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Monday, August 18, 2008 - (see all news for this day)
a cold, bruce, & work - 08:00 AM
(filed under 'general')
i've been kind of flat out, lately, so it's been ages since i've blogged. so here are some things which are happening in my life.
i have a cold. it kind of sucks. i was working with nana may's at the ekka last week (the brisbane exhibition. the place where brisbane gathers once a year to create a cess pit of germs & the latest colds & flus) & i made the ultimate mistake of licking the tomato sauce off the finger that i'd used to spread the sauce down to the bottom of my dagwood dog (for those who call these by a different name, it's a batter coated sausage on a stick). as soon as i did it, i realised that it was my death knoll. less than forty-eight hours later, i started to get a sore throat.
it probably wouldn't have been so bad if i hadn't been handling the paper towels with which people had been drying their hands after having a hand treatment at the nana may's stall which i had been manning all day.
so the sore throat started on friday night, continued through saturday (at the freezing cold markets at kelvin grove where i arrived at 4.45 am to set up for a 6 am start), & developed into a headache on saturday night on the way to bruce's daughter louise's 21st birthday party where a kind lady offered me some of her nurofen. on sunday morning i was quite croaky & not long after i'd arrived at the eagle street markets at 7 am, i realised it was turning into a full-blown head cold.
i texted bruce (who lives relatively close to the city) to ask if he'd bring me some aloe vera tissues & some eucalyptus oil. i used both of these with much gusto for the rest of the day at the markets. on the way home from the markets, my sinuses began to get blocked up, so i stopped in at the late night pharmacy to buy some incredibly over-priced night & day cold & flu tablets. i don't really like taking drugs, but i just can't abide sinus pain. it makes me want to drill hole in either side of my nose if only it would help my sinuses to drain. i'm sure that tablets are a better option than the electric drill.
by yesterday evening, my sinuses weren't hurting anymore thanks to the tabets, but my nose, despite liberally dousing myself with eucalyptus oil, was completely blocked. at least that started only after i'd eaten, so at least i could enjoy my dinner without having to gasp for air around mouthfuls of chicken satay shishkebab & rice.
speaking of work, i worked three days at the ekka. i did the first thursday & friday there & then last wednesday, which is commonly known as 'ekka wednesday' since it's been a public holiday for as long as most people can remember. nana may's had a stall in two places at the ekka: one at the back of the wool pavilion, & another one in the showbag pavilion. this one had been set up halfway through the ekka, sharing half the space of the newly introduced line of soaps & body butters which were going rather slowly. it was so busy in there. it took a full ten minutes of taking tiny steps amongst the crowd to reach the outside of the building. the pavilion really isn't that big. if there was no one in the building, it would take about thirty seconds to walk from our stall to the doors. it was purely because there were so many people in there.
i've taken on a second market on saturdays. as well as my usual sunday market at eagle street in the city, i'll be working the new saturday markets at kelvin grove. up until this point, i've been working at an hourly rate for jo (the brisbane distributor of nana may's) but the plan is for me to take over those two markets as my own, as a site distributor. this means that i'll be buying stock from jo & that i'll get to keep all the profits from the sale of that stock. it also means that i pay for all the running costs of the stall (site fee, purchase of equipment, consumables such as paper towels, etc). i've been tracking the profitablilty of both markets since the first day i worked at eagle street, & this is definitely a good option for me.
i'm excited to be starting my own business again. i've run my own businesses previously & being my own boss is awesome. i've already bought the tables that i need & this week i'll be getting the shade tent that i'll be using at kelvin grove. eagle street's site fee covers the shade tents which they provide, but kelvin grove vendors have to provide their own shade. as well as those bigger things, i'll need to get bowls (over which i rinse people's hands, to catch the rinse water), table covers, clips & various other little things.
a few weeks ago i bought some roof racks & installed them on my little car so that i can carry the bigger equipment on the top of the car. i've been using jo's tent for the last two weeks, & everything fits very nicely on top & inside the car so that i can still have smiley's car seat in there at the same time. this means that i can collect him from rudi & audrey's (or my mum's) place without having to go home first to unpack the car. it saves a fair bit of driving back & forth.
this last saturday, i took smiley with me to the kelvin grove markets. i'd noticed on previous occasions that there are plenty of young kids running around. there are a lot of fruit & vegetable vendors there & they seem to the ones to bring their children along. i figured we'd give it a try & it was very successful. smiley had an absolute blast. he ran around with two little girls (& a little dog at one stage) for quite a few hours. after him waking up in his car seat at about 5 am, it took until 9.30 am for me to call mum to come & pick him up. he didn't want to leave, but it had reached a point where he was starting to hassle me a bit while i was dealing with customers.
i was quite impressed with how long he lasted. i'm hoping we can do this as a regular thing, because it means that i don't have to arrange overnight babysitting for him on friday nights. it also means that we won't have a repeat of the previous week when he sat at the back door at nanna karin's house (my mum) for half an hour, refusing to come inside because he wanted to stay with me after i left him there at 5.30 am.
things on the relationship front are going well. bruce & i see each other several times during the week. working around his eight year old & my almost five year old has been kind of tricky, but we've even managed to be able to go out for dinner a few times, just the two of us. he's really lovely. we've been enjoying each other's company immensely.
oh, one other thing which is happening, which i keep forgetting about since it happened so quickly, is that i'll be going to abu dhabi (in the middle east, in the united arab emirates) for three weeks with nana may's to man a stall at a big ramadan show. i'll be working alongside another may's lady (a sunshine coast distributor) who i haven't yet met. it's an all-expenses-paid trip. it should be a lot of fun! the hours will be interesting. since ramadan is on, when muslims fast all day & then eat only after the sun has set, the hours for the big show/festival thing are from 10 pm to 3 am. that's 10 pm at night until 3 am in the morning. that translates to 4 am until 9am brisbane time. i guess at least i won't suffer from too much jet lag. lol! 
i leave for abu dhabi in about a month. i'm quite looking forward to it. i'll miss bruce like crazy, of course, but he's excited for me, even though he'll miss me, too.
great to hear it, that you get a great time. lots off possitive vibes for you
busy, busy, busy. we'll all miss ya when you leave.
This is the greatest natural product since sliced bread LOL. If you have sinus issues I highly recommend this. It changed my life so simply.
http://www.neilmed.com/can/index.php
i was at southbank the other weekend & looked out for you just in case but got served by a lovely lady & i got some magic hands - it is divine - will have to come to kelvin grove when i need some more :o)
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How exciting! It sounds like everything is coming together, I'm very happy for you.