We Should Have Been In Brisbane

We should have been in Brisbane this weekend for a phenomenal convention.  Knowing it would have been phenomenal is like knowing it will be warm when the sun shines - it can't help itself.

However, due to the vagaries of our motor transport the convention had to take a back seat - this time.  We've bought another car.  I'd like to say a 'new' car but I'm just grateful for one made in May 2000 instead of 1987 which is what we have been driving for the past 3 years.

Driving the old Honda Civic required a certain amount of knowledge of how the old girl liked things to be in order to progress down the road.  Like all us old girls sooner or later we may succumb to certain aids in order to keep propulsion happening - like zimmer frames, new knees, walking sticks, glucosamine, glasses et al.

The Honda had very bad dandruff - try sitting in it and going to scratch your head or put your hat on and you'd find yourself with nails full of roof lining as inevitably one managed to catch them in the deterioration.  There was a certain degree of emphysema too as the choke wasn't happy completely turned off and required a piece of tie wire behind it to stop it closing.  If the wire was missing the fuel stopped on corners and roundabouts, that was always entertaining if not downright dangerous.  The intermittent wipers didn't intermit without a bungey strap to hold the switch together.  Of course we've long forgotten the first problem we incurred and that was when the white tailed rats decided to eat the cover off the emission control system one night and as we couldn't get another one for love nor money we had to patch it up with gaffer tape and never try to get it serviced as the mechanics would probably refuse!  Fortunately we don't have white tailed rats (or at least I don't think so ... not in the 'burbs) where we live now.  I'm not going to miss pumping the accelerator twice while pulling the choke out in order to start it, even on a hot day - I'm revelling in just turning a key.

The worst thing has been the coolant leaking somewhere unreachable near the water pump ... oh and the vibration throughout which may be something to do with the automatic gearbox and/or the engine mounts which if we decided to replace them would have to be sourced from the USA as they are unavailable in Australia.  Then of course the well overdue timing belt would have to be replaced and .... it's just not worth it.

Back to the leak, during the last 2 weeks it has assumed a dominance in our lives that became unbearable with topping up and bleeding the system beside the road as well as in the garage at least twice a trip, even if we only went to the next suburb.  Last Wednesday was the culmination of all anxiety when the stress of it all put my blood pressure from normal to 158/95 and a pulse of 83 ...  I could bend down, turn round or get up from a seat without nearly passing out, not good, so that was crunch day.

 The Honda has given us good service and owes us nothing, we hope it goes to the wreckers tomorrow and we love our silver Hyundai Lantra.

Geared for Growth

I'm fortunate to be part of a group of entrepreneurial people that are exposed on a daily basis to the thoughts and revelations of the masterminds of personal global development on various levels.  If you haven't a clue what I'm writing about, then all I can ask is that you hang in there.  It could be life altering.

I'm currently reading Geared for Growth - The 10 Principles for Reaching Your Potential by John C. Maxwell and Jim Dornan.  You won't find this hardback book on the open market, it doesn't even have an ISBN.  It cost me only $20, quite a deal when you consider the content and that it is a hardback.

It's full of illuminating nuggets, some from the writers themselves and others quotes from eminent people from the past.  This blog is going to be full of quotes.

"The great American preacher Dwight L. Moody" said 'If I had to kick the person most responsible for my problems, I couldn't sit down for a week.'  We need to start with ourselves because we are so often the problem."

"Whether you are trying to lose weight, build a business, build a marriage, raise a child, overcome a bad habit or resolve a depression, it is done the same way: one step at a time.  And the earlier you begin the more steps you can accumulate."

"While it's true that the later you start, the more urgency you feel, the good news is that it's never too late - as this poem illustrates:
Though you cannot go back
And make a new start, my friend,
You can start from now,
And make a brand new end!

"How do you get started with the end in view? First, find your passion.  A passion, a goal that you feel strongly about, gives you energy.  This is the "end" that you want to keep in view.  You can find your passion by asking three questions:
What do I care about?
What are my gifts?
Who do I know who is successful in these areas, who can mentor me?"

I like the paragraph on page 21 where John Maxwell talks about so many people refusing to move ahead until everything is perfect.  As he says, this is really just another excuse or fear masquerading as a reason.  You need to focus on the rewards.

Never having analysed the word "extraordinary" before reading this book meant that the fact there are only 5 letters difference between ordinary and extraordinary had escaped my attention.  Extra means just a little bit more.  Note the word 'little'.  Not a lot, not a whole heap, not a mountain - but a little bit.

"If you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know he had help getting there!"  Why do I love it says John Maxwell, "Because I'm a turtle on a fencepost.  I know that I didn't get to where I am in life on my own.  I'm just not that smart, gifted or fast.  The truth is that those who reach 'extraordinary' receive help from others to get there".  And that's what I am getting by having access to this book and to those who wrote it.

As a man thinketh, so is he.  "It's surprisingly easy to travel through life without thinking much.  But that path doesn't lead to success.  Simply put, your mind will give you back exactly what you put into it.  It's impossible to harvest extraordinary achievement without also sowing the seeds for it in your mind.  Earl Nightengale said 'You are and you become what you think about.'"

I'll end with a quote by Louis Armstrong "There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell them." Make 2012 YOUR year, the year you realise that you don't know what you don't know.

