Get about!! When will it end….

I have been galavanting around the country side following the many different locations for my massage practical. As I am upgrading my diploma I am required to do an extra 70 hours of observed clinical practice!!! Something I wasn't aware of when I first agreed to upgrade to the new government issued diploma. Originally I was told, along with all the other students I have spoken to,  that we were only required to do 3 more subjects (nutrition and 2 business) and 2 more practical lessons. I completed these and thought that was the end of it, UNTILL 16 more subjects suddenly appeared on my online learning portal! THEN we all received an email stating that we needed the extra 70 hours... These hours are not teaching us anything new we literally are being observed massaging, FOR FREE... Whats even more frustrating is the reason I agreed to upgrade, right before I could have graduated with the old diploma, is that I was told all massage therapists will have to eventually upgrade anyway at their own cost. My college offered the exsisting students the upgrade for free, so I took the opportunity... NOW my massage association has come out and said all we need to do to be compliant is to do 2 small subjects on ethics, free of charge, offered by them online which take about 20 minutes each to complete. Im at the point of no return now and can not just graduate the old diploma.

SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!

ANYWAY rant over. The point of this post was to talk about all of my trips away for courses. I went to Melbourne for 4 days followed by Bendigo for 2 days. Melbourne was fun as we were located across the road from the South Melbourne Markets where I had brekky, lunch and tea each day and spent my breaks wandering the stalls. I met up with other people that I studied with in Albury and got a bit of a following from clients who came back to see me every day. Bendigo was a bit different with the teacher being very hard on us and slightly unreasonable, I think I showed what I thought of his unreasonable personality enough as he started to suck up to me by the end. He wouldn't allow music on at the start even when I asked for it, making it really silent and awkward, among other things.

The hardest part was getting clients as we were supposed to organise our own clients. I eventually got people booked in from such random ways. Through friends of friends and even my hairdresser who ended up being the most help. I was a bit more organised for the next trip to Orange. Where I stayed in Alex and Cody's place while they were off in Newy. Alex put up a poster for me at her work and I had clients booked in before the weekend started. It was lucky that I was even able to get to Orange as the road only just opened the day I set off from all the of the recent flooding.

And lastly I have just come back from Albury and have FINISHED the extra 70 hours of practical!!! Damien just bought a ute for work and wanted to take it for a spin so he came along too. Though with it only being 2 seater and having Ruby I still had to drive separately (don't ask me why Damien came really, 2 tanks of fuel seams a bit crazy) BUT it was a nice weekend away, even though I was massaging for most of it. Everyone spent he days at park run, breakfasting, shopping and swimming in the pool. I had my clients all booked in thanks to Facebook, Em and Steve for putting the word out for me, and of course they took me up on the free massage as well. This weekend was in place of a Newcastle weekend that I was supposed to go to just before Christmas. Dad had helped me get all of my clients booked in etc and I was half an hour out of town, leaving very late Friday meant I wouldn't arrive until 3am at least and I just didn't want to go! So I turned around and came home, telling the course I was sick and they changed me to Wodonga free of charge.

Back home now after Albury I am going through all of my THEORY still left to complete for the course and it is A LOT!!!!!!! It will never end… I will be knuckling down the next few months to complete Massage and Beauty diploma then move on to finishing my cancer massage course. I would like to just have it all done now so I can concentrate on one thing at a time and expanding business so that I can get rid of the bank.

On the home stretch...