manage to see. If you plan to visit for yourself, there are a couple of other excursions you could try. Dining under the Stars is supposed to be amazing and was on my list big time. I’m sure it’s beautiful to eat in the middle of the desert with a clear sky above. Can you imagine how bright the stars must be? Also a camel tour around Uluru would be pretty epic, riding through the desert. Although part of me is slightly wary of this, could this be considered cruel to camels?
Anyway, hopefully you can do all the things you would like when and if you travel there. Not every excursion suits everyone. I for one am extremely happy with what we have seen and done and we have absolutely made memories to last a lifetime.
This light show, created by Bruce Munro is a feast for the eyes!!! I had heard about this from my barber who had said how amazing this is. I looked it up online and knew that I had to see it for myself. It is a light show, made up of 50,000 glass lights, that lights up a massive area the size of more than seven football fields. With Uluru in the distance and as the sun rises, the lights create a real spectacle that is something truly out of this world. It has to be seen in the dark for obvious reasons but it is absolutely worth the 4.30 am wake up call. We booked this as a tour that also included a sun rise tour that will be featured in my next blog post. Please enjoy my photos below taken from this truly magnificent experience.
We had already booked a sunset tour but we really wanted to get up close and personal to Uluru. We had initially booked to have a BBQ after the sunset with some interesting bush tucker but sadly for us the weather had been pretty wet the week before (great for the National Park as rain doesn’t happen too often). Therefore, the BBQ had to be cancelled as they could not have it due to the area being saturated. This actually worked out well as we could then swap our BBQ for a day tour of the scared sites at Uluru. This enabled us to see Uluru up close and learn about its history. It’s one thing to see Uluru from afar but when you have the chance to touch the sacred rock formation, it was a welcome addition.
We booked our tour with AAT Kings and it offered a walking tour guide of Uluru and a sunset experience with drinks and nibbles. I have to say the tour was really good but for us, having the chance to simply see and touch Uluru from up close was the main event. You really do feel how majestic Uluru is and you can’t help but become engrossed in your surroundings.
We were delighted to able to touch UluruMutitjulu Waterhole – this is a really special location and is one of the few permanent water sources around Uluru. This is a beautiful spot to sit and appreciate the peace and tranquillity. We stopped here to see where tourists used to start the climb of Uluru. It’s hard to believe this was only stopped three years ago. Now we know how insensitive it was to climb this sacred site.
After seeing Uluru up close, it was time to head out and see the views from afar. This way you can really see how the light changes when it hits Uluru as the sun sets.
Sunset here is pretty special ☺️Cheers to life 🧡Every second spent here changes when the sun starts to set. The colour changes are impeccable. This was lovely to watch, whilst having some wine, cheese, dips and crackers.
As the sun was setting, local Indigenous people sit nearby displaying their incredible art work, hoping to sell a piece. They were all outstanding creations of art and we had to buy one. Such an amazing location to buy local art and support the local community.
This was honestly such an unbelievable experience seeing Uluru up close and at sunset. It’s difficult to even put into words. I hope you all have this opportunity to visit Uluru but until then, I really hope you can enjoy the photos ☺️. Thanks for reading.
This was the first excursion we did when arriving to Yulara. This was a surprise for me as it had not even been on my radar to see Uluru from an airplane. I was told five minutes prior to being collected by the pilot. My remarkable partner had it all secretly planned.
We travelled with Ayers Rock Scenic Flights and yes you read that correct, we were collected by the pilot. This was certainly a first for us. We were taken by minibus to the airport where we boarded a very small airplane, a four seater Piston-powered aircraft (that’s as much as I know) and we had a safety talk with our amazing pilot.
I have been in a few different aircraft that holds up to ten people but never one that has just four seats. This was very exciting. You have to wear a headset that enables you to talk and listen to the pilot, whilst also listening to her communicate with the local air traffic control team. Then up, up and away.
The views even taking off were out of this world. I have never seen the ground so red and dusty. It’s amazing to be in the desert with not much at all around you. There were some green plants however, as there had been much needed rain just days before. We could see the town of Yulara, the hotels, the workers’ accommodation and an even fancier hotel away from everywhere else, where William and Kate had stayed. Our pilot was a great tour guide, giving us a run down of the area and history.
Then when you see Uluru, it’s just magnifique. Such a feast for the eyes. From the air it doesn’t look as big as on land but it fairly stands out in the middle of the desert. You can also see Kata Tjuta, another rock formation about 25km away from Uluru, which is just as formidable but somehow understated.
Honestly this is such an experience to see from the air. Whether you choose a plane or a helicopter, it will be worth your while booking a trip in the air. You won’t regret it. it’s not as scary as you might think and the turbulence was very minimal. The pilot talks to you throughout and you’re busy taking in the scenery to be anxious or worried about the height you are at.
