A Matter of Choice

Dear 2010, It's time to say goodbye, you've been an interesting year, definitely like none I've had before. I won't be too sad to see you go, because although you've not been too bad to us I am all for onwards and upwards in 2011. I will always look back on you with great fondness as I will forget the bad bits (and there weren't that many - either that or I've forgotten  already). You were the first and probably last year that I spent the whole time with my boy, it's not always been fun, I've been very tired at times  and at times I've struggled with finding things to do . but on the whole it's been great that I've had this time with him and we've had lots of fun together. You were the year that Cyprus became our home  and we finally settled in to our apartment. I also developed a love of blogging, when I first started back in 2009 , I didn't ever expect to enjoy it this much. I've found some great blogs to read which h...

I love New Year's Eve, It seems that lots of people hate it but it's always been an important night for me. I've always loved it, ever since the parties that weren't really parties that my parents used to hold every year.  My Mum called it a gathering, and that's maybe what it would have been without my Dad and the important elements of plenty of whisky and Chas & Dave . We usually had a handful of people round, a few friends and a couple of neighbours maybe. I was always the only child and I generally allowed to stay up as long as I got into my pyjamas. (It's a good idea, partying in pyjama is the way forward I think, can literally fall into bed!) I think these nights are where I got my love of parties   gatherings from, I loved the preparation, the fact that we used to turn the dining table round across the patio doors was a big excitement for me ( I was young, it didn't take much!) I used to help Mum put out nibbles, sausage rolls, cheesey bis...

As someone who often says "You can never be too organised"  I'm sure it will come as no surprise to hear that I am a big fan of lists.  Shopping lists (obviously), to-do lists (have actually been known to write something on my list I've already done, yes I realise I need to get out more) and of course my favourite list so far.... my 101 in 1001 list So as you can imagine I was dancing with joy  quite impressed when I saw that Kate at Kate Takes 5  has started a new linky thing. She has started off by asking what everyone thinks are the top 5 things about having kids. Some are very similar to others lists but I suppose that's because they are the best things! So, in no particular order my top five good things about having kids are....... 1.  Christmas becomes Christmas again! I've always loved Christmas but it is undoubtedly  better with kids. Not just the day but the whole run up especially as they grow up and appreciate a visit to Santa (...

Happy Christmas! Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers, hope you have a lovely day. Thank you for being so supportive of my first year at blogging - I look forward to much more in 2011!

This week's Gallery prompt is a cracker...... LOVE.   Every week when I first read the prompt several photos pop straight into my mind, this week the first was a black and white one of Leo and me, followed by one of our wedding photos. Then it occurred to me, who first showed me what love is.... This is my parents on their wedding day back in 1974.  They taught me by example what Love is. They have had few days apart since meeting and would always rather spend time with each other above anybody else (well maybe expect me!)  I've never known them to have an argument, although I know that doesn't mean they haven't  - I'm sure they must have had words at least at some point in 36 years! Like me though they are not the arguing type, something else they taught me. It is rumoured that Mum once poured a glass of vodka over Dad,  - a story I have grown up hearing and although I don't think I'm ever going to know what actually happened it ...

I am finally feeling festive, it's taken a while but I suppose it's not bad thing , when Christmas starts in October in the shops and the adverts are on so early on UK television I suppose you can get a bit fed up with it by the big day, which when it comes down to it is just a day. Out here Christmas is celebrated but is very low key compared to the UK, and of course it doesn't seem quite the same in the sun. I am now looking forward to Christmas day, we are spending it with some very good friends of ours, Sam, Marc and Leiarna and I'm getting quite excited. We are all ready, chicken has been brought (turkey's are stupidly expensive here so we've spent the difference on other edible goodies) we are all stocked up on alcohol and chocolates   and presents are wrapped. Leo has a stocking and a couple of big presents (mega blocks and a wooden train set, but don't tell him!) we have some presents to take to our friends with us as well. Sam and I have brough...

