Week Seven begins … and then is almost over by the time I get to sit down to scribe about it! It has been a busy one. I had to review my calendar to see what I did! I finished off another Cat Film called “Minutes of the Extraordinary Meeting”. That’s a fun one and number 49 in my bag for experience. I did a bit of cooking and cleaning. I have also now started to think about returning to Massages. Not that I am not enjoying my Maternity Leave, but I think with the confusion between what I was expecting for the Job Keeper Allowance and what landed in the bank, I started to panic a little. The other thing was that while I had been referring callers for Massage off to other therapists, it hit me hard when a woman 34 weeks pregnant called in need to relieve her growing body’s aches. I know I massaged pregnant women for 11 years before taking the specific formal training course and that was still just the two day course; and then a further 8 years to that to fully qualify with the five day course … but after completing that qualification I asked myself how I even dared to touch a pregnant woman without the deep knowledge about contraindicators and questions to ask during a consultation. So now to be “referring” my target audience for my business off to someone else without that training, was heart breaking.
I had contacted my Massage Association earlier in the week inquiring into when Certificate IV’s could return but had no response. I emailed again on Friday and then decided to phone. Much quicker way to get a response! After much attempted explanation of what I wanted to know, it appeared that I could have returned when the Remedials returned several weeks ago, like April 6th or something! The breakdown in communication is over the difference between 3 words – Remedial vs Therapeutic vs Relaxation. Remedial is quite clear – it will be on their Diploma certificate. So, it falls back to the remaining two. Now, I hold the Certificate IV in Massage Therapy. After 20 years of massage one has built a good strong forearm or two. To the person laying on the massage table, a “Relaxation Massage” may not be what they are feeling. I had a client say to me once, “How do you put that word ‘relaxation’ in the same sentence as ‘massage’”? My response was quick and clear – “When the massage is over, there is relaxation!” Although I would not refer to myself as a Relaxation Massage Therapist, I call it Deep Tissue/Therapeutic, my experience of Remedial Massage Therapists (and I was once on the Board of my Massage Association) is that anyone with a qualification lower than theirs is considered a Relaxation Massage Therapist. Therefore, as far as Remedials are concerned I am not Therapeutic but Relaxation. Having said all that, I now learn a third category of therapists who are the “Relaxation” therapist who works in a Beauty Salon. Except for Kathryn who worked for Endota Spa and is a Remedial Massage Therapist. Now can you see the confusion? To add insult, I am then told the Chinese Massage Shops in Shopping Centres are classified as “Relaxation” but obviously only by those who have never paid for a Chinese Massage! No relaxation under their thumbs, elbows or stone-like implement they use. Anyway, the bottom line is that I can return to clinic without the Police knocking on my door claiming I am breaking quarantine laws! I began immediately with the Pregnant client and booked in the 89-year-old down the street who called me earlier in the week with a general tiredness type ache. On Saturday I had notified my clients I was returning and four jumped into the following weekend. I contacted my Home Visit Aged Care Package clients and booked 7 from Monday. I guess I am back at work now! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- The other spectacular thing that happen in this week was the viewing of a 12-acre property I would “love love love” to invest in. It went up for sale earlier in the year and then pulled off the market the day before my tour. It was back up for sale with another agent, so I made sure to get in quick. It is amazing how real estate photography can really cheat the size of a property. The horses shed, or maybe hay shed, looks further from the house in the picture than it does in real life; the swimming pool looked twice its size in the photo; and the main bedroom wasn’t even big enough to swing one cat let alone 3! Quite disappointed in the house but the spectacular views made up for it! I could work with the house on that basis! Now it is a matter of finding some investors to dance with me. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- A couple of days before the end of this Week Seven, the Superannuation Dip I was permitted to take came through. $10,000 landed in my account. A relief that echoes throughout my cells. It has given me a few weeks of Mortgage but mostly covered off the Utilities, Rates, Internet, Mobiles and other ongoing business costs ’til the end of September (unless I have miscalculated somewhere!). The second dose of Superannuation in July/August will boost the Mortgage pocket of money. My financial management system has become more and more complex each year I am in business. When I started at the turn of the Century, I was using pen and paper to record my income and expenses. Must have been hell for my Accountant! I eventually moved into a Xero Bookkeeping System after failing to grasp Cash-something and MYOB. I love Xero because it allows me to continue my Excel Spreadsheets that for years Bookkeepers have been telling me to discard. But no, not my Excel Spreadsheet. Here is where the gold happens, literally. Here