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Wheelie-Chic!

Well, one of the distinct advantages of being my own boss now is the freedom to lounge around in my PJs watching Lorraine Kelly on GMTV. Usually it's just frothy stuff that dosn't tax my brain too much before I have to start working (and it beats waiting at the bus stop in the rain like I used to have to...)

This morning I was half watching while drinking my first coffee of the day when something caught my eye - it was Kerry McGregor (one of last year's X Factor finalists) helping to promote Wheelie-chix-chic - a new range of clothes designed for women in wheelchairs.

The idea was developed by Louisa Summerfield, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when she was just nine years old. The autumn/winter '07 and spring/Summer 08 collections have been designed by Swedish designer Amelia Ursache, a previous Elle Fashion Award winner.

Louisa says:

"We are a unique fashion concept designing clothes that are specifically tailored for wheelchair women. All our designs enhance and flatter a woman's body when sitting and yet at the same time are ultra fashionable, elegant and chic."

Brilliant idea!

Louisa applied to the British Fasion Council to be allowed to exhibit the collection as part of London Fashion Week, but they turned her down (and I thought they were supposed to be innovative and forward-thinking?) but undeterred, Louisa decided to go ahead with her own show.

"I took our designs to the British Fashion Council thinking they would jump at the chance for WheelieChix-Chic to exhibit on the catwalk at London Fashion Week, but when our application was unsuccessful I just knew the show still had to go on and so I set about organising our own fashion show.

I'm a wheelchair user myself and I'm sick and tired of making do with conventional high street fashion. I'm a big believer in that fashion should be for everyone and not just the standing up body beautiful".

Here's to that!

Well, it's not often that we have some good news about missing children...but little Alex Olver was found safe and well...and under his bed...following his a massive search for that involved a helicopter, sniffer dogs and dozens of neighbours.

The five year old crawled under his bed, fell asleep, and snoozed through the whole pandemonium as his frantic mother Claire panicked at the thought he'd wandered off on his own.

While worried neighbours, including the town mayor and the local football team rallied round and scoured the area around Alex's house in Saltash, Cornwall, he snatched forty winks...and was found by a sniffer dog.

Claire said, "We woke him up and he was very dazed and when we told him what had happened he said he wanted to see the police helicopter."

I bet he did. Oops .

Well, I have to own up to having been exceptionally lazy with this blog, but I have recently got back into the swing of things with the Queen Simply Be blog so I've decided that while I'm updating the site and giving is a brand spanking new make-over, it's about time I started posting.

I'm changing the angle of Relentlessly Positive - The Blog as well. I want to make it a bit more about life in general, and not about me. So I'm going to be scouring the web and the news for stories that are actually quite positive, and ignoring anything about the deluge of misery we seem to get swamped with on a daily basis. There's no escaping that!!!

Please take the time to visit the website, and if you've got any comments, give me a shout!

It's raining and blowing a gale in Cambridgeshire, but I'm hanging on in here...

Decisions are being made as we speak, about emigrating. Mr_Positive and I went to Canada last year, in fact we got married there, and we absolutely fell in love with the place. We spent two weeks in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, at Banff Springs (the photo of me was taken there on the night of my wedding) and we talked about going back...maybe to live...one day.

It was just a day dream until a couple of weeks ago, when things in the UK just started to get us down that little bit too much. Council tax is set to double. Interest rates have just gone up. They are going to introduce pay-as-you-go road user taxes. It's cold, dark and wet. I failed to get the job I applied for. The house won't sell. Why were we even thinking of just moving 5 miles down the road when we could change everything and start again in Alberta, Canada?

So we decided to look into a move to Calgary, and Mr P put some wheels in motion with his employers.

As for me...

Firstly I discovered that there was likely to be another voluntary exit scheme coming up at work, aimed at pond scum grades (I'm a civil servant in an organisation that's aiming to reduce admin and junior/middle managers, and guess who's a junior manager) - all sounded good - and then, to make the move sound even more enticing, there was an announcement by one of the directors, we'll call her 'The Grim Reaper' that despite slashing our directorate by 30% in 2006, there were still too many of us, and the entire communications team was to be culled. Guess who is part of the communications team? You guessed it...I probably won't have a proper job after March, but I'll be what's called 'a priority mover' which in practice means I'll have nothing to do except wander around the office asking teams if they have anything I can do.

Well, if that isn't an enticement to stick it out until I can take a nice voluntary exit payout and wave goodbye to England's sunny shores, I don't know how much more of a kick in the pants I need.

