February 2016 Goal Progress

In order to achieve my yearly goals, I have divided the goals up to smaller ones to do each month.  The main goals were: 

Exercise regularly

The original plan was to walk everyday which I didn’t end up doing. I just forgot about this goal actually. Next time, I should print out my goals for the month.

Spend more time outdoors

I did make an effort going outside more. Normally, I am stuck in the house all day but I took the time to go outside.  

Take more risks

This goal was mainly for my career. I’m currently a substitute teacher and I’m looking for more permanent work. To take a risk, I applied for jobs that I wanted that I would have normally wouldn’t have because I would think they would never pick me. I found some interesting jobs outside of the school environment, there was a job for an Education correspondent for a newspaper and a museum needed someone to manage the children’s exhibits with an educational background.

Me time once a month

This month, I decided to watch five movies that I wanted to watch. I didn’t end up watching that many movies; I mostly watched new TV shows. The shows I watched were Goosebumps, House of Cards, Upper Middle Class Bogan, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Torchwood.

I watched Goosebumps which is based on a series of horror books written for children. Goosebump books by R.L Stine were very popular in the 90s when I grew up. The TV series went on for three seasons during 1996-1998.  I use to find the TV show scary as a kid but not as an adult. It’s a nostalgia trip for me.

I only watched one episode each of House of Cards and Torchwood but I am planning on watching the rest of the series. This month, I was more into comedy so I finished Upper Middle Bogan and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. 

Give to charity

In February, I resolved to shop at small businesses to support the local community. So, I went to the corner store instead of the supermarket and the local cinema instead of the big chain.
Read books

I wanted to finish off The Selection series by Kiera Cass but I didn’t finish it. However, I did finish The Elite which was the second book from the series.

Explore Buddhism- Didn’t do.

Print out photos – Didn’t do.

Be positive/Happy- Well I didn’t go out of way to focus on positivity this month but it was a happy month.

What I learned:

I had too many goals this month. In future, I’m going to concentrate on a maximum of three per month. In March, I plan on focusing on taking more risks with my career, finally printing out all the photos for the family albums and saving money.  

The Great Moscow Circus

My brother and I were lucky enough to get free tickets to see The Great Moscow circus. My parents got the tickets as a work perk. The Moscow Circus has been in operation in Australia since 1965 and it features over 45 cast members, liberty horses, macaw, buffalo, camels and llamas for a two hour show. This year is the 50^th anniversary of the circus and they will go for a three year tour around Australia.

Photography was not allowed during the performances so I didn’t take that many photos. There was one photo opportunity though when the clown invited the children from the audience to do a tug of war.

The performances were all good. The acrobats were effortlessly graceful. They must have strong core strength. I also thought about how I could never be a trapeze artist because I would be worried over whoever had to catch me. I figure that their arms might pop out of their sockets if they had to bear my weight.

The clowns were great as well. They kept the crowds entertained between set ups. Nino the clown had this one trick where he would balance a walking stick on his nose that had his vest and had propped on it as well and then he would let it fall and he’d be wearing his vest and hat again. I also liked the other clown and how when pretended to cry, fake tears would squirt out at a distance.

I was worried about animal welfare prior to going to the circus as there is some contention about working animals. I once went to a circus years ago that had animals that looked tired and underfed. Fortunately it was not the case at the Moscow Circus. While I am not a veterinarian, I thought the animals looked healthy and cherished. They were all well trained too and their performance was perfect. The horses, camels, buffalos and llamhas mostly ran around in a circle and did a few spins. The macaw flew from one end to another.

There was also death defying acts as well. There was also the ‘globe of death’ where six motorcyclists rode around in all at the same time. It was nerve wracking to watch. My favourite of the daring performances was when a large group of acrobats used a seesaw to launch each other up to do flips. The highlight of their act was to catapult of the acrobats so that he would land on a chair that was suspended on a pole.

Travelling circuses are rare so I was excited to see this circus. The big top looked magical at night. You can find tour dates and ticket prices here:  http://www.thegreatmoscowcircus.com.au/.

Blogs of the Month: February 2015- Oops Forgot to post this-Better late than never. .....

Carlyn: A blog that I read regularly is A Cup of Jo by Joanna Goddard. Joanna is a lifestyle blogger from New York who write about relationships, food, childrearing, travel and home life. My favourite thing to read from her blog is posts about motherhood around the world from American mothers living abroad. I love that series because it offers insight about other cultures from a western perspective. Although I am not a mother, I appreciate the advice on childrearing in other countries as I may be a mother someday and I work in the education industry.  

Jon Bear's Site: I know that we do some book reviews on our blog site... well... mostly Carlyn as I have been a bum about the book reviews for a while now, but I still enjoy finding other sites that review books and give me a little insight into something that might peek my interest.  I Really like the breakdown of a synopsis when separated from a review in an easy to read and direct fashion as is the case at http://readingforsanity.blogspot.com/ .  I think the blog authors (as there are several reviewers on the site) of Reading for Sanity do a great job of making it easy to pick out books I might like to read.  The blog has something for everyone too.  While there are lots of children's book reviews, there are also books of interest for adults on the site.   Of course, I myself am a bit age-blind as a reader and could care less what target audience the book might have.  I'm just looking for fun and interesting stories to read.  Another feature I really like about the site is how they list other books the reader might like if they are interested in a particular review.  I have actually yet to put the site to use with regards to a book purchase of my own, but I fully intend to find a book or books reviewed at Reading for Sanity and give them a try.  =)  ---- Jon Bear

Sunshine Coast Holiday Story Part 1

Last year, my family and I went on vacation to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia which I mentioned here. We spent the last December holidays entertaining relatives and friends who came to visit from interstate and overseas.  So, my parents wanted to book a holiday before anyone could come to visit us.

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We decided to go the Sunshine Coast as we hadn’t really explored the area before. The trip was also the first time we had booked a hotel as my parents prefer staying over at relatives or friend’s houses when on vacation. Personally, I don’t like staying over at other people’s houses because you always have to be on your best behaviour and there is little privacy.

View of Kings Beach from our hotel

We booked an apartment so we could save on cost and do things ourselves.  We stocked up on groceries for the trip so that we could cook dinner and breakfast. Dad even bought a small rice cooker so that we could always have Asian meals at home. 

My parent's bedroom

My brother and I also brought two big suitcases because we didn't have smaller ones so we filled it with a lot of clothes. My brother Paul pointed out that we might have a problem with fitting all our stuff into our car. Thankfully, we did manage to fit everything in the car. It was a bit of a tight squeeze as we had stuff by our legs as well. At one point, an alarm went off in the car and it turned out that dad had packed a smoke alarm in case the hotel went on fire!

My room with my brother

The hotel that we booked was a small family business and we were greeted by the owner when we arrived. He was really nice and helped us carry our bags to the third floor. There was no elevator so it was sweaty work hauling all our things up the stairs. The owner was very strong and he carried our suitcases on his shoulder. It was impressive considering he looked about sixty.

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I was pleasantly surprised that the apartment had modern décor. It was generic and sparse but better than I expected. I had looked at their website and the rooms were outdated but clean looking. It had two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom/laundry, living area and balcony.  It was nice having a place for ourselves and I could see how we could live with less stuff.

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We mainly spent the first day, settling in our new home for the week. I think the hotel must have excellent sound proofing or maybe we had quiet neighbours as we didn't hear much noise from anyone.

Kings Beach

After we had recovered from our long journey we decided to go to Kings Beach. Kings Beach was just a short walk away from our hotel. All we had to do was get out from the back gate and walk in a straight line to the beach.  The beach had rock pools and boulders on the outskirts and it was fun to walk around on them.