Some advice for you that I learned after. You can only take and post pictures of Uluru from one side. On the back of Uluru are some culturally sensitive sites that you cannot take pictures of or post on social media. I had learned this when doing the tour on foot, however, I had never considered that fact when I was snapping away from the air. Granted I had this experience before the tour on foot so I was ignorant to this information. I have so many photos and videos but unfortunately cannot show them here from this angle. I will show more in the next blog post when we carried out the tours on foot.
Let me know what you think about seeing sites from the sky?
Hey guys! I cannot wait to share this blog post with you about our very recent trip to Uluru. I have so many amazing pictures to share so I think I will create a short blog series, featuring this introduction and a post for each excursion that we managed to fit into our weekend. This is my first time creating a blog series for a place I have visited, so I think that speaks for itself how amazing I found this place ☺️.
I’m sure most of you have heard of Uluru, previously known as Ayers Rock, located in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. If not, you can find some really interesting information here. For me personally, I know it as one of the wonders of the world and appears as a huge rock in the middle of Australia. Situated in the desert, it is known to me for its amazing colour, stage presence, it’s spirituality and is one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of Australia. It can also be referred to as the spiritual heart of Australia 🧡. For me, this is a bucket list trip that I am so grateful for now being able to tick off my list. Previously people could walk on top of Uluru until people were informed that this is actually very disrespectful to the Aboriginal people. This is an immensely culturally significant place for them and has to be treated as such. Therefore, walking on Uluru was ceased, albeit only from 2019 surprisingly.
For some people, they simply think of Uluru as a giant rock formation in the desert, which it is. However, there is so much more to this feature. When you see it for yourself, you just cannot help but be in awe. It is absolutely mesmerising. You can feel a sense of spirit and connection to the land and the history of Uluru. The way in which the light can alter the appearance of Uluru from sunrise to sunset is astonishing and photographs simply do not even do it justice. It is fascinating to learn about the geography of Uluru and it’s connection to the Aboriginal people dating back to about 30,000 years ago!
It had been advised to me that three days would be enough time to see Uluru. I agree that you can carry out many activities in three days, however, I believe I could have easily stayed for another couple of days if time permitted. Just a heads up if you’re ever planning to visit. There were some other activities that I simply didn’t have time for or they were booked out as this was a very spontaneous trip for us. I will write about the activities that we were able to carry out, whilst also mentioning the couple that we didn’t have the chance to do, in case you have the opportunity to see them for yourselves.
Ok so I will begin with how we travelled to Uluru, where we stayed and a little information regarding the area. As Uluru is in the National Park, the town neighbouring the park is actually known as Yulara. Travelling to Yulara from Sydney is a 3.5 hour flight approximately.
View on arriving into Yulara. Sitting on the left side of the plane gives you an amazing first glimpse of Uluru.
Thankfully Yulara is a small enough place and everything is very close by. When arriving at the airport it is less than a ten minute drive to the main inhabited area with the accommodation and town. All transfers to your accommodation are free and there is a free shuttle bus driving around Yulara every 20 minutes which is pretty awesome. We stayed in Sails in the Desert simply because I had seen it on Instagram and it looked really beautiful. This was a great hotel, lovely room, great food and extremely friendly staff. We couldn’t have asked for more. Although the pool was closed for renovations, we could use the neighbouring hotel pool which was perfect. All of the hotels are running at a reduced capacity due to covid and people not travelling. Personally, I loved this as we had more space to roam around, we didn’t not have to queue for anything and there was great social distancing.
Sails in the Desert hotel Hotel restaurant where we had an amazing buffet breakfast and the best fried eggs I have ever eaten!
The town has an amazing art gallery displaying all the local aboriginal art (seriously out of this world!) known as GOCA – Gallery of Central Australia and there are also talks from local Aboriginal people, discussing their history and ways of life. Yulara has a cafe, a supermarket and a couple of shops selling some amazing Aboriginal artwork and gifts. There is a local pub known as the Outback Pioneer. This is for visitors and the locals and is most definitely worth checking out. Just hop on the coach and you will be there in 15 minutes or so. The town of Yulara, albeit small, has a lot of character and is extremely welcoming.
Hello, thank you, goodbye and welcome – Palya ☺️Gallery of Central Australia Neighbouring pool Town centre Outback Pioneer
Stay tuned for my next post where we look at the different activities we managed to undertake, the first one – seeing Uluru by air.
I am excited to show you all a snippet of this wonderful place in NSW, Australia known as Mudgee. First of all, what a great name. It is an Aboriginal name meaning ‘nest in the hills’ which is very apt as it is geographically located within the Cudgegong River Valley.
