2010 has been quite a year.
One of my favorite things I love to do is travel. Even though most of the time it's for work I still find time to connect with the culture of the country - generally though food, walking the streets and of course shopping!
Here's a list of countries that I've been to in 2010. How lucky am I?
January: Mexico - yoga retreat at Haramara (amazing!)
March: Korea and India - work and more yoga in India (Kerala - Mysore - Bangalore)
April: Mexico - work
May: Manchester, England!
July: Manchester, England - with D. Includes the infamous layover in Labradaor, Canada
August: Manchester, England - found our new house
September: moved to England
October: Amersterdam
November: back to Portland
December: Boston, and back to Portland
Although this may sounds so cliche, I remember growing up in Iowa, wanting to travel and see the world. I am so living my dream.
Soooo looking forward to 2011 travel experiences.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Portland
It's been over a week since I made it back to Portland - home. I still consider this my home.
It's been over a week since I've been back and it has gone so quickly! My days have been fairly simple - the main events of the day is yoga and then deciding where to eat with D. We generally alternate between breakfast at St. Honore or lunch at Prasad. I love that we both like simple things.
Tomorrow we're driving up to Seattle to see our good friends Abdi and Barbara. Should be fun celebrating new year's eve together and catching up. The last time we saw each other was I think in August.
It's been over a week since I've been back and it has gone so quickly! My days have been fairly simple - the main events of the day is yoga and then deciding where to eat with D. We generally alternate between breakfast at St. Honore or lunch at Prasad. I love that we both like simple things.
Tomorrow we're driving up to Seattle to see our good friends Abdi and Barbara. Should be fun celebrating new year's eve together and catching up. The last time we saw each other was I think in August.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
So far so good
No new snow accumulation.
According to the Manchester airport - the flight leaving to Altanta is scheduled to depart on time.
According to the Atlanta airport - the flight arriving from Manchester is to arrive on time.
Had a bit of scare as the internet page didn't refresh properly and the Atlanta airport showed that the Manchester flight is scheduled with a 5 hour delay; which would have meant that I miss the connecting flight to Portland, which would have meant a night stuck in the Atlanta airport. no. thank. you! I did that once with Melissa and it was a nightmare. Would hate to think if I had to do that alone.
Okay, time to get ready and get the show on the road.
According to the Manchester airport - the flight leaving to Altanta is scheduled to depart on time.
According to the Atlanta airport - the flight arriving from Manchester is to arrive on time.
Had a bit of scare as the internet page didn't refresh properly and the Atlanta airport showed that the Manchester flight is scheduled with a 5 hour delay; which would have meant that I miss the connecting flight to Portland, which would have meant a night stuck in the Atlanta airport. no. thank. you! I did that once with Melissa and it was a nightmare. Would hate to think if I had to do that alone.
Okay, time to get ready and get the show on the road.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
New agenda
I tried to make the best of today.
Added music to my ipod.
Swept the snow of the front steps.
Sat in a coffee shop - drank a soy latte and journaled.
Went for a walk - explored a new area.
Took some photo's.
Practiced yoga.
Meditated.
Vacummed.
Made a simple raw cauliflower and red pepper salad with olive oil, vinegar, and red pepper.
Made a mental shift.
Added music to my ipod.
Swept the snow of the front steps.
Sat in a coffee shop - drank a soy latte and journaled.
Went for a walk - explored a new area.
Took some photo's.
Practiced yoga.
Meditated.
Vacummed.
Made a simple raw cauliflower and red pepper salad with olive oil, vinegar, and red pepper.
Made a mental shift.
2:50am
That's when I got out of bed this morning, showered, dressed and then checked on the internet to see if my flight to Amsterdam was still good to go. I was literally holding my breath as I scanned the list of arrivals on the Amsterdam Airport web site. Only to see the word - cancelled - next to Manchester. By this time it was 3:30am and I was expecting the taxi to pick me up at 4.
I called Umbro's travel hotline number (thank god Margaret gave me the number as I was leaving work last night). The girl who answered confirmed that the flight was indeed cancelled. In my bit of panic I asked her to check flights for JFK or Atlanta that have connecting flights. No such luck. The best she could do is hold a space for me for tomorrow.
I called the taxi company - cancelled the taxi.
