{"id":2369,"date":"2020-02-12T09:32:07","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T22:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/?p=2369"},"modified":"2020-02-12T09:32:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T22:32:16","slug":"remember-to-pack-the-fruit-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/index.php\/2020\/02\/12\/remember-to-pack-the-fruit-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Remember to Pack the Fruit Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tara Goulding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Australian bushfire season of 2019-20 is unprecedented. As I write this, more than 46 million acres have been burned nationwide, at least 33 people and over a billion animals have lost their lives, and more than 8000 homes, buildings and businesses have been destroyed[1]<\/a> \u2013 and we\u2019re only halfway through summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo from my backyard looking in the direction of the Gospers Mountain fire – 12 November 2019
(Image: Tara Goulding)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I live in Mangrove Mountain (pop. 715), a small town in the rural western side of the Central Coast NSW, about an hour north of Sydney. My bushfire story starts on 12 November 2019, when the Gospers Mountain fire (originating in the Wollemi National Park from a lightning strike) was growing towards the Central Coast. The conditions on this particular day were declared to be CATASTROPHIC, and I\u2019d be lying if I said I didn\u2019t spend the whole day locked inside our home with ABC News Radio blasting and my phone with the RFS Fires Near Me app open and firmly in my grip the entire day. The smoke was terrible, and I even brought my little chicken inside to sit in the cool aircon with me so his lungs didn\u2019t get contaminated from the burnt particles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is nothing bad happened that day, but it set the tone for the next few weeks of anticipating what seemed like the inevitable arrival of the fire. Community meetings held by the Rural Fire Service advised that the Gospers Mountain fire was predicted to reach us sometime at the end of the next week, around 21-23 November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cancelling Bookings<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I made a business decision to cancel all massage appointments\nfor the week and relocate myself and our animals (one rooster, three ducks, one\nbunny) to the safety of my parents\u2019 home in Sydney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully all my clients were understanding and made\nme promise I\u2019d stay safe, however it was a tough decision to make based on \u2018what\nifs\u2019 \u2013 my bank balance certainly felt the effects of a week\u2019s worth of\ncancellations, that\u2019s for sure. But, there wasn\u2019t really any other option \u2013\nbecause my work is based on home visits and I obviously don\u2019t have my phone on\nwhile working, if there was an emergency at home I wouldn\u2019t know about it\nstraight away, and even then I\u2019d still need time to get home (if I could) to\nbundle up the animals and take them to safety. Cancelling all work that week\nwas definitely the safest decision I could have made, though as it turns out, I\nmade that decision way too early \u2013 the fire did not reach us as predicted\n(yay!) and I could have worked as usual that week. But as they say, hindsight\nis a wonderful thing, and that was a lesson learnt \u2013 don\u2019t make big decisions\ntoo early, wait until the day before if I need to cancel, clients will\nunderstand (and too bad if they don\u2019t).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Alert<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A second community RFS meeting was held, with\nresidents from the area spilling out of our local hall, and we were told that the\nfire\u2019s arrival was \u201ca matter of when, not if\u201d. We had prepared our home as much\nas we could and we had to wait it out. Fast forward to 26 November, and the\nThree Mile fire had started from lightning strikes on our side of the nearby river.\nNo problem, it\u2019s still a little distance away, and our neighbour is home so he\nwill let us know if anything happens. As I was getting ready to leave for work,\nmore fires popped up on the Fires Near Me app, and according to the map, I was\nsurrounded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initiate panic mode! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d been on high-alert for a couple of weeks by now, and this tipped me over the edge. Cue me cancelling work with an hour\u2019s notice, hubby rushing home urgently, me running around the house like crazy making sure we had all our valuables, and when the fires closest to us were extinguished quickly and all was well again, cue a double-strength gin+tonic to calm my frazzled nerves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evacuate! Evacuate<\/strong>!<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

All was fine for another week or so until 3 December. We\u2019d\nhad a bit of a family medical emergency a couple of days prior, pushing the\nthreat of the fires down a notch on the list of priorities. The Three Mile fire\nwas growing and heading towards us, and at 7.30pm, we got the emergency alert\nfrom RFS via text and phone call. Within the hour we\u2019d packed up the animals\nand were on the way to a friend\u2019s home. The smoke was incredibly thick and\nstinky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we were leaving our town, we saw a lot of other\nresidents also heading in the same direction, lots of red and blue lights,\nblocked streets, and a weird glow in the distance. It was surreal. We felt\nrelief that we had finally left and no longer needed to live in anticipation of\nwondering when<\/em> it would happen. I could deal with the business side of\nthings in the morning; tonight was for settling down in our friend\u2019s loungeroom,\neating ice-cream and playing boardgames to take our mind off things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The critters in their emergency basement accommodation the night we left. They were stressed, but safe.
