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

to be awesome!

This week at The Lounge the following question has been posed....

Are you an introvert or an extrovert? What makes you awesome?

Sometimes I am so much of an introvert that it both scares and annoys me!

Yep, I think that this picture describes me to a T! I think the only one that is not necessarily true is "I can't stand small talk", that's probably not technically true, it's probably more correct to say "I'm not good at small talk". If people ask me questions and show interest in getting to know me I can talk no worries, but I struggle to instigate a conversation!.

Confessing this on the morning of the day that I am about to head off to the ProBlogger Conference scares the beegeeves out of me! I am nervous just thinking about it. According to the Facebook group there are 596 people going....five hundred and ninety-six....that's 594 people that I am going to be hanging around that I don't know... Well some of them I feel like I know quite personally but have never met them in person and feel like I'm either going to be speechless or a rambling mess and leave people wondering why the hell they bothered wasting all that time reading this! I think I probably come across as being so much more confident on here than I really am in 'real life'. I am reminded of the Brad Paisley lyrics 'I'm so much cooler online!"....

Over the years I have been told by people that are now friends that upon first meeting me they thought I was either shy or stuck up..or somewhere in between.When The Lounge asked 'what makes you awesome?' I am too much of an introvert to blow my own trumpet so I took to my blog Facebook page and put the shout out to my family and friends and for a while there it was touch and go and quite concerning...In 24 hours I only had one response... Buying gumboots to attend a 3year olds bday party in the rain!!!... (yep I did that!) If you missed those check out my Instagram! Just passed the 24 hours mark the introvert in me was wondering if that was all that really made me awesome and that maybe perhaps I am really not that awesome after all...sitting across from me I asked my sister why she hadn't written anything and when she responded...'I couldn't think of anything' I really began to worry! Eventually I got 2 responses:

Your determination, dedication, loyalty and caring nature.

followed shortly by..

You just are.....and that is more than enough.

from 2 very dear friends of mine. It's taken a fair amount of time, and whilst there are times when I wish I was more of an extrovert, I am growing more and more confident in the fact that I am who I am and I'm ok with that....and I am...

enough!

Linking up with Nessville for The Lounge this week!

for another update

A few months back I posted part one of this little story..a few people wondered what happened so here is the update...if you want to catch up you'll have to go back and read it here.....

The next night she bit the bullet and text him first, trying to be the spontaneous type he said he wanted (trust me, that was pretty spontaneous for her!). He asked what was going to happen now and she let him know that she really enjoyed his company and was interested to spend some more time together. It became apparent that between her work and his it was going to be difficult to co-ordinate some time. Eventually he offered to cook her dinner, but it would have to be at her place. She was a little nervous, but knowing that she was planning on moving very soon anyway, she figured that if things went bad he wouldn't know where she lived. So she agreed and a few nights later he arrived with everything he needed to cook her chicken and salad for dinner. She text him when she was on her way home from work to confirm the time that he would come over. He told her he was going to the gym first, would duck home for a quick shower and then would be on his way. He text to ask if she wanted him to bring her a red bull....ummmm wtf? 'no thanks' she replied a little unsure of what that was about. Dinner was lovely and once again the conversation flowed, they moved to the couch and watched "What happens in Bali" and cringed at the stupidity of the people on the show. They shared their own travel tales and she wondered again where this might lead. She did cringe at a few things he said but she thought maybe they were just nerves. When it came time to say good night she wondered what might happen....he grabbed his things and bolted for the door like he couldn't get out of there fast enough. She decided not to dwell on it and off she went to bed. Over the next few days they text back and forth, checking in on how each others days were but there was no mention of another catch up until he again offered to make dinner, this time at his place. "Dinner, My Place 7:30pm" was all the text read..."Sounds lovely" she replied....He had not told her where he lived..."You're going to have to tell me where you live??" she asked before it was almost time for her to head over.... "Should I be nervous" he responded along with his address... It was these random strange comments he came out with from time to time that made her frown and wonder if what his deal was and if he really was her type. Again dinner was lovely and they sat and watched TV with ease. She was a little concerned that they had gone from one lovely date out in public to cooking dinner and watching TV at home, felt like a quick shift and she wasn't sure she liked it. When it came time for her to leave she lingered at the door wondering if he might just try and kiss her...but he didn't so she left only to be caught stuck in her tracks by a possum sitting on the fence hissing at her. "It might jump on me" she squealed like a girl...he stayed standing at the top step laughing at her, not offering to come to her aide..."you'll just have to sleep over then" he replied..(not on your life she thought in her head!), thankfully his dog came to her rescue come running and barking and scaring the possum back up the tree and she bolted for her car, yelling "See ya" over her shoulder as she went. She had no sooner arrived home when her phone buzzed on her bedside table..Give me something!!:-/ ... the text message read.. I'm not sure what you mean.. she replied..3 dates too soon to kiss? Are you scared?... (Is he freaking serious, man!!!)...Have you tried to..? was the response she decided to go with. And it went on from there. She really started thinking that this guy was not for her. It was all feeling very hard and unnatural. She didn't like his sarcasm when she had to raincheck a catchup because of prior commitments. But how to tell him, she was never the ender, always the endee... They text back and forward for a few more days but she was going away over the weekend so she thought that would give her some time and space to reflect on what had (or hadn't) happened so far. When she returned he messaged asking hoe her weekend was, she told him of her exhaustion after the 5 hours drive home and that she felt like she could sleep forever, he text back offering for her to stay at his place...the actual read "You could stay at mine tonight? And I'd behave if you said so:) If I can go three dates without touching you I'm sure I can restrain the beast one night :)"....seriously! did he seriously just say that! Gross!!! "I have no idea how to respond to that" was all she could muster as a response. She decided to give it one more shot, one more date, in person, in public and see what happened. The majority of there contact had been via text messaging so she needed to see what if was like in person again. So a few afternoons later they decided to meet at a local pub for a quiet Sunday afternoon drink. She text him to let him know that she was on her way "Don't rush, I need to prepare my defence :P". She can't explain it but almost immediately she knew whatever this was had to end...She just had to work out how to say it. She sat awkwardly while he talked and told stories and she added her bit when and where she could but it just didn't feel right. He rambled on...and on...and on...about how he had a friend who he had organised to go out with one night who pulled the pin at the last minute and it was St Pat's day and because St Pat's day was really important to him and his friend gave him no reason for not wanting to go out, he ended the friendship...."You ended a 6 year friendship because he wouldn't go out with you on St Pat's day?" she questioned, a little gobsmacked... A little while after he had to go so once again they parted ways..."text you later...maybe" she said as she walked away....She didn't text him... for a few days she didn't text and neither did he...until eventually she got one that just stated her name... nothing more... Eventually she replied explaining the reasons why she didn't think this should continue, she explained that it did not feel natural and that it should not be this hard...she had grown annoyed by how he referred to her 'home' town and how desperate he was to get out so she thought it best they part ways.....She wasn't quite prepared for the slap between the eyes response that she got...."I feel like that you are not that keen to have a man and if you are I don't see the effort? I'm not sure you can be old-fashioned-take things slow, get the guy to make all the effort and then be independent too? I'd like us to stay friends, but it's felt like unless I'm cooking or paying I'm not going to see you? That's just how it felt. You've said yes when I've suggested dinner etc but if you like/d me there's no reason why you shouldn't suggest something...?"
She didn't respond right away, it took some time to process that...hello? he eventually said... she worked on a response 
"Sorry I was not what you expected and that you felt that way... I am who I am and my life is what it is and maybe that's why I am single...I can deal with that" she eventually replied and swore never to text him again...

And she hasn't....

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT!