merry christmas & happy new year!

life's been a bit of a whirlwind since i returned home!  for some crazy reason, we planned a housewarming party 4 days after i landed which barely gave me enough time to adjust to this time zone.  it was a lovely afternoon with some great friends and buddy was well behaved :)

we've been super busy since the beginning of november getting ready for christmas which included purchasing a new rug and lounge suite as well as, in theory, finishing the garden.  it been a rather busy couple of months and we're both really excited about the idea of having a few days off to rest and recover before what is guaranteed to be a big year ahead. 

wishing everyone a lovely holiday period with family, friends and some great food!  all the best for a prosperous, happy & healthy 2016!

hugs,

s

and the holidays continue...

 for the last two years, i've 'bought' two extra weeks of annual leave from work which is awesome.  this year it enabled me to spend 10 days in bali, indonesia in august and 4 weeks in canada in october including a minor detour to france for a week to visit an old friend who I hadn't seen in years! 

it was lovely to be back in canada and spend some time with family and friends i've known for years.  it was also fabulous to get to see the autumn colours, spend a weekend at a cottage & have some turkey (in different dish types).  i can't say i did a whole heck of a lot in canada. as anyone who lives abroad can attest, going home doesn't involve seeing the sights, it's truly a matter of eating and drinking with people you don't get to see :)  

in france, i spent a couple of days in poitiers with sarah k touring around before we headed into paris for the final days.  we spend hours wandering central area of paris, eating delicious french food and soaking in a bit of the culture.  we also stood in line for 1.5 hours to see the catacombs which was an experience. 

i must confess that by the end of the four weeks, i was looking forward to coming back to australia and my normal routine.  oh, and i missed hubby and buddy a bit too! 

hugs,

s