Another Year Gone By

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Happiest of New Years to you all!

So I didn't quite get to posting in between my two trips like I had hoped, but that's only because I was too busy rolling around in holiday spirit and enjoying time with loved ones, just as it should be.

As it's time for another (another!?) new year, I can't help but think about the amazing one that just passed. 2014 was a big year. I got married (woop!), watched friends get married, moved back to Canada, travelled to Burma, Nepal, around China, Chicago, France, Bahrain and Cuba, had an existential crisis when I thought I'd never find work, found work, made friends, and learned to make my own lip gloss. It was big guys. And almost all of it was amazing. I'm a very lucky human.

There have been times in my life where I have managed to recognize the feeling of pure and simple happiness. Times when I think "this is it". I often race through experiences without taking the time to pay attention to how I feel and just assume that if I don't feel bad/sad/mad, I must feel good or happy. And I probably am most of the time. I'm a very optimistic person. However sometimes, I know that "this" is happiness, and I love those times because they make me smile without realizing and they often sneak up when you're not even paying attention.

In the past year I have felt that feeling:

• On my wedding day - this is a time when I was paying attention. This may seem like an obvious one, but I was very conscious of the time speeding by and so I tried as hard as possible to reflect on the feeling as it was happening
• Sitting on a catamaran in the sun in Cuba - the whole trip was a blast, but right then it was simple and awesome
• Sitting on a noisy, dusty, bumpy, sweaty, colourful, and crowded bus in Nepal listening to my students totally let go and belt out every imaginable, safe-for-work, top 40 song in existence. 
• Waking up to find my cat curled up on my belly snoring away
• Drinking mimosas with my family
• Lounging in a friend's backyard after recently returning from China

Perhaps there were more, but these are the ones I can remember most from the last year, and I feel pretty darn lucky for it.

Over the last year you dear readers have really been into this hiking trip to Hong Kong and this guide to packing light, this classic Mac & Cheese, two ginger drinks in the form of this Elderflower Lime Refresher and this Ginger Beer Cocktail, and these Pumpkin and Carrot Muffins.  I thank you for your interest in these things and I hope you continue to find items of interest on this space - my goal is to offer things of delight, but I'll settle for mild curiosity if I must. I'm hoping that over the next year, with the start of this new job and continued settling in to Toronto that things will only go up for this little blog, but who really knows. As long as I've got adventures, I'm good - and I hope you are too.

So until next time, have a happy new year!