Me vs 2015. What's the score after the first quarter?

Cheers to a commendable first quarter!

So the first quarter of the year is almost over and I am reviewing my KPIs.I will admit, it has been a slow start to the year. I looked at my list and while I have not tackled all of them, I have made some inroads into others.

1. Spend more time with the family.
I have been doing a really good job with this. Soon, they will be begging me to go away. I have been getting my mum to try new things/experiences, and just this morning I was greeted by chubby cheeks as the niece and nephew came over. I have been seeing them much more - doing aunty things like taking them to participate in Kiddies' Carnival, taking them for pizza and ice cream, playing 'sling shot' (I enjoyed this more than they did!) and just sitting and watching silly shows that are not on MY Netflix profile but on theirs. I have also been trying to make more time for my friends too. It has been a good start!!

I have more yogurt and fruit, and less ice cream

2. Health and fitness
Well, I have actually put on weight and I don't need to stand on a scale to confirm that. I just know. I know how I have been eating and I know how I have been slacking off at the gym. I know. However, I have taken a bold and almost traumatic step - I have registered for a health and fitness competition at work. It is a Biggest Loser type initiative and while I will confess, the actual prize (though I do not know what it is) is what drew me to it primarily, I know I need something to motivate me. I have found it hard to stay motivated on this for some reason this year. The traumatic part of this is that I am going to have to publicly declare how fat and unfit I am - well, at least to 2 people - the nurse and the dietitian. I neverrrrrr stand on a scale and now I am going to be haunted by that figure and by the fact that others will also know. lol. But over the next 8 weeks I am going to give it a good go, especially as it is a team event and I cannot let my teammates down.

3. Travel
I have not gone anywhere yet but I generally do not travel at this time of the year. But I do have a fair idea where I am going mid-year. This is probably the easiest of all my KPIs and the one that would most likely make anyone who knows me say "duh".

4. Paying it forward
This is an important one. Too often we work, make money, enjoy the fruits of our labour without reflecting on how we got there. On my path to awesomeness, I had an incredible circle of friends and family and people I met along the way, and who have since become gems in my circle. They have all in one way or another been support and comfort through personal and professional milestones. I am nothing without my circle. I also know that even though I may gripe about little things like being tired all the time or being a bit too fat for life, I have been blessed and I do not have any real earth shattering issues. But some young girls start their lives under more challenging economic and social circumstances, and may need someone to be in their circle. So this is why I am on my way to being a Big Sister to a Little Sister in the Big Sister Programme. I am most excited about this. I have always always wanted an opportunity like this and when it presented itself to me at last, I ran with it. I am so happy to be able to write a positive progress report on this KPI and so early in the year!

5. Stretch myself in the kitchen
I love to cook and I cook often, mostly my lunches for work. But I also wanted to try things I have always been less confident about or have never tried before. I tried making croissants once as a teenager and they were like lethal boomerangs. I saw a recipe for pain au chocolat this morning and decided I would try my hand again this weekend. But I have also done some fun things like new flatbreads, stuff involving the dreaded pie crust and been learning how best to cook different kinds and cuts of meats.

Blind baked my pie crust for a lovely spinach and mushroom quiche

6. Blog at least once a week
So far, a resounding success. I have a blog entry for every week of 2015 so far. It is a miracle! It has not been easy, but I have done it! (cue super hero music)

So I know I have to get off Netflix and get a jump on some of the other items on the performance contract and get to work. But so far, hey...doing okay. I will not let 2015 kick my ass.

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Working Towards Life's Bonus in 2015!

KPIs - getting things done!

Happy 2015, folks. Wishing my 2.5 readers a wonderful and productive year!

So I have decided that in goal-setting this year, I am taking another approach. A lot of my time is spent with work – other people’s work and other people’s objectives. While each employee has a personal/individual performance contract outlining how he/she aims to support the company’s objectives, they are not really “personal” in the true sense of the word. We rush around all year working long hours, losing sleep, gaining weight, getting sick from it all, in an effort to meet these KPIs, so we can get a good rating and/or bonus at the end of the year. We rush around, exhaust ourselves, make ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually worn out.

This is all well and good (maybe it is not that good), but what about life’s KPIs? What about the bonus we get out of life itself? What about the bigger ME picture? I figured if we put so much effort in outlining specific targets for work, and some of us face those tough performance conversations with our bosses each year, why can’t we do the same for ourselves, our health, our families?

