Happy Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year had a significance in my life since 2009, my first year at university, when we celebrated Chinese New Year to help a friend feel less homesick. Ever since, I have done something to celebrate the day. :)

This year is the year of the horse. My year. So I am hoping it's a good one, and hope it is also a good year for the rest of you horses out there! :)

Quote to Inspire: The Lorax

22-28 January: What I'm Grateful For

This week I am grateful for:

22 Jan

When strangers seem to really appreciate my smile and "Good Morning"

Not being part of the Australian heat wave

Cuddles with James before bed

23 Jan

Working legs

Homemade lunch

Cuddles

24 Jan

Patience

Understanding parents

Not having kids at work and home 

25 Jan

Lots and lots of sleep (13 hours in fact)

Gorgeous little shops on King Street

Crispy Pork Belly

26 Jan

Fireworks

Ziggy lunch dates

Reading before bed

27 Jan

The warm glow of the sun as it fills the bedroom on a lazy morning

A productive day

Quiet

28 Jan

Progress - with children at work

A happy and calm day

Long days - I love the sun being out for so long

What are you grateful for?

Beautiful Girl, Beautiful World

Seriously cute. I love it when she starts singing too. I so want to learn this song (changing girl the child) for work, it's a gorgeous song. Beautiful.

They Say It All

 

With Australia Day being tomorrow, I had been looking up anything Australia Day related on pinterest to get inspired to actually do something about it for work. I did not get much inspiration, BUT I found the above cushions which I think pretty much sums up the whole Sydney/Melbourne relationship. I also kind of want them.

The same website had the below, a fabulous Australian puzzle of Australian foods, including vegemite toast, fairy bread and lammingtons. Love it.

All the above can be found at Make Me Iconic.

Quote to Inspire: Optimistic

15-21 January: What I'm Grateful For

Life is pretty awesome. This week I have been grateful for:
15 Jan
Hump Day Sign in our elevator
The unconditional love of several babies/toddlers
Seeing the Sydney Sixers live (and win!)

16 Jan
Awesome casual staff - she is seriously amazing
Dinner at the dining table
Fans (as in the cooling kind)

17 Jan
Party tub of Maltesers
First class train tickets
Naps

18 Jan
Dinner with my 'Australian family'
Time to read
Air conditioning

19 Jan
Sleep ins
Looking under my chair before sitting (there was a dead Gallah...)
Creepy crawly killing James

20 Jan
Rain
The reassuring hold children take of the hair just above my neck
Wine (was soooo not grateful for wine the next morning!)

21 Jan
Cooler weather
Hand written card from my CEO for my 1 year anniversary at the company
Tweeting of birds

What are you feeling grateful for?

TEDWomen - I got 99 problems...palsy is just one

I don't really know what to say about this video. It's inspirational. It's funny. It's got me thinking.

Quote to Inspire - Butterflies

8-14 January: What I'm Grateful For

I kept it up for another week! :D This week I am grateful for:

8 Jan

TOMS - doing good whilst shopping

Having a job I hate being away from

Buying flowers

9 Jan

Morning Coffee

Take away

Flowers in the apartment (I comment about how pretty my flowers are every day)

10 Jan

Movie dates with James

Friendly staff at our local grocers

My rash being basically gone

11 Jan

Amazing potato wedges at Urbanbites

A tidy apartment

Feeling beautiful again

12 Jan

Wonderful 'in-laws' 

Mojitos

James

13 Jan

Gorgeous cuddles from children

Work

In season mangos and cherries

14 Jan

Children's giggles

Beautiful views

Bahama Mamas

What are you feeling grateful for?

SoulPancake - The Science of Happiness

Whilst on holiday I had a lot of thinking time. One of the things I thought about was my blog, and that I really wasn't updating it much. This bothered me, so I started thinking about what I wanted this space to be. It may sound selfish, but I decided I wanted my blog to be something I could look back over and feel inspired. I wanted it to be filled with happy and inspiring thought, pictures, quotes and videos. I like this idea because, not only will it be fun to look back at all that I have posted it will be fun posting. There are so many wonderful things out there in the world that I don't share because I'm lazy, and I think finding a way to share them will make me happier, and spread the awesomeness. (I feel like I'm sounding like some crazy 'happiness' addict!)

