Around three years appears to be a sufficiently long enough time for you to forget how tedious it is to deal with potential buyers after you’ve listed something for sale on gumtree.
As TheUniverse is my witness, we will have a tidy garage again.
While we were on holiday, I hit the TWO YEAR (!) no alcohol anniversary and today marks a whole 25 months (!).
writing “2 years” in the sand on a beach in thailand is a pretty excellent way to celebrate
I’m pretty pleased with this experiment and I can’t see any reason at all to stop. If you’re considering quitting – even for a little bit, why not give it a crack?
I found these books (and authors’ blogs) pretty helpful reading and various points in the “journey”. You could do worse things than give them a read – that’s about as evangelical as I’m going to get.
+ Sarah Hepola: Blackout – Remembering the things I drank to forget
+ Kristi Coulter: Nothing Good Can Come from This
+ Rebecca Weller: A Happier Hour
I’ve also taken much inspiration from the excellent ganching who, although she doesn’t write about it over much, has been doing this much longer than I and has managed remain hip and interesting and doesn’t live like a cloistered nun despite not taking drink.
Amongst other things like health and sanity, I often like to think of sobriety in terms of money not spent. My quite rough calcs of an average of one $30 bottle of wine a day** X 760 days = $22,800.
Rather horrifying isn’t it? I suspect this does somewhat enable those holidays to exotic locations to write in the sand.
Today also marks 347 days since I ate chocolate – that particular challenge has been just about as difficult as you’d imagine.
xxx
** sometimes much more, sometimes much less – both price and frequency, but $30 a day would likely be the low average.
for sale in our hotel in bangkok – price was appropriately eye-popping
A Delicacy Created Through Relentless Passion
The years in the making, Black Ivory Coffee is the rarest and most unique coffee in the world. Naturally refined by elephants, Black Ivory Coffee beans are broken down by the elephants’ digestive enzymes, resulting in a smooth tasting coffee without bitterness.
Thirty-three kilograms of coffee cherries are required to produce one kilogram of roasted beans. With only a few hundred kilograms produced annually you are one of the few people to experience the coffee.
As a result of our commitment to elephant welfare, a portion of the proceeds from this envelope of coffee will support the elephant care giving families in Ben Ta Klang, Surin, Thaliand.
I hope you enjoy experiencing Black Ivory Coffee as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it.
Blake Dinkin
Founder
blackivorycoffee.com
Broken down by the elephant’s digestive enzymes?
xxx
** kopi luwak – truly the world should be overrun with civets given the sheer volume of this for sale in Vietnam alone
14 years ago today, I had been at SML for just 4 days and thought I’d likely made a big mistake taking the gig.
14 years later and I’ve now spent more than half of my working life there.
(My views on the place remain largely unchanged).
Action items for the upcoming 11 day break (which seems VERY far away right now):
+ Annual jigsaw puzzle(s)
+ Yoga workshop (4 mornings)
+ Retrofit inseam pockets to at least 2 dresses
+ One of: swim / bike ride / hike
+ Back up data (including, but not limited to, photos) – YOU SHOULD DO THIS TOO!
+ As little time as possible parked mindlessly in front of the laptop / tablet / phone
+ Low-key celebrate two rather big milestones
+ Set intentions for 2019
need more of this in my life in 2019
There was a tennis court practically outside our front door in Hua Hin. If we were ever going to do this challenge, there was never going to be a better time.
We hired equipment for <$5 (which they delivered along with icy cold water, towels, the works!), I borrowed Don’s swim shorts and a golf cap, and we were good to go!
I played a fair bit of tennis as a child**, but if you’d been watching us, you’d have quite some difficulty believing either of us had ever picked up a racket before. We were so dreadful it was comical.
We improved (somewhat) as time went on, but after our hour I still could not hit anything that came in over shoulder height and Don was still prone to forceful returns that sailed way over the fence and into the jungle.
We had loads of fun though and will likely try to get another game in on future vacations. But I’m not likely to run off and join a regular comp any time soon.
One very pleasing observation was that despite it being very hot and us running around like crazy trying to return wild shots, we were not at all out of breath – which I guess says something good about our cardio fitness.
xxx
** we lived quite close to the public courts and would go hit balls about if we were bored, or play tennis is the street with the neighbours
When you think you’ve used all the coat-hangers in the house and make plans to acquire more, it’s probably worth a brief scan of the wardrobes first.
a small selection of hangers
Fortunately (and unusually) I didn’t action those hanger purchasing plans before I looked.
Yesterday as planned I skipped the SML Xmas party to spend some quality time with myself.
Started out with a well-needed yoga class and then a trek to the big design market via train and a somewhat lengthy walk in the pretty glorious summer sunshine.
Bessie and I attended the market last year**, but this time I was solo. In addition to doing recon for merchanising ideas for Bessie (who has a market stall next weekend), I was planning to simply take in the pretty things and not really to buy anything.
Yeah, we’ll draw a veil over those non-spending intentions, but in my defense, I probably could have spent more.
just a couple of things
really neat show bag for a mere $20 – but will I actually use these items?^^
fab resin necklaces from polka luka – and freebie bracelet
awesome ruby zing iced-tea from rabbit hole tea bar
And un-photographed small secret gifts for Joan and Bessie (shhhh!)
When I was on my digital magazine library binge earlier in the week, I devoured all the available issues of peppermint magazine. I was really taken by the clothing from seaside tones – particularly this fab black maxi dress and this awesome grey skirt. I bookmarked both and sat them in a couple of browser tabs – and would flick back periodically through the week to test if the appeal lasted.
When I was doing the final circuit around the market before heading home, I turned down an aisle and wait, what? wasn’t that the black dress I’d had in the browser tab for most of the week? Clearly the universe was trying to tell me something. So of course I bought it. Fortunately for my wallet, they didn’t have the grey skirt on the rack.
It was such a nice morning! The stallholders/makers were so enthusiastic and positive and there was such a good energy around the place. How delightful to be spending time on creative endeavours you’re passionate about!
After arriving home I headed out again and grabbed some pots and bamboo plants from the hardware store for the upper balcony, smashed out the grocery shopping and pottered about.
So much nicer than spending the day with my curmudgeonly SML colleagues!
xxx
** Unsurprisingly, almost 12 months later, I have burned precisely none of those candles.
^^ This buying things and not using them needs some exploration – not to castigate myself, but to either rein myself in or use things!
One of the perks of our resort in Hua Hin was access to roughly a billion magazines via the press reader app.
It was utterly wonderful reading – so many international versions of Vogue! Crazy-luxe Asian home and decor mags! The hilariously wanky Wallpaper!
Well, utterly wonderful until my tablet very quickly ran out storage space, ground to a halt and wouldn’t play nicely until I deleted everything including the app.
But I was hooked on the digital magazine experience and rather disappointed to leave it.
Once home, while renewing my library books online, I noticed a little menu item on the top of my screen. What, now? Free digital editions of magazines!? Truly, libraries are amazing!
There’s definitely not the breadth of delights available to me in Thailand, and the rb digital app is super-buggy, but I’ve been having a fabulous time browsing through all sorts of things.
Tomorrow is the SML Christmas party, so being the curmudgeon I am, I’m taking an annual leave day instead.
Honestly, these days I really have limited appetite to stand about for hours and watch my colleagues get utterly plastered. So why put me (or them!) through it?
Instead, I’ll start the morning with early yoga and then visit the big design market, followed by grocery shopping and some pottering.
Infinitely superior!