singing – Lessons I learned after I turned 30

My last One Sound

Last Saturday…

The curtains open. I’m ready to sing and dance my heart out. I feel rough but I couldn’t miss this even if I was dying. I’m standing next to the lovely Marie who’s wearing a beautiful bright yellow dress and gorgeous colourful earrings. It’s her first ever One Sound, I can’t stop thinking about my first One Sound and how excited I was and I’m so happy I can see her excitement too, I can only imagine how she must feel. I see Mike on the side of the stage, smile to him and I get into position.

I catch a glimpse of Dan, standing in the middle, ready to guide and keep us in tune and in time, reminding us to smile sometimes just by smiling himself. I can’t believe this is the last time I will perform at this amazing show, last time I’ll look for Dan’s smiling face every time I unsuccessfully try to remember the next line.

I can’t believe how something so simple like joining a workplace choir would lead to singing at the Mayflower, shopping centres, fairs, Christmas events to flashmobs at West Quay and Graduation, to sold out choir collaboration shows and making friends for life.

An ordinary Tuesday, November 2013

My colleague Lilian invited me to join her on the new ‘Lunchtime Glee’ sessions, an initiative to improve staff wellbeing. I thought why not. I wasn’t feeling my best at the time. I was in an unhappy relationship, I hated myself and work started to become a not so pleasant place to be. I desperately needed even just a little ray of sunshine in my dark, depressing life.

I walk in, I see Dan’s smiling face for the first time ever and after an hour of singing Mama Mia and having a laugh with colleagues, for the first time in years I felt happy, pure happiness. I completely forgot about anything else.

That was the best decision I ever made.

About a year and a half later we had our first performance, at the Hanger Farm Art Centre. I still remember the nerves, the excitement, we were buzzing for days after that. It’s hard to understand how from singing to a small audience we now perform on a huge stage with hundreds of other singers in front of a sold out Guildhall.

Since I joined Lunchtime Glee, my confidence slowly improved and I met my best friend, one of my soulmates, Sheba who was there for me since then, through all the changes, the dramas and together we made some of the most amazing memories I’ll never forget.

Because of Lunchtime Glee and Dan, I met Jack, Claire, Helena, Pat, Ray, Julie, Jo, Amy, Ann, Lucy, Christina, Sandi, Lesley, Rachel and so many others who for two years let me be part of the most loving, caring, singing family, Sing Now choir. That was exactly what I needed in my life at that point and I wouldn’t be where I am today without their love, support and encouragement.

Though I left Sing Now almost two years ago, every time I see these wonderful humans is like nothing changed. They always welcome me with a warm hug.

I’d recommend to every single one of you to join a choir. Don’t worry if you can’t sing, that’s not what is all about. Singing and having a laugh with other lovely humans, forgetting about your troubles for an hour or two and just enjoying yourself and feeling happy, that’s the best remedy for most of life’s problems.

I’ve written about it many times before… these are just some of the highlights:

https://elenisworld.org/2016/03/19/my-choir-family/

https://elenisworld.org/2016/04/11/what-a-week/

https://elenisworld.org/2017/04/30/one-sound-one-year-later/

https://elenisworld.org/2018/12/18/blogmas-day-18-the-last-2018-ssu-staff-choir-performance/

so I won’t go into all the amazing days I had with my choir families in more detail, I just want to thank Dan and Jack for their love, creativity and passion for what they do, their kindness and professionalism and genuine care about their choir members’ wellbeing. I’d recommend Singforce, Sing Now or any projects these two wonderful humans are involved with to anyone, with no hesitation.

A big thank you to all my wonderful choir friends for all the incredible memories I’ll cherish for ever. I love you all and I will miss you dearly. I will always think of you every Tuesday lunchtime and every time I see a choir.

Eleni

Blogmas day 18- the Last 2018 SSU staff choir performance

One of the best decisions I ever made, at an unknowingly *pivotal moment in my life was to join the Lunchtime Glee club, a group of colleagues coming together once a week for an hour of laughter and singing, the best remedy to uplift us, especially after a long, busy day at work.

