a New Florida Keys blog

I have found a new new Key West blog to read and its all round perfect for me to lose myself in. The writer updates daily and there are many years of blog archives to while away time in. Its also "real" and has a ton of photos. Happy lunchtime for me :-)

In its realness I am once again reminded to focus on finding appreciation of my life. The fact that I have it for one, and that in my life I can walk, and see and hear and use my body. I have a job and bills and a house and a family, dreams, memories, plans and a lot of love. In short, I have a lot to be thankful. In the words of Miamis "Pitbull" ~ "every day above ground is a great day, remember that".

I remember back in the days, before 9-11 when I used to live for my daily webcam perusal of the Hogs Breath as soon as I got into work in Westerham in Kent. I used to get in early enough to get my tea and see the staff at the Hogs Breath sweeping up and wiping down the bar after a Key West night of drinking. I loved it. If, by any chance, I missed it, I was sad.

It was in the time when I used to read and re-read every word of www.fla-keys.com and take in all the photos and their joy of joy, webcams.
I still look at that website often but now we also have instant internet (no more at home dial up), Google, YouTube, social media (the toilet of the internet as Lady Gaga states and I have to agree) and these wonderful blogs to wander around in.

On a plus point, its the last day of February and I have survived it without our usual February down south trip.
#winning

learnings

I learnt two awesome sayings today:

• "Just because they say it doesn't make it so" - how many of us can apply that one to our lives, every day.
• "Profanity is a sentence enhancer" - just love it.

In my observations of the two cultures I have been immersed in, in my life, I have noticed some more key differences:

• The Brits do not generally shy away from confrontation, especially the Gen X and Millennial generations. They tend to "say it how it is" and dislike what they consider two-faced behaviour intensely.
• Canadians are way keener to go with "the filter". This can be confusing to a Brit. But, not all Canadians follow this train of thought.  They are definitely more polite that an outraged Brit, and for the most part manage their emotions better, but they forgo the filter and take the direct approach. I have come to realize these are my Canadian friends.

Obviously I am stereotyping here, but these are my observations...

And finally, just because its hump day, a term I am now not only comfortable with but use weekly, I am finally at ease with the Z that arrives in words that "should" have an S in there, e.g:

• realize
• amortize

But, I do not accept "addicting" in place of "addictive" and "write you" in place of "write to you"

Just cant do it.

Happy hump day

Its another Friday....

Its Friday again. Friday seems to come round with startling speed these days reminding me how fast life is going by and how fortunate I am to have one. For a quick update I am thinking along these lines:

Wishing: we were in Florida this Spring
Planning: for a trip to Orlando and the Keys at the end of the year and a Cape Breton weekend this summer with my BFF and her fam-jam.
Dreaming of: my house to be paid for, no car debt and a condo in Bahama Bay
Realizing: that I have only eleven years to go before my planned retirement age.
Coming to terms with: the new realization that sometimes you dont know the people you thought you knew, even if you have spent almost your entire life with them and most importantly....thats ok. I can grieve the loss of what I thought it was.
Strongly aware: that my family, my girls, my "framily" are those that I will go to bat for, without fail, in the face of any and everything.
Knowing that: false friends are noted and no longer in my inner circle (thats ok too, I am over it).
Comfortable with: getting older. Its not so bad. I have clarity in places that were once cloudy and full of doubt.
Appreciating: my parents, my mum and my adopted dad. I have the strongest relationship with my amazing mother and love my dad for being always there for me.
Grateful for: this job, my manager, my team here and in NH. I am so very fortunate.
Impressed by: my husband for facing his health issues full on and making hard changes for the better.
Proud of: my two girls as they deal with issues that shouldn't even be facing them at this age. They are also rocking school and grades and earning their own money! WTG girls!
Newly thankful for: my roots. My beautiful English roots.
Still in awe of: this life in Nova Scotia and everything it encompasses and being Canadian.
Enjoying eating: chicken, hummus, red peppers and cheese sandwiches and "The Feast" homemade tomato and basil soup.
Loving: these damn pets, so much: Dukie, Alpine, Oreo, Kennedy and baby Ace who is most definitely my "mental health" advocate.
Oddly embracing: being frugal. The upside is my new found deep appreciation of everything in my life that I have.
Learning: that boundaries make for a happy and healthy life.
Appreciating: Winter... now this is new for me at this point in February. Normally by now I am about done but it occurred to me yesterday as my boots crunched on new snow that I actually love this snuggly buggly weather of pretty snowfall and oddly bright darkness at night, due to it. Yes I miss flip-flop weather but at the same time, snuggly buggly weather has its pros too. Flip-flop weather is on it way....

I love this photo of Lily in Bahama Bay.

And these two...

My heart is so tremendously full.

The first Sunday of February

Its Sunday and its February already. The sun is "splitting the rock" as they say in NL and its incredibly cold. Paul and I have gotten into a new Sunday routine where we take the dogs to the dog park in the late morning and then come home and make brunch. The afternoon is then reserved for household chores, some hot tub lounging and some TV shows as we watch so little television during the week.
Todays trip to the dog park was for only about 20 mins. We are trying to see if Alpine soreness after his first foray there was due to fitness or a bigger issue that I frankly can do without. So we are allowing a max of 20 minutes running around to see if hes ok. Its not hard to stick to that as its so incredibly cold.

Last week found me in Manchester NH for work for three days. We experienced snow squalls, Maceys and Crackerbarrel in addition to the real reason we were there - meetings with the team.  l like going to that office and I now LOVE Crackerbarrel and dont know why its taken me so long to discover it. We have driven past countless Crackerbarrels on trips to the US and I always thought it was regarding cheese. Seems not - think "
grandmas good old southern cooking and hospitality" complete with grits, fried apples, bacon and tremendous buttermilk pancakes.

Today is also Superbowl day. When I was in Manchester I got an inkling of what this evening could be like in every home south of the border and I am half wondering if its high time I bought into it and made sure we were Superbowl ready.  I think I might watch it to see what all the fuss is about...