Sensory Stimulus - Sound

Let's be honest.. it's not often I walk without being plugged into my ipod... there are times I've left my earplugs in even after my ipod's died, just to avoid crazy homeless people trying to talk to me...
And believe me... THEY DO!!
Case in point : My gay male friend & I, walking home after dinner the other night... Walk past a homeless man who comes up and goes "So what's it like having sex with a woman?"
Our reply : *silence* keep walking, avoid any eye contact...
Homeless guy : Something arather about something bleeding... then goes on with "Oh well, you look like you're past it and in your menopausal stage anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter..."
We keep walking to try get away from him...
He then yells out : "I'll pray for you!"
Uhhhh... thanks?!

Ummm... yup... If I hadn't been so paranoid about him stabbing me with dirty junky needles I probably would have pissed myself laughing at the fact that of all the male friends I've ever walked with, it had to be when I was with a GAY male friend that we get accosted about "our sex life"...

Annnywhos!

This post is actually about the different things I have heard today...

Please note, I am sitting at "Mrs Macquaries Chair" overlooking the Sydney harbour, Harbour Bridge & Opera House... (just to paint you a picture)

The interesting conversations at home with Kevin about WOOF'ing and farming and where we source our food... (that's a whole other post!)

Conversation with Rohan about travel, hoarding, life overseas, electronic music, work etc & the sounds of cooking, chopping, boiling, frying while he made us lunch...

Walking past flats and hearing random snippets of tv... or radio.... Wondering what they are watching or listening to.
Basketballs bouncing against the concrete court.. the scuff of trainers.. two men talking...
Two young children speaking Japanese on the playground...
An ibis flip flapping as it took off in flight...

Coming across a contemporary art exhibition entitled "Scream" at the old Gunnery, the random sound snippets of conversation, commentary & sound effects of the exhibition...

Birds tweeting & chirping, conversing in the Botanic Gardens

Walking past people who have their ipods blaring and wondering what they are listening to...

The crew setting up the stage for Carmen... walkie talkies buzzing.. men & women talking/shouting...

The sound of the waves lapping at the sea wall
Sea planes and helicopters overhead
Commentary from a Hop On/Hop Off tour boat as it goes around the Harbour
Screams and yahoos from the jet boat tour... giving them a wave..
Sounds of the couple exchanging kisses in the sun..

Sound of tourists lining up to take photos
A wedding photographer barking instructions to the bride & groom on the rocks..
Conversations of the pairs of friends out enjoying the sun...
Spanish, Chinese.. Filipino..?

Sound of boats putt putting around the harbour...
Speed boats thudding up and down on the chop..
Squawk of a duck..

Phone ringing and reminding me it was time to leave!


Do you ever walk around and listen to the world around you?
Do you ever just eavesdrop on people's conversations?
Or do you usually have headphones on??

Sensory Stimulus... Smell..

I arrived in Sydney today and as I was walking to meet my friend for dinner I walked past a bunch of restaurants/bars but it was when I was walking past blocks of houses/flats that I couldn't help but pick up the different smells sneaking out of open windows....

Some were familiar and some not so, but they all stirred a sense of wonder... What are people having for dinner?!

I also LOVE the smell of laundromats.. something about the smell of a hot press seems to make my heart happy.. coming into a room where someone's been ironing invokes kind of the same feeling... I couldn't tell you why I love the smell of laundromats but I have since I was little...

The same with freshly cut grass.. although I think that is because it reminds me of sunny Summer days... growing up... when Dad would be out mowing the lawn, which usually meant I could then go out and play in the yard..

I'm pretty sure I like the smell of laundromats & freshly cut grass more than fresh baking.. Something about those two smells just hark back to my childhood...

And one thing I've noticed is that laundromats the world over.. All pretty much smell the same!

Do you have any smells that make you happy? Anywhere you walk past that make you stop and take a deep breath?? Do you share either of my favourite smells or do you think I'm a total weirdo??!!

Google Reader No More

Howdie Doodie!!

Is anyone still out there??!! According to blogger I've not blogged since Dec 2nd, 2012... Hmmm... I wouldn't be surprised if you all were goneskies!!

Well, I am still alive and kicking and adventuring it up.. I've just not had the brain power to sit down and blog.. I think the combination of working only very sporadically and general moving house and travelling.. my attention span and brain power have completely diminished to naught! I've not even kept up with my blog reading at all!

