A Few Things...

I am officially employed again!! Hooray!! It’s the first time I’ve had a proper paid job since October 2013, so it’s well-needed.

I have just got back from my second shift at work, so now my induction is complete and I am ready to start working properly. It’s a casual contract though, so I have no idea just yet when that will be!

The job is working as a Community Support Worker for a non-profit Disability Service Provider. My main role will be working in the Community Inclusion Program. For this I will get paired with a person who is living with a disability, then work with them to support them to set and achieve appropriate goals. There is also the possibility of occasional work at the Respite House which the organisation runs.

Today I was at the Respite House with the other new Support Workers (6 of us in total), so while we were there we got to meet a couple of young people who are guests there just now. The people stay there just for a short time, a few days or maybe a couple of weeks, so that their families can focus on other things – maybe there are other children who need attention, maybe there is illness to deal with, or maybe they just need some time to regroup as they are coping long-term with the complex needs of their family-member.

I’m looking forward to starting work properly, although I realise that it will be challenging, and at times difficult. I’m also nervous about meeting ‘my’ family for the first time, as I know they will be judging me to see if they think I will be a good fit for the person I will be paired with to support – I really hope that we will like each other when we get introduced, and that I won’t let them down!

Obviously the nature of my work means that I can’t write about any specific things, but there may be times when I can write general stuff that doesn’t breach any confidentiality (or basic privacy and respect!) if I feel I want to include work stuff on here.

Another thing I’m feeling quite pleased about is a very simple idea I had to help out a friend. She moved to Townsville in January, and I met her as my husband and hers work together. She really wants to get back into fitness stuff, especially running – but she has a gorgeous little baby boy who is just a few months old, and babies don’t really go well with running and the gym and stuff! Of course while her husband is around she doesn’t need to worry about the baby, but in their job our husbands are away a lot, and can work erratic hours.

So my very simple idea was to meet at the Strand – the developed sea front area here in Townsville - park the baby in his pram at one of the shaded areas. I brought some equipment; a couple of hand weights and a kettle bell. Then we took it in turns to run a loop, while the non-runner did static exercises (arms, legs and abs) and watched the baby!

So simple, but so effective. I’m really glad I thought of it, as it was fun to work out with someone new (although we weren’t actually working out together), and my friend seemed to really appreciate the chance to get out and exercise, while not missing out on time with her baby – or worrying about finding a sitter. Brilliant!

I'll try to write out a program of some kind in case anyone else likes this idea - you could do this if you both had babies too, the only problem is when they start to get too big to sit happily in a pram...


As for blankety developments for Cherry Heart’s Blanket-Along on Ravelry, I have made some progress, although it’s kind of backwards progress really!

I haven’t made much progress with the Sunshine/Aspen willow squares – I’m only up to 5 of them:

I’m not sure what direction to take this part of the project: all squares the same? A couple of different, but similar, patterns in the same colours? The same pattern, but with a couple of extra colours?  I definitely like the simplicity of these squares though, so I don’t want to do anything over-the-top with them.


Speaking of over the top… I had made up 12 squares of the crazy neon colours, and needed to work out how to make these work, as I didn’t really like them together: 

I added some black to see how that would help, as I didn’t have any other colour that I thought would work as a background. I put in the first row of black hooking around the stitches below, rather than into the tops of them. I really like the effect of this stitching: 

But still I had to accept that this wasn’t really working. I mean, I REALLY didn’t like how it all looked together! So, some more frogging will be required as I removed the last few rounds – I’m going to experiment with having coloured centre motifs and the squaring-off part in black. This way I can include the multi-coloured yarn in a less eye-aching way!

I made a couple of motifs to start with, to test out the idea. I like the multicolour centre best, rather than the multicolour on the outside, so I'm going to make more of those:

I’m hoping that take 3 will be a keeper – not sure how many more times I can face undoing and redoing the same project!