One of the catalysts for deciding to change the work that I did and more importantly the way that I worked was to give myself some flexibility with my days. I used to dream about not having to get up at 5.45am to get my exercise done before work, and when we…
As I sort and pack away the Christmas decorations for another year, it’s a good time to reflect on our first Barossa Christmas, which also marked the first Christmas in many years that we weren’t overseas, packing to go overseas, having a baby or working. This meant I had loads of time…
Happy New Year! I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the start of the new year. Sadly in my new home state of South Australia, and in Victoria, the new year has started with devastating fires, which certainly put life and our own worries into perspective . I…
The festive season is well and truly here. I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog as I enjoy the last minute present buying, cooking and preparations. In the last couple of days, we’ve also been very lucky to have visits from old friends, including my best friend and bridesmaid and her…
Today marks exactly six months since we left Hanoi. On some days it seems a lifetime ago but at other times, I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown. In the past 4.5 months we have really felt welcomed into the Barossa both by people who are recently arrived like us…
Well, December is here, and finally we can start counting down the sleeps until Christmas. The advent calendar is up and the boys are enjoying finding a small gift each morning (apart from this morning when I forgot to fill it – oops). Last weekend we went up to Adelaide and were…
As I have written before, my career change was as much about changing my lifestyle and the way I worked as it was about the need to change my job and move out of the government sector. As I write today, I’m doing something I haven’t done enough of but that I…
I’m sure the fact that Christmas is so close is starting to fill some people with dread but I am excited, even though I can feel myself being sucked into the “oh no, I still have so much to do” mindset. But when this starts to happen, I remind myself just why…
It’s just over five months since I had my last day in the office in Hanoi. In some ways it feels a million years ago, but in reality, it has gone pretty quickly and if I am really fair, we have crammed a lot in – and I did need to take…
When we started to consider me leaving the public service and thus Canberra, it was sort of a given that we would look at a wine region so that Simon could resume his career in the industry. We had always talked about spending some time in a wine region after our posting…