I can separate all my expenses into columns, list the invoice amount as a minus from that column and then the income as a plus amount. It would be better if the income came in first and then the outgoing but when you run a business close to the line you are forever borrowing from Peter (one column) to pay Paul (another column) and that’s what they mean by “balancing the books” (or my interpretation of it). At the end of the week I can use the Sum function to see how much money is left in that column and whether it is a minus (red) or plus (blue) amount! Very technical!! But I love my system and it is how I predict where the money is going to and from. It would be nice to play with bigger amounts of money but if the final amount in the bank is above the line, that’s a good place to be! With a drop in expenses such as petrol, water (not washing towels as much) and the work I did earlier in the year to reduce costs such as changing the car insurance from comprehensive to 3rd party fire & theft, means that I should be able to make it out the other end of the COVID-19 with all my grey hair on my head! Wish me luck! Miss Sophia Cull Ayurvedic Traditional Medicine Woman | Doula | Pregnancy Massage Practitioner | Massage Therapist Writer | Poet | Film Maker
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Week Six begins and still the Government’s promised Job Keeper allowance has not emerged in my bank account. On the other hand, as I followed up my request to access my Superannuation of several weeks ago, I find that the total amount available has grown by $5000. I also found out that the request I made to access the monies was not an “official request”, God knows what the computers are saying to each other, so I lodged my application and was told that by the end of next week (the Week 6 turn over to Week 7) it should be in my account. I have now received the last straggles of Home Visit fees from my third-party payers and so other than the above mentioned two sources, there is no further money coming my way. But I have ideas!
The creativity that my brain is now able to indulge in is creating a new future for me. I really would love to “get back to” my Ayurvedic World. I participated in a webinar last week (one of four different topics actually) from my Byron Bay colleagues of the Mudita Institute. The webinar was on Ayurveda & Menopause. The idea of a “Women’s Health Centre” as the next stage of The Health Exchange’s endeavours is what calls to me. The “Doula” side is lingering but my thoughts with that is I can help only one person at a time and due to the intensity of the work, maybe 6 clients a year! That is a slow boat to my end goal, I feel. If I can use my training to support more people over the next 23 years and then into my last 25, then that will achieve a higher distinction in my mind. The way to do this is through empowering leadership – a TMLP II type project. Causing leadership in others. The “others” would be the mamas themselves along with their family and friends. Like the original idea I had of building a network of support around mamas for postpartum care. Also, like Michelle Petterson’s “Seven Sisters for Seven Days” Programme that I am in the middle of qualifying as one of her Planners. The talk on the radio is about never going back to how life was before. I could see that as a spiritual concept but not the practical one they make reference to. The dependency on a Corona immunization means there will always be a lingering threat and so things like social distancing and not gathering in large groups will maintain as a social expectation. I was hoping to be able to shake someone’s hand in future or hug my mates or at least give my not-so-favoured-high-five! But it is not sounding like that … not for now (a year or two) anyway. So small groups and workshops is what I am thinking. These would be along the lines of “Preparing for Puberty”; “Managing Your Menstrual Cycle” including tips for avoiding issues such as endometriosis, fibroids and the like; there would be the talks on “Preparing for Conception” which will be about getting your health and life ready for the miracle of babies; “Pregnancy Health” will be for our pregnant Mama’s and of course include a programme of massages & meditation; then of course the “Preparing for Menopause” sessions subtitled as a “Flattening the Roller Coaster”! These talks and workshops will be offered in small groups as well as online courses/webinars. I will offer both “in person” and “on computer” Ayurvedic Consultations, which will extend my reach to outside Craigieburn. I will have a “Professionals Hub” of small business health professionals, who fish in the same pond, so we can cross refer and support each other. I will also offer my clients a “membership” package that will include a variety of options both treatments and training. This is coming together nicely as I take it out of my head and lay it on the computer page! ---------------------------------------- One of the other webinars I participated in last week was about powering up my business from a digital perspective. The speaker had some great ideas and I will be having a 30 minute “free” consultation with one of his business mentors whose job, I am assuming, will be to enrol me in one of their 12-month business support programmes. As long as it does not cost more than $750 per week, I will consider it!! Another webinar was on “How to write a Blog”. I learned in this that these weekly “essays” I am writing are not actually blogs and their size is comparable to “an extended blog” or almost an E-Book. One of the great tips she had was to “write as though you are having a conversation with the person”. I hope this is how my writing appears for you as I feel I do not know how to write otherwise. Back about 25 years ago when I was undertaking a Graduate Diploma in Health Education & Health Promotion, the tutor took me aside one day to sorrowfully explain that I did not write like an Academic: “You write like you are talking to me” she said in anticipation of a reaction unlike the one I gave her. My response was “Great, that will work for my Novel!”