Dear Car, I am not impressed, at all. It may be Christmas and a time for presents but you are a car and traditionally you do not get presents. Even if you did you'd be lucky to get a hanging air freshener or if you'd been a really good car maybe a set of new mats or something. But you haven't been a good car, you have had a slow puncture and no air-con during the hottest summer months so I am not impressed that you are demanding anything at all let alone a whole new bloody engine!!!!!!! Yours, a very angry (and skint) pedestrian. Dear UK friends, You should be receiving Christmas cards very soon, did you remember us? Did you remember the last posting date for overseas?   Hmmm, are we going to be getting cards in January again? At least that means you remember us eventually then, either that or you get mine and think 'bugger'! Thinking of you all, your slightly further away but still on the end of a phone / laptop friends in Cyprus xxxx Dear Santa, W...

As you may have gathered from some of my previous blog posts,  here  and  here ,  I can often be persuaded to have a drink or three.  I'm not able to have the nights out that I once did, not until  the babysitters  m parents move over early next year anyway, but that won't stop me having a few festive drinks over the next couple of weeks. One of the items on my  101 list  is to fill my entire wine rack at least once! I hadn't  managed it in a year of living here as it holds 30 bottles! Until today that is..... We are finally full - yay! I don't think this will happen very often as that is quite a lot of alcohol to have, but maybe we'll make it a Christmas tradition. Should keep us going into the New Year anyway (if it doesn't I think we have bigger problems!) I'm pleased to find on offer the other day "Whisky Cream Liquer" (otherwise known as cheap Baileys!) 2.99 euros a bottle  - it's my no.1 Christmas drink. Also in there ar...

I loved Christmas as a child  (well I still do but the presents were better then) There was always the same pattern for Christmas, I suppose made easier by having a small family. Christmas day at home with Nana and Grandad  (Dad's ) and Boxing day at Granma and Grandad's (Mum's). Decorations would usually go up on the first Sunday of December, early but it worked well as a bribe to get me to go to 'Church parade' with the Brownies. I always helped Dad with the decorating of the tree while Mum put tinsel round the room. When I say 'helped' I put the hooks on the ornaments and passed them to Dad, I may have sometimes insisted on putting one on the tree but I'm fairly sure it would have been moved if it didn't look right - the tree was always a work of art. Me at 15, still hadn't grown out of Christmas There were important traditions to the decorating, first you needed the Christmas Carols LP and a glass of whiskey along with the suggestion...

I have to admit that this is not my Christmas tree, it wasn't even taken this year! We have actually been debating whether to even put our tree up this year.  We have the biggest tree in the world, brought pre-Leo when we lived in a 3 bedroom house, it was big then and we had to rearrange all the furniture to get it up. Now we live in a small 2 bed apartment and can't just rearrange the furniture we actually have to take some out. Last year we put the tree up, well half of the tree anyway. AJ came up with the genius idea of making it sit flat against the wall. It worked and looked good, and continued looking good until New Year when we took it down. The reason for this is the fact that Leo was 7 months old, he wasn't crawling (or if he was not in the direction of the tree!) and he paid no attention to it at all. Hence our dilemma this year. He doesn't tend to listen very often when told to stop doing things. I have lost count how many times I  have...

I love it when we have people come out to see us, not only is it great to see them but it means that we get out and about and do 'touristy things'. Last week we had a visit from a good friend,Leo's Godfather in fact and like AJ he is a bit of a photography fan so we tried to take him to some photogenic places. One of these is the Chapel of Prophet Eilas,  named after the  Prophet Elijah  and is built on a granite hill with almost vertical sides, right in the heart of the tourist area of Protaras. There are 153 stone built steps up to the church (no, I didn't count them, I just read that in a book!) so although I have wanted to go for a while now, (it's even on my 101 list ) we have put it off as it's not a buggy friendly activity! However now he's walking well we thought we'd give it a shot...... Lots of steps for little legs! Walked all the way up with Daddy.  I'm glad AJ was there, Leo walked up very well but had to be carried down most...