The reason I have always wanted to visit Mudgee as I have heard that it’s the place to visit for wine tasting. I know we have Hunter Valley nearby (I have so many posts on this) but I was excited to try somewhere new and visit a more rural location. Mudgee, being further inland of NSW and a 3.5 hour drive from Sydney is the perfect getaway. I had heard that Mudgee has a lot of character and is extremely rustic and quaint. These traits are right up my street and boy did Mudgee deliver.
We were only there for a weekend so we didn’t have the chance to explore everything on offer. However, that just means we will have to return one day! I will show you where we stayed and the places we managed to check out, including 3 wineries. Also the people here! The people are amazing here and so, so friendly.
This is where we stayed. This is Perry Street Hotel, part of the Peppertree Hill Group. Gorgeous place to stay and very central location. The kimonos were a lovely touch 👘
The architecture in Mudgee was fantastic. I love seeing the old style buildings and churches. It adds a bit of character to the place and showcases the history of the area.
Mudgee Town HallMudgee memorial clock tower ⛪️ Regent Theatre 🎭 Even the solicitors office looks impressive
We booked a wine tour with Mudgee Wine Tours and we planned the half day tour. This offered three vineyards to visit and to be honest this was just the right amount. We have done a full day wine tour in the past and it’s a long day of drinking wine 🤪. Others on our tour were carrying out the full day and they were exhausted by the end. Our tour guide was with the most fabulous woman we could have met. Lindy was professional, personable, extremely friendly and honestly made the tour very memorable for all the right reasons. She would interact with the different vineyard staff also which was really lovely to see and to be honest this was a first for us. Most tour guides will simply wait outside and operate mostly as a driver for the day.
1 – Our first vineyard was Walter Wines. A lovely place to visit and we also had the most amazing pies here for lunch. 2 – Pieter Van Gent Winery – really delicious fortified wines with an exquisite interior featuring some awesome old church furnishings. 3 – Bunnamagoo Estate – beautiful area to sit outside Too good not to purchase 😜
A couple of places where we had drinks and dinner. These are all popular spots in Mudgee and worth checking out.
Kelly’s Irish Pub (why do Irish people always have to find the Irish pubs?!)Beers at Mudgee Brewing Co – the food was amazing here tooDelicious food at Cade Kitchen and BarBreakfast at Alby and Esthers – amazing outdoor space, feels like you’re eating in a secret garden. Paragon Hotel – Our favourite pub just beside our hotel. Perfect for a wee night cap 😉
We loved walking around the town and even managed to stumble upon a pretty park just by the river.
Quaint stores A lovely walk along the Cudgegong River.
We also took a ten minute drive outside Mudgee to visit Windamere Dam. It is really stunning and you can also visit on your way home from Mudgee as it’s on the route back to Sydney.
Thanks for checking out my Mudgee blog. I hope you liked the photos and maybe feel inspired to visit yourself one day. It is a truly wonderful place that I would happily visit again.
It’s funny but I used to really hate being asked this question in job interviews. How the heck would you know where you were going to be in five years?! Especially as a young person, as the idea of being in the same place five years later would literally terrify me.
Now this question has been posed by fellow blogger Fandango as his provocative question. You can see his post Here.
I feel like I have two realities that could be equally possible. Almost like a Sliding Doors scenario if anyone has seen that movie.
1 – I will still be living in Australia, working as a nurse and teacher but living further afield. I will move out of the big smoke to somewhere more rural, purchase an amazing property, have my own car and have a couple of dogs. I will be able to travel home to Northern Ireland once or twice a year as covid will no longer be an issue.
2 – I will be living at home in Northern Ireland. Covid is still an issue and we cannot travel to Australia as freely as before. I will have a similar life, working as a nurse, buying my own property, purchase my first car and have two dogs. I may be considering a career change as nursing travels deeper and deeper into the depths of despair with the NHS sinking (hopefully not). I will have lots of great times with family and friends, seeing them whenever I please. I will travel all around Ireland (albeit with my raincoat and umbrella) and will travel all over Europe (covid restrictions permitting if still exists).
To be honest, any one of these scenarios would be fine as long as I remain healthy and my loved ones stay safe and well 😊.
Last day of the blogging challenge!!! Cannot believe we made it to the end. 31 days of blogging in a row. For the most part I have really enjoyed it, however, I do feel the prompts have went downhill since the beginning. I can appreciate it must be difficult to think of new topics every day that will keep people enthralled. I was really hoping for an amazing prompt today, seeing as it’s the last one but it fell a bit flat for me. What do you think of today’s topic? On a positive note, it does make you think outside the box.
I don’t often see many stars living in the city. So when I do have the chance to see them, I know for sure that I am out of the city and a little more rural. This in itself is a good feeling as I must be on holidays.
