Island Girl

Well, back from our Caribbean cruise and back to reality. The cruise was super super fun and we were both refreshed and relaxed once we came back. Basic cruise activities included sleeping inside, sleeping on sun loungers on the Lido deck, drinking, eating, laughing, talking, ordering more buckets of beer, sleeping on the beach, buying lots of duty-free stuff on the islands--Grand Turk, Tortola, St. Maarten and Half Moon Cay, in the Bahamas--getting dressed up for fancy dinner nights, eating, drinking, laughing, and more of all of the above. God, the group of people we went with were a riot and we all had fun making fun of each other. The girls on the trip went bananas on St. Maarten buying jewelery and the guys were pretty encouraging wanting their ladies to get sumthink niiiiice. Pretty amazing. Missed going to Orient Beach on the St. Martin (French) side of the island...not only is it supposed to be beautiful but clothing optional, too. I never like to miss a chance to see people unclothed who should be covered with a jute sack from head to toe.

Back to our little wee town and finishing the 5000 word article I'm writing about food safety. The job has actually been really fun and interesting, particularly getting the wording perfect. I hope to have some more writing jobs result because of this one...that'd be niiiiice.

My editing program will be done by May and then I have to decide with Hub if I'll take the summer off for travel and start working in the fall or start toiling immediately. And then I also need to decide if I want to be a cube rat in a company (sounds so tempting put that way) or work freelance from home (with people or alone, in other words...both so tempting). So much to decide, but thankfully not right at this moment. For now, I'll just continue to admire my fading tan and my gorgeous fire opal ring. Sigh...

Gettin' Smaller...

Well, I'm quite pleased that I've dropped a lot of my "Hungarian weight" since July. I don't think I'd ever been that heavy before...well, maybe after I had my girl. Anyhoo, feeling much better these days, and it's exciting getting dressed b/c I now have all these things I can fit into again and it's like getting a new wardrobe. Also gives me an excuse to update my wardrobe with smaller sizes, probably much to hubster's chagrin. Gotta keep the little lady happy, though...as he says, "happy wife = happy life." Heading out on a cruise on Sunday and we are very very excited. Child is going to grandma's and we are sailing around the isles of the Caribbean, where temps are 25-31C during the day and 21-25C at night, humidity hovering around 78F on average. Can't wait for the formal dress evenings and sitting out on our deck in the morning looking out at sea while drinking a nice cup of coffee with my lovely, kind, funny and smart hubster. Sigh. :-) Beautiful. Hope I don't scare too many people with my bod in my new bathing suit. Oh well, I'd never do anything if I let my crazy fears get in my way. Back to writing now for money. My first writing gig in a long time is finally underway and it's great having the ole brain workin' again. Bye!

I missed one...

This gem was found in a shop window in Zagreb. Isn't she precious?

Random thoughts and images from my colossal brain

Here's a mismash of things that made me think.

This graffiti was on a wall in the Red Light district in Amsterdam.









This man, to the right, is one of my heroes (I didn't actually see him when I was in Europe, but as he's European, I think you can let this one go). Can you guess who it is? Isn't he handsome? His alter ego, BORAT, perhaps can't claim the same good looks, but is endearing in his own way. Can't wait for Borat's movie to come out. People went nuts when it was shown at the Toronto Int'l Film Festival. Sexy Time!

Isn't this just the best idea in the world? Imagine it's 37C, middle of summer, you just want to die b/c it's so hot and then someone hands you one of these chilly puppies from the freezer...you spend the rest of the afternoon wrapped in a thawing towel in a bathtub full of ice. Heaven or what?!
(can you see them? the towels in the freezer?)













And lastly, here's a sample of some direct marketing we encountered in Poland earlier this year. No dilly dallying with the message here.







Nighty night, all. Time for this princess to voyage to unconscious climes. x

V is for Vivacious!

Isn't she gorgeous? She's our "fashion girl." Lucky us!

Her newly created knock-knock joke (and the best I've ever heard):

Me: Knock, knock!

V: Who's there? The end.

Love it!

Hub, V and Me - Forever!

