on Wednesday 24 October 2012
Bath is a compact and beautiful city, with small winding alleyways and cobblestone roads dispersed throughout. It is very easy to explore because of its size, and there are lots of good restaurants and eateries in the city for the hungry traveler. The historical society runs daily tours at a minimal charge for history buffs or those who want to learn a bit more. For us, we opted out of the tour because of all the exciting events already happening in the city, but I might go back some time and try it again!
We took the early morning train from London Paddington into Bath Spa on a sunny but slightly chilly September day. We started our day with coffees and pastries at the famous Bertinet Bakery, surrounded by tantalizing bread and pastry displays. Since it was the opening of the Jane Austen festival in Bath, we caught the costume parade just in time, before retreating to the thermal spas for a nice soak. Lunch consisted of the famous Sally Lunn bun, and we definitely ate too much that we spent the rest of the day trying to walk it off! We finished the evening at a cute cafe, then joined up with a walking tour of Bath that had no historic meaning, but was rather more like street theatre on the streets of Bath. Completely knackered at the end of a very long day, we caught one of the last trains back into the city and got home just after midnight!
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on Monday 22 October 2012
A peek at my workspace at home
1. I’m quitting alcohol for the next two months. It’ll be tough, what with the possible events coming up, but the next time I pick up a drink shall be some time around Christmas. This is going to be tough, but it’s because…
2. I want to actually do a half marathon by January. I have found that I run better on days when I haven’t had a drop of alcohol for a couple of days before. Even a glass of wine at dinner makes me rather parched for the next 24 hours, as I’m generally an extremely thirsty person all the time. So that’s two really lofty goals for the next couple of months! Wish me luck!
3. We’ll see how well I do, because I’m very close to signing a contract for a “real” job! I will find out more hopefully this week. With all the negotiations and background checks, I haven’t had anything confirmed yet. I’ll share more as I find out!
4. From now until mid-December, I/we have something happening every weekend! It sure is busy living in London. We’re away for a few weekends visiting family in different parts of the country, and I’m excited about seeing new parts of England I haven’t been to before. There are also a few chill weekends with a dinner or something small planned, but I am shocked at how quickly a girl’s social diary has filled up!
5. We’re also embarking on a few longer-weekend trips, which I hope my new employer would be OK with! More details to come on that as well, but needless to say, I’m totally excited to get on a plane again. It’s been a while!
6. I’ve discovered raw milk & cream at a farmer’s market near us. The coffee we make with this milk is delicious, but wait until I whip up a batch of ice cream…
Farm fresh duck eggs & raw milk from Hook & Sons
Hope you had a lovely weekend too! xo
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on Thursday 4 October 2012
Just needed to put things into perspective…literally
In recent days, my life feels like it’s been flipped on its side, and every time I’ve tried to get up, I’ve fallen mercilessly into a dark pit where I would wallow and kick and scream. A bit dramatic, but there ya go. In short, I’ve had to come to face some tough truths in order to make tough decisions. When truth and all its ugliness stared me in the face, I felt myself crumble to bits, along with my confidence. I had no warning for this to come my way, and as soon as the first truth hit, it was like the whole wave of realisations that I’ve been hiding from all caught up to me. So I’ve been calling family, friends, mentors, confidantes for the past few afternoons, trying to make sense of my next steps.
The best thing to come of this is that I have much to be thankful for in anticipation of Thanksgiving this weekend. My friends and family have been generous with their time and words, sometimes beyond what I deserve, I think. Their objectivity have helped me see things more clearly, and their ability to tell me their true opinions without any one of us cringing makes me happy that I have such great friends. The most important thing I’ve learned is that I can make whatever decision I want, and these people will all still be here, living out the consequences of my decision with me. And they have given me perspective to make my decisions in the form of the most comforting words I can ask for right now – “What’s the worst that can happen?”
Indeed, what is the worst? When compared to much worse things that can happen, or even, have happened…the consequences of my decisions now don’t seem to be as daunting.
So this post is for my lovely friends. Thank you for reminding me to put things into perspective, and for reassuring me that you’ll always be there for me.
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