For what made me smile so much in Vietnam today!

Put this on your 'Must do in Vietnam' list!!

I have been in Vietnam for about 4 days and I have so much to blog about but wanted to share this story now as it was certainly a highlight.

We just got back from a Cyclo tour around Hue. We were picked up by our drivers (or should that be riders) from our hotel at 4pm and driven around the city.

My cheeky driver and I. 

We stopped off at a few places along the way to our destination, a dinner with a local family at their house.

We seemed to have a slight tyre malfunction which I am NOT putting down to all the food I have eaten!

As we drove through the back streets of Hue passed peoples houses I felt somewhat like a celebrity as women and children came running out of their houses to wave and say hello! The children were just gorgeous as they waved and screamed 'hello...hello' and would laugh and giggle when we waved and said hello back.

As we rode past what appeared to be a bar some young guys yelled out hello, followed by what seemed to be 'I love you'.... and then an eruption of laughter followed. I can't say for all certainty that it was directed at me, but I'll take what I can get!

We arrived at the house for a magnificent meal.

Our hostess! 

I am so in love with these!

Our host family

Then we were driven back to our hotel.

Definitely a must do in Hue, such a magical and surreal experience! 

Linking up this travel post with With Some Grace for Flog your blog Friday! 

for my top 5 must have packing items

Whenever I am packing for an overseas trip there a 5 items that I always grab first....

1. Notebook/Travel Diary

 

I love keeping a travel diary whilst overseas to reflect on the days adventures and discoveries. I am not a massive fan of the customised travel diaries that you can get so usually just stick with a generic notebook like this awesome one I picked up from Typo!

2. Pocket Knife

 I think my parents thought I was a little strange the Christmas before my first overseas trip when I asked for a pocket knife but for me it's a must. I don't anticipate it will come in handy if I ever need to cut down a tree, but it has certainly proved it's usefulness on more than one occasion.

3. Foldable bag

This little foldable bag is great to chuck in your day bag to use as a shopping bag, swimming bag, or to hold the excess shopping you may have done. It's fabric makes it great to use for wet items and it folds up to go in that tiny little pouch you can see at the top of the picture.

4. Gadget holders

I loved these little oyster containers that I got as a special from Tupperware a few years ago. They came in a set of 2 and are fantastic for holding all those cords and power point adaptors and extra SD cards etc for your trip. I use one for that and the other for holding my jewellery and other accessories. Being pink they stand out and are easy to find in my bag.

5. Fantastic DSLR Camera Bag*

 I mentioned in my confession last week that I had been 'casing' Etsy for a while looking for a new DSLR Camera Bag that wasn't going to make me look all touristy and came across this beauty from 'Shutterbags'. Really it is a normal handbag that has had compartments and padded inserted to make it a nice cushy place for my precious DSLR Camera...

and doesn't make me look touristy at all...does it??

 What are your must have travel items? 

Anything out of the ordinary? 

Anything I need to add to my list?

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT!

*I have been casing a new camera bag for years now, and had my eye on some Shutterbags for some time. Since then I am now an Etsy affiliate member .

for a holiday....almost

I must confess I am counting down the next 5 days until the holidays.

I must confess it's been a looooong term with many ups and downs.

I must confess when ever anyone asks me about my job I joke and say "never a dull moment in the lives of teenagers" but really, I am concerned about the mental health of so many of my students and the moment and that alone is exhausting on my own mental health and when people comment and say "I don't know how you do" I actually begin to wonder that myself.

I know that there is the opinion that people who work in schools get a lot of holidays and I know that this time next week there will be a barrage of people complaining of Facebook about having to have their children at home, but I know that I would not be able to continue in my job if not for these breaks every three or so months. For me to be effective and available like I need to be for my students, I need this mental break to rejuvenate and have some focused 'me time'.

Image Source

And that is why I am so excited to be heading to Vietnam! I have had this booked and planned for ages and can't believe it is almost here... am heading of by myself (as I usually do when I travel) and doing an Intrepid tour from North to South!

My trip!

Stay tuned!

Linking up with My Home Truths for I Must Confess and One Mother Hen for Open Slather

for an award

I must confess....I am a worth casing blogger!!!

At least according to Ms Mystery Case I am! She's always on the lookout for blogs worth casing and as she celebrates her 2nd birthday she is handing out awards and has chosen me!

I must confess...I get a little chuffed whenever I get a mention on another blog and I am lucky enough to have had a reader in Ms Mystery Case for a while.

So, what does it mean?

I have to answer the five in five questions, set out by Ms Mystery Case, and then I get to nominate 5 wonderful bloggers who I regularly "case"..