Working on my 2015 Life KPIs
over a cup of coffee

I have therefore formally written down my 2015 life goals, with base, target and stretch outcomes, and with sections so I can do monthly progress check-ins and self-assessments at the mid-year point, and year-end point, just as is done at work. The monthly check-ins are important. At work, budgets may change, or strategies may change and such changes impact one’s ability to deliver on specific objectives, and so you request an amendment where necessary. Life happens and checking in monthly allows you to re-assess the practicality of the goal(s) set and allow you to tweak said goals or eliminate the goal(s) altogether.

I have not set any grandiose objectives – nothing like “bring about world peace” or “lose 100 pounds”. My objectives are quite simple, so don’t think this is some huge scientific undertaking, with massive, complex sounding aims. But there are things I am working towards and know I want to achieve and so the investment of time and effort has to outweigh the time and effort invested in other activities.

Spending more time with the kiddies - on my KPI sheet!

Some are bigger than others. Some are things that are so simple but I keep putting them off and making excuses and still have not been able to tick them off my bucket list. What about you? Maybe you want to spend more time with your children. I know I certainly am adding “spend more quality time with my niece and nephew” to my list. Aunty cannot be tired every weekend! Or make more time for yourself. I am a huge advocate for “ME” time – and feel not many people subscribe to the belief that “ME” time is essential. Maybe you want to save a bit more this year. How will you do it? 

So typing up my Life Performance Contract, jotting down my KPIs, and will print and place on my dresser – a place I see every morning, every evening and as often as my hair needs fixing or my nose needs powdering. I am also going to give a third party a copy – to keep me honest.

So... onward as we work towards life's precious bonus!

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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 it to the end (knock wood).

It was a year of fun, revelations, trials - like any other year. Life is unpredictable and life is fragile. Today you can be on top of the mountain and tomorrow you are slipping down the slope, caught up in an avalanche. Or you can be gone forever. Not trying to be morbid but this is a reality. Too many persons lost loved ones this year - whether it was expected or unexpected. At the top of my year, I lost the second most important woman in my life after my mother - my grandmother. Even though she was in her 90s, the loss was still a hard one for the entire family as she was the anchor that kept us all grounded - the glue that kept us all together. Our lives are beautiful because she was beautiful. She was the best grandmother in the world.

The year was hectic at work and often I felt overwhelmed. Maintaining a blog is a job in itself and each year I look at my total number of blog posts for the year. Gone are the days of 2011 when I had a total of 171 posts for that year, to just 40 for all of 2014. That is not even a blog post a week!

As demanding as my job is, my mantra is to play as hard (and as well) as I work. So my vacation this year - my annual treat to myself - took me and my pink suitcase to Amsterdam, Netherlands; Bruges, Belgium; Lausanne, Switzerland; London, England; and Cardiff, Wales - complete with a side trip to Stratford-on-Avon and a silly ghost walk.

And what a lot of fun was had over the course of that trip. My very first cheese fondue in Lausanne. Chocolate penises in Bruges (yes...you can make anything with chocolate). Friendly reunions in the UK. And a lovely rendez-vous in Amsterdam. Life is unpredictable and fragile - so enjoy it. That is my motto in life.

There were other memorable moments, like seeing John Legend again for the umpteenth time (still yet to see Alicia Keys and Muse in concert - scribbling it down for 2015), staycations, friends, birthdays, Carnival, the World Cup, time with the munchkins of my life - my niece and nephew and so on. Never any regrets - just pushing forward.

I have decided to write down 5 big goals for 2015 - document them somewhere - either here or offline, and try my best to achieve them.

Cheers to 2014 and hello to 2015. I am so looking forward to it already.

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Christmas Down, New Year to Come

Had a lot of vino over the holidays. Too much!!

Well, Christmas has come and gone in a flurry of activities and it was a good time. I have family visiting from various locations around the world and it was nice to spend some time with them. My nephew was a cranky one on the day, having attempted to be a grown up on Christmas Eve - staying up late - and then being sleepy and super cranky, almost Chucky-like on the day. But by night time, he was my sweet, lovable little boy once more. That surely made up for any bad behaviour earlier in the day.

The Christmas excess for everyone was very real, and so I made a conscious decision that while everyone was hungover, unable to wake up or doubled over a toilet on Boxing Day, I would rise with the chickens and go to the gym. I was surprised at how many other people were there at 6 am that day, and at 5am yesterday, though I was the lone roadrunner at 5.30 this morning. Still, it's good to have a posse when facing the perils of too much food and drink.

So what now? Now comes 2014, and as always, I am always a bit excited for a new year. I don't do resolutions but I do prioritise a few things and try to get them done.

