My sincere thanks go to the following people for their kind donations…

• Robert Zuglian of Acanthus www.acanthus.net.au – Robert has the most beautiful shop with amazing and unique floral arrangements… highly recommended with the BEST roses you’ll find anywhere in Adelaide (all the way from Ecuador!)

   

• James Wright and the team at Red Balloon Day….    “Experiences and Gifts to Delight and Excite” www.redballoonday.com.au

   

• Anthony Foundas of Rainbow Cafe (25 Grenfell Street)…   Anthony bends over backwards for our office catering here at Capgemini and never fails to deliver.   He also has the yummiest little cakes and makes fantastic coffee – make sure you drop in sometime.

And thank you to everyone who has lent a hand in preparations for various fundraising ideas..  your support is invaluable.

The past couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy for me.  I picked up the keys to my new home on Friday the 5th and starting my renovations – literally tearing the place apart.  In 2 weeks we’ve accomplished new paint, new carpet, ripped the kitchen out and the laundry, and polished the concrete.  Massive effort, some good tradesmen (unbelievable!) and most of all my family and friends.  Thanks to all..  by the end of this weekend I’ll have a home to sleep in again (albeit minus kitchen).

Of course these personal efforts have somewhat put my YBL journey to the backburner for a short period of time.  But I’m back on song now – and just attended my 4th Frontline Management session on Personal Work Priorities – Empowering Self.   Fantastic timing for me as I attempt to juggle work, personal and project committments.

Some great tips came out of the ‘balance wheel of life’ as well as self-awareness – the open, blind, hidden and unknown aspects of our personality.  Most interesting to me was discussion around productivity, the need to take a lunch-break (I’m a serial offender) and how to manage timewasters through our workday.  It’s good to be back in the swing of things.

We had our 3rd session of Frontline Management today… great session but my head can’t take any more knowledge right now.  Our trainer Rob knew his stuff!  I thought I had my Business Improvement Project (BIP) nutted out, but now I think I need to revisit and perhaps rethink exactly what I can deliver in what timeframe.

The best tool I took away (and there were many!) was the technique on mindmapping.  The premise is that often we use lists to capture our thoughts, but our mind thinks in more organic ways.  Mind mapping enables you to use a more organic, visual, cobweb like tool to work through from deliverables right back to the actual tasks required to complete each section.   Very handy, and definitely something I’ll use going forward for practically anything.

I really found it useful talking through my project with my fellow participants as well – - everyone has a different angle that I hadn’t considered.  Things feel like they’re really starting to roll now, very exciting.  But for me I need to schedule in personal life as well, and I get the keys to my new house on Friday – so time to put away my books and BIP’s and fundraising… and time to get out the dirty clothes to rip up carpet, paint and move house!