There is something very special about looking at the stars and it always makes me feel contented. It provides a feeling that the world is not that big, as everyone on the planet can look at the same stars (not all at the same time). It brings us together as human beings and with me living so far away from home, I take comfort in knowing we are all under the same stars ☺️.
I also often think about who else can see the stars out there. Are there other planets or galaxies with living beings that can also see the the same stars? Or maybe they have their own stars.
I feel calm and at ease when looking at stars too and almost become lost in their beauty in the night sky. How does everyone else feel?
On a final note, I would like to add a huge well done to everyone for making it this far with Bloganuary. It has been an amazing month of blogging, making new friends and reading other people’s perspectives. It’s funny how we all interpret the blog prompts differently and we form our own methods and ideas to tackle the questions. I have thoroughly enjoyed the process and look forward to interacting more with my fellow bloggers.
Thanks so much for the support and all your amazing comments. I love reading what you have to say and learning more about people from all over the globe.
I must say, this is the most random question yet. I immediately thought of taking a quiz online to see if it could come up with a quick solution. You can try yourself here.
My answer is Cherry Blossom tree and I immediately thought yes this could be me as a tree!
I do love to meet new people and have meaningful conversations. I also love to travel and sampling different cuisines. I can appreciate good art but I wouldn’t say I live for it. Maybe more the arts in general, like theatre/concerts etc. would be more meaningful to me.
This is a hard topic to write about, mostly as I do not have a lot of knowledge about trees to see if we have similar personalities. I certainly love trees and love taking pictures of trees. They are an amazing living species that the world cannot live without.
Maybe I could be a palm tree as I love the sun. I definitely would not be an evergreen tree as I could not survive in many different climates. I would need sun, water, shade and my leaves would change with the seasons, so perhaps I could be a deciduous tree, changing my leaves with the seasons as we do with our clothing when the seasons change.
I would say any change I make in this world will be on a very small scale. I am definitely not changing the world massively by any means.
I am sure that I am contributing to negative changes to the world like every other human being, for example, using too much water, eating meat, adding to the amount of rubbish we as humans contribute etc, etc.
However, I try to be aware of small changes we can make and implement positive measures where I can. I may not make any big changes but I feel I can definitely help in small yet significant ways. If we all do something small for the better, a lot can change. We have seen that with covid and lockdowns. Look how much the world improved for the better with no humans on the streets. The air was cleaner, the waters appeared less contaminated and Mother Nature was thriving.
Small changes that I feel I carry out to change the world for the better are:
– using less plastic (no plastic plates, cutlery etc)
– recycling
– using wooden utensils where possible and other sustainable products
– using reusable containers and covers
– using refill bottles and keep cups
– taking my reusable shopping bags to the supermarket
– trying not to let the water run
– being a decent human being, be kind and respectful to others (this will translate to other people)
– teaching students the correct ways to be well-mannered and caring nurses with leading by example.
These are all small things and I am not perfect but if we all make small changes, we can make a positive change for the future generations.
“IT ONLY TAKES ONE PERSON TO MAKE A CHANGE. LET IT BEGIN WITH YOU” (Joyce Thompson).
I have so many different artists on my playlist at the moment. I like to have a good variety, mostly upbeat songs as I listen a lot when I’m walking. I do have some slower and meaningful songs on my playlist too for when I’m commuting on the train to and from work. Sometimes at 6am you just need some easy listening tunes to help you wake up gently.
At the moment I’m listening to a lot of Mumford and Sons. The Delta album is the most listened too album at the moment on my playlist. I’m also listening to Neil Diamond. I always loved his songs since my early twenties. It’s refreshing to have his songs back on my playlist, they’re feel good songs and remind me of fun times. I have just picked a few of my favourite songs by Neil to add to my playlist. These include Crackling Rosie, Shilo, Stones, Cherry Cherry and Soolaimon.
I have the Paul Simon Graceland album on my playlist too. It’s one my all time favourite albums, I love the African inspiration and sound.
I also have some random pop songs to make me walk faster or lift my spirits after a day at work. At present I have a lot of Dua Lipa, Guy Sebastian, Ed Sheeran and UB40. I also have some really random songs on my playlist from Blondie to the Communards to Pink to Girls Aloud. I like any kind of music really with the exception of heavy mental or trance. I love pop, rock’n’roll, country, jazz, r’n’b or anything I might just hear from the tv or radio. I have the Shazam app on my mobile phone that is amazing for discovering new music. Any time I hear a song I like, I will Shazam it to see who sings it and then I will add to my playlist, it’s super easy 😊
This is an interesting topic today. To be honest, I don’t really seek solitude. I don’t often need or want to be alone. That’s not to say I don’t like my own company as I really do but after a few hours on my own, I become bored of my own company and like to speak to others or my partner.