. ---------------------------------------- The rain pitters down as I sit here at the Tennis Centre while Lorretta undertakes her first massage for the day. An early start of 8.30am broke my hibernating routine of a 9/9.30am rising! It was not as hard as I expected and the cats more obliging than I “have a story around” and so it shows me I can get back into a working routine … when the time comes! It is 9.30am now and if I was in bed, the sound of rainfall on my flat tin roof would just lull me into a weekend sleep in! Instead I get to gaze out the window and watch it feed the grass and run a stream down the concrete finding its way into the storm water drains. It is difficult to know which I prefer! ---------------------------------------- Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and the 98th Anniversary of my Fathers Birth. It would be mum’s 56th Mother’s Day if she were here to enjoy it! She was here for only 52 of them, which almost beats Dad’s “here” for 59. When mum was my age, I was 9 years old. When Dad was my age, I was 6. Being the parent of a 6 and 9-year-old at this stage of my life is … unthinkable. Allow me to think about that for a moment. My mate’s youngest is 10 and I consider her a handful. The truth of the matter about “when my parents were my age” is that they had 2 kids – when I was 6 “the other” was 12 and when I was 9 “the other” was 15. Oh hell, I would say! Well, no point dwelling on it, it is not how my life turned out. So, to commemorate this special day tomorrow, I am making a film (of course). It is in anticipation of their Centenaries in due course. For mum’s 95th earlier this year I made a film called “Pulito Il Bagno (To Clean The Bath)” – my first Italian film with English subtitles. It is actually a combination of Italian & English words with Italian & English subtitles. That is the best I can do in my bilingual capacity. I think she would have had a good laugh at it. I hope Dad would be proud of what I am putting together for him. Yeah, I’m sure he would be. No point thinking otherwise, he is not here to correct me! Positive interpretation is always the way to go!! ---------------------------------------- I want to reiterate again here, in case in future I have a different perspective, that I am enjoying my Hibernation Weeks. I could not have done it without the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Governments intervention to close businesses to “flatten the curve” of the spread of the virus and especially their ‘yet to be seen’ financial support. Globally it looks like Australia did well with the lowest number of deaths and, I assume, lowest number of positive cases. We have had something like 98 deaths Australia wide and while Italy and Great Britain report thousands of positive tests overnight on a regular basis, New York reports a total to date of 19,000 deaths. Buggar to that too! So, without belittling the impact this virus is having on the world, in my little corner it has proved a positive experience. I needed a break from the “where is my next dollar coming from” business lifestyle I have created. We always talk about ‘taking time OUT of the business to work ON the business’ but my business was not making enough money to let me open the door! And now it has. I can say the first 4 weeks were necessary to just unwind so even if I took a day or a weekend to ‘step out’ it would have just been like icing on a mud pie! I needed to really ‘empty myself’ so I could get clear about what is important, what time I have left and what I really want to do with the rest of my life. They also say, ‘your business is not your life’. That is true if you have a life outside of business! I keep saying that if I had a husband or kids then life would be different but without those contributions, all I have is me! I created my business as a reflection of me, the service I wanted to give my community. I created a lifestyle not a 9-5 job. I live with my business so there is no ‘leaving work to go home’. And I like it that way. When I was taking care of mum and then when she moved in with me, there was an interruption to business. I would watch tele with her from 10pm to midnight most nights; I would cook for her or buy her favourite Chicken Parmigiana from Schnitz locally; we would go out to dinner on a Friday or a Saturday night; and grocery shop on a Sunday fortnightly along with a monthly Sunday Roast and invite our friends around. After she died, I had my sister’s needs to meet until she walked out. Now I have just me … 3 cats … and my community through my business. As soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted I will return to my expensive hobby of Indoor Skydiving and that will be the only ‘time out’ I will indulge in! But until then, my feet are planted on the ground! ---------------------------------------- As possibly the final note for this week, I just heard that today, Saturday 9th May is the 75th Anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day, marking the end of World War II. The importance of this is obvious (to me). Dad volunteered as a photographer in