Share Your World – January 16 2017

I’m enjoying participating in Cee’s Share Your World with my first post last week January 9. It’s a great way to join with other bloggers to share our worlds and meet lots of other bloggers.

This week’s questions are:

1. Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed?

I presume this is talking about wardrobe or cupboard doors.  I still make a ritual of closing the wardrobe doors before I get into bed.  I don’t know why, I just do!

1. Do you take the shampoos and conditioner bottles from hotel?

I will admit to doing so in the past but not anymore.  I like to make my own travel bottles using my own shampoos and conditioners to take away when I travel.  One of the best little bottles I did take, as it was basically a gift, was a bottle of sunscreen when we visited Uluru a year or so ago.  It was very handy!  The other thing that’s sometimes useful are the shower caps, they make great bike seat covers if your bike is caught in the rain 🙂

1. What is your usual bedtime?

Usually anytime after 9.30pm but generally about 10ish.  I like to read before going to sleep so anything later than that means I can’t stay awake long enough to read more than a few pages. I will admit to going to bed very early sometimes!

1. Do you like to use post-it notes?

Yes I do!  They are to be found peppered all around the place.  The best one is on my wardrobe door that says I. Am.Enough.  I’m supposed to look at it each day to remind myself that I am enough just the way I am.

1. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper?

Letter writing is becoming a long lost art unfortunately, especially when done by hand and on paper. I’m not sure this was the last time I wrote an actual letter but it’s one that’s memorable. Every second year my husband helps lead a trek across the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea.  They train the volunteering high school students for months beforehand and build them into a cohesive team.  He is just one of the team of energetic and caring leaders.  As it’s usually the first time the students have been away from home, and their parents, for any length of time, the parents are asked to write their child a secret letter.  This is to tell them how proud they are of their child for undertaking this trek, what they miss about them and how much they have grown since starting the training.  It’s usually given out at the halfway point and the kids are normally quite homesick by then.  It’s a very moving experience for many!  My husband has done this trek 6 times and is gearing up for his 7th trek in April 2017. I sit down and write him a letter each time and also get our grown up daughters to write him one too  He is always grateful for our thoughts and loves getting our letters.  Many of the parents comment that it’s the first time they have ever sat down and written a real letter to their child.

I also wrote each of my daughters the story of their birth and about their early days and gave them the letters when they were about 16.  I kept diaries and notes throughout and loved writing down my memories for them.

1. Any phobias?

Heights. Edges. Swinging bridges. Log crossing bridges.  I have been known to ‘freeze’ in some of these situations. And yet I’m proud to say that I have walked the Annapurna Sanctuary  to Annapurna Base Camp and Machhapuchhre Base Camp in Nepal, I have walked the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea and have skied in the Italian Alps.  I ride a bicycle and love nothing more than going fast downhill (within my limits) but I hate heights – go figure!!

1. How tall are you?

163cm tall or 5’3 in the old scale.  It’s funny because my husband is really tall and I’m quite short.  He is exactly 30cm (1 foot taller than me) at 193cm.  My daughters are all taller than me too 😦

Optional Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

I’m grateful for a lot of things.  Last week I was grateful to start my new life as a retiree with a spring in my step and things to do.  I walked and ran regularly during the week, I blogged away happily and I managed to sit and take time to read and relax.  I did some cooking, cleaned out cupboards and enjoyed myself immensely. I also booked our flights and accommodation for our daughters wedding in October!!

The week ahead sees me planning and organising my husband’s 60th birthday bash with friends and family. OMG I’ll be married to a 60 year old soon 🙂

I’ve just been to a funeral of a local lady who was 47 and left behind a husband and three young sons.  I’m grateful that I get up each morning and get to live the life I am lucky to have.  Funerals are always very sobering affairs and makes us realise how lucky we are.

Deb 🙂