Where to stay… where to stay…

When the time came for my ex-boyfriend and I to pick out our first apartment, it did not help that I was away for work (not that I'll be too much help... it is our first apartment!). My ex-boyfriend (who is now my husband…) had enlisted the help of a good friend who had a sister who had recently selected her own apartment. Good thing the apartments were the same kind, so our friend knew almost exactly what to do.

It was explained to me later that they had a system! They first looked at a compass and eliminated the units that faced certain directions. Then there was the height requirement, and whether the living room faced an interior garden, an auxiliary road or the main thoroughfare. And many other factors were considered… like the number of neighbors, closeness to the communal trash point…

The 2 guys managed to produce a short list of potential homes, which funneled into the very one which my husband and I moved into. We have been here for over 5 years and we are very grateful for the help this friend had given us. The apartment’s breezy all year round (really good ventilation, not drafty) and there is only a foot of sunlight over 6 months a year in the front of the apartment. My husband’s decision for marbled flooring in the living areas was also a super call – keeps us cool in the high tropical heat!

Thank you to my guy and our friend for the wonderful choice!

Thank you for second chances.

In times when somebody does something for you, especially when you least deserve it... be grateful! You can only imagine how much thought and pain that person had gone through before such a grace is bestowed upon you.

By the way, all the photos featured in this blog have been photographed by me. Enjoy!

You never know what you got ‘til it’s gone.

Strange how often you’d read this, heard this sung in a song or have someone tell you this. But it does not ever hit the spot until something reaches into that deep dark squishy center, and presses down hard.

It is so easy to take things for granted, to stop noticing the little things that make life important, that make the people in your life meaningful and significant. But often not much thought is given to those around you, the ones you live with the ones you spend your life with.

Slowly you sell yourself into a false sense of security and you may want to or have already done something stupid, stupid enough to jeopardize the life you know and love, throwing the ones who love you into traumatic uncertainty.

In short, let’s open our hearts to our family and friends; be grateful for what you have with them and what they have in you.

Thank you…

Super bookstore lady!

Yesterday, I’d gone to a large bookstore in an even larger shopping mall along the main shopping district and tried to procure a publication I’d reserved from the week before. Being really good with dates, the book on-hold had expired and it’d been kept aside for someone else that very day, and that person had just collected it.

At this point I was kicking myself for not purchasing it via an established online store (and for cheaper too!) but had chosen to make a hapless trip. Oh well, make the best of it, so off to dinner it was.

While masticating on a delicious meal of eel, fish, pork and chicken (we sound so cavernously carnivorous!) the helpful lady at the bookstore called me to say that the man who had collected that fated book, had abandoned it along with several others on a shelf somewhere within the store, he had not made it to check-out with it.

This post is published in appreciation of Jeanette, the kind and patient lady who heard me rant about not getting the book, then call me to tell me it was still miraculously available, happily shrink-wrapped and waiting at her counter for me.

The book was duly acquired with a big smile and a gracious thank you.

Sunday cycling.

One more before I forget!

There was a very nice man in a huge truck who waited patiently along a smaller road as I zipped by. Then I got caught going very slowly up hill and the same nice man in the truck waited as i cycled my little heart out, only to pass me kindly when the road widened. I smiled and waved thank you, he smiled and wave back.

What a nice Sunday morning.

Thank you!

LIfe is full of ups and downs.

With all the big and small things in the world, so many happy and sad things, I figured this is a way to show how grateful I am for the good things.

Let’s start with all that’s been accumulating…

The wacky weather around the world the last several months has been a source of much pain. But I want to say thank you to the country I live in for putting so much into the super-duper drainage system, despite the various inconveniences due to the persistent downpour, most people I know just complain about piling laundry.

Some time last year there was a very large, nation-wide art festival, held in conjunction with an even larger international event, this is the opening night of the art thing. We were walking back to the car one evening after dinner and we heard little “booms” at a distant. We walked even faster to get a better view of the fireworks. Very lucky we don’t live in a country where sounds like that don’t trigger a flight for life, or to hide for safety. The skies alit with thousands of dollars worth of beautiful fireworks, versus, the heavens pierced with millions of dollars worth of artillery…

Thank you!