Queen and Idris

So today I caught up with some friends back in England, Wales to be exact, where I lived from the age of 12 to 16 and have many happy memories.

I recall the little end house that became our home that had no heating upstairs but a big friendly kitchen in which the Rayburn threw out almost constant heat.
Mostly I remember my days down the farm, my first ride of Queen, bringing in the horses - Queen, Elsa (who was 32 at the time and had a sunken back and an attitude), Tombo (also ancient and rescued from a garden) and then the little Welsh pony stallion Idris,who nipped.

Happy days of riding up the mountain, bringing cows down, cleaning tack, mucking out stables, jumping styles and walking miles. Lying on my  back on the mountain with my best friend and looking at a very high up plane going over and leaving a trail and telling her that I would move to New York one day.

Pony club games and shows, Shadow my beautiful pony, the Buch field and swimming in the river. How I took it all for granted.

But time rolls on doesnt it, while I grew up and made my own way that place remained, those people remained and its still a wonderful spot to visit but Elsa passed away as did Tombo, years ago, Shadow was sold when I was 15 and had outgrown him and now today I heard that Queen had passed on at 32 years of age this summer and so had Idris just this Fall. And my heart breaks for that kind mare, for our precious rides up the farm road and for that feisty little chestnut stallion.

 The waterfall in Onllwyn that we used to swim in

 The railway line that we used to ride along, there were only two trains a day

The Buch

what things I will pay for... and those I wont

So, I was just looking at the driveway in wonder (its mostly ice-covered) and was thinking that we dont have any safety salt. I dont even know where to buy it and honestly, do we even need it?
When I was in Bed Bath and Beyond the other day I was a little overwhelmed by the variety of gadgets in there.. there was something for everything and I realized that I dont buy most things that I cant see a real use for.

I dont see a real use for safety salt on our driveway, if its that icy no ones going anywhere anyway and we dont have any steps to take care of.

We dont have a snowblower, they are uber expensive and the driveways not THAT big, having said all that I dont do the lions share of shovelling the driveway.

I dont want a Kitchen Aid. Sure I like cupcakes like any one else but I cant justify $399 (on sale price) for that shiny gadget.

I dont believe I need reusable K cups for my Keurig machine, I either use a K cup with coffee in it (preferably hazelnut vanilla or similiar) or I use the coffee pot and make loads. Besides the Keurig comes with a reusable cup, I just need to pop out the fixture in it, easy.

We dont have GPS in the car. It comes free with my phone if I really feel the need and I am old school in that a map gets my vote over some voiceover that will send me miles out of my way and possibly the wrong way.

I do like aloe but not aloe vera. Yes I know these are one and the same but a bottle of something with aloe will pull my interest whilst aloe vera has the same effect on me as Coronation Street (no thank you)

Lime and coconut will always be a hit with me as will Banana Republic, Reef flipflops and Kiss My Face creamy cleanser.

I am also approving of air conditioning in cars and power steering but not a camera that shows me how close I am to the kerb or whats behind me, surely thats what windows and paying attention are for.

I am happy to pay $600 for 3 cords of wood for my winter heating but cant bear the thought of paying Nova Scotia power money for heat, cant bear it.

I like Ford Mustangs but so does Irving and Esso. Can I face paying to run it to Halifax and back, probably not. I like my little Hyundai with its $50 fill up point when gas is at its most expensive.

I am starting to wonder if maybe I am just good old fashioned tight but no, on closer inspection I know I will happily go on holiday, buy airline tickets that result in an arrival in some Florida airport, rent a beach house, buy restaurant meals every night in a place where I constantly smell of sunscreen, pay to get into a theme park in Orlando and buy a Christmas decoration with an alligator on it. If it has Key Lime written on it, its for me, if theres a chance to go snorkelling in pristine waters I am there.... if theres some band playing Sweet Home Alabama in a place where I can buy conch fritters and the best pina coladas bring it on....

So... I am saving my safety salt, car GPS and Kitchen Aid (or other kitchen gadget) money for my next trip down South..... Theres freezing rain coming down outside for the third day in a row now. I feel some plans coming on.

New Years Resolutions - 2014

Its Sunday morning, the rain is falling outside on all that pretty white snow, effectively turning it into ice and I waiting on this not so good wifi link to download page 8a of the Keys Citizen so that I can continue with my Sunday morning read of Tan Lines, my own little foray into the heat and happiness down in the Keys, whilst I have breakfast.
I managed to mess up this morning by not getting up early enough and therefore not making it to the Sportsplex by 8am for my run and now they are playing baseball in there and I have no desire to run whilst thats going on. I will get there for 12.30 and enjoy the solitude then and again thank my stars that we live here and I am not generally fighting off crowds for some space on the track.

I have been putting together the new years resolutions lists for this upcoming year and have decided that they will not be quite so vague as last years. I want to be specific between Jan and Mar and then vaguer for the more further away months. Some resolutions will sound perhaps ridiculous but they mean something to moi.