I called home, told D, we were both bummed. Didn't say much as I didn't want to cry. Went back upstairs, took off my clothes and crawled back into bed. I laid there listening to the radio, numb until 5:30 and fell back to sleep.
Just spoke with the travel company a few minutes ago, she is working on booking my flights for tomorrow. Who knows if that will happen. Snow is back on the ground and the weather reports don't look good.
I'm trying not to get upset, it's not like I can change any of this. I'm fortunate that I'm not stuck at the airport and that I'm sitting in the living room - which now has furniture (as of Thursday night).
But I feel a bit numb and an inability to get off this couch.
It's starting to snow again.
I called Umbro's travel hotline number (thank god Margaret gave me the number as I was leaving work last night). The girl who answered confirmed that the flight was indeed cancelled. In my bit of panic I asked her to check flights for JFK or Atlanta that have connecting flights. No such luck. The best she could do is hold a space for me for tomorrow.
I called the taxi company - cancelled the taxi.
I called home, told D, we were both bummed. Didn't say much as I didn't want to cry. Went back upstairs, took off my clothes and crawled back into bed. I laid there listening to the radio, numb until 5:30 and fell back to sleep.
Just spoke with the travel company a few minutes ago, she is working on booking my flights for tomorrow. Who knows if that will happen. Snow is back on the ground and the weather reports don't look good.
I'm trying not to get upset, it's not like I can change any of this. I'm fortunate that I'm not stuck at the airport and that I'm sitting in the living room - which now has furniture (as of Thursday night).
But I feel a bit numb and an inability to get off this couch.
It's starting to snow again.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Company Christmas Party
I have to go to the dreaded Company Christmas Party. UGH!!!!! I am not one that likes to socialize with the people that I work with - I never have. I so don't want to go; but I have no choice. So, here I sit all dressed up, ready to go.
The party is at a very old church that is supposedly amazing. Except for the fact that it's located in the worst part of the city - so bad that they are providing shuttles to and from the event. So, not only do I don't want to go, but I'm supposed to follow the timeline of the shuttles. Fortunately, I am riding with the German (D); he's wife is American and they have the cutest little girl Chloe. Unfortunately, spouses are not allowed. But, none the less, he is driving and promises to leave right after the dinner. He better! Or I will be pissed.
Okay - off I go. Wish me luck!
The party is at a very old church that is supposedly amazing. Except for the fact that it's located in the worst part of the city - so bad that they are providing shuttles to and from the event. So, not only do I don't want to go, but I'm supposed to follow the timeline of the shuttles. Fortunately, I am riding with the German (D); he's wife is American and they have the cutest little girl Chloe. Unfortunately, spouses are not allowed. But, none the less, he is driving and promises to leave right after the dinner. He better! Or I will be pissed.
Okay - off I go. Wish me luck!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Sunday night....
I'm sitting in the front room with the fireplace going and drinking a glass of wine; okay it's my third glass of wine (hey, they are small glasses!). Random thoughts of the past week's events come and go, perhaps if I document them I'll be able to clear my head. So, here they are, in no particular order.
1. With all the snow this past week, I was suprised to see that the sidewalks are not kept clean. Yep, in this little expensive town that I'm living in, shop owners do no bother to shovel the sidewalks. Instead, every morning and after the sun goes down the tempature drops causing the remainder snow/slush to freeze over. What's up with that?
2. A good way to keep the kitchen clean - don't cook.
3. I hate IKEA. Everything about it, they force you to walk through the store in certain fashion, the crowds, the do it yourself. I'd rather pay more and have an enjoyable shopping experience. (After finding what I wanted, I left the store and plan to order everything on-line)
4. I love cranberry sauce. Last night I was invited over to Gill and Daniel's house for a post Thanksgiving dinner. I ate four giant servings of cranberry sauce - my favorite part of the meal.
5. I miss yoga. Such minimal yoga class options. I miss all the studios and classes in Portland. I've been horrible about doing self practices and I really dislike myself for having such lack of discipline.
6. I miss D, Juju, and Mooshi more than anything. I literally think of them and get tears. Not kidding. It happened to me while walking, sitting in a coffee shop and even now. So I'm moving on.
