Bells and Whistles

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So, I'm logging into my blogger account for the first time in nearly a year and there are all sorts of new bells and whistles for me to get used to.
Firstly I'm pleased to see that there is now a stats tab, no need to add a code to an external site to track who is coming and from where. Of course the stats tab is not so exciting when no one is actually reading this apart from me. Guess I need to get out there and do the rounds to visit other blogs - even though I've been reading on RSS for the last year!

Ah well, that's what happens I guess.

Chocolate

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I never saw this post coming......

After spending a few months back in the UK last year where I was able to gorge myself on British made chocolate as much as my purse would allow I think I've actually 'grown out' of loving chocolate quite so much.

I loved and indulged myself with chocolate throughout my childhood, teenage years and early adulthood but it was only when I went to live in Hong Kong in 1998 that I started to fixate on it quite so much. Even then I never allowed myself to eat anything other than British chocolate so I'd go for weeks and weeks, sometimes months without so much as a nibble of the stuff*.
I think that having all those years of not having access to the chocolate of my dreams made me crave it all the more. So when I was back in the UK last year I found myself eating such huge amounts that I was literally making myself ill. I couldn't sleep at night, my heart was always racing, I had terrible heartburn and quite frankly I was setting myself up for an almighty fall.

Luckily after a few weeks I realised this and began to slow my intake down, I'd only allow myself to buy one bar at a time (instead of going with the panic hording that I'd done all those years while in Asia) and by the time I left the UK again last October I only packed 2 small bars with me.

Now I find myself not craving it at all. I still have a need for sugar, but no where near like before, which I am sure my pancreas thanks me for!

So 2011, the year of living with a bit less sugar......



* I did always get my sugar hits from mint and chews though.

A year later.........

Recap on the last year........

Living in the MidWest with my lovely man for about 4 months, then just when he was about to head into a 3 month whirlwind of traveling on business trips all around the globe I got offered a rather great job in the UK for 3 months - so I took it.
Living back in the UK for what I knew would be just a short time was great, I got to spend every weekend with people I love, visiting friends and family all over the country.
Then the posting was over and it was back to the US where the man and I got on a motorbike* and rode for four thousand miles over the North East (5 states) and Canada (5 provinces).
We stayed at posh hotels, camp grounds, mom & pop B&B's and one rather dodgy motel, it was quite the adventure.
2 months later the summer was over and it was time to go back to work, this time I had just a 6 week job waiting for me so headed back to the UK wondering what would happen next in this adventure. Within 2 days of my arriving back in the UK I'd been offered two very good jobs, one in the UK - tempting and one in the Caribbean - hmmm very tempting.
First day of November saw me packing up my summer clothes and heading to the beach, I've been here ever since and am loving it. Even more exciting is that the lovely man came down for a month over Christmas and decided that he loves it here too.
So he went back to the US, worked a few things out with his company, got a new job here on this island and is moving down to this small island in the sun with me.
He arrives in two weeks, all a bit exciting really, both of us living and working in the same country - together.

So that's been my 2010......



* Oh yes it turns out that I'm a bit of a biker chick - who knew!