The week’s wrap up.

We’re at the end of another week. Friday is here once again! Time to think back on the week that was, and plan for the weekend.

The best part of my week (so far, today could pull something awesome out of the magic hat) was buying a new pair of shoes that I found on sale. Yes, shoes. They’re pink. And sparkly. I like pink and sparkly! I have a similar pair in black, but seeing the pink, I just had to own them.

There’s something about shoes that appeals to me. Heels, flats, boots…i love them all. Heels hold a special place in my shoe-loving heart though, because I’m not the tallest of people and they give me that extra height that I need (well, like).

My latest fascination is shoes with spikes and sparkly studs. I don’t really know why, maybe it’s a subconscious attitude on my part? Sort of like “don’t come too close to the shoes…they’ve spikes and not afraid to defend themselves”…you know, just in case someone is eyeing off my shoes.

I’m hoping I get to wear the new shoes over the weekend. I was hoping for today initially, but my plans today wouldn’t quite go so well in pink shoes. Unfortunately.

Happy Friday!

The big impact of the simple things…

It’s interesting how life tends to dish out exactly what’s needed, at the perfect time. Over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself dwelling on “the big things” – the things I thought made the big picture of my life complete.  Whether it be the big opportunity I missed, the news I didn’t expect and was not prepared for or the “luck” I thought was running scarce. The big picture seemed to be going all haywire.

That is, until the simple things in life made me refocus.  A series of things came together to make me realise life isn’t about the big picture. The big picture can be a combination of all the smaller things that really make life complete.

It started with me feeling really quite unlucky after a few things seemed to come collapsing down around me. Being blessed with some incredibly beautiful friends, I got talking to a friend one day and even before I had mentioned how unlucky I was feeling, she said something that really resonated that day. She reminded me that luck isn’t the prizes we win or the material things we own. But rather, we make our own luck.  Once I was reminded of this, I realised that I am so lucky.  I have the most amazingly supportive friends and family, I’m happy with how I’ve (mostly) achieved everything I wanted to so far in life and I’ve overcome quite difficult situations that tested me to the limits.  In the process, I’ve learned so many valuable lessons about life and about the person I am.

This was closely followed by a thoughtful and sentimental gift from a close friend for no reason other than she thought I would like it and so she sent it my way.  No birthday, no holiday…just because.  It wasn’t an over -the-top gift, but the sentimental value means more than anything else.  It has taken pride of place on my dresser and will remain there for the foreseeable future.  Everytime I look at it, I’m reminded of this friend and her thoughtfulness.  That simple gesture made more of an impact than the huge materialistically rich gifts we all receive (and yes, we love those ones too!).

After a few more discussions over the following days, I had just about fully convinced myself that the simple things were more than enough to push aside the other things that weren’t quite on track.  But apparently this wasn’t enough for whoever (or whatever) was sending me these reminders. I woke the next morning and scrolled through my Twitter and Facebook newsfeeds over my morning coffee and saw post after post about embracing the simple things.  It was almost like the Social Media angels filled my newsfeeds with everything I needed to see that morning.

The sunrise/sunset we happen to notice, the chats with those closest to us, the days we can just sit back and take life as it comes…they’re the things to be thankful for.  The superficial things are just an addition.

How one tweet can turn into so much more.

I’ve been talking to a dear friend this evening and she turned the conversation around to an angle I never expected. Me. And more to the point, how my social media presence and the relationships I’ve formed have changed my outlook.

Social media, and twitter in particular, has opened my eyes to perspectives different to my own. I’ve connected with some truly awesome people from all corners of the globe. Beyond this, I’ve met some beautiful people who I’m now blessed to call real life friends. It’s these friends that have been the biggest influence on my life in recent weeks. They know me personally – they’ve hugged me at one time or another, they’ve cheered for me and they’ve encouraged every decision I’ve made. And well, if it wasn’t for their encouragement and feedback, this blog wouldn’t exist!

They’re the people who insisted “yes you can” when all I knew was “no I can’t”. They’re the people who said “I’m so proud of you” and cheered for me when no one else was around to do so.

These are people I met purely on twitter. None of them had been in my life before we had connected (often by chance) online. People who’ve changed my life and supported pretty major aspects of who I am, are people that I connected with through a tweet. There’s friends I’ve known almost my whole life who aren’t such a big part of who I am.

And this is all thanks to social media. Where would we be without it? Back in the day of actually writing letters to family and friends…with a pen and paper. We wouldn’t be connecting with people on the other side of the world, or people within the same industry who we may not share a common friend to introduce us.

I can only hope that these friendships I’ve formed, continue to grow and these incredible people continue to touch my life. Without naming names, these people know who they are and that I’m forever grateful. So much love to each of you!

