the year of endurance, leassons and happiness

Wishing you all a very happy new year with a bright 2008 to look forward to and a full 2007 to reflect upon. For me, this year has been absorbed with being a first time Mum and experiencing all the highs and lows and making adjustments in my life to be responsible for another life. The changes in my boy this year are going to be the most rapid I will see in his life and bearing this in mind, I have tried to enjoy this year as much as I can, despite the tough days (or nights). I have managed to let go of the early anxiety about feeding, pooing and sleeping and now with those things under control focus on other, more enjoyable areas. My time is never my own and I am OK with that now, knowing soon he will be at school and these close days will be over. I am appreciative that when I get the chance to snatch a few minutes to myself I am really grateful. I realise that although I can handle a lot, I find it difficult to handle a LOT of things at once, so some things slip and its OK, now. The things that have kept me sustained, loved and sane this year are my most special loved one, life partner and soul mate, Soony, my dearest family, my friends and of course Long Long. Without all of them I cannot survive, this year more than ever, I apprecitae you all. Thank you.

We have an exciting year planned for 2008. There will be many changes still to come and I am looking forward to seeing, doing, eating, smelling, learning and listening to new things. There was a guy on TV the other night who said they had found a new patch to drill for gas and it has enough energy to last for 60 years. There was once a time when I thought 60 years was a VERY long time, not so now. I thought about how old I would be in 60 years (very) and what I would be doing. I realised in 60 years time, I will not be able to easily pack up and live overseas and I will be much more limited in doing things that I 'always wanted to do'. I am looking forward to 2008!! Lots of love to you all, always xxx

Long Long unravelled

Long Long has a new blog you might want to read: http://whippetlong.blogspot.com/

hap hap happy christmas!!

Happy Christmas to everyone, even though now it is a bit late now. It was a very noisy but happy and sunny day with too many presents for the little one. I have just boxed them up ready to be shipped without opening them. We can re-discover them as the months pass. Only 4 weeks now until we leave, not long. I am starting to feel a bit sad these days especially when the weather is very sunny and nice. I do not like winter so we will have just grin and bear the remainder of Tokyo winter until Spring arrives. Long Long now has his own special coat like this one Lucky him!! Hopefully he wont get too cold now. His travel box has arrived and the plan was to get him used to it before his trip, but he hates it. Pei loves to crawl around in there but the dog just stands back and looks....I need to work hard to get him in there and feel comfortable....

Christmas also means cherries. I love cherries and as it turns out so does Pei. Between the two of us we ate most of what is in this bowl.

Here's hoping your Christmas was enjoyable and fun and you are looking forward to the new year. I hope to post a bit more often since we will be away and it will act as diary so you can keep track of the places we go and things we see.

Lots of luck and love Paula

snot

My little moo is sick. It is awful. I feel miserable like him.....

swim

I have been swimming almost every week for the past 7 months with mini moo. It is one of the nicest things to do, very relaxing for us both and so much fun! Now the weather is better the whole trip is enjoyable. I feel a bit sad to be leaving summer days to a very cold winter but soon after we will have spring and cherry blossoms so that will make up for a month or two of cold.

dinosaur designs dismay

How beautiful is this bowl and spoon? I bought it from Dinosaur Designs, you know how much I love them... I bought this to replace the salt cellar and take with us a small piece of Australian design. As not anticipated, the service again, sucked......the same lady works there from the time I had my last poor shopping experience. What a shame. I think I will just go to the Sydney store from now on as it seems the old biddy in the store has worked there for a million years and looks like she wont be going anywhere soon...oh well. It is really nothing compared to my very serious incident involving Pei being locked inside my hot car. I gave him the keys, as I usually do to play with while loading up the car. In the seconds it took for me to close the boot and go to the front door, he had pushed the 'lock' button and locked himself inside, me outside and all windows up on a fairly warm day. Luckily we were in an underground car park. It was still very serious and after some help from random stangers, such amazing help and kindness and a visit from the fire brigade to smash open the window, it all ended as fast as it began but my nerves and confidence sure took a blow. A truly awful day.

birvday

My little moo turned one so thats why I have been away....sorry for the delay but have been having a lot of fun making a blue inspired cake with my sister, entertaining overseas rellies, having fun with friends and just enjoying these summer days. I also had a little exposure in Dec 'real living' magazine with two of my Chrissy cards featured. That has been very good for business!! We are in moving mode with tenants booked, car sold and furniture and goods mobilised. I also had news that a dear friend might stop in over xmas from the US, I hope it happens, it is so nice to see old friends. Thanks so much to everyone who helped celebrate mini moo's birthday, all the wishes, gifts and love sent is much appreciated xxx