Anyhoo, VIDEOS! I want to share awesome videos. I have loads, and don't want to bombard you with them, so am planning to every week or two share an awesome video. Today's video is all about the Science of Happiness. The Science of Happiness is a series on SoulPancake (home of Kid President) and is a series of short videos testing different theories on what makes us happier. I've watched quite a few, and cried a lot of happy tears...so I thought it was definitely worth a share. If you want to watch more from the series click here.

Sir Patrick Stewart on Moos

Browsing Buzzfeed today, and came across this little gem. I really hope it is Sir Patrick Stewart, and believe he is witty and intelligent enough for it to be him. Basically, How to do Everything helps people do anything and everything, and in this podcast a woman from Nevada wants to know what an English cow sounds like. To get an answer to the question they call Sir Patrick Stewart, and awesomeness happens. I highly recommend checking it out, to do so you can click here.

Good Eye Might

Challenge for today: Say "Good Eye Might" without sounding Australian.

Can you do it? I can't.

Quote to Inspire: The Best Version

1-7 January: What I'm grateful for

I decided not long before the New Year that I wanted to start documenting what I am grateful for. I had watched a TED video in which it was mentioned that people who stop to think of three things they are grateful for each day start to live happier lives; in fact my new gratitude book from Kikki.k states that listing three things a day you are grateful for can increase wellbeing by over 10%. I am all for happy and feeling more well. Where is the harm in trying?

Since I had made this decision near the New Year I decided the 1st January was the best to start, and so mentally I started noting things throughout the day that I am grateful for, or things that have made me happy, and I found that each day I could easily come up with three things (somedays I had three before lunch!). These things can span from a helping hand to a cup of coffee, in my mind if it makes me happy, if it makes me glad it is in my life, then it is something worth being grateful for.

As mentioned I already have a space to write down what I am grateful for, but I wanted to share here too. One, because I am hoping this helps me keep this up more; two, because I want to start photographing what I am grateful for (because how awesome would it be at the end of the year to have a book of photos of those little everyday things, or random occurrences that made your year?); three, because I am hoping it may encourage each of you to take a moment to reflect on what you are grateful for, even if it is only once a week.

So, all of that over here is what I have been grateful for in the last week:
1st Jan
My Mum
Cafe de Paris - for always having yummy steak
My childhood

2nd Jan
Having someone who puts up with my crazy
A good shower
Roast Pork

3rd Jan
Kind people who lend me their phones in a time of need
Upgrades
Maltesers

4th Jan
The opportunity to travel
Having someone to travel with
My bed

5th Jan
How much James cares
Having access to doctors
Sushi lunch with James

6th Jan
The wonderful parents at work
Dinner cooked by James (I had fallen asleep, he cooked and then came to wake me)
Freedom to sleep as much as I want

7th Jan
Cooked breakfast by James
The opportunity to be creative
Turning a sick day into a study day

What are you feeling grateful for today?

In 2014 Our Room Shall Be...

Yesterday was our set up day at work. A day to sort out our rooms and do some fun questions set by our regional manager. Due to the wall between my classroom and cot room not having moved yet, it was kind of hard for me to set up my room properly. They'll be moving the wall this weekend, so putting things on the wall was pointless, and my room plan for the larger room was quite squished in our smaller room. It's only for 4 days. After room set up the Nursery and Toddler room staff had to sit down and run through some questions, that I was then supposed to be running through with my boss today...but I'm not in work. The final task was to create a statement for the room, we chose to do this for both rooms, that was something we could hold ourselves and each other accountable for, something casuals could see and work towards, and other stuff I don't remember. We decided instead of a statement to list out things we wanted our room to be for 2014, and since I have to stay home today and tomorrow because of my rash (doctors don't know what it is, and don't want me to be around babies) I thought I would use this time to make our statement something beautiful that we can proudly display on our walls. The above is the result. I am really happy with it. :)

Now I have to find something else to do with my day...

