lovely rain, peaceful beach and getting stronger everyday

we missed the rain this morning, but I guess we were tempting fate to go for another walk this afternoon.... it rained on us, we got pretty soaked, but it was actually kinda nice

our walk took us around to a secret little beach, that was protected by the wind and made you want to sit for a while and take it all in

being challenged every day to step up and take ownership of my life and where I'm at right now.... it feels good, and I'm proud of myself

baking, faces and saying goodbye

I love a good challenge, so today I found a recipe for salted caramel shortbread covered in dark chocolate..... it was a long recipe and took a whole lot of patience, but oh my, what sweet yummy treats I ended up with....they won't be for sale in a patisserie anytime soon, but hey, they're delicious

after a few days of just messaging each other, this morning we skyped... it's good to see someone's face :)

no big party, no champagne, just a simple and quiet goodbye to a really tough year, but it felt good

super windy walk, really long lunch, and the old gang :)

another day, another stomp.... this time we hit up the coastal paths and scramble round to St Brelade's Bay..... there is something so reviving about being out in wild weather

we catch up with Janina for lunch at Pizza Express and end up there for about 3 hours..... long lunches rule

dinner out with the boys and it feels like we're all 18 again...not a whole lot has changed, still the same awesome guys.... feels like family

just like old times, hiking adventures and feeling empowered

Elsie is here and it feels like our Elsie & Linzi routine has never and will never change :) Lots of walking, talking, cooking, laughing and adventures

we brave the grey, windy day and go for a stomp on the North coast.....and somehow manage to dodge all the rain

good friends make you feel strong, that's a fact..... long chat tonight that left me feeling empowered

ray of light, feeling inspired and afternoon of friendship

I stumble on an interesting website that seems to illuminate a little light bulb in my mind :)

a mixture of excitement, inspiration and wonder .... thats how I feel today.... the word that sums it up best ? probably yikes

an afternoon hanging out with a gorgeous almost 3 year old playing lego....and enjoying every second

junky tv, leftovers and talking it out

Boxing Day.... a day for relaxing in your pyjamas and watching guilt-free junky tv.....bliss

Mmmmm I hover around the kitchen and fill a plate full of delicious leftovers.

Sometimes, even when you feel like being alone and not talking, the very best thing is to be with someone who cares and talk it out. Lucky that I have a great friend who knows that :)

walk, nice words and a friend returned

Knowing that the day will be spent eating incredibly delicious food, and hanging out indoors, we rug up and stomp to Nat & Daves' place. It only takes about an hour but it feels good to have worked up an appetite.

We have zero funds this year, so I give everybody a homemade card filled with some heartfelt words. Makes me realise that maybe, kind honest words are worth more than any gift.

A conversation with a long lost friend fills me with joy..... feels like he has come to the end of his difficult journey and I recognise a hint of happiness in his voice again. Awesome.

beach stomp, E.T. and family time

Christmas Eve, and a long stomp on the beach in the cool air with an awesome buddy. A lot of fun.

watching E.T. whilst preparing dinner....No Christmas holiday should be without it.

A beautiful meal with the people I love most in the world ( bar one who is hopefully feeling the love I am sending his way )

post training glow, afternoon read and the start of deliciousness....

I find the energy from somewhere to train, if only to bask in the awesome feeling I have when it's over.

It's totally ok to jump into bed mid afternoon for a warm reading session :)

And so the Christmas tradition of eating super delicious meals prepared with a lot of love has begun

lie in, woodsmoke and catching up

I wake feeling triumphant that I've slept all the way through the night and somehow tricked my jet lag. I have a little breakfast and then sneak back into bed for a lie in.

The air is cool and I can smell woodsmoke in the air. Beautiful.

An afternoon of well overdue hugs, meeting an amazing new member of the Moffat family,long chats and a very welcome glass of red.

sublime Singapore, cool cool air and ahhhhh bed

after a flight with a few hours of sleep, I wonder around Singapore airport thankful to be in such a serene place. I take a long, hot shower, charge my phone, eat something yummy and find somewhere comfy to crash out for a few hours. I swear this is the best airport on the planet.

Feeling icky and slightly tweaked after my second flight I relish in the cool fresh winter air as I wait for my bus.

