Apologies dear readers, for having deceived you so ruthlessly but you’ll see why I had to in just a minute.

Today, I write this blog post to you from my 19th floor apartment in Manhattan.

That’s right. NYC. USA.

So, seriously…how awesome is the view? Please excuse the cheezy grin on my face, I never look good when I’m trying to take a photo of myself AND the background.

I had forgotten just how much I loved this city until the moment we touched down, and drove back through the craziness that is NYC traffic, over the bridge to our new (for the next six months…fully company funded) home on the upper east side.

Yeah, I know…*so* gossip girl…snort. I’m terrified I’m going to bump into someone famous every time I step outside my door. Methinks I’m going to have to ditch the blundstones in favour of something a little more SATC?

There is no way we could afford such a swish place ourselves, without hubby’s company having funded our first six months accommodation until we find our own place when after hubs has completed the six month phase in programme for expats, and we transfer out to the regional office in Chicago where we’ll find something a little more suburban I think.

While we’re here, I’m going to absolutely binge on everything that makes NYC, and you guys are SO coming along for this blogging ride baby!

It’s been a tad nerve wracking getting on and off the subway with two kids in tow, but luckily hubs has the first week off to acclimate so it’s been the four of us together. I think when he starts work on Monday, we’re going to rack up a small fortune in cab fares

I can’t tell you how awesome it is to go and do stuff out and about with the kids though, we’ve already been to the Natural History Museum, and the Guggenheim, yeah, two boys under 5 in a building that looks like *fun* is meant to be had in it…I know.

Okay, okay. Is anybody fooled? If you are, well then thank you for playing along with me this morning. Clearly I’ve been having a little Friday morning fun.

So, I’m not in Manhattan. Hiss! Boo!

But, I have however, during the last three days undergone the change…

…and become a vampire.

So Eclipse opens June 30th. Did I mention this already? Yeah. Can’t-wait.

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Up at 5am again this morning, and for the first time in five days I didn’t exercise. I just dove straight back into trying to resolve some issues around a website that I’ve been setting up. They’re small issues, and I will resolve them, but I just wanted to get stuck in right away and get it done.

I feel *awful*.

Not because I’m tired, but because I didn’t get my fix this morning. My exercise fix. My kick. My habit.  My me-ness that I’ve recently rediscovered.

It also doesn’t help that we are out of coffee

I am going to finish up work for the day and then go and cycle my guts out.

After yesterday’s session, I  was so pumped and had worked so hard, that for the first time in yonks I was aware of lactic acid kicking in, and stiffening up my muscles, that I did a proper stretching cool down session after my ride, to help break it up.  I also went and bought Slow Mag (huh funny our packaging is totally different to this yank version), which I used to take years ago, to prevent muscle cramps. That’s the one thing that I’ve really struggled with since I had hyperthyroidism (and then hypOthyroidism subsequently), when all my muscles atrophied and each time I struggled to keep exercising.

There will be no such excuses this time around.

I am not going to beat myself over this mornings slip, I am only human after all.

For now.

Ha ha ha ha.

Peeps, it’s important to remember that it is still me blogging here. I know I used to blog about the joys of apathy, lethargy, chocolate, red wine and general slothfulness, and yes, these things will still feature from time to time, but I think that a personal transformation (or rather, RE-transformation) would be more interesting to read about wouldn’t it?

My theme song is still  New Divide by Linkin Park, but at the moment I also can’t stop listening to Adiemus because it so unabashedly joyful. It also reminds me a bit of Avatar, don’t you think so?

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If I were as organised as the Pioneer Woman, then I would be tweeting about it like she does on Thanksgiving, or sharing all her recipes like she does every other time, but for the most part, I’m going to a) try and get done and b) maybe take some photos. So here’s hoping I get some photos up early tomorrow.

Basically, I’m making all our favourite snacks and eats, because I’m celebrating my birthday tomorrow. Yes it was actually last week, but for various reasons, we decided that tomorrow would be a better day to celebrate.

So! I’m going to be making:

The Pioneer Womans Fried Chicken Strips (in hors d’ouevres size) with sweet chilli dipping mayonnaise

Glacé Cherries Wrapped in bacon – no link, as it’s a three step process – wrap cherries in streaky bacon, secure with toothpick and fry!

Lamingtons (in honour of the fact that it is Australia Day tomorrow – 26 Jan)

Bakerella’s Vanilla Cupcake/Brownie ‘Hamburgers‘. (no meat in these babies!)

