After 7 days in South Australia I am finally home.

I’ve had a fantastic time catching up with colleagues from around the world as well as meeting new people. I am so very fortunate to know some incredible fundraisers

So many brilliant new ideas to take back to the office to hopefully help me do my job better. I am so pumped though I know one of the most important things to do at this point is to write down what I learned and make a judgement call about what we can achieve in the short term without spending any money.

Doesn’t matter how pumped I might be about the content I am exhausted! It’s only 9pm but I think I really need to go to sleep. Got to go back to work tomorrow so need a good nights sleep.

I am forever on the look out for a great world map! This one is certainly one of the best I’ve seen for kids. I love the use of land and sea animals to show the difference.

My issue with it is that Australia is missing! As an Aussie this makes me sad. Yes we are on the “inconvenient” side of the earth for a circle but I hope that there is a version for those of us on the other side of the planet too.

Wooden jigsaw puzzle w/ figurals and words, 206 pieces – ANIMAL GLOBE (large)

The older we get, the more certain we get about who we are and what our purpose is. For me, a lot of it is still unknown, but as I make my way down my own path, I have begun to realize that there are indeed some inevitable truths that I know for sure. On your own blog, write a post that talks about “the one thing you know for sure.”

The one thing I know to be 100% true is that nothing ever works out as you hope but most of the time it works out for the best, so hope for that.

A year after moving to Sydney I applied to go to university and I didn’t get in (note, Australian university years are February to November). I was gutted. To be honest it was fairly arrogant of me but having just called off a wedding I had a lot invested in getting into uni. In the hopes of getting in next year I went to TAFE.

The next year I applied again and didn’t get in.

The next year I applied again. While I was waiting to hear from UAC Rio Tinto Coal where I was working for decided to close the Sydney office. So only a few weeks before Christmas we were all told we were out of a job. Only a few days later I heard that I had gotten into the University of NSW Bachelor of Arts (Media & Communications). Talk about good timing. Being retrenched meant I was getting a great pay out that would help pay for uni, plus because my role was considered key to the change over I didn’t finish work until uni had started.

In a double bonus, I met my darling Richard at uni. Had I gone a few years earlier I might never have met him.

Journal Day prompts are written by Danielle at Sometimes Sweet. I thought I would catch up on the Journal Day posts.

For the weekend I am away I thought I would catch everyone up on my Journal Day posts. I really love this series and am thrilled to be a part of it.

One of my favourite blogs Sometimes Sweet posted this idea about journal day. She’d provide a prompt and then her readers could write a post from there and then add some/all of the post as a comment on her blog. I love the idea so thought I would join in… even if I don’t always post it on her blog.

Describe a “first” (first date, first lie, the first time you experienced something, first time in a particular setting, etc). Include as many details as possible to paint a picture.

I had pretty much decided on the morning after the night we got together that I was in love with Richard. I just knew it, it was all so easy and we had a good laugh and I knew instinctually that he would do his best to always be good to me. Of course, you can’t say “I love you” to a man that you have just started dating, scares them off apparently. So as the women’s mag advice goes I decided to wait for him to say it first.

Three months in and still no “I love you”. I am not known in my family for patience so that I hadn’t cracked and said it first is quite the achievement let me tell you. One night we were at Richard’s snuggled in bed and I was trying to get him to say it (don’t judge). He knew what I was trying to do but he wouldn’t bite. Eventually I looked up at him and said “I like you, more than just as a friend”, he looked at me smiled and said “I love you Alys”. I don’t think I had ever been happier, my face hurt from smiling so much.

When eventually I finished smiling he explained to me that the walk we were planning for the next day down through the park he was going to walk me to a pretty spot and tell me that he loved me for the first time. Trust me to ruin something! Still its a wonderful memory of the first time we told each other we were in love.

Every August the Fundraising Institute holds our residential programme Madison Down Under  and it all kicks off in SA on Friday. I fly out today and am frantically packing and scheduling post for the next few days. I am really looking forward to it.

We hole up at the Novotel Barossa Valley Resort. Its fantastic, we “lock” a group of professional fundraisers away and expose them to some of the most incredible experts in the sector. It is just incredible to be a part of and one of my favourite projects at FIA. And yes, above is my bedroom at the Novotel. How lovely to wake up to that!

