A Matter of Choice

A couple of years ago I saw a friend on facebook had started following a yoga program on YouTube by Yoga With Adriene . Back in 2008 I used to go to Pilates classes weekly which I enjoyed and continued going to until I was about 7 months pregnant, I'd never managed to find any Pilates videos I liked online and as  I surmised that Yoga would be pretty similar so thought I'd give it a go too. I like a program to follow, exact instructions if you like, I think it's why I've got on so well with Slimming World over the years so I was full of optimism as I started 30 Days of Yoga. I can't remember how many days I did,  maybe 3? I wanted to get fit and I had probably at least a couple of stone I wanted to lose and when I sat on the mat closing my eyes and holding my hands together over my heart I couldn't help but think 'I haven't got time for this s**t)   Meditation has never held any interest for me, my mind would wander too much and I'd be impatie...

Happy new year dear blog readers! On New Years Eve I'd taken the boys to Paralimni town centre just as it got dark to see the Christmas lights as we'd not got round to going there yet and I felt like we hadn't left the house in days.  We came home to a warm house,  music on, bubbly chilling and so our traditional NYE evening was about to get underway! Mum and Dad arrived and we celebrated with lots of food, drinks and music. Mostly sat ( and at various points dancing) and singing along to youtube,  all the old songs that it wouldn't be NYE without! Even Leo was singing along to Chas and Dave! Just before midnight I played our usual countdown which ends with the 'bongs' of Big Ben and a rousing rendition of Auld Langs Syne - although we don't get the chimes live at midnight, it's just not New Year until I hear them!     We all stood outside on the balcony (luckily it was not raining yet)  and I opened the front door as is the tra...

Here in Cyprus Epiphany is celebrated on the 6th and it's a big bank holiday so today, January 7th was the first day back to 'normal' after the Christmas and New Year break. Leo woke up refusing to go to school at first but soon got over it when I let him have breakfast in a proper bowl 'like Mummy'  He looked a little shy going in and looked blankly at his teacher when she spoke to him, I understood what she said and helped him out but I guess he's just been used to hearing only English for the last 2 weeks and was confused! It felt strange coming home without him and Aaron went out just after I arrived, leaving Louka and I on our own for the first time in ages. Although it was chilly indoors the sun was shining and it was lovely and warm outside, I hung the washing out, while Louka ran around the balcony and tried to play swing ball with a brush, then we headed inside and I did almost an hour of exercise dancing and cardio boxing on the Wii while Louka d...

I feel like I've been very quiet on my blog lately compared to recent months, this is partly due to trying to keep the fact I am pregnant quiet, and then on the day I blogged about it I came down with the cold/ flu bug that Aaron had over Christmas, I really felt rough, and this was not helped by the fact I couldn't have any decent medicine...... by the way did you know you can't get Lemsip (or equivalent) hot lemon sachets out here, it's tablets or nothing! Now Leo's taking his turn with a cough that's keeping him up most of the night, and reminding me how rubbish it is to have interrupted sleep, hmmm forgot how bad that was. So today I'm linking up to 'Here Come the Girls' for the first time and joining in with her Tea and Sympathy link up.  I generally try to stick to talking about cheerful things on my blog, aware that I might accidentally go into a bit of a rant and scare everyone off but I'm liking the idea of a bit of tea and sym...

Traditionally I hate January,  it has always seemed like the never ending month. Most January's I can remember have seen me sitting in a boring dead-end  job watching the rain on the windows and waiting for the big bad month to end and pay day to arrive. Apparently today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year . Ah you gotta the positive thinking Brits haven't you!  I can see their point, the excitement of Christmas seems long gone, but the wait until pay day seems like a lifetime. Many New Year resolutions will have already been broken, and it's cold, dark, wet and miserable and summer is a long way off. I thought I'd escape January blues out here in Cyprus but funnily enough this is the view from my balcony at the moment..... It's not bad though, January is the worst month here it just gets better from here on in. February last year gave us some bad rain storms and we may have had some rain in March but that was it then until the end of O...