Playing around with Google and getting some interesting results ...

Have you ever Googled yourself? 

When Barry and I first started dating in January 2006, I gave him a short overview of my life and work history, and he Googled me! I was shocked to say the least, but then quite flattered as I saw my name featured strongly on the first few pages as I'd recently had a high profile role in UK.

A few nights ago I must've been procrastinating about something, and ventured onto Google. I've done it a few times previously, and play around with my first and surname, then adding my middle name into the mix. It may sound odd, but I find it a bit weird to discover there are other people out there called 'Sandra Walsh'! Anyway, I get a few mentions, from a variety of publications over the years and recently (and of course this blog), and from my Life Coaching Blog. 

Then I tried Barry Teutenberg - guess what? There's not so many people out there with that name! Barry did suggest that if I wanted to be more 'unique' I could change my surname, which is a possibility, but that would bring in all sorts of other complexities.

So, onto Barry Teutenberg. He has the monopoly on the Google search until half way down page three! We discovered his prints for sale on Amazon, and via an American Fine Arts website. Interestingly we found one his favourite shots, of a rainy day in Worcester, had been turned into a cartoon by " Canuck-Girl-In-Worcester".

As Barry can now work legitimately in UK, I've refreshed the Facebook Page I started in 2011, and added in the link to the website where people can buy his prints - I'd never even seen it before! I've suggested to Barry that maybe I can be his VA - he'd never heard this term before. It's a 'Virtual Assistant'. You can pay people to co-ordinate your social media, write your newsletters, set up your website, etc., without ever even meeting them. Barry is more than capable of the website development (which I find challenging), and is working on his new one as I type. But he's not so hot on the social media side - Facebook, Twitter, emailing, etc, which I love doing.

So what a great team we make, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses. Visit the links and see what you think. And maybe do a Google search for your self and let us know how you get on!

The next chapter in the adventure of 'Barry and Sandra' is about to commence ...

Life in the Marina (when I'm here that is!), will be changing considerably from next week when Barry returns from New Zealand - yay! I did however chat with him on the phone yesterday, and found myself saying I had some trepidation about his return as I've grown accustomed to having the 'space' of the whole table to work on, and I'm going to find it challenging to adjust to begin with! I suspect I could easily live alone on a boat - so long as I didn't have to move it anywhere - though I reckon I could even do that with a bit of practice ...

Life in the Marina is nourishing. I thought I'd miss the variety of changing the area we 'live' most days - but I don't! I love:

• Electric hook up
• Water whenever I want it
• Being able to get my shopping delivered to the end of the gangplank (thank you Tesco)
• Having a rubbish bin at the end of the gangplank
• Knowing there's pump-out only a short distance away so it's fine to wait for the 'red-light'
• Having the teenage cygnet coming to visit and the three mallards who've decided AreandAre is THEIR boat (and fight off any intruders)
• Being a five minute walk from a fairly frequent bus service to Chester or Whitchurch
• Being a twenty minute car or bus journey from my eldest daughter and grandson (and fantastic news - they're about to welcome a new addition to the family)
• Being across the road to the Ice Cream Factory so when I have the honour of caring for our grandson we have somewhere to 'play'
• Having some lovely fellow boaters around who are friendly and helpful
• Having a reliable 'Three' Mifi signal so I can 'work from home' on my business

This is all helpful to me to recognise that whilst I love Barry immensely, and really will adore having him back beside me, I also know I love 'being' with my self - which is something as a life coach I help to bring out and nurture in my clients - such a vital key to happiness.

Talking of which - look at this for a beautiful photograph depicting the bliss of a hug from a very special friend ...

Rivka and Richard made a detour on their travels to visit me at the end of September, and are now back in Gisborne (arriving the day Barry left there!), and today I 'discovered' this picture on their blog.  So many people and places I miss about Gisborne - so I won't even begin to broach that subject, but know you all live in my heart.

Onto the past week ...

Well I had a wonderfully inspiring five days in Northern Ireland. Prior to leaving, I visited the hairdresser for the first time since March - I decided to 'step-up' and look a little more like the woman on my business cards instead of a crazy boat-woman! You'll see the difference below.