the second world war. He could not enlist in the Air Force as his eyesight was myopic (he wore glasses for distance). As my film will inform you, early in his time he became ill with Typhoid and Tuberculosis and then Pneumonia. I do not know the order of illnesses and at what point but I am aware he was sent to a possible “Sanitorium” to recover and this was for a couple of years, until the end of the war. After the war he was discharged as an invalid. If the war ended on the day before his birthday, his 23rd birthday in fact, it might have been the best present he ever received. I am disappointed I did not talk to him about his experiences back then but to my defence I was 11 when his ulcer/cancer was first diagnosed and 13 when he died and so not really an appropriate conversation for that age. I recalled my sister several years ago gave me her recollection of Dad and she said: “you really could not have a conversation with him until you were 15, did you notice that?”. I was surprised that she was surprised that I did not get to that age to explore the difference. Mind you she was also surprised I considered myself grown up in a single parent family. There was her myopia – anything outside her skin!! So, to end this week on a positive note and not one showing the rumbles of family disgrunt I still harbour low in my abdomen, Week 6 of Hibernation has been excellent for the development of the next stage of my business and life. My eyes have been opened to opportunities I could (re)create and I look forward to the unravelling of my future. Miss Sophia Cull Ayurvedic Traditional Medicine Woman | Doula | Pregnancy Massage Practitioner | Massage Therapist Writer | Poet | Film Maker Now I feel like I am settling into hibernation! The first day of this week was a rainy Autumn/Winters day that proved the absence of ‘lists to do’ fruitful. I dressed in my track suit pants and pink ugboots … I added to the jigsaw puzzle, I started cleaning up stairs in order to rearrange the bedroom … but need some floor space to be able to do so … I made a packet cake slash double chocolate fudge brownie and started a 24-hour chicken hot pot! Of course, after completing them, I listed these on the blank page noted as Thursday 30 April and ticked them as though they were what I planned to do! That works for my mental health! After my early dinner, I was upstairs at 6pm with the wall furnace gas fireplace warming my body but especially warming 16-year-old Feline Queen Olivia who was at the vet this morning diagnosed with flu symptoms. She was discharged with tablets and cream for her eye. By the time this COVID-19 Hibernation is over, I should be able to successfully sit a Veterinarian Nurses examination: another feather in my hat. The Veterinarian, Natasha, who spoke to me by phone after examining Olivia {because I must wait outside while the Nurse convoys between the inside and outside world of the Animal Hospital} askingly stated that I was a Nurse?! “Too hard to explain” I thought so I responded “No, but close enough”. If my first aid and home nursing training of 41 years combined with all my personal care attendant employment plus being my mother’s carer (all) my life and especially her last 4 years in my house … was not evidence for that response, then my mate Taya should be able to write me a reference given the support I have provided her for 2 years in a Diploma of Nursing (Division 2). Anyway, as I was saying, I was upstairs by 6pm with a view to making an indent to reveal carpet. It was snug and warm and back breaking to go through all the paperwork/books/magazines etcetera that once lived in several bookcases that have absconded to the storage container precisely for the purpose of rearranging the bedroom. When I thought I had worked as hard as I could I snuggled into bed … at 8.15pm. As I said, the cold weather was incredibly supportive of this and my 3 cats were not upset at all. Well, Angel probably was because he seems to think that if he looks outside and it is cold, check again in 5 minutes and it will be better! In some ways that has been known to describe Melbourne’s weather but unfortunately for him, each time he looks it is just as cold and rainy (the last 24 hours anyway). He remains hopeful. I woke as I usually do, several times a night. Olivia has her sleeping post on my chest and under the doona. Since her age has thinned out her body and her spine is more prominent, I insisted she needed to be under the doona for warmth. She is not one for disagreement! Willow has her post on the right-side pillow and Angel knows this, thus he likes to sneak over to the right side of the bed and torment her. I have told them both that the bed is like Switzerland and Willow had to assert herself with her tennis arm to ensure Angel understood. I was proud of my little girl! Angel did the boy thing after losing a battle and came back five minutes later as if nothing had happened!! Except he took the left side of the bed this time! The moments of waking are when Olivia returns to her post; I need to lift the doona. She has me well trained and I can do this without full consciousness. However, that also means I can turn off the alarm clock without knowing it rung. Given the early night I was not surprised that 6am could have been the start of my day. “But why do that?” I thought to myself. "I am in hibernation – so hibernate!" It was 9am before I decided that I had had enough rest and should start the first day of May. So, I feel that I can now display behaviours of laziness and own an unplanned day. Just trotter around the house and go “I might do some jigsaw puzzle … I