Now all we need to do is get Mr P's managers to sort out the transfer to Calgary, and sell the house. The announcements about voluntary exits will be made fairly soon...I'll apply...and they'll most likely take effect as from next summer.

Staying Positive - it's been a bit hard in the past week, but if I concentrate on Canada, living near the Rockies (going from below sea level to waaaay above) I can just about do it...

I'm having trouble with the old Positivity valve this week. Today in particular!

The clocks went back at the weekend, which means that it's the time of year where I sit looking out of the window at 4pm and it's already getting dark. I think I should have been a squirrel, or a bear or something that has the right idea and hibernates all through the winter, as the approach of cold days and long, dark nights fills me with dread. Anyway, the weather seems to have sensed my feelings and co-operated by at least offering up some clear, frosty mornings that are just perfect for wearing the Anna Scholz coat I bought from Simply Be back in August! I usually wait until about now to buy anything like that...and find they've run out...but this is beeyoootiful, an embroidered grey parka, very on-trend and just a little bit unusual.

This week hasn't seen much movement on the Relentlessly Positive website. I've been back in the office and busy - and things did look as if they were about to come to something with the house sale...for a while. We had a couple come back for a second viewing, which caused considerable panic with Matt away down the other end of the country that day, and me unable to get a day off work with absolutely no notice whatsoever. I begged the help of my best mate, who wasn't in work that day, and she did what sounded like a fantastic sales job on the place, a guided tour of the estate and parking places, and I was so convinced we'd sold. The guy even took my mobile number to call me.

Since then.........no phone calls from him or the agent. That was Wednesday and it's now Friday. How depressing. To add to the general despondency, I started to come down with my first cold of the year yesterday...and my throat feels like barbed wire. And then I found out that I didn't get the job I put all that effort into. I'm gutted, it had my name all over it and I could really have done a good job. But the interview was so OTT I just didn't manage to keep on top of it all and I think that the actual discussion part of the interview let me down. I was so pleased to get the presentation out of the way, that I think I gabbled a bit and sounded like a moron. Even though I could have done that job with my eyes shut. Oh well. Back to the drawing board and the jobs papers.

We did have another viewing last night, although it was a bit of a flying visit. And some good news - Mr British Gas engineer has just been and certified that our boiler is fine for another year. Good, as replacing that wasn't on my list of things I REALLY want to do.

So, all in all, a bit of a rubbish week. But at least it could still end on a positive note...

Hi everyone,

I've had such a busy week, it's hard to know where to begin. The interview feels like it happened a month ago...I should find out this week if I've been cherry-picked to be part of the project. I know there's a helluva lot of competition so I'm trying to be philosophical about it. I hope I get through though.

I travelled up to York on Wednesday, and realised in dismay that it actually takes me less time to get to York from Ely than it does to get home from work, a mere 22 mile journey. And the trains are a lot more comfortable.

I stayed in a very old fashioned hotel called Lady Anne Middleton's...very handy for the City Centre and only about a mile from the station. It smelled a bit musty though and the layout was more old people's home than chic boutique hotel. Still, it was only for a night. It rained the entire time I was there, but that didn't stop me and many others queueing for lunch at Betty's (a must stop when in York)

The Alquimia facial was just heaven for two hours. There's more detail here:

http://www.relentlessly-positive.com/amagistralexperience.html

Highly recommended. I left the spa feeling on top of the world, headed off for some food, then back to my room where I had an early night. The treatment oils had made my hair all greasy around the edges, I had no make up left on, and the rain and wind weren't conducive to a night out on the town. Hey, I know how to live...

It rained on Thursday too. A lot. So I decided to come home a bit early and get the house sorted for another viewing. I also got a stinking migraine, probably from hoisting a heavy back pack all the way around York earlier on! The viewing was short and to the point - polite Eastern European couple who didn't seem overly interested. I've given up trying to second guess people though. I had an early night after heading out to deliver a friend's birthday present...

I cancelled Suzy Greaves on Friday. The thought of traipsing up to London still suffering the after effects of a migraine wasn't appealing. It's s hame though as I really wanted some help with the journalism...we are plotting to get me some extra income through freelancing and boy, do I need it at the moment?

We had TWO more house viewings on Saturday. Both seemed impressed. Time will tell. I do get fed up with saying, "and this is the bathroom..." blah blah blah. Of course it's the flaming bathroom. It's got a bath in it...the sooner we sell the house the sooner I regain my sanity I think!

We went out for dinner with friends last night, good time was had by all...and then met the cutest little pup ever, called Herbie. If you could bottle his energy and sell it you would make a fortune. He's some kind of terrier cross and just adorable, very tiny at the moment. Likes biting. Ouch.