So basically there are enough saturated fats in this selection, to practically ensure some sort of cardio-graphical-myopathilogical-infarction-related event… hmmm perhaps a look at somemedical coding training courses might be in order before I get started?

It’s basically a snacky, picky, nibbly little soireé for my family (clearly the chicken strips and bacon cherries are with my boys in mind) and for some family members who are stopping by after work for a bite and a glass of vino.

To celebrate ME. Yay! I do so love adoration, adulation and the spotlight.

Plus if I can pull off all these fiddly food things, it’s just another reason for gathering praise. (No I’m not a hopelessly arrogant attention seeker, but I *am* talking myself out of self-esteem issues, so bear with me mmkay?)

Plus! I get to wear the über cool, so chic, aussie flag apron that Eatshootblog sent me! I may just pair it with the matching bandana!

Okay, time to head out(of my blog), because I’m going to be flat out like a lizard drinking! (tee-hee).

Happy Monday everybody!

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Has Ness gone off the deep end? No.

Did Ness succumb to certain cravings and make Bakerellas’, ridiculously delicious chocolate and nut coated peanut butter cookies today?

Should Ness rather have been studying up on weight loss supplement reviews? Yes.

Has Ness sworn off ever visiting dear sweet (evil!) Bakerellas’ website again? No. Why? Because she is so evil that her tempting delicious recipes keep *calling* to me. Plus this one only required like 5 ingredients, total. *MY* kind of recipe!

Eeeeat me! Cute and perfect cake balls. Chocolate mint truffle oreo thingys. Thank goodness we don’t get chocolate mint truffle oreos here, because, well just because. I have enough temptation to deal with.

*Smacks head*…and I’ve just remembered that the Pioneer Woman’s cook book (and HER evil butter laden recipes) arrive in the next two weeks some.

I’m sorry backside, but you’re done for.

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I can’t stop thinking about it.

There is a major life decision that I have to make and it’s driving me crazy every moment of every day.

I just don’t know if I can continue, without getting input from the blogosphere. After all, you guys are my sounding board right?

Ready?

Are you holding onto your seats?

Please help me make this decision!

…

…

…

…

…

McDreamy Or McSteamy?

Do you see what an absolutely impossible decision this is?

Here is some more anecdotal evidence on which to base your opinions…

Oh, oh right.

Hmmm.

Me thinkey that my decision may not be that tough after all…

Okay girls, fess up.

Hands up those of you having very, very, VERY dirty thoughts right now…

(raises hand)

So, who is *your* TV candy ladies?

Mel, *surely* Zac doesn’t measure up with this????

Okay chickas, I am off to spend the next three years on the new exercise bike that got purchased this weekend, because day-am, if I ever bump into this, I want to be prepared.

Who needs an electric blanket, when you can have this?

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My hubby is home on leave at the moment, and right now he’s busy watching one of the Planet Earth episodes, which happens to be covering the Grand Canyon and other amazing things, and it just reminded me of a plan that we had a long time ago, before we were married, and long before the kids were even twinkles in our eyes Long before we knew we wanted to emigrate, and were putting every spare cent towards that dream.

Way back *then*.

To put it all in perspective, when the hubby and I got romantically involved (gosh that sounds very old fashioned doesn’t it), I had just returned from traveling across America, Canada and Australia for the previous  7 months.

I didn’t see nearly as much as I wanted to see, and in fact the Grand Canyon was one of those things that I didn’t get to see. I saw Niagara Falls, Mt Rushmore, Devils Tower, WY, and pretty much everything from NYC to LA and in-between including being chased by a grizzly in Montana but somehow the Grand Canyon just got away from me, and suddenly it was time to fly out to Australia and carry on traveling.

So I always wanted to go back. The hubby has only seen Seattle and New Orleans thanks to a business trip during our first year together. So we, agreed that one of the things we would do ‘one day’ was to take at least 6 weeks criss-crossing the States to fill in all the gaps.

We agreed that we wanted to do it all driving of course, because you got to see SO much more of the country that way. We would hire a Winabago (complete with the mandatory motorhome insurance of course) with two motorbikes hitched at the back for the more inaccessible off road opportunities.

We would enjoy the great outdoors and wide open spaces and have the time of our lives.

Of course plans change, and marriage and career arrive, and then kids arrive, and then you decide you want to move your family across the globe anyway, and those dreams seem to fade into the background. I say, ‘Fade’ as opposed to ‘disappear’ because neither of us have given up on it, we just know that it will  have to take another format.

