London Olympics....sending my hugs!

I think I would be a poor blogger if I didn’t write about the current Olympic games being held in London.

I admit, like many of my dear friends, the washing, ironing and general work has been put on hold whilst I catch up each morning and evening with the progress of Australia and no doubt as is the rest of the world and theirs. The achievements, disappointments and general euphoria of the games are relayed to us beautifully via our Australian journalists currently experiencing the excitement in London and clearly loving each minute of it.

Our wonderful Australian swimmers (and I have a penchant for our swimming prowess) are achieving well and we are so proud of them all (75% of the team, I might add, come from my home state of Queensland and naturally I must boast about this, especially having been a very decent swimmer in my youth. There must be something in the water here, pardon the pun). I was, however, nearly brought to tears yesterday when one of our wonderful female swimmers was clearly devastated she had not procured a gold medal but a silver. It was not the clear disappointment expressed in tears that I wanted to jump through the TV screen and hug her for but the words she spoke basically saying that she hoped that because she procured the silver medal and not the gold, she hoped her parents would still love her. It felt like my heart had stopped for a few seconds after hearing these words and oh how my empathy flowed to her. The questions going through my head was firstly do we have a family here who requires Olympic gold medals for satisfaction?

This became our family discussion and indeed the discussion of a plethora of Australian media for the next 24 hours but none of us could believe we had heard these words. Our fabulous Ray Warren, our legendary Australian swimming and general sports commentator clearly felt for her too the same way I did. After hearing the same words I did he sent a message to her via the TV airwaves assuring her she is much loved.  Me and mine came to the decision that this gorgeous young lady had clearly conjured a few slightly crazy thoughts in her mind over a period of time which she released by verbalising these words simply expressing her own personal disappointment and the need to confirm her need for unconditional love from those she loves and who clearly love her. Totally understandable.

This also lead to a discussion amongst ourselves in front of our television that evening, about how none of us could ever imagine the mental pressure these amazing athletes must have to endure and overcome to be able to prepare themselves and focus entirely on themselves and their events allowing them to achieve their very best, leaving no stone unturned.

Our amazing Susie O’Neill, a past Australian Olympic gold medallist was interviewed just previous to the commencement of the games. Susie stated that to be able to succeed as an elite athlete that you must become totally selfish in your journey to be coming an Olympian. Susie also stated that, since becoming a mum, she found it hard to look back and to remember just how incredibly selfish a person she was during  those years but that it had to be or you would not be able to give 110% to your sport.

I often wonder what that must feel like to be totally engrossed in your life whether it is an elite athlete and quite frankly I envy their selfishness. Clearly complete selfishness works and as we sit and watch these amazing human beings achieve greatness. We forget about what they have sacrificed and also very importantly what their families too have had to sacrifice to be able to support these young people in totality when one of them is being preened to becoming an elite athlete with an Olympic goal. My imagination cannot take me down that road but how I admire them all for it.

Mental agility, through life, is a huge asset to behold. It determines how we manage to cope or not with life’s curve balls and being able to cast aside mentally, things that really do not have any real weight in the grand scheme of things is a talent clearly to behold. One of mine told me that she very recently had had a discussion with some friends who are students of psychology; these students had been in a tutorial discussing just this subject, the Olympics and the mental preparation of athletes. The conclusion was that mental strength held 80% weight of an elite athlete’s preparation and physiology was just 20%.

So as I sit in awe of these amazing humans, whilst watching the day’s achievements and disappointments, I can do nothing but admire each and every one of them. Their disappointments and their triumphs must be experienced because that is what life consists of and I have no doubt that after such extreme mental agility as an elite athlete, their coping mechanisms with their future lives would be better than most of us.

To each and every one of them I wish them well and no matter what, ladies and gents, we, your admirers do truly love your work and I will continue to enjoy your fabulous achievements.

My shop on the corner

I have spent a lot of time driving in my car over the last six months, more so than usual for family reasons.

I love driving. I love plugging my phone in to my radio and listening to my personal music collection, music I love. (When my loved ones are with me, I also love them asking if they could skip that song or even plug their music supply in just for a change and yep, that is fine too. As they say, variety is the spice of life.) Yes it is true that I often break into song in my car and pretend to be Gaga, The Beach Boys, Cher, Michael Buble and so many more.

I used to work for a pathology company and was in charge of answering a plethora of phone calls from hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, our clinic rooms etc and can say quite honestly the job was very stressful at times. Theatre rooms calling to order more blood urgently ‘stat.’ The process of making sure you had the correct patient name, date of birth etc, relaying that info to our cross-matching lab and getting it to that hospital urgently was a real challenge. Some days it seemed that everyone in the city needed urgent blood and the end of my shift was very welcomed. I often looked over to our courier department which was just across the corridor from our nurse’s station and thought how nice it would be to be in a car and picking up pathology products from clinics, hospitals, surgeries etc and not have to deal with the urgent medical side of my job. I have digressed..