Five year later and since then Lunchtime Glee has grown and became Singforce, and our SSU choir is part of a huge staff choir network all around Hampshire, I’ve made wonderful friends and though we are only doing this for fun we got to perform not only at events across the University including the Staff Awards and the Graduation flashmob but also at events all over Southampton, at the Mayflower Gala, the Annual One Sound choir collab shows (Turner Sims was probably my favourite) and John Lewis to name a few.

Our last 2018 performance was today, at the VC Christmas reception at the Spark. We couldn’t hear the music well so it wasn’t our best, but it was the perfect end to a wonderful year for our SSU staff choir. Thank you to my lovely Helen for the snap.

Thank you Dan for all you do for us, I love our choir family.

Eleni

*(Pivotal moment in my life: Lunchtime Glee through Dan led me to Sing Now, a community choir I was part for almost two years, which brought my bestie, Sheba in my life and many many other amazing friends and memories and helped me realise and get out of a dead end relationship, that’s the short story version)

July the 16th, the Graduation before

Ooh ooh, ooh
You are not alone
Ooh ooh
For the last time I am sure…

Graduation week at Solent. My favourite working week of the year, by-a-mile. A celebration of our students’ achievements, a special moment in their life, one they share with their loved ones, one they will always remember when they get old and wrinkly and I get to be part of it, helping out, ushering them, cheering them on just before they nervously walk on stage to get their certificate. Steve, a colleague told me a month later when I bumped into him how nice it was to see a friendly face down the stairs, smiling and chatting to the students before their big moment. See that’s why I love volunteering. The joy you get from it doesn’t compare to anything else.

This year was even more special, one I will remember. Why you ask.

Wednesday, 11th of July

I woke up in horrible pain. It’s not those days of the month yet, not just yet but all the anxiety took its toll. I sometimes worry the effect of stress on my body may have permanently damaged it…

I slowly got ready and went in the office early to scan and send some paperwork to the letting agent and put my gown on before I head to Guildhall for graduation.

I found out yesterday that if my references go through on time, I’ll have a place to move to on Monday. What else can go wrong you say…

Emails went through to a contact I had at the agency I rent my current flat from and my manager last night. But neither reference forms have been filled in yet.

The heat, the thick gown and the anxiety levels fast rising caused me to break into nervous sweat. I could feel it dripping down my back. I won’t have much time to check my phone as soon as the first ceremony starts until lunchtime…What if? What if?

Just before I finish my morning coffee I give Dan, my current landlord referee a call but there’s no answer…

I go back in, I can’t let this distract me from what I’m here to do. A year later I’m once again behind the bar at the Guildhall and some of my favourite colleagues are there. We have a chat and prepare for the morning ceremony. One of my favourite moments, the calmness and quiet before the first guests walk through the door. God I love everything about Graduation.

I check my phone every now and then, no news, neither reference has gone through yet.

At lunchtime I call the Radian main office and ask for Dan but I found out Dan had left the company so they give me another number to call. Nadine who is now managing our property was out and she was off for the rest of the week. I send an urgent email to a generic address and pray for the best.

The morning ceremony was just beautiful. There was an in house student band this year and they were in-cre-di-ble. Pete Wilson, the Popular Music and Performance course leader who organised the whole thing, did an amazing job once again.

I still remember their cover of Swim by Fickle Friends. By the end of the week we all have danced to it. Another little moment I saved in my memories box, watching everyone swinging along sometimes without realising.

Ooh ooh, ooh
You are not alone
Ooh ooh
For the last time I am sure…

After lunch I get an email from the agent, my landlord reference has gone through but not the one by my manager.

I go back in the office after we wrapped up for the day. It seems Suzanne never got that second email. Seriously? Sometimes I wonder how unlucky I can be.

I call Homelet, (the referencing company that the lettings agency is using, £75 references cost by the way, £75 for me to do all the hard work and for them to just send a reference form through email and they can’t even get that right) but they closed early that day. Come on!

I still need to book a removal company but I can’t really until I know for sure I’m moving on Monday.

It will all be VERY last minute…

Thursday 12th of July

I go straight to the Guildhall today. I want all the flat related problems to be over with so I can enjoy Graduation to the full. And soon they are.

I call Homelet first thing in the morning, apparently there was a glitch on the system but they re-send the email to Suzanne there and then, she fills in my reference soon after and then the lettings agency emails me to say that everything is OK and to go on Monday at 12pm to sign the contract, pay my deposit and get the keys. AMEN!

