To My Bloggy's

Dear Friends,

I'm sorry that I've been a shitty correspondent of late.
I've been distracted and preoccupied to the point of neglecting both you and my creative pursuits for almost a month now! That's far too long.

But I have fair reason to have ignored you till now.
What with holiday preparations and an inundation of clients wrestling for my time before I leave it's left me with little time to even process all the exciting things that have been going on this month and all that is yet to come.

 It honestly just dawned on me today that I am only a week away from leaving the country alone for the first time in my life and a week away from saying goodbye to my husband and puppy (and you my bloggy friends) for the longest we'll ever have been apart so far.
I'll do my best to post from there but will have to wait and see how I go.

Well that's all I suppose, here I am leaving you with a brief note to say sorry for my absence, both lately and upcoming, but I can promise you that when I get back I will have enough material to last us a lifetime.
You won't know what hit you!

Until then I bid you all adieu.

A tune to say goodbye to:

 See you when I get back xox

Much Loved Plans

Seeing as it's almost official… (well by tomorrow it will be), I think it's finally safe enough to share with you my biggest up and coming plan.

But firstly…  what was I loving about this weeks Much Love Monday you ask?
(Besides the finalisation in my mind to commit to my plans anyway).


Well how about the long awaited acquisition of this little beauty?!

Oh.My.Goodness.Gracious.Me! I am soooo in love with her.
I've only had Sophie for one day and already I feel like we've been together forever.
While I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon, I've been having hella fun giving grief to poor ol' Siri.
Some of her answers have been hilarious.
Meanwhile I'm discovering the dangers of Instagram.
A little late on the bandwagon, I know, but I can see myself becoming more and more obsessed with iphonography by the second!

Well that's news number one and forgive me for not telling you about it.
I was still so undecided and had a few more months on my contract for the Crapberry so was unsure which way to go.
Plus the HTC and Samsung Galaxy had me confused… but in the end I couldn't wait any longer and it's plain to see I'm an Apple girl through and through.
I really don't think I'll ever regret making the leap.

So onto plans…

Penang City Center

Well again I was reluctant to talk about what wasn't yet set in stone. But then in life what really is?
Originally the hubby and I were discussing anniversaries in Hawaii but with funds the way they've been lately that got scraped pretty quick.
Then came the bright idea to head down to Langkawi since we'd heard how beautiful and ridiculously affordable it was. I'll admit I had a bit of an ulterior motive, as my sister currently lives in Malaysia and so was hoping we could spend a few days seeing her as well.
But alas work has come between that idea and due to H having so many projects and contracts due in the next few months his participation in a holiday was snuffed out too.

Enter plan # 3: I would travel to Malaysia with my 19 year old niece in tow to visit my sister in Penang.
Girls Trip!
All good except that my niece hasn't been at her new job for more than a year yet (asking for time off within that time is a bit of a no-no) and we figured it best not to push it lest she have no job to come home to.
Add to that, the fact my passport was being delayed by more than a week and I was convinced this trip just shouldn't be.
Besides I'm such a scaredy Kat that the idea of traveling alone just seemed too daunting.
So for a while there I umm'ed and ah'ed and I if'ed and but'ed until finally I thought: 'Why not?'

Why not go by myself? What do I have to fear?
I'll be with my sister and her boys the entire time I'm there. All I'll have to do on my own is catch a plane into Kula Lumpar, find and ride the monorail and get on one more domestic flight before she meets me at the airport anyway. It'll be an adventure!
And so this week I am booking my flights.
This time next month I'll be on my way to Penang to see the sights, the sounds and experience the wonderful tastes of Malaysia. How exciting!!!

I keep telling myself, 'people travel alone all the time. It doesn't matter that I haven't traveled without company in the entire 29 years of my life or even left the country in the last 15... I'm sure I'll be just fine…'
Oh please let me be fine. eeeeeek!!!!

Frequently, the difference between success and failure is the
resolve to stick to your plan long enough to win.