Maybe I do not search for solitude as I often have it without having to try. I would often go for a walk on my own, especially along the coast. It’s good to blow away the cobwebs, take in some fresh air, have a think and increase my step count. It just so happens that I am often on my own as my friends or partner will be working. So, realistically, this would be my place for solitude and maybe it is required more than I will even know, even if I don’t plan to have solitude.
Also my trips to the gym are good for my own quality time, doing something just for me. However, there are often other people there for me to converse with so I guess it’s not really solitude.
When we were in lockdown, I would find solitude in the bathroom. Otherwise I was with my partner 24/7. This was never a problem for me as we enjoy each other’s company a lot but a visit to the toilet was a great way to have a few minutes to yourself. I know a lot of my friends who are parents agree with this one 😆.
Oh what a pompous question 😆. A favourite part of myself…is that physically, mentally, intellectually or morally.
I would maybe say I am happy with my mental self i.e. I have a good sense of my own being. I feel I have a good-natured personality that is kind and caring. I try to be the best version of myself and I am aware that we are not perfect as human beings. I would consider myself friendly and outgoing and I really enjoy meeting new and interesting people. I hope I am a person my friends can come to with a problem or just need someone to listen to, free from judgement and criticism.
There you have it, simple and to the point. My personality is my favourite part of me ☺️
I feel I have many things that make me feel strong. My family, my friends, my partner, my environment and my values in life make me feel strong on a daily basis. I feel, with their support, I can take on most things life has to throw at me.
On a more personal level, I think my fitness journey over the past five years makes me feel very strong, both literally and figuratively.
Literally, I am the strongest I have ever been. That’s not to say that I’m super strong by any means but I was seriously weak and unfit before I found my love for the gym. Physically I feel good and my fitness is a constant work in progress. I love feeling fit, strong and healthy and that takes me onto feeling strong also figuratively.
My fitness journey has helped my confidence to grow from a geeky little skinny kid to a less skinnier looking man 😆. By looking after my body and pushing myself I am becoming a better version of me and one that I am proud of. I am not hoping for a quick fix with my fitness and body goals. I am on this journey for the long haul and I absolutely love it. I never thought in a million years I would become a gym lover but once you commit for a few weeks and see results, it grabs a hold of you and you start to really love it, to the point where you miss the gym when you cannot go. Plus, even though I have never struggled with my mental health, I can really see how fitness can play such a positive role in helping to maintain your mental well-being.
Thanks to my fitness journey I feel strong literally 💪🏼 and figuratively 💁🏼♂️.
Every day at 11am here in Sydney I can see the new Bloganuary prompts and every day at that time I secretly hope for a really fun topic. Some days are pretty good…however, today I am pretty much at a loss for what to write.
The problem is, I never really remember my dreams. There is the odd time that I wake up due to my alarm going off and I was woken up from a really good dream. If you were to ask me then, I can remember all the details but after a few hours it will have all evaporated from my mind. I have often thought about writing the dreams down quickly so that I don’t forget but just have never gotten around to it or maybe the dream just was not that interesting to warrant me documenting it 🤷🏼♂️.
I do love when you have a great dream but waken up to use the bathroom. You were really enjoying the dream so you try to re-enter the dream when you return to bed. Sometimes this has happened to me and I actually can go back into the dream. This is amazing when it occurs but I will still forget about it when I waken up 🙈
Nevertheless, I have recently had the same dream twice, although it was more of a nightmare to be honest, whereby, I am back living in Belfast and carrying out the same job I had been doing previously. I was walking through the workplace wondering why I was there as it didn’t make any sense to me. This could be due to the fact that I’m thinking of home a lot and trying to plan my future. I do find dreams very interesting, it’s like your subconscious mind is working overtime, processing all of your conscious thoughts while you are having a much needed rest.
Do you believe that dreams can mean things? For instance, if you dream of your teeth falling out, there are big changes going to happen in your life?
Well isn’t this a strange request! Is this a “real” fictional character or one that we created ourselves? 🤷🏼♂️
I’m going to go with a real fictional character and the one I would like to interview would be Alec Harvey portrayed by Trevor Howard in my all time favourite movie Brief Encounter. If you haven’t yet seen this movie, please check out it. It’s an old black and white classic released in 1945. It is described as a British romantic drama but I think of it more as a love tragedy.
I don’t want to discuss the movie too much in case you do watch but my question would be to Alec about his relationship with the lead female and how he felt at the end of the movie? Did you make the right decision? Was everything that happened worth it? Would you do it again?
If anyone has seen this movie, please let me know ☺️
I have 3 favourite quotes. Let me know if you agree with any of them ☺️.
We are all replaceable so don’t stress too much about work. It’s all about that work/life balance 🙌🏼I always dreamed to live in Australia, so I like to reflect on this when I become engrossed in my daily living. I love this one as we have no idea who is watching our progress. This relates to me with my daily fitness and strength growth, trying to escape my skinny boy past 🤣.
