home sweet home

well it's true, holidays are great, but there's nothing like coming home...

i arrived home yesterday morning after 34 hours of travel! not ideal, but i made it in one piece and in reasonable comfort (business class will do that for a girl!)...

it was freezing when i arrived home but has been blue skies and gorgeous winter sunlight so not that hard to adjust to...

had a lovely day with mum as i settled back into being at home and did just a wee bit more shopping (to finish off the holiday in style)...in fact i made a list of things i wanted to do for myself and in my home this year (whilst away - nice to have time to reflect and think about things i don't ordinarly have time to contemplate whilst here)....and so we started on that list!

balcony plants - tick!
new tv cabinet - tick! (and it's GORGEOUS)

there is a list that is now 2 items shorter, so a good start...


i had forgotten just how nice it is to sleep in your own bed, have your own pillow, on your own favourite bed linen, have a hot shower in your own shower, make your own tea etc etc...

so a few more days to unpack and get myself settled, and the routine of being home will re-commence...

i had an amazing holiday, saw a lot of my favourite people, went to some of my favourite cities, ate lots of my favourite overseas foods, but i really am glad to be home...

it's a bit bloody late...

that was my first thought when i read this article in today's SMH: 

http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/blundering-referees-sent-home-20100630-zjx0.html

oh well, another world cup campaign over for the Socceroos, who probably didn't play at their best, but nevertheless, don't want to be out due to crappy refereeing...

maybe next time!

a midsummer's day...

seems a perfect setting to say a final farewell to my beloved, and much missed granda...

so yesterday grandma and i drove up to west whitton (this is somewhere my grandfather loved with a stunning view over the yorkshire dales, where he honeymooned with my grandma and where they spent may happy days throughout their 69 years of married life)...

so on top of Pen Hill, overlooking the dales, his ashes were scattered...

so i got to say my final farewell to him and i looked around and thought seriously, could there be a more beautiful and peaceful place to spend the rest of time?

i think not....yorkshire is, despite it's weather, one of the most beautiful places on earth and i love coming back here...the people too are lovely as is the famed 'yorkshire pudding'...

soooo to my granda, who i miss, i hope that your final destination is one that in your 'after life' brings you much peace and contentment, and i hope that forever more you are the 'wandering boy' your grandma used to call you...

oh my, i have SERIOUS crush.....

so i'm at a conference in paris - the european coaching conference for 2010 and on the final day, some time after midday, i go to a session on 'leadership coaching' chaired by an american who claims to have 'a lot of coaching experience' (i'm always intrigued that people use a lot to quantify experience - what's wrong with 30 years or 20 years or x hours etc??) and 2 seats away from me is this amazingly good looking guy who seems to get exactly what i am saying....

so we talk briefly during the session, i leave and don't go back after lunch as i didn't find the facilitator of said group had much to offer me....he gave me his card on the way out (which i loved as it had a cute little money clip type thing on the top right hand side)...i have left my business cards en route somewhere - same place i have left my decaffeinated english breakfast teabags...groan) so didn't have one to offer in return but was keen to try and give him my details....

so imagine my surprise when late in the afternoon, after watching australia draw 1-1 with ghana (which basically means they are now out of the world cup...sob sob sob) i head down to the business centre to get another internet access card and on my way to the internet lounge (where i am right now) i literally run into him....thank you universe!

so, we greet each other as if we have known each other for years and he invites me to have a drink with him so we can spend 10 minutes catching up - i feel kind of bad as i am wearing jeans and sneakers (it was my intention to consider a last wander around the streets of paris) but he says no matter and we find a place at the bar in the hotel (which is very cool by the way)....

so he orders sparkling water and i order vodka (i haven't been asked by a guy to have a drink with him in so long i was desperately in need of something to calm my nerves)....and we chat...the 10 minutes turns into what must be nearly an hour and i can honestly say that it was lovely...

he was intelligent, funny, spoke impeccable english, successful, good looking and wait for it, married......what's that about i wonder? meaning not why is he married, but why is it that the universe continues to send me nice men to meet but they turn out to be married...

what i can tell you is this: if he was not married i would have spent all night talking to him as i felt the time would just disappear...

