Tag Archives: celebration

Ways To Create A Life You Don’t Need To Escape

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A friend posted this article with 11 ways to create a life you don’t need to escape. I was thrilled to read that I have done many of the recommendations on the list.

#1 Moved to Grenada. Also studied and trained in England.

#2 I always live below my means, except when it comes to travel.

#3 I have tried meditation. Actually, Oprah & Deepak’s meditation series continues next Monday and I have signed up again.

#4 I don’t try and prove anything to anyone but myself.

#5 I can’t recall my childhood self looking into the future. I was living in the moment. Didn’t really focus on anything much back then, except playing the piano, then later, being in the theatre. The only thing I remember was that during a lunch time conversation in high school, the year 2000 came up and I calculated that I would be 36 then and remember thinking “gee, that’s old!”

#6 Though I don’t feel I have a life which I want to escape, when I infrequently do, it’s SCHEDULES I want to get away from. I HATE having to HAVE to do something at a particular time. Flexible schedules all the way!

#7 I have definitely struggled with recognizing that small changes do make a difference. Sometimes I think “go big or go home.” I used to think that way about exercise actually. Used to think that if I didn’t have 90 minutes, it didn’t make sense to go to the gym. That was until I discovered high intensity interval training where you could get a good workout in 8 minutes.

#8 I don’t do this I don’t think. I follow a hodge podge of people on Twitter, from all spheres with different interests. I am into learning everything about technology right now so those gurus interest me.

#9 Yes, I do stuff. Sometimes maybe it is not what I SHOULD be doing at that time, but hey…..gotta do what makes you happy.

#10 Joining Instagram recently and (again) following random people which include photographers, has made me start yearning for living somewhere else obscure (so not a major international city) in a big country. Those photos of fall especially, by a lake, are just drawing me in.slap back to reality Yamfoot….winter is coming next.

#11 OMG I have a story in my head everyday all day! Actually I started to write my book and then put it down, now I don’t know where the first few pages are.

Anyway, this was a good list. I think I passed.

 

Pre-birthday views and celebrations

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Normally I would have started the celebrations from 1st October and in fact, when I turned a significant age a few years ago, I celebrated for the whole year. This year, work has kept me busy, so it started late, on Friday, with lunch at the hotel I used to work at. Yesterday was the beach and today I was back for lunch at the hotel again. Here are some scenes. No captions necessary…though I did add some 🙂

Grenada is one seriously beautiful island….like Jamaica.

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Grand Anse Beach

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Panoramic shot

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Healthy eating

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View from the lunch area

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Lagoon by dusk

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Teeny tiny cake

Make a wish!

Make a wish!

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Beautiful sky

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Birthday cake’s in the bag

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Last weekend, I was feeling industrious so picked up a box of cake mix in the supermarket. I don’t normally buy these things. Having worked in hotels all my life, sweet treats were available whenever. And at the last place I worked, I would have been guaranteed to get a cake…..chocolate. Here’s last year’s version.

Chocolate Cake with a nutty coating. Yum!

Chocolate Cake with a nutty coating. Yum!

Ok, so my camera wasn’t very good.

I should have said cakeS, because there was a second one baked by a friend.

Another delicious cake, this time with coffee.

Another delicious cake, this time with coffee.

Since I no longer have the hotel option, I thought I’d bake my own cake. But why so early Yamfoot? Well, this weekend I might not have felt like baking.

Duncan Hines really is moist!

Duncan Hines really is moist!

There was a lil crack in the cake. Guess I didn’t grease the pan enough. I decided to make a layered cake, but did not buy frosting because that would have been just too much sugar. So I whipped up some yogurt with frozen blueberries. Here’s the remnants of that mixture.

My low sugar version of frosting

My low sugar version of frosting

When I was whipping up the frosting, I realized that as it was yogurt based, it couldn’t stay outside. So I cut up the cake in smaller pieces, wrapped each in foil and they are resting comfortably in the freezer. That was also a measure to prevent me from eating all at once!

In a few days, I will be whipping out one of the packages and saying “happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeee”. Look on the sidebar to see when’s the birthday. Usually I don’t work on my birthday but no choice this year. I will probably be at a business lunch, so not too bad.