This is a tough one today as it’s not something I have ever thought of or desired to do. I guess it would be fun to head back in time to my parents era, kind of like Back to the Future, just to see how they lived and what life was like.
It would be cool to travel to the sixties – the Beatles, flower power and revolutions. Before the Troubles would start in Northern Ireland. I would love to see Ireland as a country when everyone would get along, no matter what religion, before British invasion. This was probably about 500 years ago?!
It would also be nice to maybe spend one day in the future, maybe in 100 years when I know I will no longer be here. What is the world like? Are cars flying yet? Or maybe global warming has had a catastrophic effect and most of the world is under water?!
For now, I will time travel back to my early twenties and relive one my many fun nights out in Belfast with the best group of friends, back to a time when we were allowed to dance and you could go for a night out with £20 and still come back with change. Take me back to 2003 please 😉.
I love this question. I love taking photographs with scenery, architecture or anything quaint. I love looking at photographs, I love taking photographs and I think I have a good eye for what subject would make a good photo, however, I’m not that clued into photography. I would love to be but it just flies over my head. I have a “proper” camera but quite often end up using my mobile phone as the IPhone 13 is pretty good at taking decent pictures.
This photograph is one of my favourites. I am a sucker for a good sunset and I like how this image showcases the sunset with a pelican just sitting in the foreground. I love the colour of the sky, the wispy clouds and the ocean at the bottom. This picture was taken in Ballina, NSW in 2020.
I can’t wait to see everyone’s favourite photo ever taken!
Where do I even start??? There are lots of things that are mysterious to me, that make me ponder. I would love to be able to write something fictional as this post screams fiction to me, however, in the real world there so many mysterious happenings that I do think about.
One that always baffles me and is extremely curious to me is the fact that I have never seen a cockroach in Ireland. Here in Australia we have millions upon millions. Even in the cleanest of homes, you will still be able to spot one. We have had more than our fair share over the years in our home, regularly having to place cockroach killer in spots around the house, mainly the kitchen. In a previous shared house we were inundated with cockroaches. In the middle of the night, the floor would move in the kitchen. You open the cutlery drawer and they can be seen scuttling everywhere. They even lived in the microwave timer screen so we could see them as the minutes on the clock descended. You dare not leave food on the table and turn your back, even for a second or they would be having a field day in your next meal.
Yet, I have never seen them at home in Northern Ireland. I would tell people here in Australia that we don’t have cockroaches as the weather is too cold. No one can believe it here. They are gobsmacked, “you must have cockroaches” they say. Well I don’t think we do, I have never seen them. Carrying out some quick internet googling, apparently we do have some but where are they? Maybe they never come out of the woodwork to see us humans. Other websites say you will never find them in Ireland or the UK 🤷🏼♂️.
So this folks is a real mystery to me. Have you ever seen a cockroach in Northern Ireland, Ireland or the UK?? What about even colder countries again like in Scandinavia or warmer countries in Europe? Are there any cockroaches where you live?
I hate to say this but I actually don’t have a book to read next. To be honest, I haven’t read a book in quite some time, except for academic purposes. It’s a little embarrassing but I guess I have other ways to relax. I think coming to Australia I am definitely outdoors a lot more. I walk every day and I frequent the gym 5 or 6 times a week. I love exercise and I have really gained access to a whole new fitness world that was previously unimaginable to me. Also I study often for my employment, so I just haven’t recaptured my love for reading for pleasure as yet.
I used to be an avid reader, smashing a couple of books in a week. I loved the escapism it would offer and it definitely helped with my English writing skills at school.
I really would love to become lost in a good book again. One of those books that you can’t put down as you’re so gripped to turn the page and see what will happen next. I am open to suggestions if anyone is keen to share any. I like fiction that is crime, mystery, fantasy or thriller. I do also enjoy autobiographies and the older classics 📖.
I would love to have the ability to teleport. That would enable me to see my family and friends in Ireland any time I want. I would also be able to travel the world and save so much time and money on travelling.
The only drawback would be that you miss out on the joy of travelling. However, you would always arrive at your destination refreshed and with money on your account 🤣.
I could always settle for the ability to fly. That way I could still travel wherever I want by air for free. However, I feel that if I had that ability, there would be public interest and I could be taken hostage as a science project. Plus I think I would be fearful to fly over oceans in case I lost the ability to fly and fell into the vast depths of the open waters.
There are just too many superpowers to think of. I could settle for any but I always seem to think of the other side of the coin, the drawbacks. Maybe it’s better not to have a superpower 🤔.
It’s funny that this is today’s topic as I was just thinking about the cause that I am passionate about this morning.
