Last weekend I attended a workshop for committee members of Toastmasters clubs based around the south eastern suburbs and regions. I hoped that by attending the workshop I might pick up some ideas that would help our club to boost our finances and membership. As I’m currently serving in both roles of treasurer and membership vice-president, it seemed like a good idea.
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I WAS going to write a piece about goal setting. You know, new year’s resolutions and all that, and why they are usually forgotten by the end of January. Something light but suitably encouraging, appropriate for the new beginning of a fresh year.
A COUPLE of months ago my mobile phone company wrote to me advising that my current plan would expire shortly. The network it used was about to be shut down in favour of new, more efficient networks. Neither my sim card nor phone would be able to work on the updated networks. Bother, I thought.
A FRIEND once commented that I always seemed to do interesting things with vegetables. This came as news to me. I must have made an extra effort that day.
A LITTLE over a year ago, some time in the hours between going to bed on Sunday night and Monday morning, Angel Foster, my boss, suddenly and unexpectedly died. There had been no indication that anything was wrong, no sign of illness. If anything, she appeared well, and younger than her actual age.
AT WORK recently a customer asked if the tablets I was offering for her cold would make it go away. Before I thought about what I was saying, I replied that the cold would go away anyway, sooner or later. I quickly added that the tablets would help relieve her symptoms until it did, and fortunately the customer had a good enough sense of humour and enough motivation to buy the tablets anyway.
GOSH, there are a lot of food gurus out there. There’s a “diet” for every imaginable food theory and plenty of disciples for them all. On the other hand, there are still plenty of people taking absolutely no notice of any dietary advice from any source. Somewhere in between, many are doing their best but find the plethora of diets confusing.
THIS April marks four years since I signed up as a member at the YMCA. My partner Pauline had been going to the gym for several months, getting fit to qualify for future employment options. I had noticed positive changes in a variety of her health and wellbeing indicators, and was forced to have an honest talk to myself about my own.
ON NEW Year’s Day I got up and did what any perfectly normal person would do on the first day of the year: I cleaned out the s-bend of our en-suite sink.
WHEN I first met my partner Pauline, she used to make some comments that didn’t make any sense to me, yet she seemed to find them wildly amusing, or think they were wittily apt for the current conversation. The comments usually sounded like quotes from somewhere, but although I fancied myself as a well-read and well-travelled person, none of them rang any bells.
ONE of the few advantages of having a 39-minute drive to work is listening to the radio on the way. I listen to a wide variety of programs; some talk, mostly music, but this morning I tuned into Exploring Music, a program on 3MBS fine music station. This program is produced in New York and I assume arrives here via podcast or similar technological marvel. The presenter introduces a composer or style of music and plays selected pieces to illustrate.
Having been an E grade science student at secondary school, I was alarmed to discover that I had to pass a chemistry bridging course before I could begin my naturopathy studies.
 KILCUNDA, March 2013. I’m at the annual Keeping Kids on Track fun run, organised by the Bass Coast triathlon club. I’m helping my friend Felicia run a stall to raise money to rebuild a school in Kongor, South Sudan. My partner Pauline is in the 10-kilometre run so I’m cheering her on too.
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