we have so much in common, including a love of buddhist philosophy, coaching principles etc...of course i have only spent a little over an hour with this man, but honestly, i really liked him...

i am not proud to say that until meeting and speaking with him i haven't had much experience with germans other than as a tourist in berlin - well this lovely man has allowed me to see possibly a real german and i can tell you that what i saw, i liked! a lot!

soooo now i am left pondering why we met (you know i believe that we meet everyone for a reason - i've blogged about this before) and wondering, actually hoping, that we will meet again....

soooo now i'm off to order dinner and pack my case and it will be hard not to spend the evening thinking about him and our short time together and what might have been if he were not married...

know how or being, i know which one i'm choosing...

so today i went to a couple of amazing talks! and yesterday i had been struggling to make the connection between the presentations and coaching, but today i had no trouble at all, as both of them had prepared presentations/talks that very much were about how to work with people in a coaching/therapeutic capacity...

so the first one was about the difference between 'know how' and 'being' and for a therapist who favours an existential/humanistic approach, this was right up my alley! this guy denis marquet (who's talk was in french but translated) was great....how to give up what you know in favour of simply being - i love it...so in order to do this he claims that we need to let go of our 'appearance', what we 'own' and what we 'do'.....

great stuff and will be great to be able to use with the appropriate coaching clients when the opportunity presents itself and for me, great to apply in my everyday life...i have long since gone beyond the days of trying to define myself by how i look, what i own or what i do, and in fact this time last year i was still grappling with the question of 'who was sarah?'....

having recently lost my job (even though i positioned myself for it), and my grandfather (he passed away the very day i left corporate life), and started to realise that the man i loved was not the right man for me, i found myself asking myself a large number of very important questions...

the good news is that i have come out in one piece, although at times i wasn't sure i would make it out the end a stronger person...but i did! what i know is what i want, and who i want to spend time with, and importantly what makes me happy...

so what i realised during this time, which had for some years been bubbling up, was that what i 'did' for a living was not making me happy and not bringing me any joy, and what i had (my beautiful home and the various other possessions) were also not bringing me happiness....so there began the journey of working out where that happiness comes from...

and through a combination of meditation, reflection and being really honest with myself, i realised that i am truly happiest when i am helping others...helping them to live happier and more fulfilling lives...the work i do now is just that and as such it doesn't feel like work - and what i mean by that is, it doesn't feel like something i do but something i am....i.e. it's not about what i know or what i do or where i live or what i own, it's about who i am...and just being sarah....

so to hear someone else talk about it was just a great way to re-affirm what i already knew - of course he put it very eloquently, so thanks to him for that!

don't you just love choice...

so the old me, the me who had all these notions of what i should do, is no longer here, and by that i don't mean that i am rude or treat people badly, or put my own needs ahead of everyone elses - nor that i don't adhere to expected social norms...

but tonight i am tired, i want to watch the soccer, i don't drink wine and i've been with people who don't speak english all day...so what i want to do is ditch the dinner, where there will be a wine tasting (i don't like wine...) and curl up on my bed with room service and watch england attempt to get their world cup back on track...

so that is EXACTLY what i am going to do...

let's hope they win so it's been worth it as no doubt i will be giving up some nice french food! which is one of the many plusses of paris by the way - the deserts at today's lunch were simply amazing - and i love the french - they have sort of tiny bite size pieces so you can have all 7 or 8 deserts if you wish and you still don't feel full! the american's could learn a thing or two from the french about how to eat food...

so there was a coffee/chocolate mousse topped with a bitter orange sauce, a vanilla creme with raspberry coulis, almond tart with apple, mini chocolate eclairs and some other delicious thing that i can't really describe...

sooo sure, i'm possibly giving up more great french food, but my soul and not my stomach needs to be fed, and a quiet night in is just what i want!

don't you love being all grown up?

so i'm thinking i'm going to take a date to my brother in law's 40th...

what do you think? so it occurs to me that about 2 months after i get home my brother in law will be having his 40th birthday bash in melbourne...and i don't have a date, obviously, that's one of the downsides about being single at times...

so i have a former flame who lives down there and we have already agreed to catch up, so i'm tossing up whether to ask him to accompany me to the 40th...what do you think? not a good idea?? he's a nice guy, we always got on well, figure it won't be too uncomfortable as we have lots of catching up to do...