I was asked three years ago by a company here in Australia to help promote checking your skin for moles and showcasing the importance of monitoring for any changes in your moles.
This hit home for me as I have a few prominent moles on my back and had a couple removed a few years ago due to always becoming caught on things and causing discomfort.
I have my skin checked every couple of years just to be sure all is ok. I learned that it’s even the small moles that you have to worry about, the ones that you can barely even see. I learned to check my skin regularly, protect your skin with sun cream (I use factor 50 here in Australia) and try avoid the sun at peak times.
The company that I help to promote (in a small way) is called Game on Mole. They do amazing work for skin awareness and offer a lot of useful tips for monitoring your moles. They have many influential people to help promote their ideology and spread their message here in Australia, with many telling their own stories about personal battles with melanoma. You can check out Game on Mole here and also some information from the Cancer Council here that offers some really useful information.
I feel that this is such a worthy cause, not just here in Australia but worldwide. I have people I know that have had minor surgeries to remove cancerous skin cells, not just here but also from back home in the UK.
A family member just messaged me this morning to say they just had their skin checked due to seeing my post on social media. I love how we can spread awareness in even the smallest of ways.
Thanks for reading everyone and remember to wear sunscreen 😉
A good lesson in life is to be kind to others. I know it sounds simple but many people fail to be able to do this unfortunately. I always have the mentality of treating others how I would want to be treated. So often people are quick to judge someone else, without actually knowing what is going on in their lives. Try living in the other person’s shoes.
I would say every single human being has their own personal issues. May that be family, employment, financial, relationship, psychological, physical, emotional etc etc, we all have something that isn’t perfect in our lives. Therefore it is so important to bear that in mind before we judge or criticise others. Just be kind to others, it shouldn’t be that hard to do ☺️. Life is tough enough without being treated unkindly. I feel like everyone can benefit by treating people with kindness. The giver and the receiver of kindness.
This one is easy for me. My biggest challenge to date is gaining the skills to be able to move to Australia. I have travelled here many years ago on a working holiday visa and always wanted to come back and live as a resident. This is no easy thing to do. Australia has very strict immigration rules. If you want to live here in Australia, you have to be of value to them, which is fair enough really.
You can live here if you have a skill that is in demand. I had a good look at their skilled visa occupation list and picked something that I thought I could maybe learn to do and enjoy as a new career path.
Some of you will know the career path that I chose was a nursing one. Everywhere in the world is in need of nurses so I thought this would be a great career move and I had always thought of nursing in the back of my mind as I really enjoy working with people and feel like I have a caring and patient nature. Also my mum was a nurse too so I think that definitely helped with making the decision to study nursing.
Before I could study nursing I had to gain some experience in the caring profession in order to discover these two crucial points:
1 – Would I enjoy nursing?
2 – Would I be capable?
Fortunately, I applied and received my first caring role in a residential home looking after older people. To my delight, I thoroughly enjoyed the work. It was something completely different from what I had ever done before and even though it was really hard work, both physically and mentally, I found that loved it. I loved making people smile, brightening their day and I had the opportunity to work with some amazing other care workers. The experience I gained here was immeasurable.
The next question I would have to ask is, would I be eligible to apply for the course? Although nurses are highly sought after, many people also want to be nurses, making it very competitive to enrol in a nursing degree. I was gaining experience as a care assistant but I also needed the relevant qualifications. Thankfully, I had already carried out a degree beforehand and had the adequate A level results so I was able to meet the eligibility criteria.
I applied to university whilst working as a care assistant and to my horror I didn’t receive an offer of acceptance first time round. I was saddened but I had initially applied for mental health nursing and I knew already that it was highly competitive. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise.
I spent another year in the residential home and reapplied to university a year later, this time for general nursing. I became a supervisor in the residential home and continued to really enjoy the work. This gave me the confidence to apply for a nursing assistant job in a hospital, as part of the NHS. Two years after having joined the residential home, I was now working as a nursing assistant in theatres. This was an amazing job opportunity and extremely different from working in a care home.
A few months later, I received a letter to say I had been successful to study general nursing!!! This was SUCH an amazing feeling to finally be another step closer to my Australian dream.
I enrolled in university the following year and continued to work both as a care assistant in the home and as a nursing assistant in the hospital. I was able to work across four different hospitals in numerous wards throughout my journey as a nursing assistant. I will never forget the things I learned here and the amount of amazing nursing assistants and nurses that I met along the way. It showed me the many different varieties of nursing and also allowed me to discover where I enjoyed working and where I maybe wanted to avoid in the future. I would say all nurses have certain tasks that they love performing and others not so much. The joy of nursing is that there is so much choice with regards to different nursing fields. If you don’t like one aspect of nursing, you can choose another that is more suited to you and you can also work in different settings, for example, hospital, community, GP surgery, telehealth etc.
