This week I am proud of…..

This week I am really battling to think of something I am proud of….

 

I know there are some things I probably should be proud of, but mostly I am pretty disappointed in myself.  I let a ball drop and now it feels like the whole lot are about to come crashing down.  I know I will probably look back in just over a month and realise it is not nearly as bad as I think (I HOPE), but at the moment it seem pretty terrible and getting worse.  But, it does not affect my family, health or anything that is really important to me so I will just have to deal with the problems as they arise.

 

So, what am I proud of??? This week I am very proud of my daughter. I was away all of last week in Cape Town for the Cape Cycle Tour Lifestyle Expo and she stayed behind with Andrew,  our nanny and my mom.  She coped remarkably well, even though she was sick.  I felt terrible about leaving her, but could not do anything about it. I am proud that she is such an independent soul.

I am also proud that even though I was having a major pity party last week Wednesday, when my stand at the expo came crashing around me about 30 seconds after I had finished putting it up, I managed to give myself a stern talking to and pull myself together, rebuild the stand and have a great expo.  At that stage I really just felt like coming home.

What were you most proud of last week?

SA Medal Hangers – New Blog

I cannot believe that we are mid-way through December and I have not even started my Christmas shopping yet…… YIKES!!!  My family is easy – we do a Secret Santa and so only have to buy for one person.   I happened to get Mr OL, which is a bit of a problem as I now need to get him 2 gifts.  We also all generally give my mom something additional as well – but she likes hand made stuff so that’s done.  At least Father Christmas is on the ball so Little OL is sorted.  My in-laws…. hmmmmm I really need to get to the shops soon.

I have a good excuse for not having gotten to the shops earlier… I have been working hard!  So many people have contacted SA Medal Hangers for custom made or personal medal hangers – it has been awesome.  I love coming up with the new designs.  But because of that , I have decided to create a new blog.  This will showcase SA Medal Hangers’ custom-made or personalised medal hangers.  We have created so may awesome one off designs and they won’t all get displayed on our website, so to give people some inspiration or ideas when ordering their own medal hanger I thought this might work.  What do you think?

Please feel free to visit and follow that blog.  It is http://medalhangers.wordpress.com

In the meantime here are a couple of the ones we have made recently – I am so proud of them.

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in ordering anything similar please contact me on pamela@medalhanger.co.za  You can also visit our Facebook page for more photos… SA Medal Hangers

November – quite a month

So, its been exactly a month since my last day of official employment and BOY OH BOY what a month.  I have never been this busy or this excited or this stressed.  And I have loved it!

It started with me trying to get ready, not only for the Dryland Traverse but also the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge Expo.  The timing was not good as there was no cell phone reception at the De Hoek camp site where the Dryland was based, but thankfully they had set up Wi-Fi, if a bit temperamental at times.  I was going to be away for 4 days and then back for only 1 day before leaving for Johannesburg, so I needed to get everything done before I left for the run.

I was also worried about driving from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg by myself and then concerned about actually driving in Johannesburg.  Both of which were fine.  It took me about 80km to remember that I LOVE driving on my own.  I turned the music up to the max and had a blast.  I did get a few odd looks at some of the stop and go’s with my music rocking the Kombi. Not sure if it was the volume or my dodgy taste in music though…..

Thanks to Firefly for the recommendation on a accommodation as it was less than a kilometre from the Coca Cola dome and very easy to find when coming in from the N1.  No problems there.

Then the expo – I was not sure how it would go.  It was totally foreign territory to me.  I did not know how much stock to take, if people would buy or just want info.  I just hoped I sold some…..  which I did.  Not as much as I would have liked but the interest was high and as custom orders are our biggest seller most people wanted info to order later.   Which thankfully a lot have done.  That has totally exceeded my expectation.  In fact I am bouncing around on Cloud 9 at the moment.  I know a lot of the medal hangers ordered are for Christmas presents so January will be really quiet, but considering I have only just started I am ecstatic.

Here is a photo of the SA Medal Hangers stand at the expo.  What do you think?  As it was our first expo, I learnt a lot of stuff.  I will do the stand slightly differently next time, I will take less stock but have more staff and hopefully I will be a lot less stressed…….. Our next major expo is at the Cape Argus Cycle Tour in Cape Town in March and I can’t wait.

Then, did anybody spot SA Medal Hangers in a few of the magazines……  We got write ups in the Runner’s World and the RIDE SA magazines .  I had sent them the info but had no idea they would use it – happiness is

So, what can I say! This has been one heck of a year.  My work goal for the year was by the end of 2013 to go half day in formal employment and to try and to have found something else on the side, which hopefully by the end of next year would be enough to take over.  Being retrenched kind of kicked that goal out the window, but it was replaced by something so much bigger.  My word for the year was DO and I think I have done just that.  2013 has one month left and I am excited for it and then even more excited for 2014!

Last day!

Today is my last “official” day at work. I say official because I have only been popping in and out over the past week (trying to get used to unemployment 🙂  )
I must admit that I am quite sad to leave this job. I have been working here for the past 6 years, which has been my longest stretch at one place. Before that my longest was 3 years. I have met some amazing people and have learnt a lot. People have had confidence in me and I have changed positions in the company a couple of times with my latest one being Compliance Liaison Manager, a position I enjoyed and nothing like I have done before.
But, I am also excited to leave. Although it was not my choice it is most definitely time. I have known for a while that me working full time and Little OL being at the school she is at just does not work. The days are too long for her if left in After Care and although I could fetch her at lunch and take her home which I have been doing for the past few months it is far from ideal.
Now I will be working from home, so get to spend the afternoons with her. My hours will be more flexible (set by myself) and it is something that I am passionate about. I LOVE sports, and I get so excited by what others have achieved. It is awesome that I get to see the medals that people have earned and that they are telling me the stories behind them. It also great that I am getting to be creative with the designs of the medal hangers. (can you tell I am excited about this…… lol)
So, today is a mixture of happiness, sadness and excitement. Another chapter begins!

