13 Moments of 2013

This is the last of my 13 of 2013 series but more so, it is the last of my post for the year. A year ago, I didn't even have a blog to post on but here I am writing to you, not knowing who you are are where you are in this world but here I am once again sharing very private things with you and this post will be no different. It's the 13 moments from this year which I will remember.

1. My admission as an attorney. 

2. Returning to Ireland, and the moment I had my first drink.

3. The moment I found out Nelson Mandela had died.Coupled with the day after when my colleagues and I went to the house. The scenes there were incredible. 

4. Being lost in Brussels for 5 hours all on my lonesome.

5. Pepe Reina waving at me (and Charne)

6.Sitting at the Moses Mabida stadium for the Liverpool Legends game thinking, if this is how incredible the atmosphere is here, thousands of kilometers away from Anfield, I can only imagine what it feels like to be at Anfield during a game.

7. Justin Bieber's concert - the whole day was crazy and a once off experience. 

8. Arriving in Hamburg and thinking "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING COMING TO COUNTRY WHERE YOU DO NOT SPEAK THE LANGUAGE ALL ALONE?" Thank goodness for nice people on trains who speak English!

9. Leaving Juls and Oli at the train station in Mainz. I remember feeling so grateful and excited but scared for what I had experienced in Germany and what would still come.

10. Resigning from my job and the reception from my colleagues after that was humbling.

11. Leaving Ireland, I was so grateful that I had no one next to me on the flight because I cried a lot more than I would have ever expected.

12. Uptothemoon, after her last win, when she was upset with me and she was so angry. 

13. Family moment montage, from my mom's 50th to family picnics to music shows... great food, joking around to walking on the beach.

While I cannot lie to you and tell you this year was perfect or even great I can tell you that this year I achieved incredible things. I had so many moments wherein bringing it down to 13 was extremely difficult. However, I also closed a lot of unopened chapters this year which can only excite me about what 2014 holds.This year was difficult and challenging but I can say I have made it through and I am thrilled that I get another chance at trying again in 2014....  What will you do to make a difference in 2014? 

What was your moment of 2013?

Have a great New Years Eve... and I'll see you next year!

Travelling Music

I mentioned in my first travel post that I was going to include songs from parts of my trip but along the way I either forgot (sorry!) or couldn't think of one at the time.

So here are a list of songs which will remind me of moments in my trip

I heard this song in every single country and city I visited!

 

This is from O'Neill's on my last night in Dublin

 

While this is a sad song, hearing it in an Irish pub where the entire crowd is singing along gave it a whole new level of meaning. If I can figure out how to upload the video I will!

 

 

 

I didn't know this song before my night in Dublin and to be honest, the fact that I couldn;t sing along really bugged me! When I came back it was the first song I downloaded

 

 

I'm always amazed at the way in which music makes me feel and how it can evoke extraordinary feelings in a way that is unexplainable or how just hearing a song can link you to another person for life.

 

 

 

 

Do you agree with this quote???

 

 



Travel Post : Obsessed with castles in Germany!

Part one of my travel posts.... I don't think I have ever mentioned my little obsession with castles well I will admit it now, I am obsessed with castles. I love these old places which hold so much history and everything is just so vintage and I thrive on it!

So when I was chatting to my friend Julia, I told her I LOVE castles and she said I would love it there.. I thought she was kidding but she was in no way exaggerating because there really are so many castles!

We visited the Marksburg Castle

Here is what some of my favourites looked like...

Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, Kaub

 

What do you think of the castles? Have you ever been to any? Am I crazy to be slightly obsessed?

Oh and the song to correspond is super cheesey... but you know you're singing along to it

Where did the last Two weeks go?

While I'm not sure about you, I can tell you exactly what I did with the last 2 weeks of my life!

Yes, I'm back from my eurotrip and to be honest it sucks to be back! I mean I love my family and my life here but I absolutely adored every moment of proving to myself I was capable of more than I ever thought I was. 

Before I continue, thank you SO MUCH to my guest bloggers, here are there posts.... and especially to one of my favourite bloggers, Meghan Silva bucket list post,  was exactly the type of post I would do so I knew you would appreciate it! And while I'm sending out thanks let me say, I really missed blogging and reading all my blogs so I will be a busy lady in the coming weeks.

Back to my trip, I think I'll have to do posts for my different towns that I visited but ill mix it up with other posts so you don't get too tired of only travel posts! 

If you haven't noticed yet or you don't link to my blog of the web then you wouldn't have seen I have uploaded a gadget which allows you to see my Instagram pics which I've uploaded and let me tell you that is the absolute bare minimum of what I wanted to Instagram!

While I have so much to say about all the places I've seen I wanted to state now, at the beginning of my travel post recaps - this was hard. Traveling alone is difficult especially because it was the first time I travelled using hostels and you know what?! I learned a lot about myself!
 

I'm so excited to share my trip with all of you as I am certain it is indicative of big things to come but here's some of my favourite moments of my trip and pictures (if I have them) 

*seeing my friends from my masters class, Julia and Oliver in Germany, they were the ones who invited me to visit Germany and seeing them after almost four years was awesome! They were truly the best hosts!

* Seeing some friends I made in my previous Ireland Trip, in 2010, and just getting a chance to hang out

*I really loved Heidelberg, Germany, and even though I may have complained to Oli about the walking the place was just so picturesque

* Notre Dame in Strasbourg, France, was incredible. The picture says enough for now.

 

* the first time I walked into the Grand Palace Market in Brussels, Belgium  - I was literally left speechless! 

* making new friends along the way from the lovely people that Juls and Oli introduced me too to the people I met in airports and hostels! 

* The Cliffs of Moher : Ireland

And lastly, this may be my favourite of the entire trip.. Walking into Taffs, a pub in Galway and a live traditional band were singing "Galway Girl" = bliss 

So that's the highlights, for now.. There will be much more to come :) 

Have you heard of any of the places I've mentioned? have you been there? Tell me about it, I missed hearing from all of you! 

Foreign Waters

So I'm typing this post from the train in Germany... I'm currently on my way to another part of Germany from Hamburg. The train ride is going to be five hours which is next to nothing considering that I have now been traveling for over 24 hours.

At the airport in Dubai, when I planed on doing additional posts and sorting my life out I ended up meeting a really awesome girl from Morocco! When I get back or when I have time to do a more serious post I'll post about our conversations.  But the thing is as much as it is daunting to travel and then to travel with a very basic plan it was nice to speak to someone who could distract me from sweating the little things.

I'm already thinking of things I should have done differently and its only Day2 of my holiday but I suppose that's one of the things I want to work on during this time... The ability to let go and trust God to take control! I remember this book I had when I was younger it was daily inspirations by Helen Steiner Rice and the quote or inspirational thought that always stuck out for me was simple - 

God works in ways that a are wonderous and strange there is nothing in life that God cannot change 

Then it linked up with this:

Worrying is like being on a carousel, you keep going around and around but never actually getting anywhere.

I always try to practice this but it's difficult or rather it is trying to let the human side let go and let the spiritual side take charge. Every experience in life changes you whether for the good or the bad but simply put, if you don't change then you will always live with what ifs and I don't know about you, but that is not something I am willing to do.

Are you taking any new chances? Is there anything you're worrying about but not sure how to handle it? What's the worst thing that could happen to you if you take the chance? 

And just to ensure there isn't any posts with no pictures ... I just had this ice-cream which I haven't seen in South Africa and its awesome! Have you had it before?