Conscious Evolution ....................

I'm tired of live cattle exports, of Halal, of ritual killing etc etc etc.  For God's sake what sort of world do we live in?  If we can't care properly for the animals we raise and consume then what chance do our domestic animals and our children have of having their needs met?  If you wonder how I can include our children in the equation then you're completely missing the point.

Every act that we perform or condone affects us spiritually and we just can't argue with that, it's the universal law ... the way we're made ... it's the system.  We have to grow up and take responsibility for our own actions.

If Holland can stop ritual killing in their abattoirs (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13947163) then so can anyone else, it's just needs the entire system of raising the animals and turning them into meat to change.  We're being Luddites if we think any system can continue the same indefinitely.   Read Conscious Evolution by Barbara Max Hubbard -
http://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Evolution-Awakening-Social-Potential/dp/1577310160

To the Queen!

"Those who write, erroneously, about the Queen's Birthday holiday being “an 
unnecessary link to the imperialist past “(Age 13/6/11) obviously know 
little about our current constitutional arrangements and care nothing for 
the will of the Australian people who, in 1999, voted to retain the monarchy 
with the Queen as our head of state and sovereign.

The Monarch's Official Birthday holiday is Australia's first and oldest 
holiday, having been so declared by Captain Arthur Phillip in June 1788, to 
celebrate the actual birthday of King George III.

It is held in the second week of June in all States other than Western 
Australia (which celebrates it in September/October) to suit an appropriate 
cycle of national holidays.

As long as Australia remains a constitutional monarchy, it is highly 
appropriate and fitting that we honour the Queen of Australia by celebrating 
Her Majesty's Official Birthday. 

Rather than whinging about the holiday, republicans should firstly put 
forward the detail of the increasingly illusive model they propose for us.

Philip Benwell
National Chair
Australian Monarchist League"
0419 417 097

Live Export

So the Government has today finally bowed to public opinion and banned live cattle export to Indonesia for 6 months while they sort out an Indonesian solution. 

Now Sen Barnaby Joyce is saying that it will damage relations with Indonesia!  Excuse me while I get the fingers out of my throat - the Indonesians have damaged the relations, not us. 

Furthermore it is said by someone (?) that beef farmers in the north are going to need compensation for loss of income.  Another 'Excuse me" required here.  If they were prepared to put so many eggs in one basket and that basket being making money from the suffering of their cattle, then they were in the wrong business in the first place.  And don't tell me that they thought the MLC levy was protecting their cattle, that's putting complacency ahead of common sense. 

Now let's get live export of all meat animals banned to all countries, they don't need to endure that trip never mind the end they might endure.

Support local business they say - I've been trying to!

I was looking for a new washing machine this morning and went into all 3 electrical shops in Atherton.  In the last one I was looking at the machines on display when a male assistant with a cup of coffee in hand and not dressed for business I might add, crossed my path and asked if he could help.  I asked the price on one of the machines that didn't have a ticket on it.  Off he went with coffee in hand and returned with coffee in hand and the price.  To deliver the machine 18klms was going to cost me what amounted to 8% of the purchase price and no flexibility on delivery day which meant I'd have to wait a week!  Give me a break.

Prior to visiting this electrical emporium I went into a home decor shop that Louise had told me to go into to look at a wooden sign she knew I'd like.  An assistant approached me and I said why I was there.  "We had 2 of those", she said "and we've sold both".  As she didn't move away or offer anything else I asked her if it was possible to get any more.  She went to ask the owner of the shop.  She said that she could get some more but not just one!  Think about it woman - you bought 2 on spec at a gift show down south and sold them both- now you aren't prepared to order one for me and one to sell.  It defies the imagination what was going on in her head but it wasn't business.

I didn't meet one person working in a shop today that I would invite to join our business, they either/all had no sense of dress, no sense of service and no idea of how to behave with any sort of demeanour I would find acceptable.

Grumpy Old Woman is now back home and still looking for a washing machine.  As for the sign - I'll save the $89 it would have cost me and make my own.

Am I just old fashioned?

When I was growing up it was customary and good manners to thank people for presents.  This was usually done in the form of a letter even if the present had been given face to face.  The same went for meals at somebody's house, it was also customary to write a thank you note.

It all seems to have gone by the board, we're all so obsessed with ourselves that we don't think of others anymore.  I'm tired of giving presents to people that don't even acknowledge that they've received them.  I don't expect recipients to like everything I give them but I try so hard to get the right thing that the least they could do would be to acknowledge receipt thereof.

Recently an elderly acquaintance was kind enough to give me some highly perfumed ginger plants and cut flowers, the flowers are bright yellow and absolutely enormous.  I love ginger plants of all sorts so I wrote her a thank you card and posted it.  Choosing to post it was also a deliberate act, to show that I appreciated her kindness enough to buy a stamp.  I could easily have just put it in her mailbox as it was as close as the post office anyway.  I'm not saying any of this to big note myself, just to point out that common courtesy is thinking of how others will react.

A few weeks later she left some different gingers on my doorstep when we were out and left a note thanking me for the card and said old fashioned and how lovely it was to have done that.  I really appreciated knowing that I had pleased her in return for the pleasure the ginger plants and flowers had given me.

If anyone can tell me what I am doing wrong in giving presents and expecting acknowledgement, please do so.