And 2013? There is an old wives' practice here in Trinidad - when you have guests you really want to get rid of, or who have overstayed their welcome, you turn up a broom. Well, I know a lot of friends who are turning up a broom for 2013 but I can honestly say it was not that bad. The last quarter was not the best, I admit, with a medical dilemma which plagued me and baffled 4 different doctors for a minute, and made me believe that concept where they tell you your life flashes before your eyes - it really does. Still, the year was pretty okay. Work-wise it was typical - I simply worked too much, too long. On the life side, I got a new niece whom everyone says looks like me - talk about a narcissist's dream! lol. I continue to bond with my precocious nephew. Family life was pretty good this year.

I got out more, so there was a better balance between work and life. Still not the best, and that is because I am always tired, but I did leverage the rare moments of physical energy to make new friends, try new things, like this, and also like this, try new places and have a life!! Go me.

And of course, travel I did. No year is complete without at least 1-2 stamps in the passport, and my mid-year escape from work, from the island was magical. I had tapas in Madrid while reuniting with my uni friends and connecting with the gay male population in the process (lol); met up with my childhood penpal for the very first time ever in the beautiful and larger than life city of Rome; and had mini-reunions with friends and family in London and Reading. Throw in a birthday staycation at the end of the year and I really cannot complain. Still trying to decide where to go in 2014, but whatever the destination, fun and adventure are the main objectives.

All in all, I was not plagued by any major crises, my friends and family were all safe and blessed, and that is all I can ask for and want. So 2014 - there will hopefully be more of the 2013 highlights, and new experiences and memorable moments as well. Some new and exciting travel, hopefully some great new people, new adventures. It is also a very important year for people like me - the clinically obsessed football fans. It's a World Cup year and for one month, life will stand still. I can hardly stand it!!!

World Cup 2014!!! Brasilia!!

What was your 2013 like? Upturned broom or warm memories? Happy 2014 to you all.

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When 2012 was no more

It's the day before the start of a new year (except for places like Australia...so impatient those Aussies), and I guess many people are sitting around reflecting on the last 12 months. I could do one of those cliched year in review round-ups, but who has the time? lol.

Instead, I will just say, 2012 was a good year and as I get older I realise that any year that you get through in one piece is a damn good one. I know so many people who have encountered loss and sadness in 2012, and I am so grateful for the many mercies bestowed on me that I cannot sit here and gripe about a year that saw me in my cap and gown walking across the stage with the other postgrads, in a job when so many of my class were still job hunting, fat, when so many have no food - hey, gotta find the positives!!

So what about 2013? Well, the number 13 always strikes fear into the hearts of many, but you have to make your own luck and as I told a friend last week, you have to make your own way and your own happiness. So I am hoping to be happy...happier in 2013.

Maybe a couple more trips...

Maybe more reading, especially as my girlfriend will be hand delivering my birthday present this week. I finally got this, after much resistance, but the traditional way is taking up way too much space in my house!!!

Maybe more writing...

Definitely more sweating and less eating and drinking. I will not be buying new clothes (ha! good one!)

Hopefully more single girl adventures...

It's really just about making the next 12 months better than the last, and to be happy, be a better person - a good daughter, sister, aunt, friend - and to keep it movin'...in the right direction.

Hope everyone has a great 2013 as well. I surely look forward to reading all about it.

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A Fond Farewell to 2011, Hello and Welcome to 2012

I think 2011 was a good year. Really. It started off a bit shaky, as I had a bad flu and started the year bundled up, freezing and seething at the St George’s Circus bus stop in London – waiting for almost 2 hours for my bus.

But it was a year of successes and great people and I am happy about that. I had my fair share of stress –with exams in the very first week. Add trying to study with sinus headaches, sore throat, hacking cough and fever, in the dead of London winter, and you can imagine my ultimate joy! Semester 2, while on paper, looked like it would be a cake walk, was probably worse than the jam-packed semester 1. The assignments never stopped and then of course, the dreaded D – dissertation which was a nightmare of epic proportions! But even with all that, I managed to get it done, with Distinction, and will be heading back to the Big Smoke in no time at all for my graduation.

I started the year as a student and end it as a grad – an employed grad no less, which is much better than many others can say. I am beyond grateful for that, on a very serious level, because so many of my friends are still job hunting and scouring the job ads, and waiting. I gripe about having to roll off my bed at 3.30 am each day and about how tired I am, but I am thankful that I have a job to get off the bed for. The car won’t pay for itself. Yes…the end of public transportation came at the end of 2011 as well – a real triumph for the high heeled princess. I do not miss running after the South Eastern, South West or Southern trains, or hopping maxis back home. Nope. Don’t miss it.

