Having Children

A topic I have given a lot of thought to recently. Especially after my nephew was born 2 years ago.

I have been waiting for my broodiness to settle in and I am surprised to discover that it hasn’t.

Growing up, society has conditioned us to believe that our purpose in life is to become successful in a chosen career and to get married and have children.

There is not much said about having a job that you love regardless of the lack of status and about getting married and having children.

My friend’s mother is constantly on at her about the 2 of us finding a husband and settling down. We tell her that we are going on holiday and her response is: “That sounds lovely, but you should be out there looking for a man”

I would love to get married to the person who I feel is right for me, I will never settle in order to avoid being a spinster.

Since my nephew was born, I have realised 2 things:

1. I don’t have to feel guilty for depriving my parents of being grandparents. They are amazing with Noah and I love watching how my mom especially has changed in her strictness between being a parent and a grandparent.
2. I have a child in my life. I enjoy being the awesome aunt who gets to blow bubbles with him and tickle him to death and kick the ball outside with him. I will always be in his life as he grows up.

I am also not totally ruling out the possibility of perhaps changing my mind about having children. I have however decided that should I want children, they must come naturally.

I have watched 1 too many times the stress that fertility treatment adds to a relationship – regardless of how strong that relationship is – and I will not subject myself to that.

IVF and AI do not deliver 100% results and the added stress is detrimental to all the treatments. I believe that everything happens for a reason and this is 1 of those situations where I believe that it will work out the way it should.

And heaven forbid I become 1 of those people who bitch and moan about being pregnant, tired and fat, but post a photo online smiling widely every second day and then after the baby is born complain that I miss my “pregnancy glow”

You have my permission to show me this blog post and then bitch slap me.

And I promise never to whip it out in your presence and breastfeed the baby. EVER.

0800-Mauritius

Tee and I are finally going away!

After many months of planning and monitoring the exchange rate, our plans have evolved from Malta, to Switzerland and Croatia and we have finally settled on Mauritius.

Our accommodations for the duration of our holiday:

The Ambre hotel:

Source

Our 700m long white beach:

Source

It's an affordable holiday and the added bonus is that it is outside the country so there is no way the office can contact me and ruin my trip.

When making the booking I put the following under Special Requests:

1. Twin beds
2. Hot Man to meet me at the door (in that case, ignore request #1)

Now if only that was the motivation I need to get my butt back at the gym. 

I have piled the kilograms on and I look horrific in my underwear, but I just cannot seem to muster the mental strength to make that decision… time is looming closer!!

I guess I am just so excited about actually getting a break away that I will only regret not losing the weight once I am actually there trying on my bathing suits and realising that I look like a beached whale.

Then I will down a few cocktails and not give a hoot anyway - CHEERS!

Travel Tuesday Part 4 - Japan

This marks my final instalment of my Japan Travel diaries. I have enjoyed this segment so much I am going to continue it and each time reminisce about a place I have been and the memories I have from that time.

On with Part 4:

These beautifully coloured containers are Saki Barrels.

Each barrel is a work of art and I wish I had taken the time to photograph a few of them individually.

Next to these barrels is a prayer to bless the farmers of Japan with prosperity.

Shibuya is the world famous pedestrian crossing seen in any movies/series shot in Japan.

For me, I wanted to cross this section because the boys from One Direction shot a video here and walked along this very crossing.

The feeling is so hard to describe. As the light changes, hundreds of people cross the intersection and it becomes entertainment just to sit back and watch a few light changes.

Everybody is civil and gets where they need to go without pushing or shouting.

The noise levels are pretty loud due to the high volumes of people.

There was a lovely Starbucks that overlooks this intersection (prime spot!) and we had dinner at a little Japanese bar where our menu was handed to us - in Japanese.

I asked the waiter where we looked Japanese because we couldn't understand a word written on the menu! 

It was drizzling slightly that evening and I had taken along my cute little tourist umbrella. Every 5 minutes it collapsed and dumped water on me while Lizelle (my work colleague) sniggered away!

She had uncanny timing every time! She somehow managed to turn around at the exact moment it happened!

This shrine was the epitome of Japan and I love the architecture of the Japanese structures.

These shrines are all constructed out of wood and painted.

Every couple of years the wood is all sanded down and re-painted. Some shrines have the ashes of warriors / saints hanging in a bottle/urn suspended from the ceiling.

It must be a beautiful sight.

Shun san was our guide from our supplier and resident photographer.

He snapped photos while were were not looking (most of them are shot from behind and not at all flattering), but the scenery photos were composed so well I commented on them alot.

I later found out that while in university, Shun had displayed his photos at the Tokyo art Gallery. Talk about talented!

The Tokyo Tower is a tall building / observation area that allows you to see over the whole of the city.

Inside was this gorgeous Swarovski replica in pink! I was so tempted to steal it, but spending the night in jail would have put a damper on my trip!

Japan was never on my top 10 list of places to go, however knowing what I now know, I would recommend visiting this country in a heartbeat.

The people of Japan make me as a westerner feel that we could treat fellow humans with so much more courtesy and respect than we do currently.

The food is tasty and worth trying.

The scenery out of the city is breathtaking and instil an inner peace that makes the soul smile.

The memories will live with me for a long long time and I hope that one day you will experience what I have.

To read the other 3 parts:

Part 1
Part 2

Part 3