The woes of travelling with Katie

As some of you may know, I don't seem to have the best of luck when it comes to travelling. It's not an all the time thing, but I do have more than one good "bad travel experience" stories. Snow in the UK has caused me problems, the ridiculously named volcano in Iceland affected my travel, trains have had electrical problems, and I'm pretty sure I went through a stage of 7 flights in a row that were significantly delayed (i.e. an hour or more)...so, me and travel have our issues.
It was probably because of this that I was able to see the funny side of what happened when we left Geneva. We had an early flight (7:30) and my sister was also leaving that day, about 3 hours later, so my mum and dad just did the "Kiss and Fly", so they dropped up off, helped us get out our suitcases, gave us some big hugs and set us on our way. James and I then found our way to our check in desk in the 'French Section' of the airport and joined our queue. At this point I reached down to my handbag to get out my passport, only I didn't have my handbag...it, my phone and my passport were still sitting in the back of my parents car...being driven away from me. GAR! After a minor, internal panic I started running around trying to get my handbag back whilst James kept our position in the queue (it was relatively long...I didn't want to have to join it later). I first went to the customer service desk, but there was a long line, so skipped it. I decided the cafe should have a phone. They didn't. The man there seemed to take pity on me though. I was crying, and explained I'd left my passport in the car, and so he let me borrow his phone. I couldn't call my parents because I don't know their mobile numbers by heart, so I called home...where my brother and sister were still asleep. GAR! I leave a message and run back to James. Un satisfied with standing around I go back to customer service, still a long line, so I go see if I can get out of the 'French section'. No. So I ask the nice lady in the duty free if I can use a phone to call my parents, again crying and explaining the passport dilema. She lends me her phone. I leave another message. I then go back to customer service. They don't have a phone that can call externally. SERIOUSLY? (At this point it might be worth pointing out that the night before my parents, James and I did have a conversation about a. my dad forgetting his phone in the car, and my mum not being able to call him to tell him, since she had his phone, so having to run after him; b. how most airports no longer have phones that call externally because we all use mobiles now...the irony!) The unhelpful customer service lady tells me there are some pay phones I can use. Thankfully James had a bag full of Euros (He was still in line, not yet half way to the front), so I used those to use the pay phone to call home again...I figured I could try and wake up my brother and sister with a non-stop ringing phone. I got through to my sister, who had called my mum, who was going to try call me. I pointed out my phone was in the car with my mum, so that wouldn't work very well, and gave instructions to tell my mum to meet me by the French Section entrance as I can't get back through it, but she could come part way through it. I then tell James what is going on and go wait by the French Section entrance. Whilst waiting the duty free lady calls out to me to say she thinks my family is calling her mobile since she doesn't know the number, I answer and it's my mum. We sort things out and I get my bag. YAY! I go join James in the line...we haven't lost any time due to the passport drama...but I think I may have aged 50 years! The rest of our flights went fine, we even got upgraded to Premium Economy from Paris to Guangzhou.

I did also develop a rash during our flights. Explaining to the doctor today how it developed was probably quite an interesting story. Friday morning before we left for the airport I noticed a couple of spots on my chest, but didn't think much of it, sometimes I get spots on my chest. By the time we got to Paris I had a rash all over my chest. Not much we could do now, so we just hoped it wasn't contagious and that I wasn't going to suddenly die. By Guangzhou the rash had spread up my neck and to my chin. By Sydney I had a rash on my upper chest, up my neck, on my back, on my chin, nose and cheeks. Awesome. The rash is now blistering. I have a photo (for reference to know if it's better tomorrow) but I won't burden you with it.

All I can say is travelling with me definitely isn't boring.