And as for twitter, well, I think we all know that twitter and I are not going our separate ways anytime soon!

International Left Handers’ Day

Today is International Left Handers Day, a day to celebrate the world’s lefties. 

In a world designed for the right handed folk, lefties (myself included) have to adapt the way they do seemingly normal tasks, because things don’t work, or aren’t comfortable in the left hand.

Items created for ease of use for right handed people include (but not limited to):
– Scissors (unless you’re lucky enough to own left handed scissors)
– Microwaves (such a pain having the dials and buttons on the right)
– Angled Spatulas (the angle goes the wrong way for leftie use)
– Ring Binder Folders (writing on paper inside the binder hurts a leftie’s wrist)
– Sinks (getting warm running water with the left hand requires the left hand to pass over and under the tap…risking getting splashed with hot water)

As a leftie, it’s so common that when I pick up a pen and begin to write with my left hand, I am faced with people asking “Oh, are you left handed?” I’m not entirely sure why this is so surprising. Given, the population is skewed toward more right handed people, but left handed people do exist! Sometimes it’s like some people have never seen a leftie before! 

I think that in future generations, there’ll be less of the “oh, are you left handed?” reaction. Purely because in previous decades, left handed people were encouraged to do things with their right hand during early schooling years. I myself, had a little bit of “use your other hand, Nat” in my early years. Through determination to do what felt more comfortable (and a little bit of my stubborn streak), here I am today, 22 years old and still happily left hand dominant. 

Of course there are struggles. I can’t use gel based pens because the gel leaves too much of a smudge. Even a computer mouse, the buttons are positioned for right hand use.

If you’ve got a chance, all you lovely right handed folk, do me a favour and attempt every day tasks as a leftie would. It’s not always easy!  

Friday Ramblings: What a week it has been!

The last week, so much has happened. Some good, some not-so-good. But they all had one thing in common: all unexpected!

The week started with me getting home from a weekend up the North Coast to visit family.  I didn’t have much left in me at all the first few days home…totally exhausted!

From the middle of the week onward, things popped up in my daily activities which surprised me, and also reinforced lessons that I had needed to be reminded of. Not in the usual way, but in ways that I’d never have expected. But it is the surprise factor that, in my opinion, keeps events in the minds of people.

I met up with someone who I had been chatting with over the last few weeks.  It was a random meeting too.  Just us both coincidentally (or conveniently, depending on your thoughts on coincidences!) being at the same place at the same time. It’s always the way though, randomly bumping into people. What was more unexpected though, through my conversations with this person, I was reminded of a lot. Things about myself, things about others, and things about life in general and the things people can do to help others. That moment was probably the highlight of the week.

Then, Thursday…well, it was the most unexpected of the entire week.  I took my car to get the tyre pressure checked (mainly so I don’t have to get my hands dirty doing it myself). I’ve had no issues with the tyres or the car, so I was expecting them to say all was fine, pay my $20 and drive home.  I arrived, left my car and walked to grab a coffee while I waited. On my return, the lovely tyre repair man was waiting for me. My baby had a nail in the rear left tyre! Something had punctured my pride and joy! Being all over-dramatic, I ask if it could be repaired and he tells me no! No! How can he refuse to fix my baby?! Apparently the nail was a matter of millimeters from being able to be fixed. There was only one option…a brand new tyre. The next thing I saw, broke my heart…my baby being held up with only 3 wheels!

So sad seeing my baby needing so much help!

I’m glad to report though, the car is much better now. A new tyre and it’s all happy again. 🙂

After such a busy (and crazy) week, I’m up for a little more normality over the weekend…let’s see how that goes! *crosses fingers*

Could we really express our lives in tweets?

I’ve recently started reading a book titled “The Twitter Diaries”, a book entirely written in tweets! No stream of thought is longer than 140 characters and, like Twitter, it involves mentioning the handles (Twitter usernames for those non-tweeters) of the people in any given conversation and hashtags. 

This got me thinking, could this really be done? Could we really get by while only communicating in such brief segments of conversation?

Could I? I’m not convinced one way or the other. I like to talk. And I don’t do well with being so concise. But in saying that, I am an avid Twitter user and I seem to get my point across reasonably well.

But, managing a tweet and expressing your whole life while adhering to Twitter restrictions are two totally different things. There’s so many things that need detail. Imagine a work meeting in 140 characters…it would go all day!

So I’m still unconvinced if it could work, but it’s an interesting thought. In such a time poor society, it could have its benefits I guess. We could all do with fitting more into our day, so giving each person 140 characters at a time would get rid of some of the time-wasters.

What’s your thoughts? (And yes you can have more than 140 characters! 😉 )