What a way to start 2012 with a 14 day road trip to Darwin visiting current and making new clients & friends! Hervey Bay, Mackay, Cairns, Townsville, Mt Isa, Tennant Creek, Adelaide River then Darwin!

The picture to the right was taken when we hit the 130km section of the Barkley Highway in the Northern Territory – Jeanette “Queen of the Desert!”

My friend Jackie that I used to work with at the Casuarina Club in Darwin was visiting her parents on the Sunshine Coast for Christmas and we thought what a perfect opportunity for me to join her for a road trip back to Adelaide River where she is a teacher.

And so the fun had begun!!! I really had the time of my life and may need to make this an annual event! If you really want to see our beautiful country hit the highway!

Thank you Jackie for the awesome company, adventure and goal setting!!! xoxoxo

Awesome to see Lee and her family in Cairns with some amazing photography being taken by herself (One Little Picture) and Jackie on our adventures. They are both very talented with their SLR camera’s!!!

It was fantastic to see my friend Helen in Adelaide River also and her gorgeous children plus use the secret gym.

It was also sensational to catch up with all my old friends and work colleagues from The Casuarina Club (Lucy, Jackie, Julie-Anne & myself the original Rockette’s from 10 years ago! + Kimmy, Tommy & Fred!) xoxo

Also a big thank you to everyone for their hospitality on the trip, without the support crew this trip would not have been such a smooth and outrageous adventure!

Through use of the Internet, I / Design House am able to service clients statewide and nationally, staying in touch as if they were right next door. Utilizing today’s modern technology and freight services available a dynamic design and print can be delivered promptly straight to your door!

Contact me today for the best design and service Australia wide! jeanette@designhouse.com.au

In January 2009 I was 6months older than my real age!! OMG story here.

In August 2009 I was 2.4 years younger than my real age due to diet and exercise! Story here.

Today in December 2011, I am 5.3years younger than my real age!!

What’s your Real Age?
Take the test today and start turning back the years!!! Test here!!
Make sure you read your full report, it’s very interesting!

Last weekend I had an awesome time away with my friend Cheryl and her twin daughters. We went on a half day horse trail ride that included morning tea and lunch (kangaroo) followed by a swim in the pool. I rode Matilda. We stayed overnight on the farm in the lodge and the girls slept outside in swags. We cooked a BBQ dinner and breakfast plus also enjoyed marshmallows at our bon fire with a couple of beers. More info on Giddee Up Horse rides here.

On the way home we dropped in the Fraser Coast Sporting Clays Shooting Club to fire off a few rounds at their open day. It was great fun and I hit 4 targets out of about 9 shots so that wasn’t too bad for my first ever go. Club website here.

OMG I would be SO lost without my Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor!

It cost me $125 and is the best money I ever spent! (Thanks for the tip T)

I use it every day to accurately gauge my calories burnt exercising and feel naked without it!!!

I even wear it when cleaning and gardening! (Obsessed!)

This Heart Rate Monitor is now down to $114 on ebay and delivered the following day!

Body measurement features

• Average and maximum heart rate of training
• Heart rate – bpm / %
• HR-based target zones with visual and audible alarm
• Manual target zone – bpm (upper limit)
• Polar EnergyPointer
• Polar OwnCal® – calorie expenditure
• Polar OwnCode® (5kHz) – coded transmission

Data transfer

• Compatible with polarpersonaltrainer.com – opt. with Polar FlowLink
• Recording features
• Totals
• Training files (with summaries) – 99
• Weekly history

Training features

• Graphical target zone indicator
• HeartTouch – button-free operation of wrist unit

Watch features

• Backlight
• Date and weekday indicator
• Display text in English, German, Finnish, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian
• Dual time zone
• KeyLock
• Low battery indicator
• StopWatch
• Time of day (12/24h) with alarm and snooze
• User replaceable battery
• Water resistant – 50m

“An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.” - Buddha

Fraser Coast Chronicle News on the event here and gallery here!

For 3 days I have listened to some of the most amazing and inspiring millionaires from our country and the world including Anthony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki and DONALD TRUMP!
Event details here.
Talk about being on the biggest high ever!

As a motivated professional business woman it is extremely important to me that I learn from the absolute best for dynamic self improvement and that I am an EXPERT in my field improving what I can offer my clients in solving their business advertising problems to increase their confidence, profit and client base.

I like to set huge goals and go for them to inspire others to shoot for their dreams also and my latest goal was to have a photo taken with my business IDOL the legendary DONALD TRUMP currently valued at SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS!

Trump was introduced to the stage by Australian Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins.

I just LOVE Trump and especially his TV series The Apprentice. He is such a wise, educated, funny  and intelligent business man with a hardcore, can do attitude and to me a great mentor.
He is inspiring, motivated, professional, successful, speaks his mind on all matters, extremely family orientated and I felt a real kindness in his presence.

