Psssstttt....

I'm over HERE now.

You can walk, no need to run, over there. I wouldn't want you to trip like I might.

See you there.

The next chapter

As many a blogger out there, I'm a little conflicted. I go back and forth about shutting this down, and then rebreathing life into it again. I've tried to do this before.  I feel like the Who announcing a final farewell tour.  I just won't go away.

When I started this blog I was taking a break from a career and trying to embrace stay-at-home-ness with my two adorable kids, who provided wonderful blog fodder.  That was over a decade ago.  You can tell by the header.  Yeah, really that long ago.

While I was in the thick of it, not only did I manage to capture snapshots of a period in time that was beyond precious, I also explored the inner me. Not just events and photos but also my feelings and thoughts of daily life as it was for me.  And there were quite a few major life events.  The icing on the cake was the human interaction and connections made along the way.  Social media was just blossoming, and communication via blogging was beyond just a few characters.  I shared a lot, considering my introverted tendencies. The internets and my online friends helped me through the painful time of my father's passing, and gave me tremendous strength and confidence to go back into the outside working world again. Didn't quite anticipate where I might go -it was supposed to be baby steps.

After I got back on the career track I would only pop in here occasionally and I'll admit it, I missed it.  As my job got more busy, kids got older and more active, this blog gathered dust.  I still posted the odd time to share travel, and to brag a bit about my work travel through pictures (I admmit it-bragger!).  But with Facebook as a quicker outlet, I abandoned this place.

Things are mammothly  different today.  We have Twitter (can't believe I had an account set up so long ago!), Instagram which I was introduced to by my then 10 year old, and Snapchat -where I know hundreds of shots of me doing things awkwardly have been shared out to the world by my kids.  Karma bites. They are rockin' the social media stuff very well on their own these days.

And so there's me.  The inner me.  I'm again on a career break after going at things crazily for the last almost 7 years, the last 3 more often than not juggling time zones while hubs did the same, and dealing with high stress, leadership and people commitments, yadda, yadda and taking it out in spades on home life.  Work-life balance crashed.

I'm  taking this life back. Not retired just yet (although my daughter asked me that when I told her I decided to stay home for a bit -hah!). But focus to get the home life back on track, and to be honest, appreciate my life partner more for the great guy he is.

As I support my kids through their stages of tween and teenage-ness, I am reluctant to admit that at 50, I'm still not too sure of what I want to be when I grow up.  So I intend to explore and try to figure it out -and what better way to do that than via a blog?

I'm working on something. Will let you all know when ready for a reveal. Don't expect fancy -but I hope you'll look for me.

Catch you later.

Got 'er done -NABLOPOMO -OUT

Well this is it-the last post of November 2015.  I dropped the ball only once!

Hard to believe it will be December tomorrow.  A month of celebration with both the Hubster and The Girlie having December birthdays. Oh and I guess there's something called Christmas happening this month too.

Let the games begin!

You CAN teach an old ...

One of the wonderful things about my monthly book club with the neighbourhood ladies is that once we finish up talking about the book ( which can last about 30 seconds if we couldn't get into it) conversations will always drift to something else, topics ranging from relationships with our kids, spouses, to household tips (who knew the power of Oxy to tackle red wine spills on white dining chairs or tabouli encrusted Berber rug-witnessed live, I kid you not).

My latest learning was the 50 second microwave poached egg in a cup.

I put it to to the test this morning for a fairly healthy breakfast -look, avocado, good fat!

So easy I can't believe I did not know this.

What do you do?

Put 1/2 cup of cold water in a microwaveable bowl or mug. Needs to be cold water.

Gently crack an egg into the water, ensuring the egg is submerged.

Put in microwave and cover with saucer.

Turn microwave on at high for 50 seconds.  This gives a slightly runny egg, you can adjust the time depending on how runny you would like.

Take egg out with slotted spoon (see  below).

Enjoy! Like I did. Happy rest of weekend and cyber Monday-ing...

And the celebrations continue...

My sister is took me for a spa treatment tonight - hammam and gammage at the spa at the Shangri-la hotel.

Steam and exfoliation followed by 30 minute massage.  I wasn't sure of my ability to stay in the steam that long but with the eucalyptus and whatever the heck else scents infused into the room it was more than doable.

As I lay on the marble slabs for gammage, the esthetician asked "when was the last time you exfoliated" and my response ... "Never".  I suspected I was in for a treat.

Sort of funny but then she made the special effort to show us the results of all the scrubbing.  Ewwwww-but the resulting baby soft skin-sorta nice.

Total decadence. Something that I could definitely get used to.