Hibernation of The Health Exchange Week Seven

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!

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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.
 
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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                                 
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