Blogging away!

Have been searching the internet today to locate interesting blogs to follow - from an expat point of view. Have added loads of links. Looking forward to reading all of them! Also, thanks for the comments!

In Bikram Yoga class this morning, the teacher read out a quote from one of her yogi-books - of course cannot remember the whole thing, but gist of it was: "You can make a conscious decision to be happy, to embrace challenges; and what is the goal in life - if not to find happiness at any cost?"

Noticed that a couple of people mentioned feeling guilty about living overseas. That is a shame. We have all ended up where we have ended up - perhaps it was not even a choice; at some point it went beyond that. Realise it might just be me, but everytime I fly across the equator heading south, it's like a fog lifts. Feels like something shifts, like the flick of a switch - like I have arrived where I was supposed to be all along. It can be tricky indeed to shake that feeling that life ought to be hard, ought to be a struggle, ought to consist of lists and lists of have-to's - but if you suspect that you are living in Paradise, why keep wishing you were elsewhere? Just enjoy the ride.

On a more personal note, in my experience it gets easier. People worry that things will get more difficult, you will miss home more, you will feel even more guilt. You won't.

Anyway, do not mean to sound depressing on an otherwise lovely Friday evening. Let's collectively decide we are Happy with a capital H - here is a picture of a cute cat from Bangalow to help us achieve our goal:

Phew! Crises averted.

Besides Yoga and pondering the Blogosphere, today had plumber here to install new dishwasher. Was going to have a crack ourselves, but instruction leaflet proved to be practical joke put there by sadistic German engineers. Thus, was easier to ring plumber. Actually rang a few days ago, but all plumbers in Byron Shire have been extremely busy. They are still busy, in fact - ours had to run out the door before being able to look at a leaky cistern - to attend to "an emergency." All this is a mystery to me. Better be careful around the Byron Shire, seems we have a pipe-breakage-epidemic!

Popped down to the Beachy, pub by Main Beach, to catch up with lovely girl Louise - another Swedish import. Have discovered we come from very different backgrounds. Dancing on streets and sleeping on beaches (Louise) versus hysterically running around world looking for a career whilst never risking waking up without immediate access to hot shower and cup of coffee (me). Yet that is part of the magic of this corner of the world - we came from different places, but now we are in the same place. Geographically, and mentally.

(Am still somewhat mad, but getting there..!)

Beachy -