Monday 28 January 2013

Sex and the city. Or what's left of it.


Tonight I was watching Sex and the city. Good old Sex and the city. Carrie being hurt by mr. Big, parties and cosmopolitans, girltalk, gorgeous women and handsome men.
The last time I saw it was years ago.

But as I watched the episode where Carrie speeches on a wedding and mr. Big walks out to answer his phone, I wondered … (imagine a zoomed in shot of a computerscreen where a sentence appears while typing)
… where is my Sex and the city life?

Do not get me wrong, I am very happy where I am right now.
But this good old Carrie-life had something… exciting. (And depressing, I admit.)
We’ve all been the girls lying in bed, crying night after night, ‘cause of some stupid guy.
Having so many great high heels, in different colours, and still never having the right pair to match.
Dressing up to get to a party or just to go out and have fun.
Having drinks with your girlfriends. In my case, mostly gay friends. Try being a dancer without having gay friends!
Chasing your own mr. Big. And marrying him.

I even blogged back then, about men. About al those stupid men.
At nights where I stayed in, I watched my DVD box of Sex and the city. Glass of wine, texting with my friends and relaxing on the couch.

But when I watched it tonight, I wasn’t relaxing. I was multitasking. After a day of hard work for our own business, I was doing – lots of – laundry, the dishwasher, cleaning, cooking… and… I still had Christmas decoration in our living room, so I packed it up and stored it in the attic. I even redecorated the toilet.
And no, I didn't do it during this one episode. It took me three hours. But the point is, things changed around here.

I do not miss the stupid men or the endless cocktails though. I love my life. But what is this feeling? I don’t know.
Guess I’m just in the next chapter of my life.
The one of the Desperate Housewives.
I’m lucky I love that show too.

From  a sex and the city girl to a desperate housewive.
But always in company of good glass of wine. Cheers.
(Picture taken in Rome, Italy)


Dare to fail!


Ok, stay calm. Relax. Go with it. Breathe, for goodness sake. I can do this. Go. Don’t think about, just take a deep breath and gó.
I. Can. Do. This.

Recognize this speech? It’s the peptalkspeech I say to myself all the time. Do you have a peptalk for yourself too?
Life is full of chances, risks and challenges. And to achieve all those things, you have to try to be the winning team. Always go for more, peptalk yourself, go for the gold. Never quit. Believe in yourself.

I believe in myself.
But yesterday*, I failed. And I was so mad at myself, so pissed and incredibly disappointed. Really, am I quitting?! Yes, I was.

My name is Sabrina and I quit diving.

My hubs and I are in Egypt as I’m writing this.
We’ve been here a couple of times before, so we’ve seen some things. Snorkeling in the Blue Hole (that’s like swimming in Finding Nemo), riding camels, meeting Bedouines, a jeepsafari in the desert.

Me, on a camel in the desert in 2008. Ain't I charming.

Sunday 27 January 2013

Disaster dive


So we went diving in Egypt. It wasn’t my idea, but after seeing so much in Egypt, this was one of the things left. Let’s try!

We got picked up at the hotel and survived a ride in a small bus with too many people in it, in the Egyptian traffic (the rules? There are no rules. Like our travel agent said, it makes calling while driving a lot easier. I like to close my eyes in those busses).
At the diving center, we signed a contract saying nobody there would be responsible for my death, and we got a wetsuit and flippers. The rest would be on board. Everything went in Egyptian style. Very slow and very unefficient.
When we finally got on the boat, we met Alladin, who’d be our dive instructor that day. Yep, his name is Alladin!

So here we are and Alladin shows us the tank. How to breathe, what to do, what not to do, the signs. It seemed very simple, just breathe through your mouth.
I can do that.
He’ll do the rest, he says. He shows two buttons he’ll press. One for going up, and one for going down. “If you want to sit on the sand, you only sit like this.” (imagine a Arabic accent). He shows a position on his knees.
The sand? Like, in the bottom? As if I’m going to the bottom, are you out of your mind?!
“If you have a problem, do this (he does a horizontal jazz hand next to his face) and show me where the problem is.”
Problem? What problem?

Saturday 26 January 2013

Ducks and snow

Not sure why I am posting this.
I don't like ducks and I don't like snow.
But here it is anyway!

#lazysaturdayafternoonpost

I've also found footsteps of a cat. We don't have one.

My sunny post about my diving adventure in Egypt will be online this week! Stay tuned!

Friday 4 January 2013

High five for holidays!


Back with a High five post!

What a lovely Christmasbreak it has been. 
As I told you in my previous posts, hubs and I went to Egypt on vacation. 


These are my holiday high fives:

1. Presents!
We celebrate Christmas with our family earlier. We got awesome gifts!
I got the dvd boxes of Private Practice and Grey’s Anatomy. Not a surprise, ‘cause I ask for the new season of Grey’s Anatomy every year with Christmas. But I'm happy with it!
And my hubs gave me a fantastic Ipad Mini. I LOVE that thing! It fits in my purse :-)

2. Our Christmastree.
We didn’t have a real tree this year, but I made it comfy anyway with a small fake tree and decorations. Cute, right?

