No Place Like Travel

A lovely day off to spend with Little Boy O and our new Nanny T. Almost a year back at work and over the last three weeks we’ve learned a few important lessons. Firstly, no matter what when we pull together as a family we will get through it. A big thanks to Mah Mah […]

Another fun Family Day Saturday. We played stickers, play doh, drawing and dancing at home. Went to the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs and African animals – roar! The little one ran wild with all the open space. Snacked. “Hou Mei, Hou Mei” Baby Boy O’s first words in Cantonese as he […]

I was mindful of the subtle but important difference between “I have to” and “I choose to”. The former forfeits the right to choose and the latter exercises the power of choice. Reminded of the discipline of Essentialism by a dear colleague, I focused on making choices, which meant defining what trade offs I’d be […]

First day back in 2016. The day was packed. Packed with commuters, packed with meetings, packed with tasks and emails and to-dos and have to’s. Too much to do, and not enough to time. Not enough energy. Such a contrast from yesterday. The day wears heavy, let alone the thought of the rest of the […]

Our neighbor came round tonight to use our spin cycle, have a glass of wine and chat. The New Normal was a phrase she heard at a yoga class. The notion that someone jogging 40 years ago would make people wonder who they were running from, yet today we don’t even bat an eyelid. It […]

You know when you get that sixth sense that something is going to happen, but you ignore it in the hopes that you can just push it away? Well, it happened. On the drive from Sedona to Phoenix, Baby Boy O was playing with my iPhone. On the 10th failed password attempt my phone self […]

Spoilt rotten today with beautiful weather and a delicious day with the family. English Hubby was is sports heaven – tennis, Grand Prix and rugby. Baby Boy O was in food heaven, hoovering up Sunday lamb roast and walking for food. I was in a happy place too, surrounded by all my very favorite people, […]

Given the little one was so very tired and so very thrown off schedule, he was a good as could be expected on the flight. Lady Luck was on our side. We moved from bulkhead seats to a three seater row, long enough for Baby Boy O to stretch across and catch some shut eye. […]

A year ago we were off to Vancouver to see Gong Gong and Poh Poh for the very first time. Today we make the journey in the opposite direction to London to see Mah Mah and Yah Yah. We thought we had travel arrangements licked with a cunning plan to travel at 5pm, reaching the […]

A scorching Sunday. Perfect for an early morning play date and splash at the local playground. Baby Boy O met up with his usual crew, along with Miss M and Master Z. I brought coffee, cake and a bubble machine. Everyone was amply entertained. Baby Boy O and Miss M have a mutual adoration pact […]

They say one person's heaven is another's hell. I love assembling furniture, playing with power tools and McGyvering a fix. So today was four hours well spent, resulting in a six-dresser drawer. English Hubby however prefers white collar labor, his tools of trade include a keyboard and mouse. His only consolation is that the flat […]

Baby Boy O has a fascination with roadwork, fueled by his favorite book and the abundance of construction in our neighborhood. Which is why I couldn't resist adding a digger, dump truck and bulldozer to his already abundant collection of toys. Falling head first into the modern day parenting trap. Too. Much. Stuff.     […]

Baby Boy O has a fascination with roadwork, fueled by his favorite book and the abundance of construction in our neighborhood. Which is why I couldn't resist adding a digger, dump truck and bulldozer to his already abundant collection of toys. Falling head first into the modern day parenting trap. Too. Much. Stuff.     […]

It's English Hubby's birthday today. Fireworks have been arranged and everyone gets the day off to celebrate. Birthdays are special. What comes to mind is Sheryl Sandberg's beautiful and tearfully honest Facebook post: “I have learned gratitude. Real gratitude for the things I took for granted before – like life. As heartbroken as I am, […]

I always knew this day would come. The day where I have to fight every instinct and bone in my body in order to leave my hysterical little boy at play school. Baby Boy O cried blue murder. It wasn't an “I'm upset where did you go” cry. It was a “you've abandoned me, I'm […]

It is so very interesting to watch a personality emerge from its little shell. This tiny person has likes and dislikes, preferences, favorites, attachments and frustrations. We had a curry lunch and a play date with Little Boy E where strawberries and toys were shared. Little Boy E has the advantage of walking so could […]

