Red Red Wine !

I write this blog the day after the night before, when I made the decision that drinking nearly entire bottle of red wine would help me calm my nerves at Daniel's Commercial Sales Team dinner (first time I was to meet his colleagues). Well, mission accomplished. I drank my way to desensitisation! Why is it when we consume copious amounts of alcohol, all of a sudden, we are the most hilarious people that ever walked the earth? Oh yes, I was very much the comedian. It seemed I had our half of the table in stitches. Not only was I persistantly telling ridiculous stories, I was trying to sell them all a ReachLocal solution! Don't you ever wish that you were filmed during these 'altered state of mind' sessions? Were they really laughing with me, or at me, or was I the only one finding my mindless humour funny? On second thought I think it's best that the convenient amnesia sets in and we carry on like nothing ever happened!  

In spite of the niggling voice inside my head telling me to not turn up to bootcamp, I dragged my boozy, garlicy, bloated-self out of bed at 5.30am and as always drove on the wrong side of the road until I cleared out the peepers, to Sandringham Beach to be completely enhialated by Paul and Luis from Original KBox. I could feel last night's greek feast working it's way back up from the depths of my stomach and up to my esophagus as Helen and I were sprinting up Beach Road holding 8kg medicine balls above our heads. We must have looked like right moron's to the early birds on their way into work at that hour. Man, the humiliation when we start to do an exercise called 'double time' on the grassy area adjacent to the rotunda, which happens to be right opposite the pedestrian crossing where car's bank up in peak hour. I liken this exercise to the dance move pulled by the character 'Alex Owens' played by Jennifer Beals in the 1983 hit movie Flashdance. You know the one, the crazy running-man move, she is running on the spot in 'double time' to the song 'Maniac' by Michael Sembello. God I love that move but in the privacy and comfort of my own home, not particularly to the business men and women of Bayside!

It was a miracle. I survived the session and felt better for it, ready to face the day at work!

Prior to this night, I had managed to perform my 'introduction to Mel Ward' piece in class which I must admit, flowed naturally for me on the night. What a challenge, try and describe yourself by 'being' the adjectives that best describe you, not listing them. Hmmmm, struggled with this concept. I had worked myself into such a frenzy in the lead up that I nearly psyched myself out of it! And then it hit me like a bolt of lightning. JUST BE YOURSELF DICK. Why are you trying to mimic Catriona Rowntree? Why are you trying to speak like Jana Wendt? Back yourself Mel. A concept that I never used to deem appropriate, fearing that I could be perceived as being 'cocky' or 'arrogant'. Two word's that LEAST describe me. You CAN succeed, you are pretty good at this and you know what, it's ok to have faith in yourself, to believe in yourself.

Writing an autocue piece for class, practice it and perfom it was the next assignment. I would have been slightly concerned if I could not nail this! I loved it, it is amazing how much more relaxed you are when relying on the autocue instead of your own brain (which has let me down many times in my nearly 31 years)! I decided to talk about my Mother in Law's amazing Day Spa and Bed & Breakfast in Portarlington. Yeah, yeah, yeah Postcardsesque I know, but let me tell you, this is a show I would love to work on!

Which brings me to my next rant. What a lovely idea of Paul Wheatley and Beck Martial to arrange a catch up for some ex Demonites at The Matthew Flinders Hotel in Chadstone. Paul played with Daniel at Melbourne, Daniel refer's to Paul as 'his Rookie' or 'Dirt' or 'Dirtbag'! They have an amazing bond and connection those two. Paul and Beck are engaged, they have 2 beautiful chidren Jade who I am pretty sure is 3 and Logan who would be a 5 or so months old (sorry guys if I am wrong, you know I am useless when it comes to ages, birthday's and date's!). Beck is a pretty phenominal chick. She has experienced some pretty heavy losses in her life and geez she has been tested time and time again but she always has a big beautiful sime on her face and a positive outlook to boot. I have so much admiration for her. Matt and Renee Whelan also came with their two gorgeous munchkins Kai and newborn Ava. Renee and I have a special connection, we went to Primary School together and we also were aspiring Gymnasts with Mountain Districts Gymnastics Association as rugrats. How ironic our paths cross again through our partner's at Melbourne Football Club a decade later! Renee and I have a cheeky banter and I love that about our friendship, she always smiles and shakes her head at me for the silly things I say or do! Tam and Nath were there of course with Kynan, Jake and Ryder - the Brown boys we call them, they are rough, they are tough but they have hearts bigger than Phar Lap and cute? Hell yeah, they are just beautiful like their parents.

Absent were Cam, Jules and Holly and Russ, Brooke and Tex - I missed having them there. The pleasant suprise of the night was getting to see Brad, Pia, Issiah and Lenny Miller. It had been years! You know it's been a long time between drinks when you actually put your heads together only to come up blank when trying to work out when the last time you saw one another was. Brad seems great, the smiling assasin, he has an intriguing grin that leads you to think 'that boy is cheeky with a capital C'! I had known Brad since he first came to Melbourne Football Club, he must have only been 18 years of age and we hit it off straight away. We had our moments over the years but all in all we were mates, he used to call me 'Captain of the girlfriends' which I thought was kind of nice. When he started to date Pia I remember the first time I saw her. She took my breath away. So beautiful! Shy at first but once you got to talking, this bright and bubbly girl emerged and you couldn't help but want to be around her. Pia is very spiritual and calming and I remember when were approaching the end of both Daniel's and Brad's contract's as Melbourne Demon's we spoke every day for weeks speculating, stressing I am sure crying but most of all bonding.

Pia has worked hard and has secured movie role's, television role's, ambassador role's, modelling gigs and presenting role's. When I see her sparkling eyes peering out to me, like she is looking right into me from either her picture in the paper, or when she is in a fabulous city on Postcards it takes me back to all those years ago and I realise how much I miss those times with her.

Pia and I had a great catch up, we watched the kids play and bowl, we reminisced and I have to say I am so glad the Miller's came to dinner. I know that everyone enjoyed their company it was just like old times.

On our way home from the dinner, Rylee and I were chatting in the car 'Mum, why do boys like trains?' 'Well honey, they might just like train's, or maybe they want to be train driver's when they grow up?!' Rylee replies in her sweet sweet 4 year old voice 'Yeah, totally, just like I want to be a Barbie when I grow up!' God help us!

Aside from these highlights my week was busy as always with work, chipping away at my new business pipeline, trying to get my head around ReachCast by pitching over and over again to Daniel the poor love.

But looming in the back of my mind is the sense that Daniel is still struggling with the recent events in his family. He doesn't say much about it, he saves that for his Psychology sessions most of the time. And don't worry, we are open about Daniel seeing a Psych! Front Page of The Herald Sun kinda does that to you! This time of year should be exciting for him, he is approaching 365 days of sobriety from gambling! We have worked so hard together as a team, Daniel, myself, Jo his Mum, Margie is Nan, Peita his sister, Aaron his brother in law, Shirley his Great Aunt, Deb his Aunty and her hubbie Graham, Ken my Dad, Colleen my Mum, Bec my sister and Nath my brother in law to be. The one man who he trusted more than any other, the one person who he thought he could rely on as a Father after his own Father abandomed he and Peita at such a young age, walked out right on Joanne, his wife's 50th birthday. Who does that? And if that wasn't enough, sadly for Jo and the entire family that this effects, it was revealed that Daniel and Peita's only Father figure was unfaithful in more ways than one. And this horrible and shocking twisted chain of events is tormenting Daniel more than anybody can imagine.......................