#blogjune Post 27 Part 1 - I ran again

As I am on a quick break from work, I thought I'd do a quick post about my motivating start to the morning.

I know to some, what follows will be no big deal - for me it is!

I joined the marathon ladies and one gentleman this morning for another run.  It was to be 5km but we ended up doing 6.8km.

Once again I can say that I really enjoyed running with a group and did not feel at anytime that I could not keep going.  I even pushed in a sprint at the end.

What made this run special for me as opposed to other runs I've done, is that we ran along the beach as the sun was coming up.  I don't think there is anything better! 

Even though it was cloudy, the sun did turn the clouds pink and it was beautiful.

It is during times like these, that I really love living here!

Here is a photo a friend took of me walking along the beach we ran along this morning.  Different time of the year and day but still beautiful!

#blogjune Post 15 - It's been 5 Years Continued

Following on from yesterday's post and since I'm up early and my brain really is in weekend mode, I'm continuing yesterday's post and sharing some more photos/thoughts on living in Bellingen Shire.


Lavender's Bridge over the Bellinger River


Minor flood with Miss A - our first flood in Bellingen not realising that there would be many, many more to come


It's well known that on the North side of Bellingen, they will throw a party when the bridge is under as they are pretty much cut off.  There has been a lot of discussion about building a new bridge that won't flood - but really where is the fun in that?!?


Urunga - where we live.  Looking inviting in Summer time.

I have plenty more photos on my Facebook account.  And I hope to take some today of the Crazy Market Day in Bellingen.

Enjoy your Saturday!!

Blog December Post 23 - It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

Today's Destiny Card is Flexibility.

As a I have confessed, I do like routine, but this holiday's I have promised to remain flexible and go with the flow more often.

Last night we had the Urunga Carols.  Every year since moving down here, my daughter and I have gone along for the long haul of 4 hours of carols that lead up to the grand finale of fireworks.  This year we have the pleasure of hosting my husband long time friend.  It was great having a refreshing pair of eyes at the carols.  My husband friend continued to rave about what a great event the carols are and how it is great to see our community come together for it.  I must admit that there seemed to be a lot more people there then previous years.

The carols really make it sink in that Christmas is not far away.  The star in the big pine tree on Morgo St - that runs along the foreshore is another sign that Christmas is around the corner.  Of course, small child constantly reminds us of how many days until Santa comes!!

I'm particularly enjoying the lead up to Christmas this year because it is not raining.  The last four years I have felt cheated of a true summer.  And while many whinge about the heat and humidity - that is Christmas to me and we are certainly getting it this year!!

Today we will show my husband's friends some sights from our area and it is really great he is visiting at this time of the year because it is forcing all of us to get out and away from our normal routine and do something - as opposed to sitting in the house and whinging (not me) about the heat!!  I am embracing flexibility!!

So I apologise that my posts are going a bit soft at the moment but with the weather being so good and having a guest in the house - it does not allow for long moments of thoughts before posting.

However, I will share this - once again I read it on a FB/blog post this morning and thought it was a bit quirky - Since 1996, 31 Australians have died by watering a Christmas tree with the lights on.
Ref: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Blog June Post 16 - Not Every Day is a Bright One

The IT saga continued yesterday with staff computer (and our back up) number 2 going down at Urunga branch.  I feel pretty stupid about this one because I was trying to open a docx document and we only have word 2003 on our computers - sad I know but we don't have the funding to purchase a license to upgrade the library computers.  So I thought I'd download open office - as I have done this before and it will then allow me to open the document.  I can almost hear some of you sighing about doing this - because I'm sure there are other ways of opening docx documents but anyway this is the way I know.  Please share if you know another way.

So I started downloading open office - and I noted the download was different to normal so I stopped it.  Apparently a bit too late because this stupid free games program had loaded and it decided that it would stuff the computer up by not allowing any programs to launch.

Phone call to our wonderful IT officer and he talked me through starting in safe mode and then trying to do system restore - hmmm system restore not working.  Hmmm big problem.  So he has given me some instructions that I will follow, along with the help of my IT savvy husband who has more than once saved a computer from a nasty virus/trojan, over the weekend - when we get time to go down to the library - to see if we can salvage this computer.

Unfortunately, it means my staff member who is working there today until lunch will have to manually note all loans and will have no system to search or reserve.  Not to worry, we have all been in tha predicament before but it reminds us how much we rely on technology and how we have really made it hard for when our system isn't working for us to do our job.

A positive out of the day is that we decided to splurge and go out for dinner to the newly refurbished Club Urunga (Bowls Club).  What a shock to be asked for a licenses when we walked in the door - or some other form of ID.  Thank goodness we are local as they let my husband slip in without ID as he wasn't driving or paying so he didn't have his wallet on him.  He did have to get signed in by a member though!!