The journey is over, I'm back home, I've eaten a delicious goats cheese salad and all I have to do now is fall into my amazingly comfortable snuggly bed......bliss

floating, second surf and cliché Christmas travel

knowing that tonight I will be on a long haul flight, I make the most of our peaceful early surf in the sunshine. After my surf I leave my board on the beach and go back in the ocean to float for a while.

a second surf turns out to be super fun, and I'm really pleased that I changed my mind and went in.

a late train, a delay in the middle of nowhere, a missed train and a lack of taxis finds me rushing like a crazy person to get to the airport before check in closes.... I tell a cab driver 'I'll give you $50 if you get me to the airport in 15 minutes'. He does, and I arrive at the check in desk 5 minutes before it closes.....phew....

living in the now, yikes yoga and new surf spot

one of my new years' resolutions is to learn to live in the now.... this morning I embraced it and enjoyed every second

a long overdue yoga workout that felt as tough as it did awesome

we stumble on a new place to surf that has somehow never come to our attention before. The beach is almost hidden and there is a beautiful pathway through the bush to get there.

packing a picnic, tea tree swim and homemade sausage rolls

we have the most amazing little picnic set that creates excitement from the moment we take it out of the pantry...... this morning we load it with yummy goodies (leftover bulgur salad with spring onions, mint, dried apricots, pomegranate, pistachios and grilled chicken, tzatziki, super yummy day old sourdough, Jeffo's homemade sun dried tomato, capsicum and cashew dip and a container full of summer fruits) mmmmmmmm

we stop off halfway through the drive and swim in the tea tree lake that makes our skin soft

a quick mission into town to buy supplies, and speedy baking make for a yummy warm plate of homemade sausage rolls to take next door for the Christmas drinks :)

watching clouds, amazing news from France and kindness of strangers

we walk up to the headland and sit for about half an hour, watching the stormy clouds roll in

two very special friends in France told us some very special news today :) happy happy happy

what could have been a disastrous afternoon was saved by the kindness of strangers.... I locked my keys in the car, had no phone with me and no spare set of keys.... but the nice man at the supermarket let me use the phone, the lovely lady parked next to me called her husband who drove down with a coat hanger, and the very nice man who walked past, saw us all struggling, grabbed the coat hanger, wriggled it a special way and opened my car..... wow :)

inspiring images, picnic on the hill and flights booked

a new yoga blog that I have found keeps serving up daily does of inspiration in the form of amazing photos, quotes and yoga wisdom

we try out the new gourmet fish and chip shop in Woolgoolga, and take our blanket up on the hill for an early dinner and a glass of wine

yikes, it feels real now..... flights home booked :)

de-jinxed a surf break, pressure free breakfast and freshness

sometimes you can feel like a surf break is jinxed.... you never get good waves there so you're never that excited to surf there. This morning I officially de-jinxed Mullaway, and got a tonne of really fun waves...yahooo

we go out for a breakfast of corn fritter stacks, bacon and avo and are smiling, because, thanks to Jeff's new job, a weight has been lifted from our shoulders

cooking up a fresh mex storm......salsa, gorditas, guacamole, roasted peppers, tortilla strips and the yummiest green salad dressing ever

dad's yipeeee, amazing news and happy christmas lights

an early call to my folks to tell them I'm coming home for Christmas is greeted with a long, happy 'yipeeeeeeee' from my Dad

Jeff gets the call we've been waiting for..... so proud of his amazing news

after a $10 dinner at the pub we do a tiki-tour around Corindi to look at the Christmas lights.....

surfed out, kitchen scramble and duck dives

2 long surfs and our arms are sore, our noses a little sunburnt but we're smiling

ha ha ha I love those kitchen scrambles when you get home from a long surf and are so ridiculously hungry that a sense of panic hits as soon as you get to the front door...... must....eat....now.....

duck dives on sunny days that give you views of the ocean that most people can only dream of

fresh nectarines, amazing Elsie and a truce

the smell of ripe nectarines has taken over the kitchen......mmmmm

Elsie, and all her awesome-ness, her wisdom and her common sense.... we all need a friend like Elsie

just like they did on Christmas Eve in the trenches.... tonight we called a truce....and it felt good

sparkling, just me and the sea and honey on toast

wow, the sea was that amazing sparkly, shimmery blue today that made you rush back to the car after checking the surf to grab your board and get in there

after a couple of hours of super fun surf, the crowd thinned and I had a few magical waves to myself

post surf, a simple breakfast of honey on toast made me smile

a good rain jacket, a long walk and thunder

today started off with just a sprinkle of rain and ended up in a deluge.... so I was pretty happy I took my rain jacket out with me