Trump said, “I believe, get even with people, if they screw you, screw them back ten times as hard!”

This reminded me of how local managing Director Malcolm Quinn of the Fraser Coast Independent Newspaper stole $2,505 from me for a ticket to meet and greet and have a photo taken with Mr Trump three years earlier. Mr Quinn failed in his attempt to put on this similar event in the past with Donald Trump and still owes him $950,000 plus Australian business people $1.5 million! (More info here, here, here and here).

From that day on it became a goal that I must achieve to have my photo taken with Trump! I even photo shopped a photo of Trump and I two years ago to begin the Law of Attraction process.

After Trump finished his speech at the event, I went back for a question / answer session with him.  When I had pushed my way through 150 VIPs and security, bravely attracted Trump’s attention to ask for a photo and was given the go ahead he was wearing the same pink tie he had on in my photo shopped image!
I said to him that Malcolm Quinn had ‘screwed’ me for money in the past as he also had done to Trump. Trump then said to me, “Who’s that?” … I laughed in agreement!!

He looked me in the eye and asked me directly if I had enjoyed his speech to which I replied with honesty I thoroughly did!!! We also made a few other small comments. I then made my way to the back of the room, where I was on such an adrenalin rush that I had achieved another long term goal that my knees began to shake!
Of course I have no doubt we will meet and converse again on many occasions.

Meeting my business idol and finally achieving my goal to have a photo taken with him has made me believe even more in the Law of Attraction, being positive and that anything is possible in life!!! What an absolutely amazing, thought provoking and sensational experience! One of many more to come!

A big thank you to Michael Burnett from Empowernet for successfully organising such an Amazing event!!

Before the seminar I also ran 9km in the Sydney Running Festival across the Sydney Harbour Bridge plus checked out the beautiful Sydney Chinese Gardens afterwards!

Some of Trumps’ quotes from his speech:

-       “Be totally focused, you can’t take your eye off the ball”
-       “Rich people don’t like rich people, historically, well I don’t”
-       “I like Losers to be my friends”
-       “The harder I work the luckier I get”
-       “You can make yourself Lucky”
-       “You need passion, go against the tide”
-       “Go with your gut, go against the tide, I like that”
-       “Get even with people, if you don’t they will continue to go after you”
-       “If someone screws you, screw them back in spades!”
-       “Always get a pre-nup!”
-       “Think Big, it’s much easier”
-       “Focus on the positive”
-       “The word momentum is very important”
-       “Believe in yourself, see yourself as a one man band, see yourself as victorious, you have to think like a WINNER!”
-       “Can you take the pressure!”

More news on Trumps visit here.

I had a fantastic run on Sunday at the Bridge to Brisbane, smashing my time from two years ago even with a sore strapped right knee (PFPS).

This really is a fun event and so well run and organised, I’ll definitely be back next year!!

My charity was Fraser Coast Meals on Wheels and $60 was raised, a big thank you to those who donated (Myself, Rosie & Karen) You can still donate here till the 11th of October 2011.

Time: Saturday, September 24 2011: 10:00am 

Location: Meet at the Torquay Sailing Club & walk to the Sea Front Oval Hervey Bay (3km)

More Info:
No Dogs.
Children Welcome.
Everyone is invited to support a great cause.
Registered with the foundation and asking for a gold coin donation to help a great cause.
Parents responsible for their own child on the day.

What to bring:
Water Bottle
Joggers
Sunscreen
Hat

MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A RED SHIRT PLEASE

Facebook Event here.

RSVP HERE!!!

The Daniel Morcombe Foundation, purchase shirts here.

Yesterday myself, Jeanette Maynes | Model (first time ever) from (Design House - graphic and website designer) and Lolita Valerga | Artist from (Shades of Inspiration - henna and face painting artist) came together as Model (canvas) and Artist to create an Organic interpretation of the theme “Wired for Sound” based on elements and forces of nature for the Melbourne Body Art Competition 2011.

Lolita and I have been friends for 15 years since we did a ‘Certificate in Arts’ together.

We were in the BRUSH & SPONGE category and started painting at 11am, with brushes down at 5pm, then made our way to the judge’s room for judging at 5.30pm and hit the catwalk at 7pm.

Unfortunately we did not come a place as the competition was fierce but we had an absolute ball taking on such a fun adventure that took a couple of months preparation. We were certainly a crowd favourite and as they say “Art is in the eye of the beholder”!

We were also quite the crowd pleaser at Crown Casino having a couple of wind down drinks after the event!

Please read our concept and development for the ’Wired for Sound!’ theme here!

Melbourne Body Art Competition at Carlton Brew House, Abbotsford Saturday 20th August 2011, The Melbourne Age Newspaper Image Gallery here.

Fraser Coast Chronicle News here.