It's 2 weeks till Christmas, I'm sure you didn't need to be reminded, I had to write it down just in case I forgot. I have always loved Christmas including the whole run up to it but this year it seems to be completely passing me by.   I took some photos of the Christmas decorations in our village the other day, maybe this will help you see why it seems a bit strange for me now..... It turns out, it's quite difficult to feel Christmassy when the sky looks like that. Add that to the lack of mentions of Christmas on the television and the fact that I no longer go shopping   so am not getting the "high street Christmas chaos" Last year we had a hungover  quiet Christmas, it was Leo's first and being only 6 months he had no clue that anything was different about that day. We had been out on Christmas Eve and had consumed a few too many Christmas spirits, lucky really we had no plans for the big day!  We did have a nice day but it was strange, I pu...

As I've said before, I love Facebook  and when I saw this post over at Alexander Resisdence  I HAD to join in. There is a facebook application doing the rounds at the moment called 'My Year in Status' which makes a collage of your statuses for the year.  It's very strange to look back over a years events as reported on Facebook, so many little things that I had now forgotten.  It's been an odd year and I really enjoyed looking back at it in this way. After doing that I found a status statistics application , I liked it as it reminded me I recently got back into my skinny jeans (although they seem to have shrunk again a little bit!) Your Most Popular Status (last 60 days) has just got back into her pre-pregnancy skinny jeans, ok I can't sit down or breathe but they do up.... and I can walk in them :) You wrote this status on   09 November 2010 at 05:34   and you got   13 likes   and   3 comments . It game me the following statistic...

This week's prompt over at Tara Cain's Gallery  is White , a good choice as lots of people have had an abundance of white stuff around recently. I'm sure there are going to be some gorgeous photos come up this week. But I did roll my eyes when I saw it, ( yes, I am aware I do this every week, I have no idea why as I love the Gallery!)    as I'm sure you can imagine snow is the first thing to come to mind for this prompt and snow is not much of a possibility here. We haven't even had the first snowfall in the Troodos mountains yet. I will always choose sandcastles not snowmen, swimming not ice skating and sunbathing not skiing, I'd much rather be buried in sand than make snow angels. Snow does look incredibly pretty, but I don't like the cold and the chaos it brings with it. For that reason I'll choose white sand instead of snow every time! Nope, it's not Cyprus, Cyprus may have lovely beaches but they are ...

Throughout the summer I had been talking of my plan to get out and explore Cyprus a little bit more, although I was waiting for the temperatures to drop a little so we could enjoy the exploring without getting heatstroke! I've been without a car for a while so this didn't help, but I do need to leave the house at some point each day for the sake of my sanity. We have a park which you can see from our balcony, very handy indeed! Monument in the park, although I'm yet to find out exactly what it's for. We sometimes meet a few other  Mums and kids there but Leo and I often just pop over for half an hour just before cabin fever sets in. It's a great park for Leo, he loves to explore and run away from me, and there are lots of little pathways and different sections for him to tire himself out in  to do this. There is also an aviary which he likes to look at. (not a particularly bird friendly one but Leo likes it!)  Deep in thought! He has just discov...

There is a possibility that some in  my situation would find this weeks Gallery prompt a little tricky.  Given that I have recently blogged about my wedding , Leo's Christening,  and my birthday , not to mention a whole year in Cyprus  and Leo's birthday , you would be forgiven for thinking that I'd run out of celebrations to write about. This is me though and for those that know AJ and I, you will know that we never need a reason to celebrate. I have been going through old photos - (a most enjoyable pastime of mine!) and have still managed to change my mind several times. I've still got so many to choose from so I thought I'd go festive. This was taken on Christmas Eve back in 2005. A group of us, pre-babies had decided to go out in our local town and thought we'd dress up just for the hell of it! Note that AJ (the biggest fancy dress fan EVER) still manages to be different!) We certainly made an entrance as we all walked into the pub..... ...