Nail It Now Typing Tutor began as an idea to help a neighbor who needed to learn to touch type fast.

I believe ideas are magical, they pop up seemingly out of nowhere and at the oddest of times, so who are we to ignore them or say they won’t work. Just give them a go and you will see if they work or not.

I started giving ideas a “go” when travelling with my twin sister and this led to us doing some pretty amazing things we wouldn’t otherwise have done.

I first discovered the delights of giving ideas a “go” while overseas on a working holiday with my twin sister, Helen. In our early twenties, we set sail for England aboard the P and O liner “Orcades”. Standing on the deck of this huge white ship on a grey, drizzly day, we watched the colourful umbrella of our parents on the pier grow smaller and smaller. We would not return for 3 years.

After a wondrous voyage, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and visiting fascinating places like Durban, Capetown and the Canary Islands, we arrived in London. We stayed at the Helena Club in Lancaster Gate, a strict club for young women and a far cry from the luxurious surroundings of the past six weeks. We mooched around London, missing the shipboard life and the friends we had made, completely oblivious to its many delights.

One day, looking for postcards to send home, I spotted one with a sparkling blue sea and golden sands, just like the beaches at home in Australia. Impulsively, I said to Helen, “we should go there”. There was Newquay in Cornwall on the Atlantic coast of England. Helen immediately responded, Yes, do let’s. We rang the Labour Exchange in Newquay and spoke to a great guy who told us the train to catch and he would meet us at the station. We went that night.

We spent a lovely summer in Newquay working at the Grantham Astor Hotel. Helen was a waitress and did a grand job of keeping the orders in her head, especially the breakfast orders: egg, bacon, sausages and toast, egg, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, no toast, while I swanned around the kitchen, having fun with the kitchen staff, preparing easy desserts and, more often than not, curdling the milk for the breakfast coffees.

We stayed at a homely B&B, waking each morning to the sound of seagulls and the roar of the waves, and spent our days off exploring the quaint seaside towns of Cornwall; my favourite was St Ives, and sampling Cornish pasties and cider. It was more like a holiday than work.

To think we might have missed out on all this if Helen hadn’t responded positively to my idea. It was just a fleeting thought and could have been lost forever if Helen had said No. This spontaneous positive response to a random idea and giving it a “go” happened over and over again in our three years of travelling and led to us doing some pretty amazing things we wouldn’t otherwise have done.