How cool is this iDarkroom app for your iPhone!
Turn your images into creative masterpieces wihtin a minute  …. iDarkroom on Facebook.

iDarkroom can add amazing effects to your photos. It support six types of effects: color filter, paper, light leak & bokeh, vignette, noise, frame. You can shuffle these effects by just one tap, or choose each type of effect manually.

● 20 color filters 
● 11 paper effects
● 13 light leak & bokeh effects
● 5 vignette effects
● 4 noise effects
● 7 frame effects
● Shuffle effects
● Sharing by Mail, Twitter, Facebook
● Save to Photo Album
● Various photo size

Only $0.99 from iTunes, download here.

Wearing RED for you today Daniel, thinking of you and your family with tears in my eyes and heart! Thank you for making me think of others.
Your life was taken so young, no child should feel that fear! … the Lord has gained a very special Angel, you will not be forgotten!
Your parents courage, teaching me, we must never give up on those we love! May you all find peace… xxx

The Daniel Morcombe Foundation, purchase shirts here.

A huge THANK YOU to Lisa Holmes editor of ‘Runner’s World’ (my favourite mag) for a mention, 2 images and editorial piece in this September’s edition!

On Sunday I ran in the second ever Cane to Coral fun run with my friends Scott and Tania who did the run with me last year.
I’m very proud to say we all did a PB this year! Race results can be found here.

I came is at ‎1:21:32 mins!! 5:33mins faster than last year. My run was really good and felt great. A couple of friends told me they struggled a little.

As per last year the heat was hideous but not quite as bad!
I really have no idea why the race is run at 8.30am so late in the day, a statement made by many.
Every other race I’ve done has started no later than 7.30am.

Also over an hour’s wait in the midday sun for a bus back to Bundaberg is not on. We were all quite sun burnt by the time they arrived, especially having fair skin. There was three buses for a race with nearly 3,000 people, common sense would suggest having a few more??

Sadly a competitor passed away during the run at about the 8km mark, a very sad ending to a happy race day. My condolences go out to Rod Young’s Family, Colleagues and Friends. [NewsMail]

The race was very popular with over 2,900 entrants and was extremely well run and organised. Thank you to all the sponsors, organisers and volunteers!
Can’t wait for next year’s!

2010 Cane to Coral story here

How cool is this little bargain I bought on eBay.
I don’t listen to the radio, I find the advertisements so annoying they nearly drive me to have an accident!
… so how wonderful to be able to use my radio station to listen to my IPOD while charging my IPHONE at the same time!
The kit plugs straight into the lighter socket and will also be great to listen to my Metro View GPS!
Average cost is about $15 – $20. PRICELESS!

- Comes with remote control!
- Hands-Free function through car stereo
- FM Frequency from 88.1 – 107.9 MHz
- Charges iPhone, iPod, iTouch with dock connector
- Music playback on your car stereo
- USB Socket of Standard 5V 1A Electical Power (Charge via USB on many brands of MP3 players, mobile phones & GPS)
- Flexible Goose-pipe makes it convenient to find the best position for your device
- Flexible Clamp Holder keep your device in place

This is one of my favourite meals so I thought I would share it with you …  I think usually they say a cup of, not two hand fulls LOL!!!!  ‎4 ingredients …. any more then that and I FREAK OUT! (My Caesar Salad has 6, that’s tops for me!)

10.08.2011: Since I wrote this story my Dad said you can use up to 4 or 5 eggs.

I’ve registered to run in the Bridge to Brisbane 10km run this year on Sunday 11th of September and have decided to raise money for a local charity also, being Meals On Wheels Fraser Coast Inc.    

Meals On Wheels Fraser Coast Inc strives to provide delivered fresh nutritiously balanced meals and fellowship to frail, aged and younger infirm on the basis of need.

Please click here if you would like to help me raise money for this worthy cause! Thank you!

Or better still, enter the event also!!!

How cool is this iPhone app I brought for $18 with no ongoing subscription costs!
Now I have my own GPS for driving!
It even shows me when I am about to go past a speed camera, not that I speed.
Plus beeps and tells you if you do go over the speed limit for the area you are driving in.
It also gives you the distance to your destination plus the expected time of arrival.

MetroView Australia Turn-By-Turn Navigation

Standard Features:

- No ongoing subscription costs, FREE to use after initial purchase.

- All map data stored on phone – no download costs for mapping or navigation.

- The same application can be used on all iPhone models and iPad

- Advanced lane guidance – know which lane to be in at major junctions.

- Analogue speedo view with digital readout on map view.

- High quality spoken street names including Australian accented male and female voice options.

- Familiar map design.

- Walking mode including compass functionality to point you in a straight line to your destination (iPhone 3GS and above)

- Proudly Australian made and supported

Last Saturday I entered the Gold Coast Marathon to do a 10km run.
2 years ago I did my first ever 10km run here without stopping in 01:07:33mins, story here.