We’ll take the kids with us! (A 6 week car trip…hmmm)

I’m not sure when we’ll finally make it there, it may even be a ‘when we retire’ kind of thing now. We’ll see.

But still, we dream the same dream (isn’t there a song that goes like that?) and that is what is important to me, shared vision.

It’s our glue.

Now go and be my comment glue, or you’ll harsh my buzz.

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Then another.

There was no denying it.

Something in the air.

The smell of fresh earth.

The sweet, constant chirping of baby birds.

The overpowering scent of Jasmine from the bush by our front door which is absolutely foaming with blossom right now…

Could it be?

It must be.

It IS.

Summer.

Just peeping over the horizon…beckoning with her tempting finger. Just when we’d given up all hope of ever soaking up the sun, and boosting our Vitamin D stores, she is here.

Talk to me again in 3 months, when I’m complaining about the heat, and retreating indoors for some respite from the oppressive heat, and pouting about being too hot all the time.

For now, I’m positively delirious with delight at the thought of dipping my toes in the the crystal blue waters of..of….oh…oh…OH CRAP!

“BAAAAABE!!!” I yell from the lounge down the long house passage making several birds fly out of the bush by the lounge window in fright… “YOU HAVE TO CLEAN THE POOL THIS WEEKEND!!!”

———-

After composing this post this morning, I decided for once, that since I was alone in the house, and it was a freaking GORGEOUS Spring day, that it was time to get OFF MY ARSE and go and take some photos in the garden.

Everybody posts flower pictures right? So I tend not to post mine (rebellios trend-bucker that I am…), but this morning, as a nod to Mother Earth, and Gaia, and in praise of this little Blue Bubble bobbing about in Space and Time that we all call home, I give you some snippets of my little patch of Earth.

Feel free to leave comments along the lines of ABSOLUTELY FUCKING GLORIOUS!!

(Best Viewed whilst listening to Jamiroquai’s Canned Heat – because that is what is blasting in my ears right now – causing me to want to DANCE!! Nothing left for me to do, but DANCE!!! You know this boogie is for real got so much canned heat in my heels, gonna dance, gonna dance my blues away tonight….)

———-

Please forgive all the different watermarks, I really need to work on my branding, this goes back to primary school, when the teacher complained that my handwriting was inconsistent (not untidy mind – inconsistent!), and I haven’t settled down since, or, as it were…’ever’.

The Jasmine by the Front Door

The Strelitzia, or as you overseas folks like to call it, the “Bird of Paradise” I think I’m going to flog the hell out of this one on  my Redbubble portfolio, because looking at it makes me SO happy. The colours really ARE that ridiculously garish.

I love how my Canon F1.8 50mm can blur the hell out of the background, so that only the stamen (is there a botanist in the house? That’s a stamen right?) is in focus.

I love this photo. I should have left off the watermark so you could see it without it. I’d just swopped my f1.8 50mm lens for my 17-55mm f4-5.6 wide angle lens, and was coming outside when I saw this flower, getting ready to start enjoying the day just as much as me. I love how the leaves are dappled with light, and how they frame the photograph.

I’m not sure if it’s the 8 hours sleep I got last night, the 2 cups of coffee, or the fact that iTunes is reading my mood and playing all my favourite songs (my whole library is on random) but gosh darnit, I am feeling the happeh right now! I suppose it also helps that I just secured a sponsorship of sorts for one of my other blogs, been offered a mountain of paid reviews and, I’ve begun gathering content for the online magazine that I will be launching soon, and yes, it’s officially SPRING BREAK!!!

This last flower looks a bit like the bastard love child of two totally separate flower genuses (genii?). It’s probably some sort of Tyger lily, but I’m botanically impaired, so lets go with ‘bastard love child’ in stead okay?

Hope your day is (‘was’ if you’re in Australia/NZ ‘will be’ if you’re in the Americas) just as freakishly awesome as mine.

*MWAH*

Now go comment, or you’ll harsh my buzz.

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If you love (or hate) Lord of the Dance, you will just about die laughing at this. Nice to see such a great relationship between father and soon too. I can’t embed it – because that has been disabled by request – but here’s the link.

Stavros Flatley

Enjoy peeps – both kids are asleep and it’s time for me to get back to work!

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Which means, that you’ll now have to put up with a whole heck of a lot more of me Doesn’t that make you, like, SUPER HAPPY!!?