God, I love my little family so much! Here are hub, V and me...we have so much fun together: laughing, racing around after each other, hub and me trying to get V to eat, sleep, tone down el volumo with el voicio...a good thing about me and hub is that we like to travel together. we can literally sit for eight hours in a car and ramble on to each other the whole way and sing together to songs on the radio. V is just starting to get used to airplane travel, and hub is great at keeping her occupied while I swill wine and try to catch some zzzzs (is that selfish?). Hey, something I recently tried, when we went to England, was to order the Kosher meal (I read somewhere that these meals are consistently the best of the lot)...it was pretty good! I do NOT recommend ordering a low-fat meal for a flight...it'll ruin your travel experience and you'll probably booze it up, more than you intended anyway, to wash away the grossness from your mouth. I feel the need for speed and to travel again soon...going on a cruise next month (Caribbean) and can't wait!! I never before considered myself a cruise kind of girl, but there you go (and it's gratis). Will share, share, share the deets of the adventure when I'm back.

My God, am I colour-coordinated or what?! See how my eyes match the green in my blog? Me so purdy!

Lookie how happy I look! Photo taken in a pub in London, England, in September 2006. I think I was pretty tired but was also happy, kickin' it with a pint and my lovely hub (i.e. spouse). Sans child that weekend so we wandered and were freeeeeee! I now want to move to London and have a house in Notting Hill.

Happy October 2006!

Look! I look very insane, sitting here in a pub in London!

But, yahoo! Most of my lovely Hungarian weight is gone (thanks salami, beer, wine, cheese and poppy seed pastries), and I'm feelin' good! I'm going to try and get onto my blog more than just bi-annually (see first posting in this blog). It's raining here in old S.T.O (small town Ontario) today...actually, not just raining but torrenting (is that a verb?) down...can't get warm. Am going to crawl into bed right now with the new Philippa Gregory book entitled "The Queen's Fool." Have a great day!

Anne

Back in Canada

Here I am, back in Canada, having returned six months ago (I know, I'm up to date with this blogging thing, hey?)! Looooovely to be back, away from the pain and suffering we endured in Budapest (and that was just going to the Posta to pay bills!).

Will write more later, as I'm in the middle of an email to my other blogging friend, Kerry, whom I met in Budapest and who is a fantastic, nice and funny mother of three. Suffice it to say I'm happy, hubster's happy, our daughter is happy and friends and relatives are thrilled b/c we're back in the homeland and back to pouring them very generous glasses of wine.

Heh heh. Meh!

a

A Day in the Life...

Well, this is my blog...random ramblings, perhaps some biting observations, maybe some pics I take on my travels. Living here in Budapest, have been here 1.5 years, am heading back to Canada some time next year with my husband an daughter. Have to say that this has been a very tiring year-and-a-half...adjusting to a new city, very difficult language, surly inhabitants (though some are lovely, like anywhere else), suicide-inducing "driving," and a serious lack of peanut butter (that doesn't cost $12/jar) and all things high-fibre/low-fat/low-cal. But there are great things about this city and country, too: Great beer and wine (Hungary has 22 wine regions), incredible architecture and scenery, a pretty lively music scene (opera, theatre, Hungarian rap artists...), some good restaurants and (currently) an incredible exchange rate ($1Cdn=188Ft).

Some long-term expats have been here somewhere around a decade and others are new like us...most assignments for expats last anywhere from 2-4 years, my husband's being a shorter gig. What do I do with my day, besides lament the expensive clothes, lack of creature comforts from home - friends, family, the familiar? Spend time with my daughter and shuttling her to and from daycare, imagine (and sometimes create) fanciful dinners for my family, READ A LOT, meet friends for coffee and lunch, stock up on English books at the Red Bus Bookstore, plan trips, keep in touch with Cdn people via email, make the odd phone call back home when it's convenient (there's a 6 hr time difference to most places back home) and sleep. Aaaah, sleeeeep...nectar of the gods.

So, that's me. Looking forward to going back home and solidifying a career in writing/editing/research and bringing home SOME bacon...this 50s Housewife thing here in Buda is temporarily satisfying but ultimately, my brain is beginning to atrophy and needs some exercise. We shall see...