These many many trips over the last six months brought me day after day passing a particular shop on a corner which is quite dilapidated but at the same time quite appealing. Quirky, eclectic are certainly words I would use to describe this shop. It is dark brown in colour, two storeys and has a wonderful large window in the front of it allowing us to view the contents. It is a book shop but not just any book shop. It sells antiquated books including military and historical books and I am sure many others. The shop has what appears to be living quarters attached to the rear of it, also looking like they need a bit of love but I guess this is clearly what makes it look more appealing at the same time.

As I sat in my driver’s seat, day after day, taking the same route taking me past this shop, I would often imagine myself (and still do) as the owner of this lovely eclectic shop. However I am not selling military or historical books. No, I am selling my lovely handmade wares; my lovely up cycled bling denim handbags (made from preloved jeans I source from our charity shops); my hand made cushions; my hand made cards featuring gorgeous origami dresses and ladies in gorgeous hats; my hand painted coffee mugs and tea pots lovingly painted with designs which make my heart sing. These are the items adorning this lovely shop as I stand behind a small but welcoming counter, fussing over the appearance of my shop and ensuring that visitors feel very welcome and always greeting each with a smile and welcoming words.

My dream expanded with the idea of having the shop not just as hand craft shop but also as a cafe where people could come, admire and relax, have a cup of tea or coffee (yes, served in my hand painted mugs and tea poured from my hand painted tea pots) accompanied by some fabulous home-cooked food of their choice.

Naturally this leads me to needing to dream about the cafe menu. What would it include? Cooking has always been a huge part of my life and I have developed some fabulous recipes over the years, I have tried and tested recipes found in my plethora of cook books, as well as recipes which have been handed over to me from friends and family. In fact I am about to commence my third recipe book of hand written recipes I continue to accrue and which my girls continually debate amongst themselves as to who will acquire which book when I am no longer walking God’s earth. I take all of this in good stead naturally hoping that this event will not occur for a long time yet.

Back to that menu....I couldn’t possibly commence my menu without scones, jam and cream which are always a winner  with a lovely hot cup of tea or coffee and I can admit that I have a fabulous recipe for scones which rise so high they nearly touch the clouds. I would even attempt to make my own jam with berries which were in season. Next would have to be chocolate cake. Not just any chocolate cake though. It would be my chocolate and orange cake with genache.  An entire navel orange is cooked then processed, skins included to give this magnificent cake a flavour to remember and my oldest has often requested it as a birthday cake and yes, has even requested it for her eventual wedding cake. My youngest has become the best bruschetta cook so I am hoping she would allow me to follow in her footsteps and include it as some savoury offerings into my menu. I wouldn’t be happy if I failed to include some gorgeous finger sandwiches made with the freshest bread, delivered each day (oh now I must consider finding a baker who delivers maybe?) The fillings for these would include my chicken with tarragon mayonnaise; tabouleh and lovely leg ham; sundried tomato, walnut and ham; smoked salmon, cream cheese and dill and for those vegetarians and royalists good old cucumber sandwiches would be fun too. There, I think that would do.

I would ask my gorgeous loved ones to help me out on those days they could spare me. They are both great cooks and very attractive and would be nothing less than a huge asset to my dream. I think I would make the tablecloths and put my helpers in gorgeous handmade aprons. These would not be able to be too over the top and I know they would like to be included in the choice of fabric.

A dilemma whilst dreaming was if I should also offer classes in craft making? Well clearly I would need someone to manage the cafe/shop section whilst I tutored my classes. Yes, good idea. These would include basic knitting and crocheting leading to advanced classes. Basic sewing then leading to creating cushions and I may even touch on basic clothes such as pyjamas and shorts (it is quite a while since I constructed lined blazers and skirts –this was all during my pre-mother days and some time ago.) Anyway, that would be a good start.

Yep, I like this dream very much. Life would be very busy but fun too. May be I would build the business up so well that reservations would be required for this very busy cafe. Wow, reservations......that would be amazing.

That very important name for my shop, well it would have to be Creatively Couture, my current business name. I thought long and hard about this name prior to my decision and I think it sums up my work beautifully.

You would all be most welcome. Please come along with a good heart, the willingness to have a good giggle and a chat if you would, and I hope it would be a place you would enter possibly with a few of life’s troubles niggling in your head but then leave with those troubles feeling a little lighter. I hope a smile would adorn your face along with the memory of having had a wonderful experience and wanting to return soon. That would be my dream for all of us at my special shop on the corner and you have to be able to dream.