1. How long have you been blogging and why did you start?

My first post was published on the 27th January 2013 and I blogged about starting Michelle Bridges 12wbt. I started as a way of being accountable throughout the program but it has kind of just grown from there and I blog about whatever comes to mind!

2. If your wardrobe could talk what would it say about you and tell us about your favourite or most worn item?

It would say that I am a shopaholic and I have too many clothes that go rarely worn. I won't say unworn but there are things that are not work often. A lot of my clothes are relatively plain in colours and then I love to accessorise with a fabulous scarf or statement necklace with matching rings and bangles. I am a matchy matchy kind of person and my wardrobe would show that. I don't wear it often for fear of something happening to it, but my favourite item in my wardrobe is my leather jacket from Italy!

3. What's your idea of the perfect date night?

As a single girl in her 30s in a town which seems to lack decent single men dates are hard to come by and it's been so long since I've had a decent date that I couldn't even think what a perfect date would be. I'm not really into all the bells and whistles, a nice romantic dinner over candlelight or moonlight where the conversation flowed perhaps followed by a walk along the beach (which would mean I would have to move to the coast!)...or if money was no object a private jet to Paris with dinner watching the lights sparkle up the Eiffel Tower wouldn't be rejected!! 

4. What's on your Worth Casing list?

This one is tough as I don't have much time to get out and about and 'case' things and the only thing I can come up with to share is how in love I am with my new 'Shutterbag'. I have planned to blog about it more so consider this a sneak peek...

I found it on Etsy while looking for a new camera bag for my DSLR. I hate when travelling looking like a 'tourist' and juggling a day pack/handbag/camera bag, so I went looking for an all-in-one and this is what I found. 

5. If you had a theme song what would it be and why?

In a previous confession with My Home Truths we had to list a song that was the soundtrack to our lives! You can read that here or I can just tell you that it's the link to the opening scene of Bridget Jones's diary where Bridget is on the couch in her flannie jammies drinking wine and singing All By Myself into her rolled up magazine! For some reason that is the first and only song that comes to mind when I am asked this question...Must try and find another one!

Now for my nominations...

The five blogs that immediately sprang to mind when coming up with 5 are written by ladies who have embraced me into this blogging world and are always frequent visitors to my blog and so this is my way of thanking them for their support....in no particular order

Kirsty from My Home Truths

Tegan from Musings of the Misguided

Sanch from Living my Imperfect Life

Alicia from One Mother Hen

Emma from Five Degrees of Chaos

So ladies if you want to take part in this you need to head over to Ms Mystery Case to see what you need to do next! Find the link here. Thanks for your ongoing support.

Linking up with:

Kirsty from My Home Truths

Alicia from One Mother Hen

Ms Mystery Case for Worth Casing Blog Awards

for post ProBlogger confessions

If you attended ProBlogger over the weekend I hope your head is in as much of a spin as mine is!

This week I am confessing off topic and instead going with last week's confession of micro confessions all relating to the mess of thoughts that are in my head...

So here goes;

at, during and after ProBlogger I must confess:

• I felt very overwhelmed and a lot out of my league a lot of the time.
• I have no idea what my niche is, if I even have one, if I even want one or if I even need one.
• I had no idea how many people subscribed to my blog until I checked last night...the answer is 5 (*insert sad face here*)
• I had to google how to find my subscribers because I couldn't work it out
• I search google a lot to work out how to use blogger
• (ever time I write (type) blogger I type blooger and then have to go back and fix it!)
• There were many times during, and have been many times since, that I wondered if I should just walk away now
• I'm not really sure why I blog
• I think I now know how Dora feels swimming off alone in that big wide massive ocean, I am such a teeny tiny little fish in this big blogging ocean
• When I was writing that a little Dora voice was singing in my head..."just keep blogging, just keep blogging"
• You totally just sang that in Dora's voice
• that Willpower completely left me stranded at the AMAZING QT buffet, but I expected it would so am accepting it.
• I hate that I can't now sit and work through so many of the tips and ideas that I need to if I want to get this blog thing happening how I want it to
• I am not sure when I will as I have so much happening in the next month or so
• I think I need to have a little blogging break to get some clarity about what I want this blog to be
• I got an awesome feeling inside when I was 'noticed' by 2 fellow bloggers!

Did you attend Problogger? What stood out for you?

Do you have any confessions to share?

Linking up my micro confessions with Kirsty (who I was stoked to meet in person) at

 My Home Truths for I Must Confess and Alicia at
One Mother Hen for Open Slather