to think or not to think.

 

technically i am still in my post-holiday-blues phase, but i am taking it one day at a time now and so this morning i woke up and after checking twitter in bed (yes, i know it’s sad…) i found myself with a sudden surge of energy. i not only took a shower and exfoliated my face, i even put on body lotion and drank my green juice without cringing. 

now i made it to the office and now sit in my boss’ slankie as she is away and i am FREEZING and do admin. hurrah for productivity.

remember when i wrote on holiday that i really didn’t do much thinking while i was away. my idea was to sit somewhere quietly at angkor wat, maybe reading my book, but rather contemplating life, meditating next to a monk, and definitely writing down some profound thoughts in my little notebook…let’s just say that i found it a silly plan in hindsight. angkor wat was way too crowded to sit anywhere quietly, being close to a monk now made me nervous after i had learned they don’t wear underwear, and i only used the notebook once to write down someone’s email address. and it continued from there; i was always just in the moment, always doing something, seeing something, and yes, usually eating something. and to my surprise that was delightful. being in the moment really rocks and thinking and pondering are a bit overrated.

but now i’m back. there is a lot going on in me at the moment and my head has decided to sort it all out in one go and do all the thinking all at once. so i feel a bit overwhelmed right now and the only time i don’t think is when i watch orange is the new black, so i have been doing lots of that to give my head a break. what i have not been doing in addition to all the thinking is tell you stories and show you pictures and while i feel bad about it and people have started to complain, rightfully so because i promised, there is not much i can do about it at the moment. i will keep pinkie swearing that the stories and the photos will come, because i can tell the thinking will come to an end soon and some decisions will be made. in the meanwhile i will share some pictures that my lovely and obviously more organized travel companions have posted.

 

from top:
halong bay after the rain. that one is from me. i am quite proud of it actually. how beautiful is this place even during typhoon season? (and no, we didn't have a typhoon, i just like to pretend because it sounds more exciting)
teletubbies at the cu chi tunnels. of course it started raining the second we got out of the bus. so we decided to at least colour coordinate our ponchos.
that's my "is that really a snake in there and i am supposed to drink it?" face. yes, it really was a snake and no, i politely declined.
beer with a view. almost got police raided too. excitement in saigon!
my milli vanilli leopard pants, tailor-made in hoi an. seamstress didn't even blink an eye when i chose my fabric.

back!

i’m back and all i can really think of is how cold i am. other than that my first 18 hours have been peachy. customs didn’t steal confiscate my rice paper and the customs dog didn’t detect my curry powder which i got for my mum. probably because he was tired from all the fetch he played before cape town airport managed to get the luggage belt moving, you can imagine that took a while.

 

my lovely friend claire fetched me and didn’t mind my request for a bottle of red wine to be brought to me upon arrival. in fact she had put two bottles in my house and cheese crackers and chocolate and roses and gotten my solar powered fairy lights to work and back up on my balcony. she also took me grocery shopping and made me my first bowl of pasta i had in a month while i unpacked and took a shower. now that is my definition of a good friend. thanks, love!

 

after sleeping 9 hours i’m almost feeling like a normal person today and have managed to bring laundry to the laundromat, make a shopping list, go to work, taken the contents of my luggage out and spread out all over my place - wouldn’t want it looking too tidy - and even glanced at my credit card statement, which i think was a very brave thing to do only one day after the holiday was over.

 

i have also started to make plans for yoga, seeing friends, talking to my mum, and going to some events, so i don’t think i will be too sad. i will miss the humidity and the lovely food a bit, because and though you may hate me for saying it – i lost weight despite eating 3 meals a day and all the pringles. but don’t you worry because i expect to be back to normal in no time as the best part about being home is eating pasta and alphen toastie from jason.

 

the one unfortunate thing is that my airbook got sick on the way back and has to go to the doctor tomorrow. bleh. let’s hope for the best, because i need to share a ton of pictures with you and stories of how i “taught” yoga on a junk in halong bay, how the pastaholic didn’t want any noodle soup for breakfast, and how the duck got run over by a motorbike. but until the airbook gets better that will all have to wait and so for now i leave you with a picture of the most awesome thing anyone could ever put on a motorbike - the flying pigs: