Stretching & breathing

Complimentary Therapies

Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Feet facing slightly outward. Stretch only to feel stretch. NO PAIN

1.       Breathe in deep (feel lungs expand) through nose – breathe out through mouth and feel lungs empty of air. Do this 3 times.

2.       Start at head –

Tilt head slowly and smoothly to the left (ear to shoulder without lifting shoulder); bring head upright. Tilt head slowly and smoothly to the right. Bring head upright.

Turn head (keeping body still) to left shoulder; bring face to front. Turn head to right shoulder; bring face to front.

Keeping head still: Move eyes up and down, side to side. Open mouth and move jaw side to side. Close mouth.

3.       Breathe in deep (feel lungs expand) through nose – breathe out through mouth and feel lungs empty of air. Do this 3 times.

Rotate left shoulder forward (keeping body still); rotate left shoulder backward.

Rotate right shoulder forward (keeping body still); rotate right shoulder backward.

Bend left elbow and slide left hand to right shoulder, across the body, and over right shoulder.

Do not lift elbow from body. Slide left hand back down body and rest on waist.

Bend right elbow and slide right hand to left shoulder, across the body, and over left shoulder.

Do not lift elbow from body. Slide right hand back down body and rest on waist.

4.       Breathe in deep (feel lungs expand) through nose – breathe out through mouth and feel lungs empty of air. Do this 3 times.

Keep hands on waist and heels on floor – slowly and smoothly twist body to left, bring body back to front, and then twist body to right and bring body back to facing front.

Bend body forward; stand upright; bend body backward (keep hands on waist and heels on floor)

Imagine a beam of light coming from between legs straight down – hands on waist, feet apart, slowly and smoothly move hips in a figure of 8 movement. First one way and then the other – finish in standing position.

5.       Breathe in deep (feel lungs expand) through nose – breathe out through mouth and feel lungs empty of air. Do this 3 times.

Bring left foot forward and slowly bend left knee – keep heel on floor; bring left foot back to standing position. Do same with right foot.

Standing upright, feet apart: Lift both heels from floor (may need to hold back of a chair); lower heels to floor

Lift both balls of feet from floor; lower to floor

Stand on outside of both feet; bring to standing position. Stand on inside of both feet; bring to standing position.

6.       Breathe in deep (feel lungs expand) through nose – breathe out through mouth and feel lungs empty of air. Do this 3 times.    SIT IF FEELING DIZZY – SHOULD FEEL RELAXED                   DO MORNING AND NIGHT

CQFHA Newsletter Article Submission 2018

Branches of the Tree

Bridging the Past & Future Sydney 2018

15^th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry

9 – 12 March 2018

International Convention Centre

Darling Harbour Sydney

After my ‘Unlock the Past’ cruise in 2016, I planned and saved madly to attend this Congress (at least once). Am really glad I could achieve attendance. Apparently, it is very uncertain that Congress 2021 will happen as no state has put their hand up to host.

What a blast of a four day Congress – very well organised, coordinated, arranged and any other thesaurus word you can use. I have forwarded via email the last Congress newsletter to the Secretary if anyone is interested; it gives a summary of the Organising Committees thoughts.

The International Convention Centre (not to be confused with another huge building that continues on from ICC: International Exhibition Centre) WAS BIG! On the Friday there was apparently over 4,000 people in the building at various conferences – at least 700 people at the Family History workshops and Congress. The Congress was held on the third floor – thank goodness for lifts and escalators; the wooden stairs were available for the energetic folk. These fixed staircases were gorgeous in pale woods highlighted with gold coloured detail.

This third floor was dedicated to the Family History Congress and held the main lecture hall for welcomes and plenary sessions (up to at least 450 people), 3 smaller lecture rooms, 2 exhibit areas and significant surrounding hall space for more exhibitors and for networking and the Morning Tea breaks which were yummy.

The staff of the ICC were brilliant at restocking food and the water fountains in each lecture room.

They also kept the toilets clean and stocked between breaks – with paper hand towels. Showing my country hick, the water in the toilets’ hand basins was heated!

Handouts of the sessions were available to download from 2 days before Congress or if participants had difficulty doing this then the Organisers had USB sticks with the handouts available for purchase that sold out and more had to be frantically obtained. I downloaded mine to my laptop hard drive – when I get organised will copy to an external hard drive. There are a multitude of links within each lecture.

There was a diverse selection of topics covered: technology – blogs/apps/software hints and tips, Heraldic bookplates and designing, Wars, Obscure record linking, Aboriginal relative research, Trove, First fleet and convict records, New Zealand research, Education records, English/Scottish/Irish records, Legal aspects – copyright, wills/probate records, German research, DNA, Huguenot research, and Maps. There were 6 plenary sessions, 2 sponsor sessions, and 15 sets of concurrent sessions.

I think the main element to the Congress from my perspective was that participants were encouraged to record their own stories as well as verifying and establishing their ancestors as individuals with fascinating histories set within the context of their time and environment.

