A Few Busy Things...

I am starting to feel quite overwhelmingly busy again!!

It is mostly my own fault, as I am prioritising things that are not necessarily essential, and then getting stressed about the rest… I really need to take a chunk of time to sort out a chunk of the essential stuff, and then take a deep breath! The problem that I’m finding though, is that with the time to leave the UK coming rapidly closer, things that would normally not be so important suddenly seem really, well, important!

Things like spending time with friends, seeing places that are unique to the UK and Europe – that will be far too expensive and impractical to ever see from Australia. Crocheting the gifts for people that will be left with them when I go – I am especially keen to finish my mum’s blanket, as I don’t believe that she would visit us in Australia, so I really want her to have something from me that means she knows I was always thinking of her and caring about her. I also have my gym membership now, that we organised because we had that Big Trip to go on. Even though the trip is now cancelled for us, I can’t cancel the gym membership so don’t want the money to go to waste, plus I really would like to get back to a reasonable level of fitness as I was before. And I’d quite like to lose all the weight I’ve put on too! Aside from the fact that it is too expensive for me to keep buying new clothes when I realise I can’t fit into the old ones, if you are going to move to a new place where you know absolutely no-one, and it is a hot place where you can’t hide under layers and baggy jumpers, then it can’t hurt to arrive there feeling confident about yourself, can it?

So, I have mental list of things I need to do, but instead of sorting things and packing more stuff in preparation for shipping all our belongings, what I have actually been doing is:

Trying desperately to make progress on my mum’s flower blanket, which has been a bit neglected with things like my brother’s wedding, visiting family, and travelling to Poland…

Crocheting together the squares for the 3rd blanket panel...

Finally getting around to sorting out some photo albums on Facebook – I’m not a chatty person, and I don’t tend to call up friends just to talk. Instead, I love Facebook for keeping in touch with everyone. As I live so far from most people that I care about, Facebook is a really convenient way to keep in touch. I also love to see other people’s photos of what they’ve been up to, and love to share my own photos of what I’ve been up to.

I take so many photos though that I’ve gotten quite behind with things! So the day before yesterday I finally got around to posting some more of my South America photos. Only 5 months after I got back! These particular photos were of a 3-day trip we did in Bolivia to the Salar de Uyuni salt flats, then on to some utterly incredible landscapes with coloured mineral lagoons full of flamingos, and even geysers and hot springs, plus some amazing wildlife. I really ought to write a post just about this, but for now here are just a few photos:

I still need to get around to sorting out my photos from my trip to Romania with my best friend, from back in February:

Peleș Castle, Romania

And then I will get around to posting my photos from this recent trip to Poland - although the gnome photos are already sorted! They can have their own album ;)

Wrocław Town Hall, Poland

And finally, although I have loads to do, today I am driving down to Cornwall for another thing that I had arranged aaaages ago, back before I realised that this current period of time would have so many other demands on it.

This trip is another trip with Explorers Connect, who I have been away with once before (before I began blogging). I also used their online forum / meeting area to organise a group to accompany me as we tried to bikepack the South Downs Way. This time, the trip was hoped to involve a boat ride off the Cornish coast to find basking sharks to swim with!!!! (with a licenced guide and strict restrictions – these beautiful creatures are protected).

Photo by Greg Skomal - source

Unfortunately, the people who look out for these sharks have said that they haven’t seen anything close to the number of sharks they would have expected to have seen by now, so it seems we have a pretty slim chance of getting to swim with them. Still, we may get to go out and swim with other wildlife, or we may get to do another activity instead. Either way, we’ll be in Cornwall for a weekend, and visiting Cornwall again is on my UK bucket list :)

Also, my husband finally comes back on Sunday from being abroad with work, and not having properly seen him in aaaaaages! He will then have a few days off work during the week, so we have booked somewhere to stay together in Cornwall so that we can have a bit of precious time together for a change, without being with family and friends. I know I’ve already said how important family and friends are, but after months of not having any proper time together, I think it would be a good idea to actually spend some time as a couple!

So, today (Friday) will be spent packing (AGAIN!!!!!! Have I mentioned before that I really hate packing??) for a few days in Cornwall, followed by driving for many hours to actually get to Cornwall!

I’m not sure if there will be internet there, if so then I can post over the weekend, but if not I’ll post later.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and anyone willing, please send me a kick up the backside for when I get back, to actually get on with some necessary jobs! ;)