Time to make my return to the world of writing

If you have been wondering where I suddenly disappeared to after posting my last piece, then wonder no more. I´d like to reassure my readers, some of whom have kindly been leaving me messages during my rather lengthy departure, that I´m still alive and that, more importantly, I´m back. This time for the long haul.

That said, I feel it´s only fitting that I fill all you lovely readers in on what I´ve been up to the past few months. I smile to myself as I type the words “few months”, realising that next month marks my year long absence. Once the dedicated little blogger, accustomed to posting once, maybe twice a week, I became quite disloyal to my followers, I hope you do forgive me.

Right, time to get the ball rolling and answer that big burning question: why has my absence been so lengthy? I won´t bore you with all the details, just introduce you to the wonderful new journey I have found myself on.

I moved
As you might remember, if you can cast your minds back to almost a year ago, I was living and working in Córdoba. An idyllic city that managed to steal my heart from the very moment I stepped foot on it´s narrow, little streets and, if I´m honest, still hasn´t given it back to me!

Well, brace yourselves. I know this will be hard to believe, considering how much I raved about Córdoba, but I no longer live in the dreamy city I grew to call my home. I made a tough decision in May of last year. After a rather gruelling period of weighing the pros and the cons of living in Córdoba. I did it, I made the decision. I decided to move nearer to my family in the Valencian region. After a difficult year I decided that being near my loved ones would be the best move for me, even if it meant leaving a part of me behind.

So I did it; packed up my things, handed in my notice and started applying for jobs. Such a daunting experience. I had become so comfortable in my surroundings, both in work and my social life, that the sheer thought of change terrified me. However, I stayed strong, did what had to be done and, guess what, I´m still here to tell the tale!

Some very wise people, who these people are I will never know, have said that a change is as good as a holiday. And, while it hasn´t all been a bed of roses, I´m inclined to agree with them. Change brings up so many experiences and emotions that you never knew you could have, and they´re not always positive.

Having made a huge move before, when I left my beautiful home country to come to Spain, I thought that I had it down. I naively thought that all it involved was moving my mass of possessions from one part of the country to the other. Oh, how foolish of me.

Instead of being filled with hope and anticipation, like I had experienced in my last move, I was filled with a mixture of fear, uncertainty and apprehension. I was leaving behind a life that I absolutely loved and diving into the unknown without the ability to swim-terrifying. However, this time I knew that, unlike the last time, I had my loved ones around me to mop up the puddles of tears and kick my ass into gear when it needed to be.

That said, I´ve finally started to raise my head above the water again. After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was only a mere three months, I´m settled. The puddles of tears have dissipated, the fear has subsided, the uncertainty – gone. In its place, thank god, lies a new love, going by the name of Murcia, and a new found hope and happiness. At last, I´ve come out the other side and, you know what, it might even be better than the life I have left behind.

So, that´s it. That´s all I have to offer you as an introduction to what comes next.

You may be wondering, what exactly have I achieved since my last post, apart from bettering the economy with the amount of tissues I needed to mop up the tears. Well, that´s easy: happiness, peace and hope.

I left behind a city I loved, friends who supported me through the toughest time in my life, a job I loved and security but I´ve gained so much since. I´ve gained a new found love for yoga, a passion for photography that I always knew was there but never gave myself the time to pursue, a wonderful new job and a bunch of great colleagues to go along with it, love and support from my family, some new friends, new activities and adventures and lots of visits and Skype chats with my friends.

Córdoba will always have a strong hold on my heart. The beauty of the city, the amazing adventures I had and the fantastic friends I made and miss terribly. However, now I´m ready to let go of my feelings for it ever so slightly to make room for the new adventures I´m about to embark on.

Where does that leave my blog? Well, I´m excited to be back writing again. It´s amazing how much you miss writing when you have to take a break from it. I´m filled with a new found enthusiasm for my blog again. I also have a lot of exciting adventures coming up which I can´t wait to share with you all. So, for now, to give myself a chance to get back into the swing of things, learn how to write again and all that jazz, I will only be posting once a week.

Welcome to Murcia

I want to thank you for your continued support and understanding during my absence. I look forward to sharing my journey with you and to reading about yours.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you in my next post.

Giana xoxo

Time to face reality: I only have time for one post a week!

Image taken from google images, click here to be brought to the page.
I feel so blessed, as I´ve said numerous times before, that I have met so many nice and caring people through the blogging world. I´ve been missing for a while as I´m struggling to find a balance this work year between work, new courses I´m doing to improve my career, writing blogs and finding time for my family and for me. It´s times like this that I really wish there were more hours in a day but I have to learn that I´m only human and can only do so much, take a leaf from my own book, one day at a time, and learn to stop trying to achieve everything. Who knows maybe then, when I stop putting so much pressure on myself, I might actually achieve what I want to achieve!

I guess what I´m trying to say is I´m not telling myself that I´m going to write three posts a week anymore because what ends up happening is: I don´t get time to write three, end up feeling guilty and therefore end up not writing anything. So; I´m reducing my goal. I going to write one post a week as a minimum and if I get time I will write more. I think it might actually work out better for me, if I don´t have yet another deadline to meet then I might actually be more productive! We´ll see!

Thank you to everyone for being so patient with me and understanding that sometimes, no matter how much we love doing things, we just don´t have the time for our hobbies.

I´m starting out on a good note today, I came down with a bad cough and sore throat on friday which forced me to take a day off yesterday and do absolutely nothing. It´s funny how our bodies let us know when we´ve had enough even when we don´t realise it for ourselves. Anyway, today I feel all the better for it, I feel rested and ready to write. So I plan to make the most of this new-found energy and write a few posts, The first one, being this one, to explain my new approach to this blog, the second one being the weekly photo challenge as it seems to tie into my new start and the third one, one which is long overdue, an awards one to thank and acknowledge those of you who constantly support me, even when I don´t always have the same dedication as the rest of you; no matter how hard I try!

Okay, enough rambling, and time to get on with my writing but first a spot of lunch with some friends! I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday, wherever you are, and that it´s a relaxing one!

As always, thank you for reading,

Until the next time,

Giana

xoxo

Two birds with one stone: Award time!

A special thank you to Coreen over at Picture Perfect Memories for this nomination!
A special thank you to Eva over at Healthy Glow Nutrition for this nomination!

It´s happened again, I´ve been nominated for the “One Lovely Blog Award” and also the “Family of Bloggers Award”. I can honestly say I´m overwhelmed with the support and encouragement from my fellow bloggers, I´m honoured to accept these awards from two bloggers that I admire, Coreen and Eva.

Coreen is a very talented photographer living in Cape Town with her husband of 17 years and her two boys. Coreen´s blog is an inspirational collection of photographs each with a story to tell. It is obvious from her work that she puts her heart and soul into each shot and I would highly recommend checking out her blog!

Eva is “a mother, holistic nutritionist, and lover of all things healthy and delicious.” Eva’s blog is a passionate blog and again, like Coreen´s, inspirational. Eva’s appreciation for life and passion for motivating people to lead healthier, happier lives is evident from her work and makes it a pleasure to read. If you are interested in finding alternatives to unhealthy foods then I recommend checking out this blog, there is also the most amazing recipe for donuts, who doesn´t love donuts?

As I have received the “One lovely Blog Award” three times now, I decided to do both of these awards together; however, I will follow the instructions for the Family of Bloggers Award instead of the “One Lovely Blog Award” just to offer some variety! I hope you enjoy! Here it goes:

For the Family of Bloggers Award:

  1.   Pay credit to the one who nominated you
  2.   Place a link to the one who nominated you on your award page
  3.   Using the anagram of the word ‘FAMILY’ tell us the attributes you bring to the family of bloggers
  4.   Nominate at least 4 other people to be in your family of bloggers and notify them of their nomination.

I tried using the anagram of the word family; however, perhaps due to my inability to do anagrams, failed to come up with any attributes from the word. I was able to come up with the following: fail, my, aim, fly, if, I´m, fay and mil. Hardly attributes that I could use so; I decided to take the letters from the word and use them to form adjectives instead. ( I actually found it rather difficult to describe my blog, I´d never really though about it in these terms before!) So; I hope you can forgive me for not using an anagram but instead inventing my own approach to the task! Enjoy:

Friendly: I would like to think that my blog is a friendly and welcoming blog. I´m passionate about Spain and my life here and love sharing what this country has to offer. I welcome all comments and readers and if I can help in any way with information then I try!

Alive: I try my best to capture the spirit and passion that is Spain, sometimes I fail, sometimes I don´t but one thing´s for sure my passion is most certainly alive whether it comes across or not!

Memoir: This blog is most certainly a memoir. I provide an account of Spain from my personal experience and share it with my readers. For me Spain, through the good and bad times, has been such a positive life changing experience. I never want to forget that and I also want to encourage others to experience it with me!

Inspiring: Not through my words, obviously I don´t think what I write is inspiring, but through my actions, Two years ago I was inspired to follow my dream and come to Spain, while it hasn´t always been a walk in the park, it has been one of the best decisions I´ve ever made. So I would hope that my experience might inspire other people to follow their dreams, life is too short not to, and anyway, what´s the worst that could happen? You end up right back where you started expect this time without regrets!

Light-hearted: I would hope that my humour comes across in my blog. I´ve yet to learn so much about writing and expressing myself through my work. However, I hope that my posts don´t come across too serious!

Young: My blog is still very young, growing, developing and changing. This is something that it has to offer, the fact that it´s not perfect, never will be, but constantly changing and trying to be the best it can be!

Blogs I have chosen to nominate: This is in no particular order, I have limited my choice to eight so I have left out some of my other favourites, I´m sorry! I have also left out blogs who I know would rather not get involved in awards. So without further delay here is my very narrowed down list of the blogs I have nominated, congratulations and if you choose not to accept I will not be offended!