7. A week ago, one of the neighbor ladies knocked on my door inviting me over for a glass of wine with some other neighbor ladies. How nice was that? Of course, I said yes. Now, here's my dilemna. I wasn't for sure which neighbor it was??!! You have to understand, I've only spoken to both ladies that live on either side of me for such a short time. And as D can attest to, I'm absolutely the worst with faces and names. And I forgot who was who! Fortunately I had a plan. The invite was for 5pm. So a few minutes before 5 I went upstairs to the bedroom where I could look out the window onto the street to see what house the other neighbor ladies were going to. Would it be the house that is attached to mine on the left? Or would it be the one to the right of me. So, there I was in my dark bedroom looking out the window, waiting to see what house people were going to. Sure enough - I watched a lady go into the neighbor's house on the right. I had written down both our neighbor's names so looked it up and sure enough it was Kate, house 19. I was dressed and ready to go; I put my shoes on and headed on over.
8. For the last two weeks since I've been back I've downloaded TV shoes from iTunes and every night watch TV. Hence, the lack of blogging. I don't care. I'm lonely, it's freezing cold outside and all I want to do is hibernate.
9. My furniture is finally set to arrive this Tuesday. Actually it was to arrive last Friday, but do to the snowstorm it was delayed. Unfortunately, I can't be here and have to reschedule it. What a pain, I really want some furniture.
10. I want to skip our holiday Christmas party and work and instead go to yoga. I doubt I can pull that off.
Okay, it's 10pm, time for one more TV show. I'm so pathetic, since it's on my laptop I can lay in bed and watch it. I'm really quite pathetic, but I really don't care.
1. With all the snow this past week, I was suprised to see that the sidewalks are not kept clean. Yep, in this little expensive town that I'm living in, shop owners do no bother to shovel the sidewalks. Instead, every morning and after the sun goes down the tempature drops causing the remainder snow/slush to freeze over. What's up with that?
2. A good way to keep the kitchen clean - don't cook.
3. I hate IKEA. Everything about it, they force you to walk through the store in certain fashion, the crowds, the do it yourself. I'd rather pay more and have an enjoyable shopping experience. (After finding what I wanted, I left the store and plan to order everything on-line)
4. I love cranberry sauce. Last night I was invited over to Gill and Daniel's house for a post Thanksgiving dinner. I ate four giant servings of cranberry sauce - my favorite part of the meal.
5. I miss yoga. Such minimal yoga class options. I miss all the studios and classes in Portland. I've been horrible about doing self practices and I really dislike myself for having such lack of discipline.
6. I miss D, Juju, and Mooshi more than anything. I literally think of them and get tears. Not kidding. It happened to me while walking, sitting in a coffee shop and even now. So I'm moving on.
7. A week ago, one of the neighbor ladies knocked on my door inviting me over for a glass of wine with some other neighbor ladies. How nice was that? Of course, I said yes. Now, here's my dilemna. I wasn't for sure which neighbor it was??!! You have to understand, I've only spoken to both ladies that live on either side of me for such a short time. And as D can attest to, I'm absolutely the worst with faces and names. And I forgot who was who! Fortunately I had a plan. The invite was for 5pm. So a few minutes before 5 I went upstairs to the bedroom where I could look out the window onto the street to see what house the other neighbor ladies were going to. Would it be the house that is attached to mine on the left? Or would it be the one to the right of me. So, there I was in my dark bedroom looking out the window, waiting to see what house people were going to. Sure enough - I watched a lady go into the neighbor's house on the right. I had written down both our neighbor's names so looked it up and sure enough it was Kate, house 19. I was dressed and ready to go; I put my shoes on and headed on over.
8. For the last two weeks since I've been back I've downloaded TV shoes from iTunes and every night watch TV. Hence, the lack of blogging. I don't care. I'm lonely, it's freezing cold outside and all I want to do is hibernate.
9. My furniture is finally set to arrive this Tuesday. Actually it was to arrive last Friday, but do to the snowstorm it was delayed. Unfortunately, I can't be here and have to reschedule it. What a pain, I really want some furniture.
10. I want to skip our holiday Christmas party and work and instead go to yoga. I doubt I can pull that off.
Okay, it's 10pm, time for one more TV show. I'm so pathetic, since it's on my laptop I can lay in bed and watch it. I'm really quite pathetic, but I really don't care.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Snow!
