I love ...

I love lots of things.

I love food. It can smell good, look beautiful and taste delicious. Good food is a feast for the senses, and I love to indulge my senses. Does that make me sensual? Because I don’t mean it in a sexual way. Although food can be sexy.

Favourites:
Cuisine – Thai, Drink – so tough, coffee with baileys or vanilla coke, Dessert – again, tough, sticky chocolate brownies or banoffee pie (a recent discovery), Fruit – cherries or avocado, Vegetable – squash or cherry tomatoes, Herb – coriander, One thing I could never give up – cheese.

I love music. My whole mood can change just by listening to a song. I have playlists for sombre evenings, party nights and even for cleaning. I never leave home without a music player and I walk to the beat of whatever song is playing. I like the typical pop, groovy r&b, pumping dance and interesting “indie” stuff. I also love oldies, and beautiful sad songs.

Favourites:
Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Kanye West, Ellie Goulding, The Killers, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, The Andrews Sisters, Michael Buble and Melody Gardot

Children, now and then

First of all, I dropped the ball. Typical me. Set myself up for a challenge and managed to keep it up for one full day. Go me! But life is a work in progress, Rome wasn’t built in a day and it will take some time for me to stop being a procrastinator and get into the habit of writing every day.

In case someone wants to know, the other two goals I set myself were to drink 3 large glasses of water every day and to exercise for 20 minutes every day. So far I’ve managed to drink the water but have failed on the exercise challenge. Monday is the start of a new week so the perfect time to get back on track with exercising. This coming week will be a bit tricky for the challenges as I will be watching my 3 year old nephew full time and my two nieces (5 and 8) in the afternoon. Which brings me to my topic for today ... children.

That word brings so many different things to mind: Cute, funny, annoying, naughty, loud. Notice how most of them are negative. I feel horrible for saying it, but taking care of kids is such a challenge. Especially when I think of how different kids behave nowadays. Back in my day (god, I feel old!) children listened to adults and were basically seen and not heard. I had a strict upbringing and I actually respected adults and was afraid of disobeying them. I wouldn’t dream of talking back or expecting an adult to jump for me. There were rules and I did not disobey them because I did not want to get punished.

Triumph through tribulation

Behind every cloud there is a silver lining. After rain, comes the sun. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Simple sayings to remind us things will get better.

Adversity introduces a man to himself. We acquire the strength we have overcome. There is no education like adversity.

Simple sayings to remind us difficult times help us grow.

A lotus flower grows from roots deep in mud. It must rise through the mud to grow. Only after this struggle is its true beauty revealed.

This is a beautiful thought, and can be a great analogy for life. But is it true? I think so.