It was also lucky I had run into a lady that works there during the day and mentioned we were coming in that night.  She asked if I had booked - to which I replied - no do we have to?  She said yes as Friday nights are pretty busy.  She then reassured me she was heading over there now so would put our names down.  I'm double shocked now as this is Urunga with a population under 2000.

Anyway, we were seated by the lady I know and there was another lady who was taking bookings and payments that I also knew and then a few people that sat on adjoining tables that I also knew.  And then hubby saw some people he knew and so on.  It's nice to eat out and feel part of the community.  Of course, my head starts going on tagents of possibly ideas to partner with the libraries.  But more on that later when I've mushed them around a bit.

The meal was lovely - very filling.  My daughter was desperate to check out the kids playground - you can see it from the road and she has been hounding us since the club opened.  So in the freezing night we went outside and she got to play around for a while.  There was a big tunnel slide but she wouldn't go on it because it was pitch dark inside!!

Once my husband is working again - he took his first steps toward this by getting his OHS White Card - we hope to do the out for dinner in town thing a bit more often.  We thought he had a job lined up after that but he's been told he will need his Blue Card (stop/go batten) first.  So because all these tickets/cards cost money we have to do it bit by bit when we can afford it.  But we are working towards it and that is a good thing.

On a side note, I waited on the phone for over half hour to talk to family assistance about child care benefit as we want to put our daughter in vacation care this holidays.  The main reason is that the vacation care is on it's final chance to prove that we need the service in Urunga.  So they have to get at least 15 kids booked in this holidays or else they will not offer it again.  You see once my hubby starts work we will be needing this service so while we don't need it now I am going to book her in for some days just to show support - and I think she will really enjoy it as they have some great activities planned.

So after half hour waiting on the phone - I can't believe this is accepted as customer service - I finally found out some good news about our entitlements.  Basically we won't be paying a lot for vacation care.

Back to vacation care - I had a few emails back and forth with the organiser and suggested that if it is to keep going - which of course it will - we should look at where we can use the library in the program.  So I'm putting it out there to my fellow professionals - have you worked with a vacation care provider to offer some library based activities and if so, what were they?

What brought you here?

I get asked this question a lot - especially when I mention that I'm originally from Qld. Well today I will share the story.

Ok back in 2006, I took 12 months maternity leave. After that was finished I didn't return to my previous POW and managed to pick up some casual work which lead into a relieving position for a staff member on leave. This was to be for 12mths.

While I really enjoyed working there, I realised that there was a high possibility of there being no full time, permanent position for me once the 12mths were up so I continued to scan the job market. Also, on the home front things were not going well. We had some neighbours that were intent on making life not too comfortable. This was resulting in a lot of stress and the realisation that perhaps this wasn't the place we'd like to raise a child.

Low and behold an add for my current position appeared in my work email inbox. It is quite funny because I recall it was on an elist that I have no recollection of subscribing to. Perhaps it was meant to be.

The position was a manager/supervisor role and I had not yet graduated from my BALIS - however I did have my LT quals and 15 years library experience. So I thought I'll give it a go. Let it be known that I had no idea where Bellingen was. My husband and I did a bit of research and discovered that it wasn't far South of Iluka - we had frequently spent holidays at Iluka and also had our honeymoon there. We always wanted to live there. So I thought it would probably be a nice place.

Well I got an interview, which I did over the phone and thought I'd totally stuffed it up. But then got asked to come and meet face to face. They organised for this to be done at Grafton so we wouldn't have to travel so far. We only had the Friday and Saturday as I had to work on Sunday so we decided that regardless of the outcome we would travel to Bellingen after the interview and stay overnight - just to check it out.

I got offered the job and we had a very surreal overnight stay in Bellingen. Reality hit when we got home and realised we had only 6 weeks to relocate interstate and put our house on the market.

Rental accommodation in Bellingen is hard to come by so it wasn't until the week before moving that we had secured a house. Talk about stressful!! But if it is meant to be then it will work out.

We have been living down here for just over 3 years now. We bought a house in Urunga which we are currently doing minor renovations to and I'm really enjoying it here. This is not to say I don't miss my family and friends back in Qld.

The hardest thing I have found down here is making good friends. In Qld I had a really supportive mother's group and some library professionals that are good friends. I miss my regular interaction with these people and am yet to find the same network here.

I don't miss the traffic, pollution, dodgy neighbours, constant road works (although with any luck we will be having some road works in the near future to relocate the highway from our town), shopping (ok I miss it a little bit) and crowds.

So this is how I got to be where I am. I am heading up to Qld, with my daughter for a holiday today - which is why I am up at 5am. I will emerse myself in city life and enjoy it while I'm there. I have a packed schedule to ensure I catch up with family and friends - especially those I missed last year due to the floods - yes I was in Qld during the floods last year but that's a whole other story. And then I will return to my haven here and think how lucky I am to live here.

So how did you get to where you are now?

PS I will be entering into a place where I will have limited internet access so will try to post the final post for #blog12daysxmas tomorrow.