CQFHA Newsletter Article Submission 2017

Branches of the Tree

“Footsteps In Time” May 2017 Conference Southport Queensland

 I thought the “Unlock the Past” cruise March 2016 would help me get more motivated with compiling my family history information into something more manageable and salvageable. I came away with lots and lots and lots of great strategies and more paper and more resources. Excellent!

Now, at this state family history conference in May 2017, I would have opportunities to gather more resources and more strategies to be even more organised and productive with the stories and items (? Treasures) I have gathered. Yeah?

Wow, what a fabulous weekend of very knowledgeable and well experienced speakers to hear and reflect on their wisdom and RESEARCH outcomes.

The organising committee from the Gold Coast were exceptional in the way they arranged their speakers and venue. The venue was great at the Southport Community Centre though their seats were rather hard on the posterior by the end of each day. Technical electronic glitches aside, speakers were able to continue their presentations and keep to time. Going between venues was a little bewildering for the ‘Out of Towners’: the rain Friday did not help.

The trade display was a source of interest and fascination – the electronic era is well and truly established. Family tree design and publication is well resourced with software packages.

The ‘Pub Crawl’ presentation given during the Saturday Dinner gave me some ideas for a conference from our own Association which I will forward to Marion and Kay.

The main themes I was able to gather were:

·         Be diligent in your research focus – cover as many avenues as you can in gathering information about your person / family – use newspapers, school admissions, hospital / mental health institution admissions, government gazettes, land records, wills and intestacies, obituaries,  church / parish records, ships logs, immigration records, war records, personal journals and correspondence, BMD indices, and any type of index. Many of which are located in our own local Clubrooms.

·         Nanna is not always right – think ‘Chinese whispers’ – think about the time period and social ‘mores’ (scandal) of that time. Those ‘brick walls’ may be originating from this evasion or presentation of this ‘truth’.

·         DNA testing is a tool for identifying links – plan on doing y DNA (male lineage, Surname) & m DNA (mitochondrial, mother to children) & a DNA (autosomal, alleles from parents) Confused – yep. If you planned on using your superannuation for travelling around Australia and / or the world visiting rellies you found doing family history research AND doing DNA testing – the superannuation bucket needs to be rather large. Recommendation is to get the oldest living rellie you have tested with all three tests and then have any cousin of any distinction tested also (second, third, fourth, immediate, removed, etc.). $ $ $ I personally think DNA testing is to prove we are all related – reassuring or terrifying thought; thinking Manchester concert bombing, Mafia, Hitler, Moses, Mother Teresa and Ghandi.

·         Have your list of questions ready or submitted prior to visiting research venues such as State Archives / State Library – will facilitate time management for both yourself and the venue whose staff are only too happy to assist. Objective is a more successful outcome for time and money.

·         Family History Associations are repositories of vast amounts of information. Members of such organisations research and gather stories and histories usually for themselves and their families – I am lead to believe that the Associations and their members’ stories and histories should be promoted far and wide to establish networks and publications that facilitate a greater ‘family’ knowledge pool. I am starting to see a pattern here – hmmm?

Thankfully, the Conference organisers stored the majority of presentations on a USB stick that was given to all paid participants of the Conference – there were only a couple of paper based handouts.

Personally, I need to win the Lotto and retire from my current work to focus more intensively on my current passion of researching my Family History.

Had a wonderful weekend with Kay, Marion, Nola, Carmel and Margaret at the Conference.  Learnt a lot. Now I am waiting for Sydney March 2018 for the International Congress.

Brain Teasers

Brain Teasers

Over the past five decades I have often searched for and completed puzzles of the written and put together kind.

The list of types of puzzles of interest:
Sudoku - fascinating that with nine numbers, there are MANY different ways they form a 81 space grid, with each row, column and nine x nine space squares that have no repeats.
Have just recently started enjoying the challenge with the first nine letters of the alphabet in similar configurations.
The use of the first nine roman numerals does make Sudoku even more challenging with the increased use of the ' I ' character.



Fill-ins - enjoy completing the puzzle with all words used and fitting into the puzzle.

Code Crackers - letter and number substitution intrigues me. I take my hat off to the compilers of these puzzlers - for finding the patterns that allow for all 26 letters to be used in the one puzzle.

Crosswords - often have one or two words that escape me.

Logic Puzzles - reassures me that I can deduce accurately.

Jigsaws - 500 / 1000 ones I can complete within a day or two. Any longer and life gets in the way.

A couple of years ago I put together a series of booklets to stimulate interest in these types of puzzles and found it interesting that there were many people who find these items too challenging.

Each week I buy a weekly magazine that has a selection of these types of puzzles and thankfully I can take these away on trips to complete. Call me 'old fashioned' but I prefer the paper and pen type of puzzle. I do have apps on my phone, ipad and computer for that type as well.

Card games also keep the brain thinking in strategic and ordered ways.
I prefer Solitaire - classic, Spider, Free Cell. Again, these games are played on my computer and ipad as well as by pack of playing cards.

Those puzzles that are part of competitions or timed do not hold my interest. I do them only for my own pleasure and challenge.