might sit in the massage chair … I might have a bowl of 24-hour chicken hot pot ... I think I will hang that tray up on the cupboard out of the way … I think that tray needs to be painted and a smiley face put on to greet me in the morning … I might turn on the computer and type some Hibernation Diary!" It is such a different way to exist that I think I might dabble in it for a few more days. Having said that, tomorrow I am “unofficially” on reception for Loretta who is massaging at the Tennis Centre. It is unofficial as I am not being paid and I offered because I felt that since the Tennis Centre is closed, it would be difficult as a Massage Therapist to welcome clients and be alone. Really it is no problem for me as that is what I do but my 20-years’ experience makes it a point of difference. Loretta is new to this game and I do recall how that felt in my early days, so I offered to sit at the desk and read a book or work from my laptop. It worked well last week and as her husband is such a good sandwich maker, I said I would return tomorrow. And I have some packet cake slash double chocolate fudge brownie to share! My warm half length pink ugboots greet me again. It certainly is the right weather for hibernation. I had a cat-free night with each of them finding their own bed after upstairs was warmed by the wall furnace. None of them seemed eager to go outside after breakfast either and returned to their snug spot as I left for “work” and left them the heater on low. By the next day the room had been rearranged. Olivia took note something was afoot and requested to be lifted to the top of the walk-in wardrobe so she could sleep without interruption. Angel took bed in the East Window Box and Willow absconded to outside when the roar of the vacuum cleaner came alive. When all was done and dusted (literally) Willow was first to inspect with her one eye. She took her time {probably twice as long as if she had 2 eyes} and seemed to be saying over and over “what have you done, why have you done this?”. Once she found the bed, she was confused as to which pillow she should take rest on and chose the opposite to last night. Angel was also a bit miffed and inspected all corners of the room before jumping up on the bed. Then to find Willow on his side of the bed was like sacrilege. Once Olivia was ready to leave the comforts of the top of the wardrobe her inspection was short and sweet with more like a comment of “back to moving the furniture around, are we?”. Yes, it has been a while since I have given myself the pleasure of a Spring Clean. And I am incredibly pleased with the outcome. Still loose ends to tie up (like all the stuff in the bathtub in transition to the storage container) but now I have a bed head facing East which theoretically is good for sleeping (not that I need any help) and some floor to dance, or at least, move around on. It probably would not have happened without COVID-19. It has been on the books since January last year!! When the Gas Plumber visited to service the “Real Flame Gas Log Fire” I noticed how deprived of a visitor I had been. I tried to keep my 1.5m distance but I was so keen for a chat I noticed my encroaching on his space! He spoke of envy of all of us on “holiday” as business is as usual for him. In that same breath he said his wife, who works in his business, has had to take a step back so she can home tutor the kids {and all the extra mothering that goes on in a Pandemic such as this}, is having a "holiday"! I held myself back from correcting him. He just would not understand really! While my payment for Job Keeper theoretically begins at the end of this week, the cats are not the only ones spending my money. After this $200 service {at least it is working} the heater has scored 3 on the Carbon Monoxide scale and while 10 is Government Safety Standard, my service man sets his preference to 7. “It might not take much to go from 3 to 7”, he explained as he described the mechanics of the breakdown in the heating system that leaks Carbon Monoxide. So now I am shopping for a new heater! I am not surprised. I had been told last service several years ago that the heater looks 1990’s style. So, it has had a good run! I am looking in the up to $5000 range however! As Week 5 comes to a close and I roll into Week 6, I hear the Government talking about getting us all back to work. My first thought is that I have only just stopped and with all the energy required to apply the brakes, I have not rejuvenated sufficiently to crank the wheels up again. My Elder clients on home visits are bitting at the door calling to check I have not restarted and left them hanging. My eldest client of 90 years is very sore and anxious for my return. My ladies in their late 70’s and early 80’s who are blessed with my skills twice and once weekly, respectively, are also waiting with bated breath. But I am afraid I am not so eager. I am not clear what the business is I will be returning to, but I have a good feeling it will not be the same. A Spring Clean on the business is where I am at. So, let the money roll in, help me to pay my debts and give me just a few more weeks {or maybe months} at least to put the structures in place to get going again. The final 23 years of my career is calling but I want to make sure it is mapped out correctly with minimal hurdles and lots of fun!
Miss Sophia Cull Ayurvedic Traditional Medicine Woman | Doula | Pregnancy Massage Practitioner | Massage Therapist Writer | Poet | Film Maker |
AuthorSophia Cull is exercising her passion for writing and film making since closing her business for COVID-19. ArchivesCategories |