January 2010

All good things must come to an end, or so they say. Today marks the last day of my six week holiday. It’s back to work tomorrow morning and I can’t wait!

It’s been the longest holiday I’ve ever taken and well deserved considering what I’ve had to deal with personally over the past two years. Last years annual holiday was spent grieving heavily as that’s when reality finally hit me so it wasn’t much of a holiday if you know what I mean. This year on the other hand I’ve been doing exactly what I wanted to do and I’m feeling so much better for it, both physically and psychologically.

The first two weeks I was spring cleaning my home from top to bottom, it was long overdue like you wouldn’t believe. It also helped me spring clean my mind and life in a spiritual sense. It was also something I needed to do for my grieving process. You see, grieving doesn’t come with an instruction manual and every body’s experience is different. So you kind of have to figure it out for yourself as you go along which for me was difficult, very difficult as you all know. Spring cleaning for me was more about a spiritual cleansing process than anything else, it was out with the old and in with the new which explains all my recent shopping. I know that it sounds crazy but I had to change the way my home looked so it didn’t remind me of the time we spent here nursing Mum. It’s only now that I can think of her and see her in my mind as she was before her cancer diagnosis. Apparently that’s normal for a carer to experience when you’re looking after a loved one who’s terminal ill. It just takes time for everything to go back to the way it was, that’s all. So my shopping sprees albeit expensive has been a crucial part of my spiritual cleaning. It’s what I needed to do for myself and thankfully my husband has supported me all the way through it. I’m blessed to have him in my life, I truly truly am. He’s my guardian angel here to guide and protect.

Then it was time to spend the next two weeks in Queensland. Daniel’s been away from his family for a very long time due to my career and then two preferential treatment postings due to compassionate circumstances for Dad & Mum. We’ve learnt much about the value of family through losing my parents so it was important to spend some much needed time with them, my in-laws. We stayed with them up on the beautiful Sunshine Coast. It was just what we needed, time to relax and be surrounded by our loved ones. Whilst we were there I got back into my training with Lindy. It was the most intense experience of my training life and I learnt so many new things about my body and mind that I didn’t even know before. Things that will take me to the next level this year as I work towards my health and fitness goals. Greg our trainer is the best. His approach is different, very different to everything I’ve experienced. It’s really not something you can put into words, it’s something you have to experience to understand.

So it’s back home for the final two weeks holiday. With a spotless house it was time to just kick back and do whatever took our fancy and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. I’ve just been doing all the usual stuff like my maximum strength training, going shopping, having coffees, eating out and spending time with the love of my life, my husband. Oh and, at the very last minute we bought a puppy. It was on the cards for this year but not so soon. Fate on the other hand had a very different plan in mind and presented us with our newest member of the family, Chilli Halsall. He’s a male blue staffordshire bullterrier. Isn’t he just adorable.

Like I said in the beginning of this post, all good things must come to an end and so much this post. I have some final food prep to do ready for the work week ahead. It’s a completely different lifestyle and training schedule to what we’re done before but more about that in another post.

Until then, enjoy what’s left of your Sunday!