Anywhos.. in case any of you didn't know, Google Reader will be shutting down July 1st.. which left me in a bit of a lurch... although I've not been very actively blog reading.. It was always reassuring to know that when the time comes or when I have a spare hour or two to fill... that gReader would be there... blogs galore... all at the ready for my reading pleasure! So I had a mini panic when I found out one day rather soon there would be gReader no more!

So I somewhat reluctantly signed up to bloglovin' and lovin' it I did not... It's somehow too girly and maybe too full of fashion blogs or some such... it's just not really to my liking...

I then decided to try out Feedly on someone's recommendation... and although I don't like it as much as gReader... I think it shall suffice and once I get used to it and have a wander around and figure out how to "do" stuff I will probably quite like it...

I am however rather sad that I have lost all my "tags" from gReader as they don't seem to have imported into Feedly (all my subscriptions synced when I signed in to Feedly with my gmail account)..

If anyone knows how I might get my tags back??!! You'd be putting a HUGE smile on my face!! Or do you use another programme which you think I might like?? I'd love to hear your suggestions!

In the meantime, make sure you've made the switch before July 1st so you don't lose all the blogs you're following.. including lil' ol' me..!!

Till next time..

Greetings from sunny Morocco!!

@ Albakech House, Marrakech, Morocco

Think I would blog a lot more if these were my 'working conditions' everyday!! Or maybe not?? As I would just want to laze around in the sun and accomplish a lot of nothing at all....

It has been a hectic few weeks.. we have finally moved out of our crappy little flat with super awful landlords/letting agency and into our own place!

I am officially a home owner! Waheyy!! Bit of a scary process, buying a house/flat/apartment/dwelling..!! But the estate agent was brilliant and The Mister is related to a solicitor, so it all went rather easily and somewhat according to plan!

Apart from the bit where The Mister had booked flights for the weekend that we were supposed to move house!! Yeah... that part... not so much with the good... But alas, we got everything moved from one place to the other with the help of a couple of fabulous friends.. I stayed up until 3am scrubbing the fridge and cabinets in the kitchen so we could get at least some stuff unpacked.. we had 3 hours sleep before the alarm went off and we had to be up to get to the train station..

My plans to nap on the train were largely thwarted by the sun rising right into my face.. then the mad hustle bustle of peeps squeezing onto the train to (I can only assume) go and get their Xmas shopping done. Why people don't just do their shopping online..! (tho that's another post altogether!)

The flight from Manchester to Marrakesh was fairly uneventful.. we were picked up at the airport and brought to the riad. We chilled out in the room for a while then went out for a late dinner.

The next day we caught a bus out to Essaouira, on the coast and spent 4 nights at the Riad-Al-Medina which was owned by Jimi Hendrix. We had a great time exploring the little port town and even managed a 2 hour kitesurfing lesson, which was more kiting than surfing! We didn't even get near the water!! It's hard work learning to fly those kites tho, I'll tell ya!

I really loved Essaouira, it's so much more laid back and relaxed than the madness which is Marrakech.. I actually managed to get some shopping done which I failed at miserably last time while we were in Marrakech as I just got sick and tired of all the touts and people yelling at you, trying to "help" you or "guide: you etc etc. Ugh!

We've really only used Marrakech as a transfer point this trip as it was mainly to go out to Essaouira, but one place I had wanted to go last time but never made it was the Majorelle Gardens also known as the Yves Saint Laurent Gardens.. Well, we finally managed to get ourselves there yesterday and it was well worth the effort.

The gardens are gorgeous and filled with all sorts of plants from around the world. I believe Yves Saint Laurent actually has his ashes scattered there.. Within the grounds is also a Berber Museum as well as a cafe, boutique and mini gallery of some of YSL's collage cards which he used to send to his friends & clients.

We missed breakfast this morning as The Mister's alarm didn't go off and have resigned ourselves to enjoying the Moroccan sun for the last few hours before we're back off to the airport and to the land of cold & grey.

We probably could have squeezed in a quick trip to the Medina but we are out of cash and I'd rather just chillax than face the frantic souk.