So now here I am, another week, as my time off work ebbs away (dammit) - the thought of the early bus tomorrow morning doesn't fill me with joy, but I just have to think positive - at ythe moment we're still in the running for a potential offer on the house, and I'm still in the running for a new job...watch this space...

Good morning Tuesday...

Well, I'm trying to feel positive today - I have to because I've got an interview at 2:30 and I have to do a presentation, something I haven't formally done in a while. I've done lots of presentations to workmates where they interrupt me and ask questions so it turns into more of a group discussion...but not a full on presentation where people actually listen!

So, it's all prepared and written, I've been practicing, and fingers crossed I'll be able to convince them that I really do know what I'm talking about!

No news about the house yet - the people who came over on Sunday were very keen but the house was slightly out of their price range. I said 'make us an offer' but it may have been easier for them to just settle on a cheaper place...

We were SUPPOSED to have a viewing last night, but Mr and Mrs No Show didn't turn up, leaving us sitting around at 7pm thinking 'do we put dinner on now and assume they aren't coming...or not?' I hate that. They only made the appointment yesterday afternoon, so why they didn't show I have no idea.

The response to the mail out of the press release, telling everyone about the Relentlessly Positive updates, seems to be good. I've had a few positive comments and I'll just leave it to settle for a while. Magazine features editors are busy people!

Well, I'm sitting here in myPJs so I'd better get showered, dressed and practicing this here presentation. Wish me luck boys and girls, I really fancy this job!

Sarah x

Hope you're all having a good Saturday!

I've had a busy one already - with the Relentlessly Positive site finally looking how I want it to, and appearing on the new server, I'm trying to get the news out there so that I can generate some traffic. So...tell everyone you know!

I've been out and about this morning, to a Mind Body and Spirit fair. Now, I love these things but don't usually cough up to have my fortune told. but I was recommended a clairvoyant medium called Loraine Rees, who's very down to earth and none of this swirling mists rubbish.

So...I gave it a go. On my goodness. She was spot on about everything she said. She said she could see my Nan & Grandad straight off, which made my eyes well up...and she said they were happy...she started talking about grandad's vegetable garden, and how he was laughing about his wonky cucumbers! My other grandad was around but he didn't seem to show up much. An uncle of mine popped in, as did my great-aunt, someone I think was my god-mother and I have a message for my dad to say that the dog is with grandad...

She predicted that I was going to have two kids. She thought I was trying or already had them as they were coming through quite strongly...she mentioned the kids issue twice...scary stuff. My parents and in laws will be pleased but my bank manager is going to kill me!

She told me that we were going to be moving, locally for now but eventually abroad in the next ten years. She said that the sale had fallen through once already about two months ago, which is spot on, and that it had happened out of the blue, all moved very fast and then fallen through because she changed her mind...again spot on. She even got the details about one of us preferring new builds and the other liking old terraced properties with a bit of character!

She spotted my overspending habit.

And the first thing she saw was that I still go by my maiden name and not my married name. She could see I was married. I wondered if the cheque deposit I'd sent has a Miss on it...but no, nothing (I had to check when I got back)

She predicted a job move, that I should be doing something with people as I have a very humanitarian streak to me, and that someone at work was likely to stab me in the back and that it would be that person that made me decide to leave....very close to the truth!

Then I saw another lady on a crystal stall who said that:

1'. I'm working too hard, always seem to be doing something and my head just seems to be full of things I need to do - I need to slow down a bit. She said I feel like I have to be busy and doing things all the time because it stops me having to deal with difficult feelings, and that's also why I go to the kitchen and eat for comfort or when I'm bored, it's a coping mechanism...spooky stuff.

So I'm freaked out now.

Apart from that, I really should be getting on with writing my presentation for the job interview on Tuesday...so I'll love you & leave you.

The shoes and necklace are GORGEOUS by the way...

Sarah x

Hello Positive people. Well, I haven't got much to report as yet, I'm waiting (and waiting) to hear from mrsite to find out when they transfer my domain name over so that Relentlessly Positive can be launched properly and you can see it in all it's glory.

I've been working until midnight most nights trying to get all the content in place and it's pretty much finished now.

I'm quite excited because my prize from Charlotte's Auctions should be delivered to me at work this morning. Not sure where I'm going to wear my sexy new shoes, I'm on a government office partner event tomorrow but I'm not convinced that senior management at local authorities will appreciate the full glory of Jimmy Choo.

Oh well. Maybe I'll wear them anyway. At least I'll know how cool they are ...

Testing Blog - what a palaver, we'll get there in the end....