Here are a few photos of customers hangers that they have sent me.  I love seeing them!

SA Medal Hangers

SA Medal Hangers – Table Mountain MTB

SA Medal Hangers – Triathlon

SA Medal Hangers – I LOVE MEDALS!

 

And I agree – I lOVE MEDALS!

An achievement and a giveaway!

I know I have said this before, but I have been blown away by the support I have been receiving for SA Medal Hangers – and I know it seems weird to say, but I am stupid proud of them. I have one up on my wall and I stare at it all the time. I am not sure which I am more proud off, the medals that hang from it or the actually hanger.
I also know it is early days, I know I still have far to go and I know that having a full time job has been a huge cushion for me in starting this business, but I am really proud of myself for taking what could have been a blow and trying to make it a positive.
Before starting this I did keep most of my medals, but they were hanging on a broken clothes hanger in the back bedroom cupboard. I would not look at them, but just add another medal as I got it. It was actually Mr OL’s suggestion that we display them but could not really think of a solution and then I found this idea.
Now that the medals are up and I can see them I realise just how far I have come. I started running again in 2005 and did my first Ironman in 2007. In the past 8 years running and triathlon have become a huge part of my life and I love it!
I know that not everybody wants to display their medals, and a lot of people don’t even take them at races, but since putting them up on the wall I have started seeing them not just as the metal and ribbon, but as something more than that! As an achievement – and something I should be very proud off.
To give somebody else the opportunity to feel that sense of pride and achievement I have decided to run a giveaway on SA Medal Hangers’ Facebook page. The details are all there, so please go and have a look. You could win a 65cm triple bar medal hanger of your choice! (Sorry – Open to South African Residents only). CLICK HERE for details.

I want to go home!

Is it nearly home time yet?  I have been so busy at work lately but today, not so much and boy is the day dragging.

It does not help that I left a very cute and cuddly girl at home.  Normally she prefers to be down and crawling around, but this morning she just wanted to be cuddled.  Very hard to leave her!  Roll on 4:30!

This does not look like a baby magazine.......

oh oh! That’s not good.

Ok – not a good start to the day!

I parked my car outside work this morning and reached under my seat for my shoes…. and reached and reached and then panicked!!!  Yip, I had forgotten to bring shoes to work.

Crap! 

Decisions??? Do I phone up and say I am going to be late, well later than I already was or do I try and sneak in with nobody noticing and hide in my office till lunch time…….

Let’s just say that I am not good about sneaking – busted!!!  I think they are all still laughing.

A Portfolio Lifestyle

Last night on Carte Blanche they had a story on “A Portfolio Lifestyle”!  That really appeals to me!  These people don’t have a job, they do numerous things that bring in an income, do good in the community and are active.  I like that.

The thing was that most of their activities basically revolved around one central theme.  So for instance the person was an actor, they acted, danced, taught dance, did voice-overs and such like.  They made their passion work for them and did not rely on a 9 – 5 job.

I do, do quite a bit already, but now I need to start doing things that bring in an income.  However, I suppose there is also the possibly that you could be spreading yourself too thin and by not concentrating on one specific thing you run the risk of not doing it to the best of your ability. But I get BORED very easily so this might just be the thing for me?

So, what would my central theme be – what is my passion?  I guess if I knew that then I would already be doing it, because it sure as hell isn’t funeral insurance!!!

And I can’t even blame porridge brain any more.

URGH!!! I am having a blonde moment at work and it is driving me insane! 

The IT guy at work set up a new email account for me and I can’t remember the username.  I can remember the password, I wrote that down incase I forgot it, but username…. NOPE. 

I am a Dunce!

There are only so many variations I can try and I think I have exhausted them.  Infact I think it might have already blocked me.  I had to phone the IT guy to ask him. And he can’t remember either…. Oops.  He is going to have to come in and have a look on the system and unblock it if it is blocked.  Yes, and to make matters worse we use an external IT company so it is not as if he can just wonder on down the passage….

EDITED TO ADD: I was being even more stupid than I thought!!!!  I had the right username, but I was forgetting to press shift to get to the # sign so was using 3 instead.  URGH!!!! DOFF.

Gautrain! Awesome

I was in Jo’burg on business yesterday, it was fun.  I got to catch the Gautrain from the airport and back!  Boy was I impressed.  It was clean, fast and efficient.  It was worth flying up there just to catch the train.  

My only problem….  the escalators at the Sandton station!  Holy cow they have dug a deep hole in the ground.  The platform of the station is a long way from the surface and while catching the esculators up you get quite a good idea of how deep.  You can see all the way down.  Not good when you have a slight fear of heights.  I was beginning to get rather stressed near the top.  On the way back I thought I would be smart and catch the lift…. That was fine until we started to descend and I realised the doors were glass…. Yikes, I had my eyes shut the whole way down. 

Please excuse quality of these photos.  I took them from my phone.

Gautrain

Gautrain - interior