The Island Traveler.

Another day in Paradise.

East of Málaga. 

Thirdeyemom.

Picture Perfect Memories.

Focused Moments.

My Sardinian Life/ La Mia Vita Sarda.

Miramiandmog. 

Have you ever received a blog award? What do you think of them?

As always, thank you for reading,

Until the next time,

Giana

xoxo

How lovely: Look what´s come round again!

A big thank you to Eva over at Healthy Glow Nutrition for my second nomination!

It´s happened again, one more thing to remind me how great the WordPress community is. It´s hard to believe that I only started this blog a few months ago; I´ve made so many new friends through the community that it seems I´ve been here so much longer!

I have to say one of the best things about blogging, apart from being able to record my life journey, is the other bloggers. When I started this blog, as I mentioned before, I did so for myself; to help me remember all the key moments in my life and to share them with others.

Now; my blog is so much more to me. My blog not only helps me focus on the positives in my life but has also opened so many doors for me, it´s introduced me to so many amazing people all over the world who, without the blog, I would never have met. So thank you, my new-found friends, for your constant encouragement and support, it means so much.

Thank you to Eva over at Healthy Glow Nutrition for kindly nominating me, it´s an honour to receive a nomination from such a lovely person. I´ve only just come to know Eva but, from what I´ve read in her blog, she is a very talented blogger and, with Eva nominated, I´m in good company with my nomination.

Seven things about me:

Number one: I´m addicted to taking photos. I´m not a very good photographer, nor am I lucky enough to have a good camera.  I´m still dreaming of the day I hold a cannon digital SLR in my hands, any model will do, I´m not fussy – yet! But I love photos. I spend my whole life taking snaps, mainly because I have a terrible memory and fear I´ll forget but also because it brings me so much joy, it relaxes me. So; amateur and untalented as I may be, it makes me happy and I´m afraid I won´t give up happiness for anything!

Number two: I´m a book-worm who forgets everything I read! I´m afraid books are most likely wasted on me. I absolutely love reading, always have. I spend hours reading but sadly, I also spend hours forgetting. I wish I was one of those people who was able to retain everything I´ve read, I do try to train myself. I know my favourite books, I´ve read them over and over in an attempt to retain the content but still fail to retain it all. I will give you the jist of books but never retain the detail!

Number three: I´m a teacher. Most of you will know that but those of you who are new to my blog may not. I teach english as a foreign language: yes I´m aware that I should have a better grasp on the English language than I do, seeing as I teach it, but I´m getting there! Life is a constant learning path, what knowledge I lack now I will gain in the future but I´ll constantly be learning, nobody is perfect, nobody knows everything!

Number four: I dream of travelling the world. It´s always been my biggest dream to travel the world and some day I will! I have started in the most beautiful country so there´s no stopping me now!

Number five: I love dogs and miss mine so much! All through my childhood we had dogs, four dogs in total. Sadly they are no longer with us and I miss them so much. I wish I could have dogs again but sadly, with my lifestyle, it would be cruel to have a dog. I live in an apartment, spend a good twelve hours a day at work and at weekends I´m never at home. To have a dog you need to have time to spend with them and space for them to run about. So, for now at least, my doggie dreams are on hold but, hopefully, some day I will have them again!

Number six: I believe that you should treat everyone with the same respect you would like to be treated with yourself. Put yourself in the other persons shoes, how would you feel? If you wouldn´t like it, then why expose someone else to that kind of treatment. I´m not perfect, I´m not an angel but I do try my best to follow that step.

Number seven: I miss my friends. The only thing I would change about living in Spain is the distance between my friends and I. I´m blessed to have some great friends who always encourage and support me, especially in difficult times. So thank you for always being there for me, especially lately, you are amazing.

The blogs I have chosen to nominate:

Seeing as this is my second nomination, I have already nominated 15 blogs that I felt were worthy of the nomination, I will leave the link to the previous post here so you can see them.

Since my last nomination I have discovered some new blogs which I, for the want of a better word, stalk. However, most of these have been nominated several times for this award and feel like I would be plaguing them by nominating them again.

I have decided to mention a few, in no particular order, who have not received the award before but really do deserve it. So, if I have not mentioned you but you know I stalk you, that´s why; you already have the award!

Pseu´s Blog : a blog that has been nominated for several awards but, as of yet, not the “One Lovely Blog Award”.

What´s (in) the picture:a beautiful photo blog run by a photographer, Chris, who has the most impressive list of cameras I´ve read in a while. I´m not sure if Chris has been nominated before, I´m a new follower but admire his work.

Another day in paradise: a beautiful blog, run by a very caring woman, which has received numerous awards but, from what I can see, has yet to receive the “One lovely Blog Award”. 

Lonely Girl Travels:  A fantastic read, a newly discovered blog but instantly loved it, a great writing style.

Truantry:  Another new add to my reading list but a good one if I do say so myself.

Have you ever received a blog award? What do you think of them?

As always, thank you for reading,

Until the next time,

Giana

xoxo