So here goes:

• Commit to the Combat timetable for the month of January
• Run at least once a week for all the snow and ice covered months, increasing to 4 days a week once the roads are run-able again
• Increase from 5km to 8km (if not 10km) without screwing up my knees
• Enter two races - Soul Sister and Mud hero - and run them (no gallbladder ops this year)
• Drive to Maine for a long weekend
• Call my Grandparents once every couple of weeks
• Buy another pair of Reefs
• Purchase a pool heater
• Learn something new at work, completely new, never done it before new and get through the pain of the learning curve
• Volunteer at a homeless shelter, feed Nova Scotia, or something similar
• Continue our project "Build our House" or "Buy a new one" in the same vein, ie not forgoing anything on the wish list or becoming budget careless
• Look further into the Florida pad
• Maybe get back to the UK for a visit

The last one is uber vague but actually may be arranged sooner rather than later at this rate.

A look back

In the spirit of not making News years resolutions and then conveniently making them redundant like the current budget often always is, by the 4th week of a new year, I took a look to see how I have done this year. So Last years NY Resolutions were pretty attainable.

1. I feel like the year at work was pretty successful and I have grown, no idea what next year will bring but hopefully in the same direction.

2. I did well with the healthy stuff for the first half of the year and enjoyed running at 5km successfully,. since Fall its been harder and frankly I have fallen off the wagon. Today I have climbed back on!
I never went back to Yoga, it didnt really do it for me, I didnt find the relaxing poses relaxing in the slightest and hate the downward facing dog.

3. Same with zumba, never achieved it but I did swop it for Combat which I love but is intense and requires your everyday commitment which I struggled with.

4. We didnt really save very much for our vacation to the Keys but we definitely went and we had THE BEST time.

5. Home - check!

6.Weaknesses - yup, recognize them now

7. Aging - hmmmm - hitting the big old 39 soon and actually its ok. I know what my style is and I am cool with all this now. Banana Republic is where its at!

8. Got someone else to do something in the garden, otherwise was a big old fail on the gardening front.

9. Didnt really get to the beach that much which was a huge shame as the beaches rock here

10. Definitely ate out more! Discovered Swiss Chalet, a great Thai in Bedford and ate out every day and at every place in Florida

11. We spent more time in Halifax this year but at different things, we didnt make it to the boardwalk enough in my opinion.

12. I did stay at the Atlantica three times! Three nights for work so does that count? One night for our Anniversary! One night for work again but at the South Shore.

mid week snow

We had another dump of snow yesterday, a good 30cms (10 was forecast of course) and I opted to work from home. This was purely on the basis of my trip to drop off the girls, the one where it became quickly apparent that the snow was just resting on top of that thick bumpy slippery ice thats been plaguing everyone all week and the snow was deep. It came up to the underneath of my car and no snowplow had showed its face.

The news was full of accidents on the 102 and the reporting of the 18 wheeler off the road on the highway that I was due to travel down. I then had to make three attempts to even get out of the road and that, along with the 18 wheeler news sealed the deal.
I have also discovered this week that winter tires do not deal successfully with ice and I was getting to the stage where I kept it all crossed that I didnt have to brake at all, as the car just didnt stop.

So back home I came, to the joy of the dogs and had a peaceful day working at home.... was lovely.

snowy PJ Sunday

Its been a snowy chilled out Sunday. This morning I got up at 7am and it was quiet. I had gone to bed at midnight after watching The Holiday so it was nice that it was so quiet. I had my PB and banana french toast and then took Duke out for a walk trudge in the snow. It was nice. After yesterdays bitterly cold minus 31 in the windchill, the minus 15 was positively comfortable. So we went on a long walk. The snow was reasonable deep so it was more effort to walk and it was crunchy underfoot. It was also constantly snowing, which has been forecast and the forecast was accurate with 40cms due all day.
And it was that little fine snow thats amost as annoying as rain.

Duke loved it and has been in and out the yard all day with Alpine.
We made a decision to have a PJ day and thats how it went

PJs
TV
Fire on
The light from the snow outside has been light in a snowy dreamy way, its been relaxing
Dogs in and out
Girls playing in front of the fire, no arguments, lovely.
Paul cleared the driveway
We had roast pork for dinner which was delicious
We watched The Santa Claus 2
I have been in the present all day, not thought about tomorrow or yesterday, just today. Its been bliss

snow and Arbonne

Its insanely cold outside. I think it was minus 31 in the windchill today and that was painful on my face when I ventured out with the dogs for a short walk.
Its pretty though.

This morning I ventured into a new sideline business of getting involved in skincare, I am now a consultant for Arbonne and tentatively taking my first steps into this world. I always told myself to go out of my comfort zone and try new things,  this is definitely new and it could be good. One thing I know for sure is that I love the product - its making my skin feel amazing and better still it smells like holidays, I want to use it and I want to share it. And at my age loving my skincare range is more important than its ever been so fingers crossed this just grows and grows. I have come to the conclusion that to realize my longterm plans of snowbirdness (that is a new word!) I may need a different source of income. That being an Accountant may not allow me the freedom to do that. So lets see how this goes..........

I have since discovered that Arbonne is not as organic and chemical free as I thought, so have ditched this idea