A Matter of Choice

Saturday night was the eagerly awaited 4th Daxi Business Awards, I'd been looking forward to the evening since leaving the last one - and we were almost the very last to leave! The run up to the awards saw lots of planning, and chat - not so much about the nominees although of course that was debated on, but more about what to wear and who was going and how we were all looking forward to a big night out! Sam and I was discussing dress options way back, before we were even thinking about Christmas,  having worn the same dress two years running (oh the shame!) of course I HAD to have a new one this year.   It's not that easy to find the perfect dress of course,  especially here in Cyprus especially if you are on a tight budget but we were both very lucky and found great dresses and they were bargains as well. Next up for me was the whole shoe problem,   for those of you who follow on facebook you may have seen my dilemmas,  as well as a rather fetching phot...

I've been looking through piles of old photos for inspiration for a Flashback post, and between my Mum and I we have A LOT of them.  I love old photos and they provide an almost endless supply of blog inspiration when I get round to it. Scrolling through the photos (yes they are ALL scanned, backed up, dated and organised in folders) saving a few that caught my eye and I decided these were the most appropriate for today. The first photo was taken when I was 17, I was about to leave for the annual Black Tie Ball at the rugby club I played lacrosse at,   well, I say 'played'  it was more that I used to turn up and stand in a field holding a stick trying not to run anywhere but it was close enough! My friends and I were technically too young to attend the ball but for some daft reason they decided we would be sensible enough to go. Hmmm,  the stories from the evening are probably best left unsaid,  but it was a memorable night and the start of my love of...

Last weekend was the second Daxifest - a charity music festival and great family day out to raise much needed funds for local charities KEPA and the SBA Food Project, both of which feed and look after underprivileged families in the area. We attended the first festival held in Achna last year, it was a brilliant day out,  although was not as well attended as the organisers had hoped.  As with most events, especially the first one, and especially in Cyprus of course it was not perfect but they took into account the feedback that came in after the event and made great efforts to improve for this years festival. The promotion of the event, stall prices,  location, entrance fee,  Cypriot entertainment and more were all looked at and amended as the feedback suggested.  So this year I was sure it would be an absolute smash hit - not only a fantastic day out but a huge amount of money raised for the cause. We had a stall with the Klik Photo Booth so we were the...

Last year I became aware of a fantastic charity by the name of KEPA 'St Christopher's Centre for Offering and Love'  after being involved in the Daxi Magazine Easter Collection.  I chose to donate all the money raised at the Famagusta Parents Network fun day to the collection, and was kindly invited to the foundation for a tour. The centre, based in Paralimni is run by volunteers and does a huge amount of work for so many members if all ages in the community. From the well equipped special needs school which helps more than 100 children with qualified teachers helping them to walk, speak, write and more, to the nursing home for the elderly it really covers everything. The centre provide 'Baskets of Love' and this is mainly where the Daxi Easter collection was able to help out. By the donations the centre receive they are able to distribute essentials of food and drinks for families in desperate need. Since 1998 they have been delivering food parcels to the sur...

People have asked me why I blog and it's a question I still struggle to answer, I like to create a record of things we've been up to, but of course I could have started a scrapbook or even just not hit publish and shared it with everyone. Maybe it  because I like to think that maybe I can make a difference, that is the reason I have run the ' Discovering Cyprus' , ' Birth in Cyprus and ' All Greek to me ' sections on this blog, and why I love running the FPN - I hope it can do some good for the area and help people along the way. I spend a huge amount of time online, between the two blogs, and the other places I write for,  as well as the other things I seem to get myself into to - being on the social team at Slimming World, setting up facebook pages, arranging coffee mornings and fun days, and nearly all of it is of no financial benefit to me  - considering we need to eat and stuff it's sometimes a wonder why I do it all.    But I do, and I love ...

Last weekend was the 2nd Annual Daxi Business awards night and my parents kindly babysat for us so we could attend for the second year running . Daxi is a popular free magazine distributed all over Famagusta and Larnca and the business awards were set up to reward local business and bring the community together. Both years Daxi editor Natalie has done a fantastic job with arranging the evening, with a lovely buffet and entertainment laid on as well as the award ceremony itself. It's so nice to be able to get all dressed up which is a rare event at the best of times but especially since having babies and living in Cyprus! Our best friends were nominated for 'Best Newcomer' for their business 'Blood Brothers Professional Tattoo and Piercing Studio '  and we were absolutely delighted that they won!!! Sam had the great idea for the whole table to dress in the company colours of black and red.  It was a very enjoyable evening and nice to h...

As you probably know by now, I love a good night out and most exciting are the 'posh' ones!  I'm lucky in the fact that Aaron also loves a 'Black tie' event, and constantly despairs of those not doing properly. We love an excuse to dress up and we don't care who else is... New Years' Eve in our local pub Aaron wore his tuxedo and I a cocktail dress even though most other people were in jeans! Aaron is one of the few people I know who owns his own tuxedo and he loves to have a reason to wear it so as this weekend saw the first Daxi Magazine Business Awards ceremony, and some of our friends nominated for awards we saw the perfect opportunity.  I wore a gorgeous dress, on loan from The Maternity Wardrobe. Set up by business partners Carine and Uta, The Maternity Wardrobe offers glamorous dresses to own or borrow and offers free delivery and returns all over Cyprus. With fantastic customer service - including not only beautiful packaging (I'm a ...