Miss Mandie

To say I had a near-death experience two nights ago is a tad melodramatic and entirely inaccurate. But for a few moments, I wasn’t sure.

It all started with the nose piercing I recently got. It came out when I clumsily swiped it during the ritual clean before bed. Not thinking anything of it, I tried to put it back in.

I felt a little woozy.

I put my head between my legs to steady myself. Then once I felt okay, I resumed the task of getting the stud back into my nose.

I don’t really know what happened after that.

I remember a collection of really random thoughts running through my head.

I was on the floor.

I had no idea where I was, who I was, or what was going on.

Eventually I could utter “I’m not feeling too well”.

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I had the most delicious dream last night.

I was indulging in a box of Chocolatier chocolates. Revelling in the creamy softness of Milk Encore, a milk chocolate shell that melts away to a smooth creamy milk centre, and sucking in the goodness of the Lemon Macadamia, a decadent macadamia praline enriched with the zesty taste of of lemon.

After finishing the box, I moved on to those puffy marshmallow things covered in chocolate.Yes, in the real world I would have made a more sophisticated selection, but c’mon, I was dreaming.

I was gorging. I was happy. I was in sugar-fuelled ecstasy.

Then suddenly the realisation: Oh my god! I broke my diet! Shit. Shit. Shit.

But then morning rolled around, and I breathed a sigh of relief. All was well in the world. I hadn’t consumed 100 grams of sugar in one sitting.

I am not on a diet to lose weight.

I am trying to break my sugar addiction.

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The objects of my affection

As with most love affairs, this one took me by surprise. It was love at first sight if I’m honest. Our first meeting set amongst the backdrop of the glitter and glam of the Gold Coast. There they were, tucked into a corner (that infamous line by my teen heartthrob Patrick comes to mind), looking as beautiful as ever. I knew I had to have them. And for the bargain basement price of $6. Ohhhh, my heart skipped a beat.

I was indulging in one of my favourite past-times – procrastinating from study by scouring op-shops (secondhand stores for the international readers). This time I had a co-conspirator – Regina, a fellow student and from what it seemed, fellow procrastinator and lover of things recycled. I’ve never been one to pay much attention to crockery. I bought a heap when I first left home, got a dinner set when I got married and other than purchasing some big (I mean big enough to dwarf any sized meal in them) bowls last year, I haven’t invested much time and energy into what I eat off. Until now that is.

When I got home last night, I sat outside on my verandah, enjoying the last remaining moments of daylight, as I munched my way through some cheese and crackers, on one of my newly purchased plates. I swear it tasted better. I sat the plate at the sink with the other dirty plates. As I walked past later on in the evening (yes, I’ve gotten better at leaving dirty dishes in my house for longer than a minute), I swear that part of the kitchen looked more sophisticated and charming. Seriously. I stood and admired this plate amongst the dirty dishes for a moment. There was an obvious distinction between the usual “made in china and owned by 3 million other people” to these “made in England and slightly cracking from age” plates.

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The proposed "reiki studio"

I have lots of business ideas. Most of which are shelved until I finish my life coaching qualification. But one I had seemed like the perfect solution to making use of a great little studio on my property and getting me some extra cash while I am studying. I wanted to convert the guest studio into a reiki studio. I had the view I could entice some city gals to have a “girl’s afternoon” at my place. They could sip tea on the verandah. Enjoy the views. Be still and calm, while they took it in turn to have a reiki and massage session with yours truly. I thought it was a great idea!

It escalated into an even better idea when I ran into one of my neighbours in The Forest who is also a reiki practitioner. A practitioner in need of a space to practice. Perfect! She could use the space too for a small contribution. I was getting excited about creating this beautiful space. I even managed to compromise with my landlord about reducing the number of colours in the room…I got him down from four to two. We settled on keeping the green and blue. I could repaint the purple and yellow. I was going for a “serene” look, I told him in earnest.

Then, in a style that has permeated my entire career, largely in the world of communications and management, I decided to be open and honest and let others know what I had planned and confirm that it was okay for me to go ahead with this idea. It was an interesting process, being passed along from person to person. I quickly realised that no-one wanted to be that final person to give me the ultimate permission to proceed.

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