2014 - Year of the Golden Booty!

The year of the Golden Booty. This was my response to a Facebook comment for what was one of the most iconic photos from my year - me, booty boasting in gold hot pants. Clearly I am not going to share this image here but it was a memorable shot in time. The year 2014 was not quite as golden but it was still precious - precious in the sense that there were more ups than downs, and somehow I made...

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These are a few of my favourite Christmas things

Sunday night - baking and singing Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens  Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens  Brown paper packages tied up with strings  These are a few of my favorite things.   On Sunday night, we watched The Sound of Music. The Sound of Music is my favourite musical of all time so I did not need the lyrics onscreen, but it was fun nonetheless....

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Birthday Staycation Fun

So my birthday has come and gone and so has my second annual birthday staycation.Yep - for the second year running, I have spent my birthday close to home, where I could get much needed rest but without the stress of airports, trying to pack my life into my pink suitcase and without a massive post-vacation bill. Well, maybe that's a bit ambitious. I did manage to have my 15 minute flight to Tobago...

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I have been naughty, but Santa can kick rocks

If you have read this blog long enough, you would already know I love December only because it is my birthday month. Christmas is not my most fave time of the year. It has gotten better in recent times with the fun of being an aunt - Christmas is now about making the little ones happy, hearing their giggles and creating memories for them to cherish. I don't get gifts. I cannot tell you the last time...

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Life is so Beautiful - Talking Health, Cancer, Dreams and Diem Brown

No matter what it is, you're going to have the bad days, but if you have hope throughout, you won, no matter what the results...Life is so beautiful. - Diem Brown Diem Brown Back in the day when people still watched MTV, shows like The Real World, Road Rules and the various RW/RR Challenges were popular and made seemingly spoiled kids household names. Back in the day I used to watch these shows...

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Selling Stones in the Ground

Stonehenge - a national treasure in England. An attraction most tourists flock to when visiting the UK. As a history buff myself, it was surely to be on my list when I trekked around England, and indeed, one day in brown traveller life, I ventured to Wiltshire to check it out. There it was - the ring of standing stones, one of the most famous and recognisable sites in the world.  Was I willing...

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Happy Places - Those Moments that Make Everything Better

The wonderful Ray tagged me a while ago to share my Happy Places. I am also stealing her idea of adding a cute word cloud. Happy Places - those places that are all yours - those moments that evoke warm feelings, feelings of safety, contentment. As crazy as it sounds, and as much as I hate it - my morning workout. Every morning when that alarm goes off, I move about the house with a sense of dread....

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Questions and Answers

Question: Have you abandoned your blog? This was a question posed to me by a loyal reader (one of my 1.5 loyal readers) after clicking on my blog over and over and seeing nothing new since September. Answer: No, I have not really abandoned it. I like that it is there. I do feel like creativity has abandoned me. I always have the best of intentions and then I open up the blog app, and I am either...

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How to Lose Weight on (the best) Vacation

As I sit typing this, I can barely walk. I resumed my regular morning workouts just last week after a 6-7 week hiatus, which included pre-vacation hustling time, a 3-week vacation and post-vacation indifference. It is always the same. Yesterday I worked legs – squats, lunges, upping the resistance on the cardio machines. Today, I am sore and miserable. The good news is, despite the damage done by...

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Shakespeare in England and the Llandaff Ghost Walk in Cardiff

On my last full day in Cardiff, we decided we would make a girls' lime/girls' day out and we crossed the border back into England for a lovely sunny day out in Stratford-upon-Avon. For those who did not know, S-u-A is the birthplace of ole Billy Shakespeare, and what I loved about the town is the lovely quaintness of it all. From the cobblestoned streets to the old buildings - very lovely. Beautiful...

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Hello Wales! Nice to see you again!

So then it was back to London, where I spent a few days recuperating. Yes. Recuperating. Between tourist life and running for trains, running for trains with the pink suitcase, heaving 19kg suitcase onto train platforms and up stairs (thank you London Victoria and Ealing Common for the free weight training sessions), I was happy to spend a few very anonymous days in my favourite city. Being a loyal...

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Caux and Montreux - Swiss Life continues

Amsterdam was always meant to be the more hectic part of the vacation, with my plans for Lausanne being really just to relax. It did not always feel like that though, but the next day, after a lot of wine, we headed towards Montreux, where we would take the funicular train up the mountain side to the small village of Caux. And it is small. But cute. I guess a highlight of the village is the...

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It's Wine O'Clock - Trip to Swiss Wine Country

After a great night out with adventures into Swiss fondue, we prepared ourselves for the next mission - to visit Lavaux - a region in the canton of Vaud, or as I like to call it, part of Swiss wine country. I was very excited for this and the weather seemed to cooperate ever so slightly as the rains abated, though the sun never really quite joined the party. Lavaux is beautiful, framed by the gorgeous...

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