3. Mini Santa.
Our nephew. We bought him a mini Santa pajama.
Cutenessssss!


4. Egyptian Christmas.
This is always a big event! Music, dancing, lots of people in a huge tent. And an incredible dinner…
Not to mention the cocktails at the pool, and being in the sun all day long.

I know, I'm obsessed with taking pictures of food...
5. New Years Eve.
We celebrated it with some dear friends. And there was fooood!
Bruschetta, spinach quiche, home made herb butter, fish and lots of other good stuff. And of course a lot of wine, prosecco, champagne and white chocolate liquor…

Hope you had wonderful holidays too!

I wish you all the best for 2013 and hope you keep following my little blog.

Happy new year!!



Egypt: flying to the sun, part 2.


I’m always excited when we fly. Not good-excited. Scared-excited.
This Christmasbreak we went to Egypt.
Want to read part one first? Click here.

So, we’re in the plane. People behind me push while I can’t move forward, because of the people who are standing in the aisle to put their bags away. And they are taking their time. Like, really. First their own bag. Then the bag of the partner. Then 3 minibags from three minipeople. Then the coats. Then one mini person forgot something in his minibag. No, not thàt bag, mum.
Finally we reach our seats. I saw it immediately, these are small seats. I have to push my handbag through the hole between my chair and the chair in front of it. The same hole where my legs will go in a minute. For 5 hours. Oh gosh.

After putting our coats above our heads, we try to sit. My knees are kissing the front seat. I’m not big, so these seats are really small…
But hey, I’m going to sunny Egypt!
I prep myself by putting in the earplugs, putting gum in my mouth and getting a book out of my bag. I have to bend in a very awkward position to get something out of my bag. But I’m going to Egypt.

The purser is telling something we can’t understand and I feel the plane taxiing. I watch the safety instructions.
And we take off.
Not sitting comfortable, not seeing ground under us, feeling like we’re going to fall. I feel nervous and scared combined with the joy of finally flying to the sun. Just relax.

I’m wondering what movie they will play today. There are nice big screens hanging in the aisle.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the tv doesn’t work in this plane, but you can hire an Ipad for 5 euro’s. You can play a couple of games and you can watch Mr. Bean.” Really? Mr. Bean??
Thank goodness my hubs brought his Ipad with movies and I was so clever to put a few episodes of Private Practice on my laptop.
Wait a minute. Why isn’t it playing? Oh no! It’s not working. And the dvdbox is in my suitcase…

Ouch!!!! The man in front of me puts his chair down roughly. In a reflex I move my legs a bit to the side and he puts it down even more. The top of the chair is now four inches away from my face. Are you kidding me?!
I’d never tell him not to put his chair down, but you can at least warn me that you’re going to put the chair in my face and hit my legs with it, right?

Thank goodness for snacks and drinks. I brought snacks from home and bought drinks in the airport. A small can is € 2,50 euro’s in the plane and I got two cans for € 3,00 euro. Still overpriced, but hey, I’m going to sunny Egypt.

Trying Private Practice again. Still nothing.

The man in front of me is quite a dancer. He keeps moving, so I get hit by the chair all - the - time. My hubs is smarter. When the 8-year-old of moving man tries to put his chair down, my hubs doesn’t move an inch. “Sorry man. I can’t move anymore, I’m stuck”.

Let’s try sleeping.
I know it won’t work, ‘cause I never sleep on flights. But since I’m here, I’ve gotta try. I close my eyes.
Minutes fly by. Two minutes, to be exact. Ok, tried it. Not working.

Starting my laptop again. I’m sorting out some pics. Listening to music.
But the chair in front of me is now hitting mr. Apple instead of me, and that makes me even more annoyed!
Sunny Egypt, sunny Egypt, sunny Egypt…

Three hours later.

I’m so pissed!
No tv, no Private Practice, out of snacks, a chair in my face, moving man in it, can’t sleep, it’s a freaking two hours left flying and I can’t move an inch!

Keep. Breathing.
Just relax.

My hubs hugs me and turns on Annie for me on the Ipad. I love Annie. I used to watch it every week when I was little. “The sun’ll come out, tomorrow…”, she sings.
She’s right. The sun will be coming out tomorrow!
I will be in sunny Egypt!
I’m already feeling better.

The view from my sunbed. It's a hard knock life.




Thursday 3 January 2013

Egypt: flying to the sun, part 1


(The next couple of blogposts are written over the past few weeks. So I’m back as I post these, but wrote it over there.)

It’s 18.52 PM, about 16 degrees (celsius). I’m sitting in a comfortable chair on the balcony. Not wearing a wintercoat. I can hear the ocean, I can smell it. It’s dark, so I can’t see it. But at daytime, the ocean is my view.

I’m on vacation in lovely Egypt. Hal-le-luja.
My hubs and I try to go to a sunny place every Christmasbreak. We are not good winterpeople. I hate rain, cold, storms… Snow? Like it one day. After that day, get the hell outta here!
But the wheather doesn’t do as you say.
So I get outta here.
With my lovely husband.
Packing my bikini.
Enjoying the sun.
Getting a tan in December.
Christmas in a sundress.
No work, no emails, no stress.
What’s not to love?
Oh right. The plane.