The Pavilion, Brighton

Though I did not get on a plane this year, other than between home and London, I did manage to do some adventuring. The UK, while cold and grisly, is a beautiful country and I explored other parts of London I had not yet explored (not just the cocktail bars and pubs) and also ventured to areas outside of London for a change, including Windsor, Wales, Bath, Bristol, Brighton, Rye and Hastings. If I could sneak in a trip to Edinburgh on my short escape, 2012 would have started off nicely I think – cold but pleasant.

I enjoyed a few great festivals in London as well, like Taste of London and the Wine and Cheese Festival. I miss events like those actually.

Lots of cooking as well - and now that I am back home, I am sure there will be much more.

I also made my debut as tv star, in the T-Mobile wedding ad, though you can only see the length of my dress and not much else. Still it was a fun experience. Met some great people during that experience.

But not as great as the people I met over the year in London, from classmates, some of whom will be lifelong friends, to the oddball adventures, public dating disasters and funny stories, to those who made the cut. Lol. These people brought fun, laughter, support and everythingness. A girl can only be this lucky once, right? Well, I am awesome, so I have it a hundred times over. My peeps are great!

We lost a friend this year but move forward with renewed hope because friendship is powerful and so is forgiveness.

Blog-wise, I have not always been consistent. When I was too busy with school to blog, I then became too busy with work. Balancing a real life with blogging is often challenging. Still, it is a fun outlet. I did my one and only anonymous vlog, as did Pablo. Did a photo challenge, but in the end, I blogged when I could.

So what will 2012 bring? God knows. I am praying for it to be a happy year – more happiness than sadness. Really hoping everyone, including myself, remains safe and healthy and happy over the 366 days of 2012. We can only ever take it one day at a time but I can still have a long term vision!

The lovely Grenadines, West Indies - right next door

While my movements will be restricted for a while, seeing that I have started a new job and thus have no real vacation time, I will have weekends, so there are places I can still go on a time crunch, including St Lucia, Grenada/Grenadines, Antigua, Miami (of course!), New York (not in the winter like last time) and who knows where else. 2013 will see me back in Europe but until then, gonna love my hemisphere as best as I can.

People wise – the year will undoubtedly end with some farse aunt or family friend asking if the husband will come in 2012 and my farse and bright response will probably be, “Find him and ask him”. I will again be forced to defend singledom and my right to life despite not being tied to some loser til death do us part. I have no idea what life will hold for me but guess what…life does not wait. I have learnt a lot about myself in the past year and reaffirmed what I already knew, and I will be having fun and being the fabulista that I have always been.

That being said, I want to wish you all a very Happy 2012. May all the things you wish for yourselves and your loved ones come to pass, and just have fun. Life is short and love is endless – love life.

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New Year Celebrations in London

When I opened my eyes at minutes to 2 this afternoon, I pulled the curtain to see what 2011 looked like in the day. It looked just like 2010 did 24 hours before - grey and bleak. My stomach was also bleak...rather empty and I just inhaled carbs and copious amounts of orange juice.

And I did say I woke up at minutes to 2 this afternoon, after ringing in the new year with friends at a bar/club in London. We almost ended up ringing the new year in the queue, until one dude started complaining to the owner - a rather unfortunate looking character who thought he was God's gift with his hair plugs and his shiny suit - with support from yours truly, and when the countdown began, I was indoors, in the queue at the bar. lol. But it was a great evening with friends, and lots of memorable highlights such as:

- Friend #1 (shall remain nameless) pissing in the sink at McDonald's because...well...he just had to go. I may never use a public bathroom again, and I scarcely do it now as it is
- Friend #1's friends (none of whom were quite sober) picking up a stray at McDonald's and by stray, I don't mean Sparkie. Just some random girl, named Miranda, who suddenly was part of our group
- Getting lost, asking Londoners for directions and them too drunk to be of any use - dude told me the street we were looking for was in Soho when the map clearly showed the street was right there somewhere.
- Miranda trying to pick fights with random black girls in the queue. I said silently to myself, Who on earth is this girl, and why is she being a nuisance? I will not be getting my hair pulled in a fight for some stranger
- Some crackhead looking person, clearly high on something, trying to pick a fight with me but as I told her, when she can be as stunning and lucid as I was, then try again. I think I might have been the only sober person in London last night!
- Miranda finally leaving, but via ambulance, because she was so wasted they had to call the NHS for her, after she apparently almost brought up her entire digestive system on the pavement

I hope wherever Miranda is - she is okay but cannot say I was sorry to see her leave. What a nutter.