so it's a thought...

my 2nd wife.... my second wife...

seriously, when is there a need to start numbering your spouses??

so this is yet another anecdote from my coaching conference...lastnight was the first night dinner, i was kinda nervous - being a clear introvert in a country where i don't speak enough of the lingo to understand most of what is going on, and being tired (i'm still on new york time), i had to force myself to go, and honestly, i'm actually glad that i did as i met 3 or 4 really nice women (thru my new friend julie) and we ended up having quite a laugh...

so picture this: we are in the depths of a conversation about how to handle a drop dead gorgeous client (it happens, of course it does and even though we are coaches, we are women and human...)...we got talking and another of my new friends, chantal, was telling us about a guy who propositioned her to come to the US and do some 'coaching' with him - all was going well until she told him that she would need a double room so her husband could come with her - suffice it to say, she didn't go to the US to coach this guy! hilarious...

so six women, at a table, in the corner, having a good old laugh and this short grey haired english man (who's badge says he's from poland) arrives at our table and says 'this looks serious'....truth be told none of us really knew what to say and i guess we may have been a wee bit embarrassed, as if he'd heard our topic of conversation i doubt we would have been too pleased....

sooo we do our best to accomodate him and talk to him and i say to him (hearing he has a very strong english accent) 'surely you aren't a native of poland'....and of course to him this is his invitation to tell his life story (which i have to say was not overly interesting....go figure!)....he tells us that he drove from there to here and i ask how long that took, he says 18 hours and i asked why on earth didn't you just fly, then he says he was 'instructed' (his word) to buy a heap of stuff in luxembourg and so the car made it easier...so then i say is your wife polish, and he says 'yes, my 2nd wife'.....

well all of us girls just looked at each other and raised our eye-brows...
 
so it turns out that he was on a trip with his wife of 25 years and half way through he turns to her and says "i can't do this anymore, i don't want to play this game" whereby he leaves and ups and goes to poland on the train which is where he met his 2nd wife.. 

i'm still wondering why he felt the need to tell us that she was his 2nd wife.....maybe it's a bloke thing? maybe it's a short bloke thing? perhaps he is simply racking up the numbers? who knows, but it amused me and the girls....

so there's always one right?

one dickhead i mean...there isn't there, or is it just me?

so i'm at an ICF coaching conference in paris and it's good but hard going - i speak a wee bit of french and by wee, i mean very little, but i try my hardest as i'm keen not to offend the parisiens...i'll come to them later...as paris is truly one of my favourite places on the planet....

so i digress...i was talking about dickheads! well yesterday evening's opening i ended up sitting next to a great lady named julie (originally from minnesota but now married to a dutchman and living in the netherlands), a scot named marianne who lives in brighton and next to her was neil, an englishman, who from the get go had an attitude...

it's funny, as a coach and therapist, i often get a 'feeling' about someone long before there is any real evidence to support the feeling - well lastnight despite my jetlag (which has been WAY worse today) and feeling a bit like a fish out of water (i am one of only 3 aussies here, and there are not many native english speakers even though the official conference language is english), i got a sense about him - i had seen them (the scot and him know each other) in the drinks queue, tried to strike up a conversation, he didn't seem overly interested....so how bizarre when i turn around and see that he's just 2 seats down from me - i said hi, this time introduced myself and made light of how funny he should be sitting near to me...he didn't find this funny at all...

soooo the evening wears on, it's clear he doesn't really want to get to know anyone other than who he already knows - this is fine with me - fuck knows, i don't need to know yet another snobby brit...later on the program included some 'happy yoga' - not many people's thing judging from the crowd's reaction but he left the room and when he came back i asked him simply if 'happy yoga not for the brits?'....he clearly misunderstood my jibe at the happy yoga woman (i too wasn't overly into what she was trying to have us do)...so he gives me the look (you know the one you used to get from your mum when you were a kid and you did something wrong) and says 'how judgemental'....

i had to laugh, really...what a dickhead! so imagine my surprise when i run into marianne today at the morning tea break ( i missed the first, and apparently best, session of the day due to not being able to drag myself out of bed at what would have been 1.30am new york time) and we got talking, she asked how i was, i said good and that i hoped i hadn't offended neil as he seemed to misunderstand my little jibe...she said and i quote 'oh don't worry about him, he seems to piss a lot of people off and is quite arrogant'....she also said that 'with him, it's always about him'...which got me to wondering just how that might impact his ability to be a good coach....

so i guess really i had the last laugh....

so really it is true, there really is always one....the question that i find myself asking is, how come they have to sit near me?

i wonder if the lindt chocolate did it?

so i flew with swiss air for the first time today, and i got to thinking how much i liked it, and not just because they have lindt chocolate available any old time..

so what i liked about it was really the whole experience, bar how cold their business class lounge at jfk was (but they all are right?)...

from the check in, to the lounge facilities, to how friendly everyone of them was, to the bed (i'll come back to that)...it was all good...the food was even good, and of course the never ending supply of lindt chocolates certainly works..


so i get on and i go towards my seat only to find that in fact i have, essentially, a window and an aisle seat - the new cabin has a 1,2,1 config in the business class section and i got a window seat - very happy...



sooo the seat really did got flat and without the crappy headerst that united had, i got two lovely blankets (altho didn't need them both) and to my surprise they are essentially a sheet sewn onto a blanket so that the smooth side can be against your skin - nice touch!



then, because busines class wasn't full i manged to get 2 pillows too, and all in all it was a good trip...



didn't make much use of the inflight entertainment but i will say that the choices weren't as good as united, but i guess that's to be expected...



overall though i thor4oughly enjoyed my trip, it was more than comfortable and i would definitely fly with swiss again!  i also noticed as we flew into zurich just how beautiful it was, so perhaps switzerland might become a future holiday desintation!



au revoir....for now anyway!

bye bye new york

ah new york, new york...so i had a relaxing morning, excluding the 90 minutes i lay awake from 5am...i got up, had breakfast, finished packing the case (ended up bringing the spare red bag!) and then wandered up hoboken's main street, washington, and found a place that does a mani and pedi for $25 - can't really go wrong with that!

then a stroll back up the same street, a final farewell to the empire state building and my town car arrived....what is that you might ask - well it's a posh name for a car service - in fact, not even a posh name, but the type of car that turns up!!

so the trip to jfk went without incident and having now watched some soccer, brazil up 2-1 against north korea, NZ drew with whoever they played...i wandered - found a swarovski store and could not go past a beautiful dark blue crystal ring - bought it, got a discount, and a free pendant necklace - what a nice surprise :-)

so now i'm going to get a cup of tea and enjoy my last hour or so in the 'city' before i fly out to paris via zurich...

have never flown with swiss before - so far so good - everyone is very friendly and there are loads of people watching the soccer - i love that it really is a world game, bar the one clearly american woman who tried to change the channel so she could watch the lakers - i don't think so!!!!

sooo until next time new york....

gutted...

so i didn't think we would beat germany in the soccer, and i knew it would be a tough game, but to lose 4-0 was just too much...

we went into the city to an aussie pub on 79th - we were there by 11.30am, had brunch, then sat ourselves at the bar for a perfect view of the soccer....drank and chatted for the 3 hours prior and then had to sit through the devastation...

we just did not look like winning, even from the get go!

sad sad sad.....never mind, maybe a better game against Ghana this coming Saturday.....

new york new york...

that's what was playing when we left yankee stadium after the yankees beat the astros 9-3...woo hoo!

i had the BEST day - i enjoyed every minute of it - getting to the game on the subway, taking in the atmosphere, seeing derek jeter hit a home run the first ball of the day (his 250th no less), then jorge posada hitting a home run with loaded bases, and then another jeter home run - it just doesn't get much better than that...

got some great photos, had some good laughs and i had the BIGGEST piece of pizza i've ever had...

and then we went to the yankees shop and i got some stuff - wouldn't be like me not to buy any momentos! so i got 2 great shirts and a new yankees cap...and of course a fridge magnet!

soooo i'm really glad that i waited to go to a yankees game as my first baseball game - not only because they are my team but because i wanted to be able to be into it, rather than just a spectator, if you know what i mean! it was great...the atmosphere was great, i met a coupla nice people who were really happy to explain stuff we weren't sure about, and of course the yankees won!

