Hello world, hello 2017!

Let me introduce myself, to you, my hopefully avid future readers. I am a thirty (soon ‘something’) London-dweller. I moved to this fascinating city a little over 3 years ago from Doha, Qatar with my husband. (I might be able to link to his blog some time soon, as he has expressed his desire to blog as well.) Now, looking back, I would definitely say that I encountered the good old reverse culture shock coming back to Europe, but we have finally started to get some footing over the past year making this spot our new base for adventures.

I am not entirely new to blogging. This is in fact my third blog in the past 15 (!) years. As life would have it, it throws some curve balls, moves you across countries and continents and, voilà, here we are again, ready to start documenting my thoughts on life and other stories. I have committed to writing a post once a week, every Wednesday, for the next 3 months. I am testing the waters, as you say, and at the end of this trial period, I will evaluate how this experiment has become me. Don’t get me wrong, I have every intention of making this a long-term thing, but with every new habit, it is a good idea to commit to a realistic goal and time-frame first to see how this new thing fits. Written like a true project manager, which I have been roaming the digital world as for quite some time.

So what will you write about, you ask? To be frank, I haven’t got a fully fledged plan in place. What I can tell you is that it will be about me and life, food, crafts and art and a few other things that I discover along the journey. So in good fashion, since we just crossed the 2016 finish line, I have some goals/habits (resolutions carry such a negative meaning these days) I’d like to share with you. Writing them down publicly also makes me think doubly hard as to whether I really really want to achieve or do any of the things I so generously scribbled on a piece of paper.

• Write 1 blog post every Wednesday for 3 months. As mentioned already, this is a goal to be consistent and to make blogging a habit like eating dinner.
• Create 5 card designs to put online for sale. It’s been roaming in my head for a while to take my creative ventures a little further, as friends and family have told me that my designs are very nice. So I decided to listen and give it a go. All I can do is try, right?
• Build a side table in the first quarter. I see how this must seem odd, but here’s the thing, I need to make things with my hands, like others need to do mountain-running. I have had an idea for an upcycling project and now is the time to finally do it.
• Me time. I think we could all use more digital-free zones and go back to basics by reading a book, going for a walk (alone), indulge in lush baths…
• Read up on current events every day. You’d think this is something I can easily do with all social media and news apps and what not, but I have stopped over the course of the last year, because it all seemed too much, too fake, too anger-infusing and I succumbed to the blissful ignorance of top-line news-reading which, to be honest, doesn’t tell you all that much as most news are banking on buzzword headlines to be noticed. So I set up bookmarks of a variety of news sites and blogs on my iPad which I carry to the breakfast table every morning to scan the news.
• Write a weekly bullet journal. I did the “365 photos” project for 2 years and though demanding, it is nice to have the daily memory jig for those period of times. Sometimes though, there really is nothing going on for a few days and some days are jam-packed. Writing a journal daily or lengthy entries would be too much for me, so I am opting for sitting down once a week and jotting down the week’s highlights.
• Regular exercise. [UPDATE] In addition to yoga and bouldering, I have started to do a bit of running and HIIT on Thursdays and will do a class/training once a week to build strength and cardio. If anyone has any recommendation on where to go around Clapham/Wimbledon area, I am all ears.
  Now this is vague, because I haven’t fleshed it out in my head yet. I want this to become a habit so it needs to be realistic. I am doing yoga almost every day and this come Sunday I will start with bouldering again twice a week. But I need something more, which I haven’t figured out yet, so I’ll need to update this bit in the next couple of weeks.

I am curious to know what you are wanting to do this year, some goals you want to achieve or habits to incorporate into your life. I think it is always nice to hear what other people are doing as an inspiration.

Whew! Congratulations if you made it this far. I won’t promise that all my posts will be this long.

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