Woke up this morning to another light dusting of snow. I actually rather like it. Granted it's not much and they manage to clear of the main city streets so I can still drive to work okay.
I've slowly transitioned back into UK life again. I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself as it only took me just under a week to get out of my funk of returning back here solo. I do credit getting back to a daily yoga practice has helped. That as well as watching the complete season of "The Rachel Zoe" project. Which I know is complete fluff - but it's what I needed. Until now I haven't downloaded any TV shows or movies. But this transition back solo coupled with the freezing cold weather and dark nights, was really quite depressing. Plus, I'm still waiting for my living room furniture to arrive (this Friday btw!)
December is going to be a crazy month. One short trip to Boston from the 12-15, back to England and then back to Portland on the 18th until January 4th. I have a lot to get done for the house between now and before I leave; plus work couldn't be more busy. We have a GLAM event next week (Global Line Adoption meeting) which is going to be held in some swanky place in Manchester (swanky for Manchester anyway). It will be nice to be out of the office and learn more about this business process. I had a major deliverable for this meeting. Basically I was handed a mess when I first started - all the catalogue production work. Unfortunately, this place doesn't have a Design Op's director that would normally pull this together. So instead they gave me the mess. Somehow I managed to get it sorted out - unbelievable - it was really a mess. So, while it looks like we'll have nice looking catalogues, I'm thinking I only have six months before the next GLAM to get a much better process in place for the product teams. But then that's a whole other story.
Ugh - boring freakin' post. I'll stop now.
Oh, wait I forgot to mention... as I was driving into work this morning listening to BBC4 on the radio, they had some authors discussing their work (of course I could barely understand most of what they were saying due to accents). Anyway, I swear I heard them saying the word "chicken shit", and it's not like they said it once, they kept referring to it over and over, "chicken shit this, chicket shit that, at the chicken shit, etc". Finally I figured out what they were really saying... chicken shed! Apparently it's some place for writers to go and write.
You have to realize it took me the entire drive in listening to this conversation, solely focused on chicken shit that I have no idea what the rest of the story was about. I was laughing all the way to work - I'm sure people driving next to me that I was some crazy person.
I've slowly transitioned back into UK life again. I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself as it only took me just under a week to get out of my funk of returning back here solo. I do credit getting back to a daily yoga practice has helped. That as well as watching the complete season of "The Rachel Zoe" project. Which I know is complete fluff - but it's what I needed. Until now I haven't downloaded any TV shows or movies. But this transition back solo coupled with the freezing cold weather and dark nights, was really quite depressing. Plus, I'm still waiting for my living room furniture to arrive (this Friday btw!)
December is going to be a crazy month. One short trip to Boston from the 12-15, back to England and then back to Portland on the 18th until January 4th. I have a lot to get done for the house between now and before I leave; plus work couldn't be more busy. We have a GLAM event next week (Global Line Adoption meeting) which is going to be held in some swanky place in Manchester (swanky for Manchester anyway). It will be nice to be out of the office and learn more about this business process. I had a major deliverable for this meeting. Basically I was handed a mess when I first started - all the catalogue production work. Unfortunately, this place doesn't have a Design Op's director that would normally pull this together. So instead they gave me the mess. Somehow I managed to get it sorted out - unbelievable - it was really a mess. So, while it looks like we'll have nice looking catalogues, I'm thinking I only have six months before the next GLAM to get a much better process in place for the product teams. But then that's a whole other story.
Ugh - boring freakin' post. I'll stop now.
Oh, wait I forgot to mention... as I was driving into work this morning listening to BBC4 on the radio, they had some authors discussing their work (of course I could barely understand most of what they were saying due to accents). Anyway, I swear I heard them saying the word "chicken shit", and it's not like they said it once, they kept referring to it over and over, "chicken shit this, chicket shit that, at the chicken shit, etc". Finally I figured out what they were really saying... chicken shed! Apparently it's some place for writers to go and write.
You have to realize it took me the entire drive in listening to this conversation, solely focused on chicken shit that I have no idea what the rest of the story was about. I was laughing all the way to work - I'm sure people driving next to me that I was some crazy person.
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