... snowed under ...

I realised two things today. I'm a wimp! and I ain't no snow bunny.

There is a strange fact about most houses in Sydney - they have poor insulation. When the temperature drops, my home becomes a reincarnated freezer, and my studio the heart of the iceblock. Sometimes it can be several degrees colder inside the house than it is outside.

Since the first presentation of my MS, I've had difficulty in regulating my core body temperature. Some people with MS suffer with the heat, for me it seems to be the cold, as soon as the external drops below 18 degrees C, I am layering up just to find some warmth. Maybe it's just my reptilian nature.

So with a chilly day in Sydney here are my top environmentally friendly and economically friendly tips for staying warm while doing sedentary work, in a work space that you cannot adequately heat by other means.

1. Beanie ... I like the ones with tassles - something to play with when you mind is wandering from the work at hand.

2. Scarf ... the longer the better

2. Fingerless Gloves ... especially if you have a Mac and need to use a tracking pad, rather than mouse.

3. Nice thick fluffy socks ... two pairs if the toes are feeling numb. (The numb toes are a result of my MS and not the cold, and even though the socks don't alleviate the numbness, at least I can imagine that my toes are nice and toasty down there in a double layer of thick socks)

4. Ugg Boots ... preferably purple

5. A hot water bottle ... for maximum effect stuff it between your double layer of sweaters to keep it close to your chest.

6. As evening approaches, a lap blanket doesn't go astray.

7. Multiple cups of hot tea.

P.S. Matching the colours and patterns of your attire is optional ... Today I chose the non matching option.

P.S.S. apologies for the lateness of this post but I have "snowed under" :)

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Flying Solo Tip 034365 : A warm heart brings comfort.

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Ctrl-Alt-Delete

After a wobbly day yesterday, I am back and on board with a full day of editing images. Editing days are always good days. Sometimes when I am editing, I feel like I am back at pre-school - cutting, pasting, colouring in - creating. When the images are uploading, I can use that "down time" to catch up on emails, messages, phone calls and general correspondence. Days dedicated to editing always seem to fly by.

One of the main stays for any professional photographer these days is being able to use photoshop - unless of course you have the luxury of hiring editors. However for most freelance photographers this is not the case. In a way it gives us another level of creative control over our images. One of the greatest misconceptions is that "if there is something wrong with the reality", we can just photoshop it, right?

Well .. yes and no. Depending on what you want to achieve. In the past, I have had customers deliver clothes to be photographed for online sale, just shoved in a bag. Sadly the photograph will show every one of those wrinkles. Sometimes I feel as though I care more about the client's product then they do, and spend considerable time prepping the products so that they look great in the images. At events, I frequently encounter requests from attendees wanting very particular things to be photoshopped on the photos that they are in, so that "the reality wont be seen on social media". A few months ago, I had a case where at the end of a party, a guest came up to me and asked that in all the photos she was in, if I could photoshop out the cigarettes. Apparently she worked for one of the quit smoking programs and to be caught smoking is a sackable offence. In this situation, life choices had been denigrated to a "photoshop issue". In this woman's world the problem was now my responsibility as the photographer to "protect the perception". Vanity and taking responsibility for our own lives are often not in cohabitation with each other.

I was thinking today, wouldn't it be great if there was a photoshop for our lives. With a few simple steps, we could smooth out the wrinkles, remove the blemishes, add some colour, increase the saturation or vibrancy, crop, resize - and with all the hard work being done by a powerful processor that simply acts according to our commands.

But I guess we do have that in our lives anyway. We just use a different set of tools. The only difference is that the powerful processor is not external to us but inside our own heads. There is always the option, that when all systems fail, we just Control - Alt - Delete, dust ourselves off and start all over again.

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Flying Solo Tip 033365 : It's not such a major issue when all systems fail. Contol - Alt - Delete; reboot and start all over again.

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storm in a teacup

Have you ever woken up, feeling emotionally and mentally ready for the day, only that to find that your body is in revolt? That is how I woke this morning. I just wasn't sure which end of the body was going to lead the charge! (so to speak). Neither did my body it seemed, they argued for quite some time!

Whenever I feel unwell, I consider the unwellness from a physiological and at a metaphysical level i.e. what is the connection with my unwellness and how I am currently managing my life at the emotional, mental and spiritual level. My MS has taught me this - at one level there is the physical aspects of the disease, but it has also been my barometer for when other things in my life are out of whack.

So to wake up with stomach issues this morning, has put me on alert. Perhaps I picked up a bug over the weekend, however I rarely catch stomach bugs even if everyone around me is falling into a heap. I have had stomach problems in the past, and they were often tied directly to some kind of emotional trauma. So with that kind of medical history, it was also important for me to reflect on my energy fields as well today.

Our inner thoughts and feelings are often closely connected with what we feel in the stomach like "having a gut feeling". At a metaphysical level, the stomach is also associated with the third chakra, the solar plexus, the seat of our personal power, self-esteem, willpower, and self-discipline. It is not surprising that perhaps, my stomach is talking to me. With all the inner work and focus on personal power lately, there is probably some old and no longer useful energy hanging about that needs to be cleansed. More recently I have been taking to a friend about doing a cleansing weekend, so my mind is already preparing itself to cleanse ... it cannot wait to heal, and now it seems my stomach is in agreement.

My wellness regime today included a meditation, cups of licorice tea to aid in relining and balancing the stomach, cups of ginger tea, a couple of bananas for their source of pectin to reduce the symptoms of diarrhea. I also took it easy on the work front. I am positive that by tomorrow, with another meditation tonight using some of the insights I gleaned from being in conversation with my gut all day that I will be back in full flight.

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Flying Solo Tip 032365 : Listen to your gut.

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Personal power, control, freedom, mental energy