OK, ok, ok, I hear ya!

I am giving into peer pressure and the guilt of lurking and reading ~10 blogs daily, and so am offering up my own little musings on life, for the record. Maybe by doing this I can continue to "find myself" and track my journey as I go.

So what am I talking about??? Well, to cut a long story short, two fantastic ladies that I can now call friends, Tara and Emily, organised a fabulous trip to Thailand, where we could relax, spend some time away from our 'ordinary' lives and navel gaze (introspection) = spend some quality time reacquainting ourselves with what we want to be and where we want ourselves to be going ie "find yourself". What was I looking to get from this trip? Well first and foremost some quality down time... a bit of reading, embroidery and relaxing. Switch off the brain and not think about the house work, the garden and its weeds, the many UFO (unfinished objects) projects and all those things I 'should' be doing. Secondly, I was hoping that maybe the creativity of those brilliant women around me might rub off.

Did I experience the above? Yes - and much more. After the many many weeks of hype, discussion, giggling and emailing, I was getting ready for the trip with almost a sense of dread. Everyone seemed so excited, and by this point, I was really "over it". I think I had hit the high point of excitement, and was now more nervous than anything else. What happens if I don't like these girls? What happens if I feel the powerful need to escape? What happens if they all turn out to be giggly, blonde, bouncy cheerleaders types? You know the sort - who have perfect lives and have never experienced a bad hairday, the working day from hell or horrid, hormonal moodswings. Or worse still, they might simply be, better than me. Oh the nerves! I've never enjoyed girl camps, slumber parties, or trips with the girls to the dayspa/shopping. I think I missed that gene at birth.

But I couldn't have been more wrong in my pre-judgements. All eleven women were intelligent, creative, funny and genuinely beautiful souls. They accepted me for who I am, without any idea of where I came from, and what I was about. I love the fact that only 8 days brought us so close, and I can now call them friends. Like Mic - I've always had more guy friends than girls. They have always seemed easier to me. Maybe I'm just too lazy to spend the time to form close friendships - casual guy friends aren't hard work and don't require emotional commitment. But I digress, this is the first all-women retreat/escape that I've been on since I was in high-school - and I surprised myself by only having a minor "i need space" meltdown, and enjoyed the company of each and every one of the women there.

Don't by any stretch of the imagination think that I intend this blog to be all soul baring banter about how wonderful my friends are (even if they are incredible). No - in fact, it will probably be a little more about the mundane, day-to-day things that I appreciate and am enjoying at present.

For example my chickens, Matilda and Penny! They were the best Christmas gift a girl could ever get. They are smart enough to tell me when their food bowl is empty and warn me when there are predators in their yard. The fact that I can now under stand chicken talk is a little disturbing - but hey, until I get kids, these are my surrogate children.

Oh and Lilley Manor?? This is the name of my house - my pride and joy. When I bought this place - all on my own, after renting for some time, I decided it needed a name. It is a little transportable, dropped onto a winter swamp, but it was all mine! (and the bank's). So names started being bandied around - Castle, Cottage, Villa, Daisy, Rose, Duck... A friend suggested Lilley Manor - very tongue in cheek, but I like it.

I promise posts will be shorter in future.