I can finally relax. I still have to arrange the actual move and do most of the packing before Saturday, since I’ll spend it in London but that’s something completely under my control, so I don’t have to worry about that.

The rest of the day was brilliant. I loved chatting to all my lovely colleagues, especially Gillian. What a woman. So caring, motherly and offered to help with anything. I hope she knows how lovely she is.

I loved ushering the students on stage especially Paul Maple, a talented colleague I remember since I met him when I first started working at Solent, 7 years ago, and I finally managed to sit on the big deck chair and have an ice-cream with Dext, enjoying the sunshine.

It was the best ice cream I ever had. Not because of the taste. It was a common vanilla ice cream. But that moment. The sun shining in my face, blessed I had a great day and finally a stress-free relaxing moment, after all the drama of the last four days.

When I got home, I booked the removal company through AnyVan, the website I used six months ago when I moved again, I had no time to do any research and call for quote. It seems a local company accepted my quote but they didn’t send me any details straight away. Maybe I should start thinking of Plan B in case I end up with no-one to help me move? My contract ends on Monday so I HAVE to leave my old place by then…

Friday, 13th of July

If you love somebody, let them know whilst they are here ’cause they just might run away from you…

On Top of the World was playing on speakers and Lou, Sarah, Helen and I smiled at each other and hummed along…

I looked forward to this day for months. The last day of Graduation week 2018 and I would be part of the surprise Sarah, SingForce, the Solent choir and I were planning since Sarah came up with the idea months ago.

The morning ceremony went unexpectedly fast (in the meantime I got an email with my Removal company details, finally all ready for Monday) and with it a great surprise.

Whilst ushering students on stage, a familiar face… Steve Carter!!! Steve worked at Solent for years as the Head of Finance but I only got to know him better the last couple of years. He worked at Greece in the past so he knew Greek. Every now and then I’ll hear ‘Καλημέρα’ (Good morning) when wandering at work and it’ll make me smile, I knew it was Steve. A sweet, caring manager and incredibly awesome at what he does.

As soon as I saw him I couldn’t help but smile. He gave me a hug and whispered in my ear how much he loved my blog. I teared up watching him go up on stage. What an honour to usher Steve on stage to get his Masters.

After a quick break for lunch, it was time for the last ceremony of 2018. Dan has just arrived, looking handsome in his black suit and Jack came along to film.

All the volunteers, exhausted but happy that we got to the end of this year’s Graduation ceremonies danced along to Swim whilst the procession came over from the Spark for the last time. Familiar faces were in the Procession who wouldn’t be under normal circumstances. Suzanne asked me if I knew why but I pretended I didn’t.

When everyone went in, just before I were to go in with Sarah and Donald to get in place for ushering, two trolleys full with gowns arrived from the Spark for the 80 special guests we were about to sneak into the Guildhall.

After ushering I didn’t get out as I normally do. I stood at the side and waited. The plan was for Dan to go on stage, start singing the first verse of On Top of the World and after that we join him, the Solent choir (some of were in the Procession) and Singforce members who came along to help us make this flashmob bigger. And we made it! What a beautiful end to an amazing week.

After wrapping up for the last time, we went out for a well-deserved drink. Sarah has done an incredible job again. Superwoman I call her. She really is. Thank you for trusting me again with such a great responsibility.

I’ll always remember Graduation week 2018. The drama and stress of moving but more so for the laughs, the chats, ushering our graduates on stage, watching Paul and Steve getting their degrees and of course the Flashmob.

Namaste

Blogmas day 18- Singing and homemade Baileys

Today was a different Monday.

It went so fast I didn’t even realise.

In the afternoon the Staff Choir sang at the Vice Chancellor’s Staff Christmas reception. It was the first time we performed without Dan and we were worried we might mess up, forget the lyrics, sing the wrong parts, we feared for the worst.

But I’m so proud of us, I think Dan would have been proud for us too. We did really well, especially at Superheroes by the Script, the song we were most anxious about, we nailed it!

After catching up with lovely colleagues at the reception (LOVED the Gingerbread ice-cream) and some work in the afternoon, just before I was about to leave for home, I had a glass of Pauline’s infamous homemade Baileys, without a doubt the most delicious Baileys I’ve ever tasted.

