November 2011 Happiness Hotline

Happy November,

I hope your October was as you had hoped.

Mine was quite the month with new experiences, lots of travel and loads of fun.

Running workshops and speaking at conferences provides me with lots of opportunities to visit some very exciting places, but when Let’s Laugh began I was a parent of young children and the sole carer for my aging parents, and I got into the habit of zipping in, running the workshop and heading home without seeing much more than the inside of the car and the venue where the workshop or conference was being held.

My children have grown and my parents have passed on but it took a comment from the wonderful Ilene at a Carers Week event 2 weeks ago to make me realise I was still doing the zip thing and really not ‘being’ at the places I was visiting. Ilene gave me some much appreciated advice on how to really be where I am and with her permission, I thought would be a good subject for this month’s Happiness Hotline.

At 77 years young Ilene cares for her husband who has dementia and her mother, who, at 98, Ilene assured me with a laugh, was possibly healthier than her and a bit of a trouble maker. I met Ilene’s mother in the massage tent and I think she was chatting up the massage guy! Ilene told me about the wonderful life she and her husband had. His work gave them lots of opportunities to travel at a time when travel was not as available as it is today. She told me tales of Paris and London, New York and Disneyland, trips to the pyramids and safari’s in Africa. While she spoke she drifted back to her youth. She had clearly had had a wonderful life, and she sighed as she told me how those trips were a thing of the past because she couldn’t leave her husband and getting travel insurance for her mother, who would be on a plane in the blink of an eye, would cost more than the trip itself.

Suddenly she brightened up and gave me this bit of advice:

“Think about the places you would like to visit and think about the people who live there. Perhaps, for those people, you are living in a place they would like to visit. So, be them. Treat your own backyard, your own town or city as your tourist destination. Go onto the tourism web sites and find out what’s available. You may like to visit a town nearby. Head off for a day trip or, if you can afford accommodation or have friends who can put you up, have a few days away. Be a tourist in your own town.”

A quick check of the tourist web-sites as Ilene suggested has revealed some great touristy things that, as a local, I had never thought of or, surprisingly, didn’t even know about. So, as Ilene suggested I’ve grabbed my camera and will be having ‘tourist in my own town’ days whenever I can. I’m even planning some tourist in other people’s towns when work takes me away from home and have already had a wonderful few days poking around Rockhampton after a recent conference.

I’ve latched onto Ilene’s advice and I’m having so much fun and really appreciating the locations where my work takes me. Yesterday I had a workshop near the Werribee Open Range Zoo. I headed out early and took a detour to the Zoo on my way to the venue. I’ve lived in Melbourne for 35 years and never before have I taken the exit off the freeway to the Zoo to go there. Tomorrow I won’t be heading straight home after my workshop in Mornington. There’s a wonderful spa not far from the workshop venue. I’ve never been to a spa before and I’ve booked in for an afternoon of surprisingly affordable pampering. Although I run lots of workshops in the Ballarat area it’s been ages since I last visited Sovereign Hill and now a trip there is on the books. I’ve made plans with a friend to visit the Eureka Tower and the Sky Deck. I’ve discovered an architecture tour that runs from Federation Square, a chocolate tour that begins in one of our beautiful arcades and an Op Shop by tram tour that starts in the city, all of which can happily be enjoyed after my city based events. So much to do right here in my own backyard and so many things that fit in with my workshop and presentation schedule. So much ‘tourist in my own town’ fun to be had.

One of my friends commented that all these things cost money. They do, and I will have to limit what I do to fit into my budget, but there are also so many things that are free. Parks to visit, walks to be taken. I did also mention to my friend that when I was overseas recently I packed so much into all my free days in the towns and cities that I had the pleasure of visiting that I spent a small fortune on tickets and sightseeing. As Ilene told me: “If we are happy to be a tourist in the faraway places why not give it a go in our own home town.” So, what ‘tourist in my own town’ things might you get up too?

Thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Kraft Vegemite ‘Toast of a Nation’ Awards. The major prize went to the very deserving Trish Adams and Australian Women’s Under 19’s Lacrosse Team. I wish them well at the world championships. The 10 finalists who will appear on the labels of Vegemite in 2012 are yet to be announced and I still have my fingers crossed that I might be one of them. Thank you to Bob for offering to print a personal label for me if I don’t make it.

Thank you also to everyone who commented on last month’s Happiness Hotline. Your feedback is very much appreciated and some of your wonderful ideas will be topics for upcoming editions.

Keep laughing and may the remainder your November be surprising and delightful.

Bronwyn Roberts
Chief Happiness Officer
Let's Laugh
bronwyn@letslaugh.com.au
www.letslaugh.com.au
0421 335 197

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November 2011 Happiness Hotline

0421 335 197

Let's Laugh