(Image: Tara Goulding) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The next morning I headed down to Sydney with the animals \u2013 our friends were amazing, but they don\u2019t have a grassed backyard and our animals needed space. I set off on a (very smelly!) two-hour journey to my parent\u2019s house, where I stayed for the next 12 days. I had all my work equipment with me, and I did return to the Central Coast a couple of times for group bookings (and to see hubby). All other massage appointments were cancelled the day before they were scheduled for, because I learnt my lesson from last time and didn\u2019t want to pre-empt the situation until I needed to. During this time, our little town made the news a couple of times[2]<\/a>[3]<\/a>[4]<\/a>[5]<\/a> \u2013 I was getting messages and emails from clients checking to see if I was ok, which was so lovely. It really made me realise the unique relationship that develops between therapist and client \u2013 it\u2019s not just about the massage. Our neighbour, who decided to stay, was giving us updates from the ground about what was going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(Image: Tara Goulding) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

During our evacuation, there were two occasions when\nwe were particularly anxious, as there was the very real chance that we may not\nhave a home to return to. As it turns out, the Three Mile fire came to within\n100m of reaching our property, and it was only due to the wind changing\ndirection earlier than predicted that it didn\u2019t actually reach us \u2013 how\u2019s that\nfor luck?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back Home<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Heading back home with the three ducks, bunny in the carry cage to the right, and rooster on the back seat.
(Image: Tara Goulding) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We returned home on 16 December. Driving back was a\nbit weird, I\u2019d never driven through bushfire regions before and wasn\u2019t sure\nwhat to expect. All the trees etc. are still there, but they are a weird burnt\nbrown colour and the ground cover is black. You can literally see a line on the\nground where the edge of the fire front was. When I officially returned to\nwork, all my clients wanted to talk about was the fires. It was nice having\nother locals to talk to about what happened, kind of like a debriefing, but I\nadmit it did get too much. After spending a month in a constant state of\nanxiety, I really needed to not have to tell my story over and over again,\nhowever nice it was to be asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Impact to My Business<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t pretend the fires didn\u2019t have an effect on my\nbusiness. The holiday period between Christmas and early January is generally a\nreally busy time for me as a Massage Therapist. A lot of Sydney-siders travel\nup here for holidays, and because a lot of other therapists take that time off,\nI get a lot of work at this time \u2013 particularly groups of friends\/family all\nwanting massages. It\u2019s not unusual for me to spend an entire day at a holiday\nhome massaging. However, this holiday season was particularly quiet \u2013 sure,\nthere were still some people who ventured up this way, but bookings that had\nbeen made in advance had to be cancelled due to the holiday properties being\ndamaged or inaccessible with closed roads, fallen power lines, etc. While it\nhurt my business, I was also quietly grateful for the extra time it gave me to\ndecompress after all the stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life has pretty much returned to normal for us. Our\nexperience was very lucky compared to many others, something that I\u2019m very\ngrateful for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I\u2019ve learnt any lessons from this experience, I\nthink they would be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. You don\u2019t need to make big business decisions quickly \u2013 clients will understand if you need to cancel last-minute in an emergency, and if they don\u2019t understand then they are not great clients anyway.<\/li>
  2. You don\u2019t have to cancel everything \u2013 I was still able to travel back to do some work.<\/li>
  3. Clients care about you and your wellbeing, even if you don\u2019t know it.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    But probably the most important lesson was don\u2019t leave\nyour fruit bowl unattended for 12 days \u2013 eww!