a decision to walk home turned into a super nice solo stomp up and over 2 headlands and along 3 beaches

the loud rumbles of thunder as I got close to home made me thankful my walk was almost over

sweaty betty, another world and a big softie

another crazy workout, and another moment of feeling absolutely awesome lying on the floor afterwards....sweaty betty :)

sometimes its fun to do normal chores a different way..... today I plugged my headphones in as I got to the supermarket and did my weekly shop in my own music filled bubble

if only I had had a camera..... as I was driving home, a pretty scary looking man on a huge motorbike went whizzing past with an enormous teddy bear wrapped under his arm

fast drive, Ikea and beautiful light

a drive that normally seems to take forever was done in a flash today

we made the most of the mission up north and stopped in at Ikea on the way home..... Jeff gave me a 15 minute time limit, and I whizzed around and picked up a heap of yummy swedish goodies from their food shop

the drive home was quiet but beautiful... the early evening sunlight shone through the eucalyptus trees and set the sky on fire

pantry cooking, a letter to me and 1000 awesome things

there are days when my organisational skills are questionable, and we're facing a bit of a food drought....the weekly food shop having been postponed for one reason or another, and a little magic is required. Tonight I managed to scramble together a slightly obscure but super yummy butternut squash bake with prosciutto, parmesan and a big rocket salad.

I was thinking today about some of the amazing advice that friends have given me over the past few years. More often than not you come to a solution thanks to a friends wise words.   It can be so much more difficult to ask yourself those tricky questions and come to a solution by yourself.  So I came up with a plan..... I wrote myself a letter today as if I was writing to a friend in exactly the same position. Wow, sounds simple, but turns out to be a pretty inspired piece of writing !

I just found a new blog called 1000 awesome things.... what can I say, it's awesome !

nike training club, the word integrity and a list of adventures

love love love, that is how I am feeling about Nike Training Club right now. I love that I can do it anytime, anywhere. I love that it's actually a really tough workout, and I love that I'm loving it so much. Phew, that is a lot of love :)

thinking about values and recognising how important the word integrity is to me

wow, it took about an hour of flicking through old passports and trying to make sense of faded stamps, but now I have my updated list of adventures...... ha makes me happy just looking at it

the great outdoors, honest words and homemade pizza

we spent a couple of hours in the fresh air.....Jeff played 9 holes of golf and we strolled around the park, saying hello to the kangaroos, enjoying the trees, the sky and the sprinkles of rain

some of the words you most need to hear are the uncomfortable but honest ones..... it takes courage to hear them, and courage to speak them

I love love love making pizzas from scratch...... sooooooo much fun

sunlight, quiet day and rising dough

a ray of sunshine that came straight throughout the open window in the bathroom and felt warm on my skin

a day of reading, reflection and quiet

looking over to the pizza dough that I left in the pantry and seeing that it has doubled in size

progress, sore muscles and slow roast

some amazing news from a dear friend..... I had been hoping and wishing for progress and overnight this is exactly what happened.

I have sore legs after yesterdays' training, but it makes me happy

slow roasted mexican pork that cooked for 4 hours and tasted soooo good in tacos

let it all out, free as a bird and a book store

some pretty annoying news got me feeling cranky, which then led to blurting out how I felt and letting everything rush out that I had been bottling in for the past few weeks..... to a complete stranger...... could have been bizarre, but ended up being great timing ....

a guided meditation lead me to feeling as free as a bird

I found a new book store today that had a whole wall of cookery books

super windy day, clean floors and home alone

it was so windy here today..... I love stormy days. Reminds me of home :)

Clean floors are one of the more obscure benefits of practising yoga at home. You spend a serious amount of time at floor level, so you end up pretty keen to have super clean floors all week long !

Jeff is still up north so had the evening to myself....cooked up a yummy risotto, watched some girlie tv and enjoyed a glass of rosé. Nice.

early morning work out, creating my own opportunities, and moving furniture around

wow, it's been a while. Sorry body..... I've been pretty slack. But I'm back !!! And I loved our workout this morning, even though it was super tough and pretty sweaty.

I'm a little sick of waiting for the planets to align and for someone to give me a break......so today I decided to take charge :)

For some reason I find moving furniture around really therapeutic..... so today, I busted out some muscles and moved the table and benches on the deck..... ahhhh that feels better