We were in the jewelers and a perfect stranger cooed at Baby Boy O and offered the following piece of advice – the days are long, but the years are short. So very true. It feels like only yesterday that we came home with a tiny little baby, yet each day we plunder through milestones […]

There's something about The Container Store that just sucks you in. Boxes, gadgets, hangers, storage, things to hide wires, drawers, hooks, shoe racks and so much more. What they sell is promise, an ideal that life can be organized and contained into neat foldable interlocking perfect squares. So much temptation lies there, especially when our […]

The price of lifting baby and boxes has caught up with me again. Even Superwoman needs a good massage every once in a while. Baby Boy O went with Nanny C to hand in his enrollment forms. My little boy is going to play school.                  

Off to get a pair of big boy shoes. Thankfully Aunt S knows where to go. We walked away with a pair of very cool shoes, size 2.5 and orange bits too. Daddy will be pleased. A perfect day in the park. So New York to picnic by the Met, soak up the Sunday sun […]

Lady Luck is on our side. I was sitting at the bank just about to cancel cards and switch over to new bank accounts when I received the call from Delta Baggage Services. They had found my carry on bag. New York City was testing what we were made of – kicking us in the […]

Welcome back to NYC. We arrived after a good flight, all intact, with everything, minus one very important carry on laptop bag. In the flurry of disembarking we left it in the overhead compartment. If it were any other item missing, it wouldn’t be as big a deal, but this one contained all our very […]

Two more days to go before we leave Rover. It occurs to me that our RV has been the only real home Baby Boy O has known. Our 200 square foot tiny house on wheels. He's spent more time in Rover than anywhere else, other than my womb. Our nomadic rhythm is normal to him. […]

English Hubby is a plane buff. He spent his teenage years memorizing obscure facts about planes and all that pent up knowledge came flooding out. I was well impressed by his encyclopedic labeling of planes as we toured Davis AFB. Baby Boy O hasn't fallen far from the tree. He has an eagle eye for […]

We received some news today. The type of news where from that moment onward everything changes, yet everything is as it is and still stays the same. Life plays on. Sadness descends, only to the kept at bay by remembering how fortune has smiled on all of us and still continues to do so. How […]

Arizona is a snowbird retirement mecca, and finding an RV park that caters to the under 55 crowd is as easy as putting an octopus in a string bag (as Reader likes to say). Lucky for us, English Hubby has lovely salt and pepper colored hair, and many places tend to take a don't ask, […]

Less than two weeks now before we are back in New York City. In some ways it is exciting to be heading back to the big smoke, the land of take out and delivery, the city of convienience and cabs. That being said, I will miss leisurely strolls through the wide aisles of Safeway and […]

I've grown quite fond of Monte Vista Resort and our little routine here. Baby Boy O and I go for our morning walk to Safeway. He falls asleep, I grab a freshly made green tea and peach drink at Starbucks, with an Asiago and jalapeño bagel, and I work on my book. We pick up […]

The notion of a lazy Sunday morning escapes us. Baby Boy O was awake at the crack of dawn. The up side is that we are able to pack a whole bunch into a day. Off to the mall to pick up a few new items and then to the food truck festival. Not quite […]

Huffington Post published “10 More Realistic Milestones For Your Baby Book” and we just ticked off number one (again) today. Baby Boy O was sleeping soundly in the middle of the bed. Thirty minutes later we heard an almighty thump and a fractionally delayed wail. My heart truly stopped for a second. Running back into […]

Today has been a good day. Rain clouds came, gave a light sprinkle to wash away the dust, and things are a little clearer now. Our little threesome has found its groove and in this moment it feels good. Our nanny interviewing came to a close and we have three strong, yet very different candidates. […]

It is a tough job being a full time mummy. Baby Boy O is going through a barnacle phase, where he is stuck to me like glue. Half a foot away is a little to distant. Poh Poh says its a sign of how much he loves us and how deep that attachment is. We […]

All Baby Boy O wants to do is be on his feet. Holding his walker toy, lapping the coffee table clockwise then anti clockwise. It's fascinating watching his skills progress and the lightbulb go on in his head as he connects the dots. Makes me realize how much we take for granted as the synapses […]

