Neither here nor there

I feel like I'm in limbo at the moment. So many loose ends of a life to tie up. A whole bunch of new strings to tie. Trying to do both at the same time.

We're pretty much taking the clothes on our backs and starting a new life from scratch. Which is scary and exciting. For now, I have to pack away the current life we've got. Give things away? Store them? Sell them? It's a big job.

The farewells are starting too. Saying goodbye. Doing things for the last time. Trying to squeeze it all in and enjoy the last few weeks here too. Imagining what our new life will be like.

I'm definitely in transition. Cause I feel like I'm neither here nor there.

36

Apparently the average age of a Wikipedia user is 36.

Welcome to average.

Happy birthday to me. Cx

Breather

This weekend we are taking a little break away. The kids are at home and we're at Kangaroo Valley celebrating my birthday and taking a breather before the big move.

Originally Skip and I were going to come on our own but we decided we wanted to share some quality time with a couple of friends too.

It's gorgeous and green and Australian and I'm soaking it all in. I'm trying to fill every pore with it so I can take a little bit with me.

Something has hit me this weekend and that is I'm going to have to say goodbye. To family and friends. And that's going to rip my heart out.

Big news. Huge.

If you read here regularly you've probably guessed that there is something going on behind the scenes. It must have been my completely unsubtle murmurings.

There is in fact something big going on. Something exciting. Something life changing. Something blog changing.

Recently Skip was offered a new job, a big promotion. This new opportunity also meant that we would have to relocate. We couldn't say no.

So in approximately four weeks we are packing up our little family and moving.
Where? To the MIDDLE EAST! And I don't mean Bondi Junction.

We're moving to Dubai.

I know. I can't quite believe it myself.

The next few weeks are going to be a flurry of packing, goodbyes and trying to adjust to the fact we are moving to the MIDDLE EAST. The freakin' middle east.

I have no idea what we are in for, but I know it's going to be one of the biggest adventures of my life.

Stayed tuned!

Disco queens

Last Friday night was the school disco. I ummed and ahhh'd about going, then at the last minute one of the mums said: "c'mon it'll be fun. I'll help you with the three kids."

Lil and Goose spent the afternoon preparing their best glam disco outfits complete with facepaint. Goose dreamt about which boy she would dance with.

Finally the hour arrived and the girls excitedly walked to school. We pushed through the crowd into the hall and into my worst nightmare. The room was pitch black except for the twirl of glowsticks and a psychadelic light show on a screen.

Immediately the two girls disappeared into the black heaving mess. The music pounded my ear drums. It seemed we were in some kind of hardcore nightclub or rave. I was transported back to a club I frequented briefly in the Cross in late 1997.

Back in the olden days we had a school dance in year 6. We wore pretty dresses, did the heel & toe, the pride of Erin we may have even jumped around to Katrina and the Waves.

School discos have become a lot more sophisticated it seems. The DJ had the five year old girls grooving to Single Ladies and Barbie Girl.

Each time I passed a mum I knew I heard this uttered: "this is so much worse than I was expecting".

By the time we left both girls were sobbing. Exhaustion and sensory overload. I may be a little old fashioned but I think there's a place for the old heel & toe and not trying to make our five year olds, sophisticated 25 year olds. What's wrong with jumping around to One Direction with the lights not so low?

Fifty shades of grey

No I'm going to write about the erotic e-novel, it's much more obscene than that. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself... Let's start at the beginning.

On Sunday, my head was really itchy. Being the mum of school-aged child I thought I better check in the mirror and see if there were any critters in there. I didn't find anything but saw just how bad my roots were. I was toying with the idea that I should just go au natural and let my dirty blonde color grow out. When I saw a couple of hairs that didn't have any dark roots.

"How weird that those couple of hairs never grew so the light blonde stayed in the whole length," I thought.

Hold on. That doesn't make sense.  Why would I have hairs that just don't grow. Maybe they're just naturally platinum hairs, really fair like I had as a kid. It's possible that I had a few of those. Then it hit me. Oh. My. GOD! No, it couldn't be...

I pulled one out. Oh god, it was. A grey hair!

Now, it shouldn't be a shock. My dad went grey young. My grandmother went grey in her 20s. I quite like the silver hair look. George Clooney is hot. I even like silver-haired women. Or so I thought, until I saw that grey.  I couldn't have grey hairs. I'm young, really young. Grey hair looks good on other people. Like Skip's nan.

This grey has come at a bad time. I turn 36 next week. It can't be possible that I'm four short years away from 40. I'm now officially in my late 30s. Again, I'm not one to be scared of aging, I'm more scared of not aging. It's just sometimes it gives you a shock that time is passing so quickly. In my head I'm like 26, actually I could even be 19.

So there you have it. Late 30s, wrinkles, grey hair. I never thought it would happen to me...

So tell me, have you found some greys? How did you react? Is it time for me to get a purple rinse?

Blog slog

The blog has been a little slow of late, I'll be the first to admit it. I have been struggling to find time to blog and then when I've had time I haven't been motivated. Rather than bore the few people who read with something that even I don't find interesting I just haven't blogged as much.

I haven't been active in the 'blogosphere' lately and haven't really felt part of 'it' for a while. I haven't been excluded, more that I haven't included myself. That has made me realise how more effort is required to be a blogger. For the past few years, it hasn't felt like an effort, it's just felt like a natural way to spend my time. I was also startled how quickly you can drop out of it too. And that's fine, I haven't had the energy or the inclination and for me the number one important part of blogging was my enjoyment.

There have also been lovely bloggers who check in on email and Twitter (thanks Eleanor, Linda, Cherie and P23) and people who always read and leave lovely comments (thanks Julie, Shar and Nat).

There's also been some big stuff happening in life that I haven't been able to write about and so that has been made blogging feel less enjoyable for me. Blogging has always been getting my thoughts out onto the page and when you're consumed with something it's hard to find other topics to write about.

Annnnnnnnnyhoo, I've just kind of stepped away from it and that's been fine. Life has been busy enough without it.

Then yesterday, some friends said to me: "What's going on? I miss your blog."
I just sighed and said: "I just haven't felt like writing."
And they kept encouraging me to write. So I'm writing. It's nice to feel missed. It's nice to feel like someone enjoys coming to visit here. To be part of someone's daily ritual is a real privilege.

So, for you two girls (and myself), I'm getting inspired, because I really do love writing here.

In the next few weeks I hope to have a whole new look here, which is going to be a lot of fun!

Thanks, so much for reading. I really do appreciate it. xxx