No photos of the country though, as that wasn't on the itinerary (though I saw Belfast from the motorway and it reminded me of Wellington, a beautiful horse-shoe shaped harbour and houses on the hills) - this time. It was a combination of 'work' and play, though to be fair I don't consider what I 'do' as a life coach to be 'work', it's so different to what I've been used to calling that and I'm loving it. 

Here's a shot of the group of coaches, social media gurus, holistic therapists and all sorts of fascinating business people who gathered to discover more about sales and marketing. It was amazing to be amongst such positive and proactive people, and I know my horizons expanded greatly from the time spent with them. Thank you Bernadette Doyle (she's the beautiful woman just under my chin).

I even spoke up - which for many people reading this isn't surprising, but for me it was out of my comfort zone on the first day in front of a room full of people I'd never met before!

The deciding factor for participating in the weekend's conference, was to spend time with a dear friend who I knew when I lived in Hampshire, in 1985 to 1987. We haven't seen each other since that time, and our lives have taken many twists and turns along the way, but it was like we'd turned back the clock. Thank you Alison and Alan for your amazingly warm and generous hospitality - I shall bring Barry back over to see you at some point in time - or come and experience a different lifestyle aboard our floating hallway! 

Alison, Alan and Sandra about to go out for dinner

This afternoon I have Enterprise picking me up from the Marina, and I'm off to spend ten days with my parents - oh yes! And pick up my husband next Friday morning from Heathrow!

Here's a shot of the Marina for you Barry - not long to wait now and you'll be back with your beloved - and your gorgeous wife :-)

We have a date - let the new life begin!

It took a bit of working around, but after a phone call to Malaysia Airlines, I managed to move 1,000 air miles to Barry's 'Enrich' account so he could book a return flight. With the taxes and surcharges, it cost around NZ$500 - still less than half the price it would normally cost for a one-way ticket from Auckland to Heathrow. He arrives in London early on Friday 25th October, just two months and twelve days after leaving UK on 13th August.

We'd like to 'publicly' acknowledge the amazing work Colin Bonos, from 'ivisas' in New Zealand, has carried out on our behalf; and for all his skilful knowledge, friendly and informative support and advice along the complex journey of gaining Barry's initial 'spousal sponsored visa'. There's another two stages to 'pass through' before he reaches the destination of 'Indefinite Leave to Remain' in UK, but we'll cross those bridges when the time comes.

On 21st September, the first of our articles, 'A Life Changing Journey', was published in the Gisborne Herald Weekender supplement. Well done Amy from NB Willow for picking up a glaring error. Can anyone else spot it (no cheating friends and family and looking at Facebook!)? The second part winged its way to Gisborne earlier today, and just needs Barry to drop into the offices (in person I suspect) some stunning photography to complement it.

Next week I'm off to Belfast for a 'More Clients, More Leads, More Sales' conference by Bernadette Doyle, a go-getting entrepreneur who I bought an online marketing package from last year and the ticket was part of the deal. So I'm taking up the opportunity of attending my first ever Life Coaching related conference/event, and staying with a beautiful friend I haven't seen for 25 years! How exciting! 

Business cards balls up!

As part of setting up and establishing my Life Coaching business in the UK, we've been working on new business cards.  We normally use ''Vista Print' for these, and needed to edit my cards from New Zealand to include my UK phone number, and website/blog address.

Barry's great at designing these things, and getting it all set out - but once we'd agreed the design something technical happened (I can't remember what it was!) and he had to start again.  Eventually we got it right (or so we thought), and ordered 250, along with some blog cards for AREandARE.

Expecting them to be delivered to my parents around 10th May, I called them before visiting on 12th, only to be informed they hadn't arrived.  By the middle of last week they (apparently) still hadn't materialised there, so Barry emailed 'Vistaprint' and they re-sent the order which was very good of them.

While staying with my parents last Friday night and early Saturday morning, I sorted out my dad's car breakdown insurance cover that had run out.  He's 93 now and gets confused at times, so wasn't clear what the reminder letter was about.  After I'd done that, I opened a drawer to keep the information in the relevant place - and there was a parcel, addressed to me, with the first order of the business cards!  My dad must've answered the door to the postman/courier, put them in the drawer (not sure why!) without understanding what they were, and didn't tell my mum.

So now we'll have 500 business and blog cards.

We began giving the cards out to friends and family to share with anyone they wanted to, or to place in prominent, suitable places.  We gave a handful to Helen, from 'Wand'ring Bark', and took a handful of hers for her 'Wild Side Jams and Preserves' business (on a 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' theory).