--David Cottrell

Lean, Keen, Christmas Machine

The only thing stopping me from putting my tree up this weekend and not after the 1st of Dec like any sane person, is my inability to get my hands on a real pine tree.

How long do they last anyway?

Will it be all brown and wilty if I buy one so soon?

Clearly I'm super excited about Christmas.

If this doesn't prove it go ahead and check out my Pintrest board of Christmas inspiration;

It's been growing steadily since September.

Yes, I'm nesting, and it's becoming a problem...

The Results Are In!

And just in time for
Much Love Monday.

I finally got my first rolls developed from the trusty Vivitar and boy did I do better than expected!

(considering my actual expectation was that they would all come back either black or mega crap, I think I did quite well for a noob...)

Please excuse my thighs.
The emphasis is supposed to be on the beautiful sun beam... 

Just had to stick my stupid foot in it and spoil this shot now didn't I...

I especially love the effect the direct sun gives and the subtle blurring of the edges. I think me and my angel superheadz are going to have many fun days together :)

(provided I get my replacement. The original one had a dicky door).

p.s I'm still trying to name her.

1. Angelica

2. Vivian

or

3. Sofia

Cast your votes - what would you name her?

High & Dry

In keeping with my current holiday theme, todays tune is one I was reminded of while away.

It happened to come on the radio while cruising along the Captain Cook Highway at sunset and suddenly I was transported to another time along a different highway, under a different sunset but when it also seemed to fit the moment perfectly.

Different time, different place but while going through a similar transitional phase of my life.

I don't think I've heard this played on commercial radio for over 10 years and I'd forgotten how much I used to (and apparently still do) love Radiohead.

Do you ever find yourself thinking about an issue or a certain someone and then suddenly the perfect song just happens to pop up out of nowhere over the radio?

Gotta love serendipity xx

Playing along with Thea over at Do I Really Wanna Blog? ❤ 

Clownish Casualties

Our private pool lit up at night

so with the water still warm from the afternoon sun

along with the balmy conditions at a lovely constant of 30℃,

even at 10pm, every evening was perfect for a bit of night swimming.

Hubby decided to show off a few handstands for you guys while I snapped away.

In his own words: "I'll give you something to blog about"

Too bad he accidentally face planted the pool instead.

Give me something to blog about will you?

Well you sure did baby,

you sure did.

;)

Wordless Wednesday

What more can be said of this beautiful place?

Ha! It's me we're talking about, so plenty, but not on WW.
(p.s. playing along with Sarah & Trish today)

xx

Kat

Cascade Capers

Trinity Beach:

From the first day of our holiday we decided to pack as much into our short trip as possible, starting with a closer look at our surrounds.

With that out of the way we were off to The Crystal Cascades:

 

Saw so many of these cute rentals all around Cairns.

While many of the locals were swimming around down there

we, on the other hand, decided not to.

Luckily…

Yea, the snake was a bit intimidating too.

Arrival

Once we got to Cairns Airport there was a bit of a kerfuffle with the car hire company.

It seems that while our travel agent managed to take our money for the car she didn't actually arrange for it to be waiting for us.

Being a Sunday we couldn't even get hold of her but happily it all worked out in our favour.

Rather than getting your standard mode of hire ie: Hyundai Getz - we got upgraded to a brand new Holden Cruz in shiny blue (my favourite colour) with all it's mod cons plus bells & whistles.

It even had a sunroof!

Cue cruses down the highway with my hair whipping in the wind...

So after a quick swim and some breakfast along the esplanade (the public pool in Cairns is soo cool… it has white sand and overlooks the beach. Best of all it's free!) we zipped off to check in and check out our resort.

 The view from our deck where you can dive straight into the pool.

I settled for dipping myself in slowly for some floating around

before heading off for some cocktails and a nibble.

Who would've thought lazing beachside and by the pool

would turn out to be such thirsty work...

:)