For some reason I feel surprisingly optimistic today. Maybe it’s because I’m finally making changes I want to and today again I felt the love of the people around me.

I sometimes get caught up in this vicious circle of self-defeating thoughts and forget to acknowledge and appreciate the lovely humans who love me for who I am. It’s making my decision whether to leave or not next year harder. I guess I’ll wait and see. Who knows what might happen. All that matters to me is to be happy doing something I love, if that’s in Southampton, that’s not the end of the world. It feels like home after all these years.

Thank you to my choir friends and colleagues for today, it’s been a great day.

I can’t believe it will be Christmas in a week’s time!

Eleni

Blogmas day 17- Singing in the Square (and emotional hangover)

Other than a light headache, aching feet and tiredness my body felt OK yesterday.

But my mind. Oh dear. Emotional hangovers are real (scientifically proven for the sceptics out there) and much worse than physical ones. It wasn’t just me, it seems some of my favourites struggled too.

I’d rather have a headache, I’d rather be sick. I felt sad, confused, emotional. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it to Singing in the Square, all I wanted was cuddles with my loved ones but since that’s not possible until Thursday, the best alternative I could think was to go to sleep to stop the invading, upsetting thoughts.

After a long self-debate I ventured outside. Crispy cold fresh air always helps. I was incredibly late and missed the first half but I joined my old SingNow pals at Mettricks for a quick cuppa before their second performance. It was so nice to see everyone. Thank you for reading my posts every day Pat, I hope the new Star Wars did not disappoint!

I spent today resting, (my calf hurts so badly it took me 20 minutes to pop to the shop) as it’s the last full day I have to myself in 2017. I’m flying home on Thursday and I’m not back until the 2nd of January, 2018. That’s exactly what I need. A break out of the Southampton life bubble to clear my mind up whilst enjoying my Cyprus giant hug for 10 days, with friends, family, food, Christmas movies, snacks, laughter and cuddles.

Now it’s time to pack my bag, check in my flight and try to forget about everything else.

Only a week to Christmas eve folks!

I can’t wait.

Eleni

Blogmas day 16- The Christmas party

My feet hurt. A lot. But all worth it.

Last night the Solent annual Christmas party took place at the Spark. The usual gang and I look forward to every year. It’s always good fun. And this year was more special than others.

It was my bestie’s last Christmas party as she is going away in less than a month and I’m hoping it was my last one. Shebz and I had amazing adventures, pleasant and unpleasant surprises, countless stories. We danced, we drank, we laughed, we cried. She’s been my partner in crime for over two years now and there are not enough words to describe how incredibly grateful I am to have this person in my life.

Some of our fondest memories are from the Solent Christmas party and last night we created even more with some of our favourite people.

One of the night’s highlights was our impromptu Shut up and Dance singing whilst waiting to take a snap in the photo booth with the Staff Choir peeps.

A big thank you to the Solent Conference Centre staff for their amazing work, organising, decorating and service. I wish I worked in a similar job, what a lovely feeling it must be to see people’s smiles and enjoyment after spending endless hours to prepare everything so they’ll have an amazing time.

Shout out to two of my favourite ladies, Helen and Lou and Finance Genius and all round cool guy Jamie from the Solent Staff Scene who organised our beautiful party.

Thank you for all the compliments on my hair and outfit! Hair was done by my lovely stylist Vicki at Haringtons on Bedford place and the dress, which I absolutely loved and swirled and merrily danced in it all night feeling like a princess is from Boohoo.

After a bit of rest I’ll be heading to Guildhall Square around 5pm, to join my SingNow friends for some festive singing, supporting a great cause, the Rose Road Association. If you are about come over for a sing along. Come say hi!

Eleni

Christmas magic in Southampton

Happy Sunday!

December is almost here and it’s going to be a busy one until the big day. I’m considering doing Blogmas, my version, although I haven’t done it before and I have no idea how it will go, but I’ll give it a shot.

I love everything about Christmas. I know it’s heavily commercialised and exploited by many, but for me Christmas is celebrating with people I love, it’s all about giving and sharing and getting together, accompanied by delicious food and treats, seeing friends and family I don’t get to see often, reminding myself how grateful and blessed I am.