The following day Helen texted to ask if it was ok to put a link to my website/blog on their blog - and let us know that it wasn't on the business card - we were flummoxed! We'd edited the cards intensively, or so we thought, but lo and behold, she was right!  In the process of the technical hitch and re-doing the cards, we'd missed the website off the final version!

So now we'll have 500 business cards, without the vital link that explains who I am, what I do, and what options there are currently for coaching with me!  Admittedly it's there on my Facebook page if you look closely and open the relevant link, but many people don't 'do' Facebook - avoiding it at all costs.

Here's one of said the cards - minus the website/blog address of www.awakeningyourlife.me.

Thank you Helen, it's amazing that we didn't notice and we're not sure how long it would've taken us to (isn't it funny how you sometimes see what you want to see?) - today I've ordered another 250, this time with my Life Coaching website/blog address on!  Now we just have to hope that my mum gets to the postman first, or we'll have to turn their house upside down looking for them in a few weeks time ...

Mayday, Mayday & living more on less

Regular blog readers will recall our toilet disaster in Bristol (click here to read the post) on our 2010 journey, when we were stuck in the docks there with a broken 'dunny' as Kiwis call it.  Well yesterday we had a repeat performance - not a good feeling when we've only owned the boat for less than three weeks!  It's always been a bit of an issue for me, this boat living and the disposal of our 'waste'.  I recall telling Barry in 2008 that if we were ever going to spend time living on a narrowboat that I wouldn't have anything to do with that part of it - I've cleaned up enough s _ _ t in my nursing and midwifery career to last me a lifetime!

One of our 'essentials' on the list of 'which boat' has always been a 'pump out' toilet, preferably a macerator, but Areandare has a vacuum pump out which I guess we're just not used to yet.  Yesterday morning, the ablutions of the day decided to stay stuck and not make their way to the tank - the 'half full' light was on, and we wondered if maybe the 'full' light just didn't work and there was no more room? So we made haste to the nearest boatyard/pump out between Loughborough and Sawley, our destination for the day, got pumped out, and found the problem remained. Without going into too much detail, Barry and the man from the boatyard sorted it out fairly easily, and we think that basically we haven't been working the pump properly and getting the suction up enough with each flush!

I know, not the most tasteful subject is it?  But at least we've fixed it, for only £12. However, we STILL don't know how long we'll last between pump outs, as last time we did it when the half full light was on because we had a visitor coming and didn't know when we'd next get an opportunity.

If you've never spent time on a narrowboat, all this toilet talk may appear odd. I believe there's quite a divide between those who feel pump out toilets are the only way to go, and others who swear by their cassette - mainly I think due to the fact that the latter is free to empty.  We did consider some boats with a cassette, but the thought of having to dispose 'manually' of the contents every couple of days wasn't at all appealing.

We're still getting to know many of the the intricacies of our new abode, as one does with a new house or boat, and we're working out how to save power (will changing to a 12 volt fridge help at some point in the future?), which engine speed works best when (our current configuration only allows 1100 or 1500 rpm), how much diesel we're using, how much gas, etc.

The change in our lifestyle comes at a cost - we currently have very little income, and while outgoings are reduced in some ways there are still many essentials, so good budgeting is now crucial.  In a way we're enjoying our new project - and shocked at how much money we used to spend unnecessarily because we were so 'time' short.  Now we I keep a record of every penny we spend, and at the end of each week categorise it into our spreadsheet.  Hopefully after a few months we'll be able to see how much we 'need' each week, and how much we can cut back on or save for 'emergencies'.  It'll also give us an idea of an approximate figure we need to look at earning, in whatever ways we can.  Filling up with diesel the other day, the lady said "Didn't you know what the word 'boat' means?  'Bring Out Another Thousand'!"  Oh dear ...

Any ideas on this subject are welcome, as we know many boaters have chosen this lifestyle because they love the waterways, are able to live so much more, but do so with a lot less 'money'.

Just to brighten up the post, here's Trent Lock (well the pub by the lock!), looking lovely in the afternoon light yesterday:

This evening I have my first ever coaching session, by Skype, from the boat - marvellous! I hope there'll be many more clients wanting to explore ways of finding more 'life' in their lives in whatever way works for them, in the near future.