Think of me over the next week. I am away from my family working impossibly long hours but I can’t wait.

As I mentioned I have a few posts scheduled while away though if the moment strikes me I will just on and say hi.

A few months ago I went to a Business Chicks breakfast with Margaret, Richards Mum, and Astrid, his sister. The speaker was the ever amazing Olivia Newton-John. Business Chicks have a lot of fantastic resources for women in business, go check it out.

Anyway Emma, Chief Chick, has a fantastic blog and yesterday she wrote a great piece on intrepreneurs … those people who think outside the box and then work to make things happen.

I think she touched on something important. If you have every seen The Castle (great classic Aussie film) you will remember that dad Daryl talked about “ideas men”. So often those that come up with the ideas are praised over those who work to make it happen. I always thought I was the latter, the can do person who can take the idea guys brilliant idea and make it reality. Reading Emma’s idea about intrepreneurs reminded me that sometimes the one who makes things happen is also in a really strong position to look at how a business can more effectively and efficiently look after their constituents. In fact, the can do people have a fantastic perspective on the business and where it is falling down – often because they are the ones propping it up. Empower them to come up with the ideas and make it happen and watch your business flourish.

My youngest sister Katherine is getting married this October. We can’t wait! Katherine and I were talking about these cool wedding ribbon sticks that she’d seen and wanted for her flower girls, our neices Paige and Charlotte. I promised I would look into it for her. During the hunt I found the above image and I actually think, given Paige is only 3 and Charlotte 2, that they might be safer than a pick stick.

Silk Ribbon Ring Toy Flutterby Summer by BeneathTheRowanTree.

If you had a free pass to go back and change anything in your past, with the promise that it would only affect you positively, would you do it? And if so, what would you change?

I love this series created by Danielle from Sometimes Sweet. Definitely jump over and read her touching post as well as some other great writers. So many of the posts agree that regrets are a waste of energy and I agree. All the coulda, shoulda, woulda’s in the world won’t change things all we can do is the best we can in the moment, learn from our mistakes and successes and be proud of who we are warts and all.

That said, if I could I would go back and spend more time as a teenager in my parents home with my siblings.

At the age of 19, after finishing business college I applied for and got a job in Sydney. It all happened so fast, and I was so excited. Here I was this girl from Muswellbrook, this little town in rural Australia moving to the “big smoke” to my first real job. I got the job in January, went to the Philippines in February and then moved to Sydney. On Sunday 18 February 2001 my dad drove me to Sydney* and I started my new life.

It was years later when my nephew Harrison was born that it hit me, I had missed it. I had missed my siblings grow up and create their own lives. And because I missed them grow up and I live so far away I often feel I am a guest in their lives. Its my fault, they were just kids when I moved away, and I can’t blame them for me not being there and the effect it had on our relationship. I adore my siblings, they are amazing people and I am glad that I know them but if I could, I would go back and be a part of their teen years and be a part of them turning into adults.

*in an aside when Dad drove me to Sydney we took the wrong exit and ended up going across this incredible old bridge. I feared I would never find the bridge again well 5 years later as I headed to Richard’s 21st party I went over that bridge and once again it changed my life.

My Nanna (Dad’s mother) and my Grandma (Mum’s mum) can garden. I love gardens and flowers but sadly I did not inherit this talent and struggle to keep plants alive. Late last month my darling Richard bought me a gorgeous Begonia Elatior.

I love the plant and that thought that went into it. Unfortunately, that love has been killing the plant. I started by over watering a little. Ok, a lot, so much so that one of the two fronds (I have no idea if that is right) rotted at the roots so I had to get rid of it. Even setting it as a KPI for one of my team who is doing a great job of keeping her plants didn’t help – in an aside she also rightly felt it unfair to set a KPI after the plant started dieing.

Since that minor “surgery” the plant was doing fine until today when I got to work and it looked like this.

I am proud that I have kept the plant alive for a month and sad that it is fading. I do however, recommend begonia’s to you. They are so pretty and while it lived it brightened the view from my desk.

These images are beautiful and bring back childhood memories of hours spent watching Disney films and dreaming of being a princess myself. I think Disney started my life long love of royalty. I found these images here but they found them here.