Monday, January 27, 2014

Nesting, Part 8

The first of nesting in 2014.  Some of the same, a new plant and more holiday candy.
Succulents were 50% off at my local paint store.  Needless to say I came home with a new friend over the weekend.
Ritual trip to Walgreens to check out the latest holiday candy.  Surprisingly could not find any Valentine-specific Peeps - yet Christmas and Halloween made the cut.
How many times can I say that I will never get tired of my view every morning as I scuttle down to the shuttle.  Just magnificent.  This was Saturday morning, before Karl the Fog crept in on Sunday evening.
The other side of living the expat dream: you stay up at night to write cards like these for sending.  On the upside, this letter-pressed beauty was pretty adorabubble - inside it says "it's me".
I have a thousand and one things to say about some new adventures I've been having - pirate bar!  SoulCycle!  Light graffiti! - but they will be featured in posts to come.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Ok, 2014

It's a Christmas tree graveyard again, but with that comes a fresh new year.  
Seen in my hood, at my beloved golden glow hour.
This is a bit weird but I pretty much always miss my goals for the year that I'm in, but hit my goals for the year before.  I am only talking about S.M.A.R.T. goals of course, not general maturity and growing life richly and all that stuff.  I will explain it, so that in the explanation you will have some picture of how my mind throws brain cells at every day thought processes unnecessarily.

I told myself last year that I'd run a marathon.  I completely chickened out, but I ran three half marathons out of guilt (I realise that two halves make a full, but I ran the third one to account for interest over time - ha!)  In 2012, my goal was to run two half marathons.  Ergo, I will probably run a marathon this year, if I don't think about it and don't actually put it on my list of goals.  The key is that I can't actually *tell* myself I'm going to do these things, otherwise my mind revolts, but setting annual resolutions is a way of getting my brain to imagine loftier things for itself.  It just takes two years to fulfill - I'm a little slow, you see.

Anyway, the S.M.A.R.T. thing I want this year but may actually fulfill in 2015 is to write and illustrate a children's book.  Not publish it necessarily, but just write one and see where it goes.  Keeping it as the solo goal because it requires lots of steps and I'm also getting married this year.  Yes, I just realised how badly those goals sound in tandem.  No, it's too late for me to rewrite this, it's already late.  In reality I just want to tell a story about a bear, using watercolours.

Ok, enough brain cells have fallen for the cause of writing this post.  Here's to another good one!

P.s. An interesting little study in the importance of imagining your future self.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Guaranteed LOL

Someone asked me the other day if I had a YouTube clip that can guaranteed make me laugh out loud, every time - and literally, not just in typed 'lols'.  I know I'm slow on this one, but my brother sent me this a few days ago and it has been making the loops with me, it just gets funnier every time:

"And you're in *Yemen*..."
Love Kirsten Wiig.  Do you have a guaranteed IRL LOL?

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Phils, again.

Does two years in a row make a ritual?  Not sure.  But after going every two years up until I was 16 (and then a big break) it does feel nice that the family faces we saw this time around were only a year older from the last.  Again we had a mix of old familiars and new adventures, and this time C even made it in time to ring in the new year.  Some snaps:
Kayaking over Pagsanjan Falls.  And by 'kayaking' I mean it wasn't rainy season and so our superfit guides had to haul our boats over the rocks where there wasn't enough water - they made it look so easy!  A highlight but not pictured was getting pulled through a waterfall on a raft.  Through a waterfall.  Drenched.
Beautifully serene infinity pool at The Farm at San Benito.  This place was amazing!  Think delicious vegan foods and different yoga and workout classes every day.  The perfect post-Christmas cleanse.
Riding tiny horses to the top of Taal Volcano and view of the Lake.  You can see from my attire that health and safety is their #1 priority over here.  There is still a gash on my leg from when my horse - named 'Papa Bear' - ran me into a tree, but the view at the top made it all worthwhile.
This was the cutest, happiest pup I have ever met.  His little tongue!  Found him in the greenhouse at Sonya's Garden where we had lunch while nursing horse-riding wounds.
Our smoky view of the city on New Years Eve, taken from a friend's apartment in Makati.  Most wonderful was having C by my side.  That, and they had a make-your-own-pork-buns at the party - I only have a vague recollection of this but apparently I was at that table all night hehe.
Not a food shot in site I know (?) but I can assure you it was the best way to welcome in the new year. Happy 2014 everyone!