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

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.

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.

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.

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.

- 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

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!!!

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

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! 

Somehow I stumbled across the great Wall Marathon event online and right away I had a deep feeling I just had to achieve this, therefore I immediately proceeded to make this exciting, adventurous & challenging goal a reality!

This marathon is described my many running magazines, promotional advertisements, sports websites and runners / competitors as one of the “TOUGHEST” ever …. I thought, What perfect conditions for our first ever competitive marathon!!!

Two days before the marathon we went for an orientation day, had a look around and climbed the 3.5km section of wall steps that we would be completing twice during the actual marathon. The following day I was alittle embarrased and asked several other participants, “Are your legs sore?” and everyone said YES!
OMG we had to go into this marathon with aching leg muscles and severe sleep depravation, not the best way to take on a task such as this!!!

We had a 2.30am wake up call to climb on a bus for a 2hour trip to Yin Yang Square for the start of the race. The temperature was so cold!!! They had performers and loud music so we all joined in an amusing aerobics / dance routine and soon warmed up ready for the start of the race. Dencorub, sun cream, hat, hydration pack, knee strapped, camera, snacks TICK … and after a countdown we were off at 7.30am on the dot!

It turned into such a beautiful clear blue day being very hot at lunch especially for the second phase of the stairs! It was sensational to be out of the thick Beijing smog and able to breathe clear mountain air!

What a hard slog it was!
We both had knees troubles and been to see physio’s during our training. I have PFPS (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome) which with some strapping my knee didn’t hurt and tracked correct for the whole race. Emma’s sore knee played up but she pushed through the pain.

At the 36km mark we had 8km to go the first 3km being roughly 2,600 stairs again in the opposite direction then a 5km run home down a hill which we had climbed to begin the race. When I arrived back to the wall stairs, Emma decided to push ahead and after she went I literally hit a wall! OMG they were so exhausting with more up then down this time.
The extreme heat, not knowing if I had consumed enough calories or water also played on my mind as I was feeling a little nauseous and delirious.
But there was no way I was stopping!!!!
Just keeping going … one step after another, I told myself in my head (the same thing I said many times when climbing to Base Camp Mt Everest in Oct last year).
As I continued on the wall it appeared most others were it this same condition!!
After conquering the last few steps I found a second wind and ran the last five km home!

What a fantastic feeling to finally achieve that current goal after months of preparation plus not getting sick in China or an injury during training or on the day!

My personal time was 6:39:09 mins and Emma came in at 6:15:23 mins.

My Rank Information: Women 35-39 years

Rank category              20 of 34
Rank sex                      109 of 202
Rank overall                 391 of 582 

The Australian company we booked through Travelling Fit (the Marathon Package Experts) were extremely professional  and helpful with representative Paul Clements coming on the tour and handling all queries with ease then completing the marathon with us being his first also! They also supplied our Amazing shirts for the day … you could easily recognise the 200  Aussies in the race to cheer them on!!!

At the after party I also had the pleasure to meet and had a chat with Henrik Brandt from Denmark. He has completed all 12 Great Wall Marathons from when they first started and has the medals to prove it!!! He told me he would like to do at least 25!

Now, one must remember I’m not an elite athlete; I’m just a girl with a passion for adventure and life, so anyone can do these challenges if you put your mind to it!!!
It not about fast times, it’s about setting a goal, getting out of your comfort zone, working hard and completing the task no matter what!!!!
You will meet like minded people, build self confidence, feel fit and healthy, proud of yourself and learn to love yourself …because if you don’t no one else will!!!
Good Luck, Go Hard and Reap the Rewards!!!

A big thank you to the organisers and volunteers for doing such a SENSATIONAL job!!!!

Plus a big and huge thank you to my friend Emma for commiting to this also and being an awesome training patner, without her support this may not have been possible!!!

This Sunday on the 29^th of May I have to back up with a 30km trail run in Brisbane!

Hmmmm what next!

Great Wall Marathon videos here!