I can actually see the whole month stretching ahead of me, withOUT interruption.

OH the mind boggles at the thought of what I’m going to be able to DO!

Starting off with another free blog badge!

This one is for all you southern hemisphereans. If you’re feeling that Spring vibe, feel free to grab and paste the code into your blog template/sidebar etc.

We’ll simply ignore the fact that today, the 1st of September is colder than the last 2.5 months of Winter we’ve experienced so far, and we’ll try to focus on the Spring VIBE that everyone has, yes that’s VIBING that everyone is doing, as opposed to shivering. Here is your suitably vibey, very chicklike (bizarrely unlike most of the stuff I design – again, must be that Spring Vibe) button for your blogs.

Those of you who are facebook friends, may recall my excited status update about the fact that I found lilac tulips?

Well that there is a photo of them. They look more pink in my photos than lilac, and I’m still editing them, but I have some big plans for those photographs, including adding them to my Redbubble portfolio and other sites where I’ve enjoyed success in selling my images and posters etc like Zazzle.

(((HUGS INTERNET)))) Oh how I have missed you!!

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You can read their accounts of our meet up here for Mel, and here for Allie.

Their posts are both exceptionally nice, and grossly over-flattering (Allie, I cannot believe you called me a cyber giant, my ego is very grateful for the boost! So thanks for that!) Mel, it was an absolute pleasure taking some photos of your little uns (sorry that Honey was not there, but we’ll get that proper shoot organised soon), and yes you are just as nice in real life as you are on your blog, such a happy positive person, and no matter how much you may diss your mothering skills – you blew me away with how completely organised and sussed you are – and with three kids, and you look *that* fabulous??? Seriously girlfriend you have NO excuse to ever diss yourself on your blog again!

Right off the bat, I just want to say that they are just about the nicest folks you’re likely to meet in Cape Town. A lot of Cape Town folk have the reputation of being standoffish, or clique-y, but not these ladies, we got along like a house on fire, and it was frankly quite bizarre, because here were two people that I was meeting for the first time, but we had absolute heaps to talk about, because oddly, we already knew a whole bunch about one another, having followed one anothers blogs for the past year at least.

It makes me excited at the prospect of one day meeting other blogger friends from around here and overseas. No matter what anyone says about blogging not being ‘real’ or that friends you haven’t met aren’t real friends. Bollocks I say!

So while the Skipmeister was playing with Hooligan and Lulu, and also some random kid in a blue shirt that he befriended, and running himself completely ragged, we sat and enjoyed some ridiculously good winter sunshine at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, and threw back some latte. Oh, and if anyone from Kirstenbosch picks up my Kirstenbosch tag which I’m adding in the hopes that somebody from there reads this, please, please, *please* improve the non-existent service at the coffee shop, okay?

We chatted a lot about other bloggers that we have in common, and those that we do not, so I’m checking out several new blogs this week (new to me, not the web).

It occurred to me that there might be some Capetonian bloggers out there that want to display their Capetonian status to the world with a nice shiny button, so I might just whip one up and ‘put it out there’ for people to grab the code and post it with…maybe later this week.

I have a ton of graphic design work to do this week, including a logo for an equine shiatsu therapy business, which is really exciting, so not too much ‘blog pfaffing’ time available this week! Then, yes, when has that *ever* stopped me??

Aside from ‘real’ work, I have a ton of householdy stuff to do, including looking into new healthcare options for us (our current health care providers decided to change our benefits – thanks guys that one thousand rand (about $120) co-payment was a really nice surprise at my kids last hospital visit). Pity we don’t have something like Blue Advantage here, because I am convinced that in general SA health care is a total rip off. There are just no plans out there that offer any kind of real value. They’re all grossly expensive, and yet you still have to shell out huge amounts in addition to your monthly premiums…I wonder if Carte Blanche have looked into medical aids as well as the private hospital expose’s that they did a few months ago…?

Anyway, before I go too off topic, here’s what’s coming the rest of the week. Tomorrow, I’m posting answer to the question, “Why Self-Host?” which I talked about last week. Wednesday, I’m posting some photos that I shot yesterday of Flipper, and Thursday, I guess I’ll get that Capetonian Blogger button thing up for everyone, and heck let’s just see shall we!?

Hope everyone has a super start to their week! Today is Monday, it’s the first day of school in the third term and that means that Ness has work to do! Adios till tomorrow amigos!

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