It’s time for the October round-up, and Halloween seems to be looming large – not like when I was growing up, it wasn’t even a “thing” here in Australia until recent years!
Last night the husbear and I watched “Time Cut” on Netflix, about a girl who travels back in time to 2003 – just over 20 years ago and it was amazing how much has changed since then. Remember when the waistband on girls’ jeans were so low they barely covered the pubic bone (not like the high waist trend of today)?! And the terrible screech as your mode connected to the internet?!
But I digress!!! For now, let’s travel in time back a month to October 2024, the month that was …
1 October – Interesting chat on my DIY SEO HQ group today. We even talked about SEO a bit 😉 – as well as our earliest memories.
2 October – Look at this lovely gift I received from the outgoing president of my BNI chapter, as a thank you for all my help and support 🙂 .
3 October – I drove down the Gold Coast for the first day of the Digital Marketers Australia conference at the Mantra on View in Surfers Paradise.
Stoopid Google took me the slowest way to get there – I was sitting at some lights, waiting to turn right when I noticed that if I’d taken the other route it showed – going straight instead – I’d have been there in 3 minutes, while the way it was sending me would take nearly 20! It was too late for me to change lanes so I was stuck … and then I hit the roadworks … sigh.
Conference was fab once I finally got there (and yes, I did avail myself of the free massage to reduce my stress levels!). This slide below really resonated with me (credit: William Wang, formerly of Growthlabz.com … he shared his story of how he successfully grew his marketing business, which he has now sold!):
In the evening I joined about a hundred others for a dinner at Coast restaurant, held by Constant Contact, one of the sponsors of the conference.
4 October – DMA Conference Day 2. Popped down to the beach at lunch time!
5 October – We headed over to our island getaway and were delighted to see that our resident curlews had 2 fluffy li’l chicks – super cute!
6 October – Very foggy start to the day on the island, before clearing up to a glorious sunny day, perfect beach weather.
7 October – Still on the island until later in the day – it was a public holiday for the King’s Birthday. When we get home I snapped a paw-trait of Fleur.
8 October – The clouds rolled in during the afternoon and looked very ominous – this is the view from my office window – but in the end the storm went around us.
9 October – Look who won the Golden Mic for best 60 second presentation at BNI this morning 🙂 .
10 October – This is where Fleur usually snoozes while I’m working, in her bed under the visitor’s chair. Look at dat li’l face!!!
11 October- The husbear bought some solar lights for out the front of our house. I mean how could he resist – look what they’re called – “JANET solar lights”!
12 October – Stormy skies, but once again, we got nothing. Storms often seem to split and pass on either side of us – which is good in a way, we miss out on hail damage etc, but at the same time, there’s nothing like a good storm!
13 October – Our son and daughter-in-law popped in and I treated them to some home made scones with jam and cream, which were a huge success – they were light, fluffy and just right. I’ve never had much luck with scones in the past so was very proud!
14 October – Just another Monday …
15 October – A certain little ginger kitty stole my pen from my desk today … and when I tried to get it back off her she wanted to bite me! What a brat.
16 October – Was excited to be a guest on my friend Linda’s podcast, “Speak Now: Only a Girl“, where we talked about what it’s like to be a female business owner – warts and all!
17 October – The people across the road have gotten right into the Halloween spirit this year 😉
18 October – I got a phone call from my specialist late in the afternoon, they’d found a spot in my latest breast ultrasound so I need to have a needle biopsy to have it checked out 🙁 . Not the news I was hoping for.
19 October – We took our motorhome away for the weekend for the last time, before we sell it (yep, heard that before, loooonnnggg story!). Our favourite spot is a cattle farm out past Beaudesert with a creek close by – the sunsets are amazing! It was very hot so we were glad to use the generator and enjoy some air con during the early afternoon, we enjoyed a wee nap while the mercury soared.
20 October – There’s nothing like a campfire, and yes we toasted some marshmallows 🙂 .
21 October – Booked my needle biopsy for 31 October – happy Halloween – NOT. I had an open biopsy (surgery) on my other breast on Valentine’s Day last year and it was found I had LCIS which puts me at a higher risk of breast cancer.
22 October – The husbear and I went for a walk to the local shops after work and I posed for this angelic photo. We might have stopped at the pub for a pear cider too 😉 .
23 October – After our BNI meeting, Linda and I had to visit the bank so I could get access to the BNI account as I’m the new secretary / treasurer. We then rewarded ourselves with coffee and cheesecake!
24 October – Today my Sydney-based team member Nicola and I presented a free webinar “10 Tips to Creating Great Content that Google Loves” as part of NSW Small Business Month. Here I am all webinar-ready!
25 October – YUM. Ate my first mango of the season!
26 October – Visited the Halloween markets at Southbank …
27 October – Went out for lunch with my parents but was a bit disappointed with the food – my chicken satay skewers were a bit raw in the middle (so I had to eat around the raw bits) – then the husbear ordered key lime pie for dessert, and it was OFF. Ughhhh. The staff did replace it with another dessert but the whole experience left a bit of a bad taste in our mouths (excuse the pun!). OH and do ya like my new cat skirt and headband?!
28 October – Put our SUV in for a service. Like the motorhome, we need to get a few things fixed and then we’ll sell it. A storm rolled in late in the afternoon, check out the storm clouds looking south – and then the blue skies towards the north, these photos were taken at the same time!
29 October – The husbear was working from home so we stopped for a cuppa out on the deck.
30 October – We had a bit of a Halloween theme at BNI today. Afterwards, I had a quick trip to the shops (without my black cape and headband, LOL) and bought Fleur a new toy which she just loves! (Seth on the other hand wasn’t interested at all, he’s too “mature” for that sort of thing …)
31 October – Went to a business breakfast and caught up with my mate Elle, then it was time for my needle biopsy. Now comes the hard part – waiting for the results to come back …
I had to wait nearly a week to get the results – agony, and just one of the things that has been p!$$ing me off lately – but I’ll put you out of your misery now – it’s not breast cancer. However, I do have some abnormal cells (pre-cancerous) so I’m having surgery on 3 December to remove them. Le sigh …
After all the build up, Halloween was a bit of a fizzer, no trick or treaters in our street at any rate.
And now it’s November and we’re on the downhill slide to Christmas!
What was your October like and did you notice much in the way of Halloween shenanigans?!