And of course I love Christmas songs, Christmas movies, Christmas decorations, the lights, the festivities. It always feels magical, even in the worst of times. And yes I’m one of those annoying people who feels Christmassy from November and the Christmas tree stays up until the 6th of January, the Epiphany, like in most Cypriot homes.

There is so much going in Southampton, I thought it will be nice to share where I’ll be going to and maybe others can comment on other events they discovered and are going. Unfortunately I can’t go to too many as it will be Christmas lunch/dinner/party season as well as catching up with friends and nights in with a cuppa, blankets, Christmas movies and snacks, one of my favourite things to do, before I fly home for the holidays. But these are the ones I picked and hopefully will make it to.

-Next Sunday, 3rd of December, the first ever Etsy Made Local Festive Market will take place at Mettricks Guildhall and I can’t wait! Local Etsy sellers, Christmas workshops and many more. If you decide to pop by make sure you try the coffee or the hot chocolate at Mettricks, one of the best in Southampton.

-On the 7th of December, Love Bedford Place is putting together a Christmas Spectacular with mulled wine and mince pies, Christmas carols and Christmas raffle amongst others. I live in the heart of Bedford Place so I’m not missing this!

Loving the little Christmas trees above every shop’s doors this year.

Bedford Place

-On the 16th (depending on the Christmas party hangover) I’ll be joining my old friends from Sing Now choir at Guildhall Square who will be singing Christmas Songs and raising money for the Rose Road Association. Singing in the Square!

Finally, this is not an event as such but the lovely Molly is collecting Christmas care packages for the homeless in town until the 17th of December as she will distribute them on the 18th. All details here.

I’ll never get used to the cold but I love Christmas and I can’t wait for December!

Namaste

Eleni

A weekend of love,singing and sunshine (courtesy of Southampton Pride and Summer in the Square)

Happy Bank Holiday Monday!

What a wonderfully amazing weekend it has been. I don’t even know where to start from.

A couple of days ago a notification came up on my FB feed that they were looking for volunteers for Southampton Pride on Saturday and I seized the opportunity to help and be a part of this beautiful celebration of love, no matter your sexuality.

To begin with I was asked to assist with fundraising but I wasn’t very good at it. I felt uncomfortable interrupting people whilst having fun asking them to donate. So after a while I went back to the boss and asked if I could help with something else. I was by the gates for a while and after I was relieved I ended up with the most marvelous job.

I was paired up with this lovely lady and we were given a gorgeous feather embellished frame and a camera, and we were asked to go out and take pictures.

I absolutely loved it! Every minute of it. The smile on peoples’ faces made my little heart melt every single time.

It’s such a cliche but is true. Beauty is who you are not how you look. Beauty comes from within. It really does. And all I could see with every photo I took was gorgeous, beautiful humans. Every time I said gorgeous, beautiful, lovely, I really meant it.

I cannot wait to see the photos when they are published. I’d love to share some of my favourites with you.

And the fun didn’t end there.

One of the highlights was the best hug I’ve had for a while, by this gorgeous man in the Guildhall giving away free hugs.

I loved the comments board. So many wonderful messages!

I’ve bumped into lovely friends, I made new friends and the evening came to an end watching 911 with my brother from another mother.

I’m so happy and blessed to have been a part of this beautiful celebration of pride and love. Love is love. Nothing else matters. It doesn’t make a difference whether you are straight, bi or gay. It doesn’t matter what kind of love it is. Family, friendship, romantic, platonic.

I was in a 7 year relationship and never really felt loved. But the love I felt from my family, friends, colleagues and on some occasions even strangers, over the last couple of years it more than made up for it.

Love is love!

On Sunday, another glorious sunny day, I got to sing with Singforce for Summer in the Square and also got to watch my old pals from Sing Now Choir and Love Soul.

At that moment, singing with colleagues in the sunshine whilst my Sing Now friends cheered us on, staring at the clear blue sky, I felt so happy!

I had a lovely afternoon enjoying a scrummy smoothie in the sun at Mettricks with my Sing Now friends afterwards.

To my Sing Now friends who asked me whether I’m coming back.

I want to say that I really do miss you. I met the most wonderful, genuinely nice, friendly people through Sing Now. And when I saw most of you yesterday, not for a second did it feel awkward. It felt like catching up with family after you haven’t seen them for a while.

