Happy Hands

After completing the final two online tests in my final subject for my massage course this evening I checked to see whether the results from my massage assessment had arrived yet. And they had...woo hoo, I was given an HD (that's high distinction), about which I am excited though somewhat surprised. I really didn't think that I was focusing (being in the zone is important when giving massage) anywhere near enough during the assessment and my mind, which has been a little crazy with worry over the past few weeks, was not clear and focused at all. Anyway, I am very happy. So now I just wait until I receive my certificate in the mail and then I can get insurance and start my own little massage business. Now for a name....any suggestions?

Massage and Mama Mia

It's quite a gloomy, cool and wet afternoon as I sit here writing this. Where has spring gone? We spent the weekend up in Brisbane, driving up after work. Thanks to Steve working out a more direct route through the city, we managed to get to the Skyline Apartments in Bowen Hills in 2 hrs 10 minutes. Dinner at a cafe in Fortitude Valley and then an early night. I wanted to get a good sleep so I could be at my best for my massage assessment on Saturday morning.

Lynda, my massage instructor had phoned me Friday morning with the news that my massage partner Ken could not make the first assessment time of 9am and so she wondered if I could bring someone along. Good old Steve of course happily agreed to be my body even though he doesn't really like being massaged all that much. Without Steve I would achieve nothing. Anyway, off we wandered with my big bag of towels, cold pressed lubricant and my two massage log books and waited until the assessment began.

There were four of us who massaged our bodies at the same time while Lynda looked on with an eagle eye to our use of correct strokes, proper, crisp boundaries with our draping and our own body stance. I know I didn't give my best effort for a variety of reasons so not sure what my actual mark will be..I hope I get a credit, but I'll have to wait and see.

After the assessment had ended we spent a couple of hours at the Valentine exhibition marvelling at the 100 frocks on display and learning more about this remarkable man who was able to maintain his international stature as a leading designer for 40 years. Extraordinary.

Then, following a lovely dinner at our fave Vietnamese restaurant at South Bank with Glen, who had driven up earlier in the afternoon, we headed off to enjoy Mama Mia at QPac, which was fabulous. But the night was still not over, with Glen convincing us to go with him to a gay pub, The Sportsman's Bar, where we met up with two of Glen's friends from Byron Bay, Ian and Gary, and took in a couple of drag shows. We also bumped into a friend of mine who I met in PNG a few years ago, Wally, who is now studying nursing at Griffith Uni in Brisbane.

Left Brisbane this morning around 9am and got back home just on midday.

Not quite a 4wheel drive mower

Steve took the new zero-turn mower down to the lower paddock on Sunday afternoon to keep the grass under control and all was going well until he found himself stuck in a no-go zone.
We tried pulling and pushing it back out but gravity got the better of us, so we resorted to using the suzuki to tow it back out on to the safety of flat land.
The funny thing(?) was that Steve found himself in two more incidents of 'stuckness' that required the intervention of the suzuki. But he and the mower are a great team and the paddock is looking almost golf-course like...well maybe not quite but you get the general idea.

Lunch with Anton, Abby and their kids

I taught Anton way back in 1992-94 in Newcastle when he was enrolled in the B. Soc. Sc (Recreation and Tourism) degree that I used to teach. We caught up a couple of times over the years but we'd pretty lost touch until I bumped into him at the Rural Buying Service in Lismore almost two years ago. Turned out that he had also moved up here from Sydney and in fact lives in the Billen community about 10 minutes from our place. In fact, his and Abby's place is on the other side of the ridge to the north of our place.

They kindly agreed to give me their bodies for an hour each so I could practice my massage today. Anton fell asleep on the table so I was very happy about that (less so when he used to fall asleep in one of my classes). We had a leisurely lunch while their kids, Jala and Stella, and their friend, Mitchell (Mitchell is in the orange shirt) frolicked in the spa. I'm massaging another two of their friends tomorrow. Still have another 17 hours of massage to do before I head to Brisbane for my assessment in a fortnight.

New garden created by Shane, Eric and Teo

Thanks to Shane, Eric and Teo, we have a lovely new raised garden, nicely mulched and planted out with lots of natives purchased for a song from the Friends of the Koala nursery located on the SCU campus. I buy most of my tubestock from there mostly for $1 or $2 a plant. I'll take another pic from the same angle around December to show how all the plants are growing.
Shane instigated this for me: a nice little nook for any reptiles that might like to inhabit the garden. They can live in the cavity of rocks and logs and sun themselves along the sleeper. Well that's the theory anyway. Will keep you posted.