So I studied nursing for three years. A full time degree whilst working part time. Hard, hard work, long hours and very little money but I loved it again. I had the best experiences, both in placements and in the classroom. Every six weeks we would change from being on placement to being back at uni and so on, whilst every placement you were on was in a different setting.
After completing my nursing degree, I became a registered nurse and luckily was able to obtain my first job pretty quickly. There was a huge demand for nurses then in Northern Ireland so all students were able to obtain their first choice of nursing profession. I worked in my first post for two years whist trying to plan my move to Australia. It all paid off in the end. I completed all my paper work and became an Australian resident before emigrating. This was another whole process and that is for another blog down the line. I do have a previous blog post on the nursing application to be a nurse in Australia here but be aware this may have changed since then.
There you have it. My journey to become a nurse and make the move to becoming an Australia resident. The whole process took about seven years. This was my biggest challenge to date and it was a lengthy process to say the least. I am glad I faced it and overcame the process. I could have let my dream pass and stayed living at home. However, I felt that I owed myself to take on the challenge and see what living on the other side of the world would be like for a lengthy period.
Thanks for reading guys. It’s slightly longer than my previous Bloganuary posts.
I feel very lucky that I have the opportunity to live my ideal day many times a week or month living here in Australia, mainly due to the weather and lifestyle. Even if I am working, I will take the opportunity to carry out activities that I enjoy before or after work.
I will break down an ideal day for me if I am on my day off, that is, not working.
• Wake up after a good sleep about 6am. Make myself a coffee and walk/run to the gym for a strength workout at 7am. An hour later I will come home to shower.
• I then love to have a good breakfast. Sometimes I will head out with my partner or I will meet friends for a catch-up over breakfast.
• After this, I love to go for a walk. Either along the coast, taking in the beaches of the eastern suburbs or around Centennial Park or even more so, a new place to walk. I love finding new spots to explore and taking many, many photographs. Maybe even go for a swim.
• Try to stop for lunch somewhere quaint or perhaps take a packed lunch. I am happy with either ☺️.
• Come home for a lovely home cooked meal and have a couple of glasses of wine or if I’m free in the evening, head out to meet friends for a few sociable drinks after having eaten.
• Finally, I would round the night off with a big cup of tea at home and have a reasonably early night, say 10 or 11pm. I am all about a good nights sleep.
This is an interesting post as I have recently been questioning whether emojis are accepted in the blogging world.
I love to use emojis. I feel like one little image can convey a word or feeling so well. I use these a lot in my daily life, in text messages, social media and now blogging. I think because they’re everywhere now, they have almost become integrated into our written language.
They’re useful, especially when you don’t speak or write the same language as others. They are universal and break down language barriers.
I don’t even realise I’m using emojis half of the time. Maybe it’s a bad habit to use emojis in blogging. I feel like they are looked down and frowned on in the blogging world. I did have another blogger once comment on one of my posts about my use of emojis and to be honest, I felt silly for using them and slightly belittled.
I think emojis are here to stay and are a sign of moving with the times. I personally like them and I will continue to use them. I will try to refrain from using too many in my blog posts as perhaps it does take away from the art of writing. However, I do believe in the saying “you do you and I will do me”, so if you want to use emojis, go for it, it is your blog after all.
These are my most used emojis at the moment. They do change frequently, however, there are a few that always stay at the top. I think you can tell a lot from someone’s most used emojis 😊
I love the hug 🤗 emoji. It’s very positive and shows that you care about someone, especially as we cannot really hug people at the moment due to covid. I also love the face palm 🤦🏼♂️ emoji and the shrug 🤷🏼♂️ one, which I obviously haven’t used for a while 😉. The grapes, leaves and sunflower are there simply there because I have just been to a few vineyards recently.
What are your thoughts on emojis? I am generally very interested to hear your opinions, especially when blogging.
For me, this means grabbing life by the horns and living it to the fullest. It means taking chances, leaving your comfort zone and not being afraid to try new things.
I try to do this as much as I can with travelling, meeting new people, sampling different cuisines and changing my roles of employment. I think these things are so important for character building and broadening our horizons.
I think I still can do more for living boldly and it remains a work in progress, for example, trying not to let other people’s opinions bother me and coming to grips that not everyone thinks the same. I am a person that generally follows rules and try my best to do the right thing. So in this regard I don’t live too boldly but I’m ok with that. I’m not a massive risk taker, I like to play it safe in life. That being said, I do love to be spontaneous at times with a last minute trip away or conversing with random strangers.
So I would probably say that I live life semi – boldly if that makes sense. Every now and again it’s good to live boldly but I still have my limitations. I’m a middle of the road kind of guy ☺️
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 🙈🤣.
WrookieSchU 