Every year it is the same mayhem. Receipts lost, statements missing, manual data entry and books aren't the only things to be unbalanced. Why in the age of Quicken, expense tracking apps and downloadable data are we still in this pickle? Because English Hubby is old school. I'm surprised the quill and ink has been […]

We took Mah Mah to see all the unique sights that Arizona had to offer. Museums, art galleries and the outdoors are so overrated. Instead we visited In and Out Burger, UHaul RV Storage and a supermarket on the way back to Scottsdale. Crying baby most of the way, and temperatures rising high. Thankful for […]

English Hubby met someone who had a theory that ancient rock art may not have the awe inspiring meaning we sometimes attribute to it. Rather, it may just be as simple as a few bored kids told to go outside of the cave to play, having a bit of fun graffiting the neighborhood, leaving tags […]

Six more days till our little baby turns one. As a special treat Aunty Ems let him open his very first present. He was stoked. His chubby little fingers mauled the cars. Great entertainment as we repacked Rover to head off for a weekend in Tucson. A welcome break from a few days of intense […]

First adult only date night in a very long time. Mah Mah was kind enough to look mind Baby Boy O whilst he was sleeping, allowing us to escape for a few hours into the hot bed of fast cars and fake blondes that is the Entertainment District of Scottsdale. Armed with Yelp we decided […]

Much happier today after a good sleep. Things just aren't as strange anymore, and the additional space of our little Air BnB house in Scottsdale isn't as scary anymore. Today we had wave after wave of Amazon.com boxes arrive. All our pent up purchasing from having no fixed address whilst on the road.     […]

Someone had the grumps today. Now that Mah Mah is over, our plan was to hunker down do get some work done – taxes, CRT, calls, nanny search, and a whole load of leftovers that need attention – but Baby Boy O was not going to have a bar of that. New routine, new house, […]

Visiting Biosphere 2 makes me realize that we know so very little about the world in which we live, yet our actions and decisions are based on imperfect snippets of data that we extrapolate and codify and then etch into stone. We think we know more than we really do. We think we can control […]

Saguaros are majestic. They stand tall and proud, growing inch by inch every year. The Native American people believed that they were once people, from the earth and of the earth. To be treated with utmost respect. The unbreakable circle of life, for one day we too will return to the earth to rest.   […]

I had never thought much about deserts until today. Who knew something so seemingly inhospitable and hostile could be a thing of raw beauty and abundance. Plants, animals, birds and all manner of creatures seem to grow and thrive. They adapt in glorious ways. Adaptation is a skill. Change can be a gift. We booked […]

Farewell New Mexico, hello Arizona. Our westward journey continues with a surprise lunch time find in Benson – delicious Mexican enchiladas and frajitas. Baby Boy O enjoyed the steak putting his newly emergent teeth to work. We are now in Tucson working out our game plan for this weekend's activities. So much to do and […]

My blog got hacked again. I don't understand why the cyber universe has decided to pick on my lowly space for musings. I haven't offended any dictators, I don't ask for credit card details or transact, I have no state secrets worthy of prying open. Evil hackers please leave me alone. All I can say […]

We had a fun date night plus one. Up the road from the RV park was a little restaurant and winery that specialized in thin crust Italian pizzas (yes, made with 00 flour!), home made gelato and extremely big glasses of sweet red wine. The star of the night was Baby Boy O. Over the […]

Another sleepless night. Baby Boy O's fever seems to be easing off a little but there is still no reprieve for his sore gums. Given the situation English Hubby sacrificed his morning hike up to Guadalupe Peak and we pack up and drive toward civilization. When we break for lunch at Popeyes, Baby Boy O […]

And the bad parent award goes to…us. Baby Boy O's fever is persistent and spiking. Perhaps a six mile hike in the middle of the day was not the smartest of all ideas. The poor thing keeps shoving his fingers into his mouth and crying out in pain. I wish it were an act to […]

We finally get the chance to go off the grid for a mountain adventure in Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Baby Boy O has a teething fever. Started off with his hands in his mouth and lots of drooling, then progressed in the morning to a fever of 38.5 degrees. After a shot of baby […]