Over the past two years I have improved a fair bit but never cracked 55mins for my 10km run.

On Saturday I was very happy to smash my time running a new PB of 53:32mins!!!

My finishing overall percentage has risen from 22% to 82% of the finishers in my age group! I never thought I would see an achievement like this!

My friend Naomi, decided last minute to come with me and also completed her first ever 10km with no training what so ever and came in, in 01:09:59mins, run / walking the event!
What an awesome and inspiring effort!
Naomi mentioned if I hadn’t of asked her to do a casual 6km walk/  run with me a month earlier she would not have considered this, but making that distance in 53mins with me gave her the strength to enter.
See, anyone can do these challenges, just take the first step and register!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Lisa Holmes editor of ‘Runner’s World Magazine’ my favourite running mag at the Race Expo …. (whose work and knowledge I greatly admire) !

Plus a huge THANK YOU to the 1,000+ volunteers who worked in the areas of event operations, registrations, sports services, marketing, road marshalling, aid stations and recovery assistance!

Yesterday I completed another challenge, this one was the Kokoda 30km trail run through the Brisbane Forest. My body was still a little weary from last week’s Great Wall marathon and lack of sleep but I managed to pull of the task.

After some speeches, the last post and a minutes silence, we (myself, Scott and Tania) headed off at 7am into the bush and hills. OMG nonstop steep hills!!!
Next year if I participate I must remember to take my trekking poles, especially for when climbing back up out of the Hell Hole! Every single muscle was being used at some stage or the other and this could be felt the following day, our bodies felt like they have had an awesome all over work out, quite stiff and sore in all muscles and joints!!!

The morning was alittle cool but about half an hour in we soon warmed off and stripped our long sleeve compression tops off. It turned into a gorgeous day to be trekking and running through the bush and forest.

We had on our green “Smells Like Team Spirit” shirts with the print proudly sponsored by Design House! Every time we passed people they said, “There goes the green team again!”

My cousins Amanda, Mark and their friend Tom also had a three persons team called the “Challengers!”

I ended up having to dig deep after the Hell Hole and came in half an hour in front of my team. I was feeling so drained from the week before I had to keep moving while I had the energy, I couldn’t keep stop starting to catch my breath on every hill, I just had to keep moving! Pain was starting in my knee from my PFPS so I had to get finished asap!

My run keeper said I came in at 4:57:07 mins.
Doing 32.4km with an elevation climb of 1,257m!!!
Why the extra 2.4km?
Coming to a crucial turn that was unmarked all us at the front of the pack turned right and followed the leaders perhaps up to 100 people. Until someone came along and said we were going the wrong way, so all had to turn around and head the other way! On the way back some signage magically appeared!!
All the leaders were now up to 2 to 4km off track!
Why there was no marshal on the track to direct people and correct signage was commented on by several competitors.

When I finally ran in under the finish line the woman who was supposed to scan my bib to take my time said she didn’t think she would till the rest of my team came in?
I queried how am I supposed to know my official time?
A man I had chatted to at one stage during the race came and spoke to me while I waited for the others, he said he left his mate half way as he was lagging and they agree to do this before the race due to different fitness levels and said he got scanned in. I also passed several other people on their own on the track.
I decided to go back to the time station and informed them I wished to have my bib scanned.
After I said you have done this for others, the lady said, “yeah well we probably weren’t supposed to??”
(one would assume a time marshal would have been briefed on what to do and know their role thoroughly for a competition race?)
Anyway I FINALLY had my bib scanned at 12:09:32pm, 15 minutes after I had completed the race!
My team came in another 17 minutes after this at 05:26:55mins which was a fantastic result!
The woman said the time on our certificates would be the time of the slowest runner to come in. I said that’s fine, makes sense?
Our team time would have been over 20+mins shorter for our team if we hadn’t of run an extra 2.4km due to the direction error plus a time marshal delaying my individual result by 15mins on top of this. The website also gives you your INDIVIDUAL RESULTS official time … it would be nice to have that correct to try to better in the future.

There was quite a long delay for people registering, some competitors were still lined up when we started the race. As this was the Inaugural race I’m sure some systems could and will be improved upon for next year.

Our team ended up coming 9th out of 51 - three person teams so that was an Awesome result considering doing an extra 2.4km on top of the original 30km plus we are amateur fun runners!!
All in all we had a fantastic day and desipte those couple of things the event was really well run and fun, so thank you to the volunteers and organisers … the weather was magical ….there was a free sausage sizzle afterwards … we met heaps of nice and motivated people on the course …. and have many great memories of a tough but doable challenge…. I dare say we will be back next year and highly recommend this event to anyone seeking a fun adventure with your mates!!
What an Awesome experience to have the opportunity to take part in the Inaugural Event, this should grow to be huge!