New Year's Eve in London was quite an experience. I mean, I know the Brits on a good day love their tipple but Jesus...I was at Euston station at 9.30 and people were already wasted, falling over, screaming, and just being plain annoying. By the time I was walking to my bus stop this morning, there were bodies all over the pavement, friends propping up friends on benches...crazy. My New Year's Eve parties back home were always on the "bourgie" end of the spectrum so this...lol...was different.

But as we mention bus, it's been a while since I put up one of these but this was seriously called for...

Mayor Johnson, I sat at Bus Stop D at St George's Circus for maybe 110 minutes waiting for a bus that was supposed to come every 30 mins. I can now tell you every bus that services SE London - the N1, the 63, 453 etc, because I saw them at least 4 times each - thought I saw the N155 maybe about 6 times. But nowhere to be seen was my bus. Your TFL people on the street were very helpful, and after 100 minutes called in to see where oh where was my bus because I sat at the bus stop, not drunk, not falling over, not being a menace - but very quietly, albeit angrily, nursing what was a cold in remission, hoping it would not come back a second time.

Mr Bus Driver, forgive me for giving you a look laced with acid and not returning your "Happy New Year" when you finally got there - but you surely could understand my vexation at having to start my new year with an almost 2 hour wait in the dropping temperatures for a bus and then having to sit and listen to some drunk female cuss her mother on the phone in a most vile and alarming fashion. Oh London...

Other than that, and the fact that I must now open a textbook on the first day of the year, 2011 promises to be awesome.

Oh, I also got my delivery yesterday. I love sparkly stuff!

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2010 Recap; 2011 - Bring it On!

It's pretty damn sad when you get excited over an email announcing the sale at Sainsbury's. lol. Sainsbury's? Really?

But then, what else am I supposed to get excited about? I ordered some new bling, was promised it would be delivered in one day. One day later, I am blingless. Bear with me then as I jump up and down over the prospect of ordering pasta and orange juice at half price.

So another day has come and gone and today I did zero studying. My mind was just not in it. I woke up late, feeling groggy after taking stronger medication last night, and I just never really got into the swing of things. My email to the course director is still to be penned because it is alarming that in essence I have not even been afforded a hiatus from school work between semesters. I have been given 2 weeks off from the commute, but not from work. Not a robot, people. I cannot tend to my health as I would like because I am doomed to study every waking hour? Really?

High heel porn - I miss these shoes.

And another year has come and is almost gone. I cannot remember all the highs and lows of 2010 but there were some points that are kinda hard to miss. Let's see, I planned and executed my awesome vacation to Italy, and no Italians were harmed in the making of said vacation. I was an ardent fitness maven once more. I really love the gym. Really miss the gym. What else? Oh, happy year - it was a World Cup year. No explanation needed! Helped with the planning and hosting of the long overdue high school reunion - reuniting the best and brightest and most beautiful girls on the planet after eons. I gained a new cute nephew and became a first time aunt. I loved my job, hated my job, did well at my job, quit my job, and moved to the other side of the world, away from my world, my life, my people!!!! Moved miles away, with no job, barely any disposable income for the lifestyle I am used to, and paid people to be inconvenienced daily via assignments, studying and odd people. In case you could not ascertain the last part - I became a Masters student. lol. And after only blogging about my career, I started this blog in May to blog about life outside of the office. It's a good thing seeing that I have no job at the moment. lol

The other bits, which I do not blog about, went through some upheaval but all things happen for a reason I say. Leaving trash in the past and moving forward with only shiny, bright optimism.

I don't make resolutions - to be a better person, to diet or any of that crap. I do just try to learn from my mistakes and move past them, and try to make the new year more memorable than the last. And to be happy. And to ensure that the people I love most are happy and healthy. That's it really. Hopefully I will fall in love with London all over again in 2011 because as it is now, between school and illness and winter, London and I are headed for divorce. A bitter bitter divorce. More free time in semester two and good health, should be the therapy we need to keep the love alive.

Health. Hmm...there's a concept. I am on cup #100 of lemon flu tea and now I also have some weird stomach bug that is really keeping me on the NHS watchlist, so it's fun times at Casa de Estudiante. Really hoping to be at least 85% to ring in 2011 but if not, I know that the next 365 days have a lot of promise because I will it to be so.

Happy New Year guys.

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