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    About the Author<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Tara Goulding has been a Massage Therapist since 2006, in both Parramatta and now Central Coast (NSW). Most of her massage career has been spent as a mobile therapist \u2013 she loves being able to offer this convenience to her clients while also offering herself a convenient excuse not to exercise. She lives on a farm with her husband, Star Trek-loving rooster, three ducks, and a revolving door of foster bunnies and guinea pigs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    [1]<\/a> https:\/\/disasterphilanthropy.org\/disaster\/2019-australian-wildfires\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=476311226569789<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [3]<\/a> https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/abccentralcoast\/photos\/a.208069562541894\/3136216336393854<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [4]<\/a> https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kariongrfs\/posts\/2506308199686963<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [5]<\/a> https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nswincidents\/photos\/a.698300540197456\/3145875108773308<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Cover image by Terri Sharp<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a>. All other images used in this article \u00a9Tara Goulding and used with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    How do you operate your business when threatened by a catastrophic bushfire? Massage Therapist Tara Goulding shares her story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[559,536,127,554,555,563,558,552,560,556,562,553,557,349,561],"class_list":["post-2369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-practice","tag-australian-bushfires","tag-bushfires","tag-business","tag-cancellations","tag-cancelling","tag-central-coast-nsw","tag-climate-emergency","tag-evacuate","tag-gospers-mountain-fire","tag-impact","tag-mangrove-mountain","tag-safety","tag-survival","tag-tara-goulding","tag-three-mile-fire"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Tara6.jpg?fit=640%2C426&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2310,"url":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/index.php\/2020\/01\/22\/massage-in-the-time-of-bushfire-crisis\/","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":0},"title":"Massage in the Time of Bushfire Crisis","author":"admin","date":"22\/01\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"With vast amounts of southern and eastern Australia devastated by bushfires this summer, how can massage therapists provide best care to clients affected by bushfires, and how can they avoid becoming overwhelmed? Tim Clark is here to help.","rel":"","context":"In "AMT"","block_context":{"text":"AMT","link":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/index.php\/category\/amt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Tim-Bushfire2.gif.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Tim-Bushfire2.gif.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Tim-Bushfire2.gif.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2680,"url":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/index.php\/2020\/07\/01\/well-thats-not-what-i-planned\/","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":1},"title":"Well, That\u2019s Not What I Planned","author":"admin","date":"01\/07\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cTara is exactly the kind of massage therapist we didn\u2019t want to lose from the industry.\u201d COVID-19 is responsible for the early retirement of many massage therapists, including the delightful Tara Goulding, who tells us about the heartbreaking moment she knew this was the end of the road.","rel":"","context":"In "AMT"","block_context":{"text":"AMT","link":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/index.php\/category\/amt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Annotation-2020-06-23-172347.jpg?fit=993%2C710&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Annotation-2020-06-23-172347.jpg?fit=993%2C710&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Annotation-2020-06-23-172347.jpg?fit=993%2C710&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Annotation-2020-06-23-172347.jpg?fit=993%2C710&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2213,"url":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/index.php\/2019\/12\/05\/top-7-articles-of-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":2},"title":"TOP 7 ARTICLES OF 2019","author":"admin","date":"05\/12\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Revisit 7 of the best articles we've featured on AMT's blog in 2019. Which was your favourite?","rel":"","context":"In "AMT"","block_context":{"text":"AMT","link":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/index.php\/category\/amt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/top.jpg?fit=953%2C454&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/top.jpg?fit=953%2C454&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/top.jpg?fit=953%2C454&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.amt.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/top.jpg?fit=953%2C454&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1342,"url":"https:\/\/blog.amt.org.au\/index.php\/2019\/02\/05\/more-than-a-massage\/","url_meta":{"origin":2369,"position":3},"title":"More Than A Massage","author":"admin","date":"05\/02\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\"As Massage Therapists, we often see people at their most vulnerable. 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