so new york new york indeed, and perhaps just a wee bit of 'jeter man all the way'...

strawberry pie anyone?

i can't believe it's been almost a week since i last posted! i finally got over my jetlag....so i left chicago last saturday and flew to syracuse where p.a. and elliot were there to meet me - we had a good drive back to ithaca, chatted loads, and then a wonderful 4 days together....

went into downtown ithaca (not much there i have to tell you) where other than a lovely gift shop where i managed to buy some earrings and a lovely red necklace, it really has nothing to recommend it...nowhere near as nice as the surrounding towns such as cayuga hills where my friends live

i saw squirrels, hummingbirds and chipmunks in their back yard - there were wild turkeys on the roadside and the odd deer here and there...

spent some time with sarah (their daughter) and her 3 boys (jonathan, matthew and patrick) - matthew is just the cutest - cheeky with beautiful big brown eyes and a smile to melt your heart!

did a bit of shopping (/of course) and stumbled upon a beautiful amethyst, topaz and diamond ring which i am sorry to tell you, just had to be bought! it's beautiful and will be a lovely reminder always of my lovely friends and visits with them in times to come....

we did the usual things, had dinner, ate cake (p.a. makes the best strawberry pie), did a bit of shopping, caught up on old times and in between times, drank tea etc - it was, as it always is, a fantastic stay with wonderful people who i love spending time with...even got to see the cayuga hills waterfall and cornell university campus (huge!)...

so the strawberry pie - i have to talk about it because it was simply AMAZING, and i now have the recipe so i can attempt to re-create it when i have a girls afternoon tea in august....pastry case, then a million strawberries chopped and mixed with an amazing strawberry glaze - left to set and served either as it is, or with ice-cream or cream...simply delicious!

so now i've moved on from ithaca to new york city, but thank you to p.a. and elliot who always make me feel welcome in their beautiful home and look after me so well....

could be the jetlag.....

or it could be the realisation (as i walked back from the art institute of chicago) that i am doing yet another big trip solo...kinda thought when i met ben that i wouldn't have to be doing that - of course as our relationship wore on it became obvious that we probably wouldn't do this sort of trip together....guess i'm just feeling a bit sad and a bit lonely and a long way from home....

tomorrow will be better - even though i have been staying with my cousin and his family (who have been fantastically welcoming) i am longing to be with people who know me really well...

so tomorrow i'm flying to Syracuse to stay with good friends in Ithaca and that will be great - can't wait to see them both and even though they are sad that ben and i broke up, they are delighted that i'll be coming to visit....

so hopefully as the jetlag wears off my mood will improve....

otherwise have had a good and busy few days - into chicago both days on the train....yesterday walked a long way in search of a gallery i'd previously been to, only to find it no longer there! and today i went to the art institute of chicago to see the famous Seurat (worth seeing) and there was a Matisse exhibition on - not all of his best and most famous stuff but a couple of ones i like that i hadn't seen before so all good...

ok signing off now and hoping next time i log on the blues will have won!

s
xx

i made it to chicago...

well i made it - not exactly a difficult trip in business class, but still long....

arrived early, ie ahead of schedule and both flights were smooth....got to talk to some interesting people along the way...

with my cousin neil and his family now and have had a very warm welcome...they live in a great place in the western suburbs of chicago...

when i finally dragged myself out of bed at 11.15am local time i trained into town and wandered around - reckon i've walked more than 7kms today - no wonder my legs feel sore!!

went up to 900 michigan in search of the gallery where i bought some art last time - alas, it has closed down :-( so i can't say that was good news....but a good (and very long) walk, and then back again before meeting my cousin Neil at Willis (formerly Sears) Tower before another train ride and a lovely dinner...

bed now, although the 2nd night is traditionally the worst, so let's see how we go!

adios!

i'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when i'll be back again...

actually i do! i'll be back on 29th june...in the meantime it's here i come chicago, new york, paris and northallerton...

woo hoo! got everything done, had a good sleep and now i'm about to board (gotta love the business class lounge where i can use internet for free...)

take care my friends - i'll be updating as my trip unfolds

sar
xx