I always promise photos and posts of my trips away and I've yet to actually get any of them up.. I've started quite a few posts about my trip to Turkey but somehow just not found the time to finish them and get them in any coherent order. Hopefully once the new flat is unpacked and I feel more settled, I'll get into a routine and a headspace which is conducive to writing rather than ranting....

We shall see! We have no internet at home until the engineer comes on the 17th, so maybe without the distraction of facebook and its games, I'll be more productive as well.... HA! I can only hope....

I hope this post finds you all well... until next time..

Halloween Round Up

Howdie Party Peeps!

Halloween started fairly early for me this year as I was put in charge of decorating my work... It was the perfect excuse to go to Poundland and buy all the fun decorations I usually can't justify buying for myself! Though I somehow didn't get any photos of the front window I decorated or the fun things I got to put up all through the shop... #bloggerfail

Another bonus about working at a super fun shop for a super fun lady - getting paid to play with stamps!! I got to make Halloween themed tent cards to accompany some of our marshmallows to go to a wedding!

Things I Covet : Zara Plaited Shopper

I don't know about you... but I'm kinda in love with internet shopping... just a little bit... or maybe a bit more than a little bit...

Anyways... when boohoo.com sent me a 20% off code because I hadn't shopped with them in a while.. I thought I'd just take a peek and see if there was anything to tempt me... So 3 maxi dresses in the shopping cart later.. I thought I'd take a quick look at their bags... as a girl can never have too many handbags! Where I came across this...

Which reminded me of this bag from Zara... 

which I LOVE!

But my current budget doesn't quite stretch to £80 for a bag... Even tho it's Buffalo leather and would last me forever...  I've had my eye on this bag since the start of the year when I saw it in Taiwan.. (should've got mum to buy it for me!) 

Anywhoos, with my 20% off, the knock off bag is only costing me £20.. so maybe I can placate myself with it in the hopes that the gorgeous Zara bag might one day go on sale and end up in a price range I can a) afford and b) justify!

If the knock off bag is really horrible, I at least have 3 maxi dresses for my troubles... and I love me some maxi dresses!! With our impending trip to Morocco & my birthday trip in Jan to Lanzarote, I'm sure I'll get lots of wear out of them... and even if they aren't so great.. I can count on free returns! :)

Are you a fan of internet shopping??

Or do you love going to the stores??

Do you share my bag fetish?!

Inspiration & an update on my Scentsy journey...

It's been a while since I posted some inspiration and I came across these on my facebook travels today, so thought I'd share.. :)

I think I need to learn to do this!!

After 8 months of having my Scentsy 'business', I've finally gotten what I consider a 'real' proper order! My friend Fin had ordered a buddy from me and I'd gotten a few things to send to friends but I hadn't managed to sell anything to someone I didn't know... (or really even to anyone I DO know!). I was getting rather disparaged and thought I would have to give it up but thought I would make a 'last ditch effort' and drop some catalogues at hair and beauty salons in the neighbourhood offering them a trial. After a week or so, I hadn't heard back from any of them. And maybe I could have been more 'proactive' and called or stopped back in but I don't like to be 'pushy'... as I hate when I feel pressured into something. (Even if that something turns out to be positive!)

But then I got a text from a girl who had obviously picked up the catalogue while she was getting her hair done at one of the salons! It took almost a month of texting back and forth to find a time, but early last week I packed a bag, got on a bus and knocked on the door of her flat for my first ever Scentsy 'party'. Not much of a party as it was just her and me! As somehow, I'd not thought to tell her to invite some friends until the night before.. oops! But I think it was kinda great as I wasn't nervous at all and didn't feel like I had to 'perform' in front of a group of people. She was so lovely and I spent 2 hours at her flat just chatting and it felt just like hanging out with a friend. Not only that, I walked out with a fantastic order!

I text to keep her updated on the status of her order and she told me she's been promoting me to all her friends and wants to book a party near the end of November so her friends can do their Christmas shopping!

It had been hard as a lot of the girls seem to do very well with their business right from the get go, there are awards given out for people who manage to sell a certain amount within the first 15 and 70 days of joining. Which is announced and celebrated within the facebook group we are all part of, but it can get rather disheartening knowing other people have achieved these goals and I haven't.

But each person is different and each journey is different, so I'm just rejoicing in having completed my first order and hoping that things just get better from here on in!!

Truth!!

{All inspirational photos found from various sources on facebook}