If I end up staying in Southampton, depending on what I do next, I will definitely return. I miss you all.

When I came home yesterday I cried. It was happy tears. Happy and grateful for the beautiful weekend I had with lots of singing, pride, sunshine and love.

Love is love

Eleni

My Lynda.com experience

My God it’s been a long week.

But the weekend is almost upon us!

One of the things I’ll be doing this weekend, since I have shockingly little pocket money to spend in August (but I did get my Christmas ticket home, so I’d rather starve, totally worth it), is educating myself on Lynda.com

I first heard of Lynda.com a couple of years ago through work as the University subscribed to it and all staff could use it for free. (if your employer/university does not offer free access to Lynda, you can have a free month trial and then pay a monthly or annual fee).

Lynda.com is an American online education company owned by LinkedIn and it’s been running since 1995.

I have to say I wasn’t that impressed back then as there was not much on what I was interested in. From what I can remember there were some courses on Photoshop, Photography, some generic managerial skills tutorials etc and basic Excel training type of courses.

I was recently browsing on Groupon’s training/online courses section but since I ran out of money I thought I’d give Lynda.com another go.

I was blown away by the sheer quantity and range of courses on offer from music writing, drawing, WordPress, advertising, singing, to more technical ones such as civil engineering and programming.

Courses can be filtered by authors, software used, subject, companies, duration, type but most importantly skill level. So is perfect for total beginners who want to learn a new skill or professionals who want to improve their existing knowledge or skills.

The course duration varies but most are between 3-5 hours. Each course consists of chapters and each chapter is broken down to video lessons that are about 2-10 minutes long.

All courses are run by industry experts and include demonstrations, exercise files and plenty of examples.

Every video lesson comes with a full transcript and there is a notes section where you can add your notes at any point of the lesson and is saved along the relevant part of the video so you can go back and re-watch it if you wish.

You also have the option to watch the lessons offline if you are on the go.

There was so much choice I didn’t know what to do first but I decided to start the series of vocal training run by the late Jeannie Deva, a famous LA celebrity vocal coach.

I have no aspirations to become a professional singer but I love singing along with my guitar and I always wanted to improve my voice but face to face singing lessons are painfully expensive for me so I was very excited when I found out that Lynda.com now offered vocal coaching courses!

I’ve completed the first series of lessons on Warm Ups and Cool Downs and I’m now on the second series learning how to sing songs better.

I absolutely love this lady from the way she talks, the techniques she invented, her intelligence and intuition to her sense of humour.

In her first couple of lessons she demonstrates how to massage your neck and face to relax your singing/talking muscles-very useful-,she goes through a number of exercises on the piano with you and she often brings singers in to demonstrate the right way of performing each exercise.

I’ve learnt A LOT from her already, even basic physiology.

Did you know that the largest part of our lungs is actually on our back and not the front??? So if you want to fully fill your lungs with air when breathing pay attention to the movement of your ribs not your tummy/diaphragm.

And of course the infamous lip trills/lip bubbles came up.

Throughout the lessons she encourages you to send her videos with your progress which I was excited to do but unfortunately she died about 2 years ago. I would have loved to meet her…

But her legacy lives on through her incredible work and some of her lessons are also available on Youtube if you are interested.

After I complete the vocal training courses, I’m starting a series of lessons on music theory, guitar playing (of course I can’t afford guitar lessons either!!) and also storytelling, that may be a great way to put my unlimited imagination to good use.

I’m well impressed with Lynda.com and I’m very happy I was given the opportunity to learn new skills for free through it.

LinkedIn you did well!

I’m super excited about my next post as it will all be about the 31 day Yoga Revolution programme I’m doing and the Yoga teacher running it, the incredibly funny and witty Adrienne.

Until next time!

Eleni

Happy July!

Happy July to all! I hope this month brings you everything you wish for.

I’ve meant to post on Saturday but had a busy weekend and I’ve been suffering with sore throat since Sunday night so I didn’t get the chance to.

I spent all Saturday cleaning, organising stuff, sorting out things. I’ve been meaning to do that for a while because cleaning and organising my clothes, my shoes, my mugs, my earrings… add what else you can think of… helps me put my thoughts in order and feel more prepared to start my long-anticipated pursuit of new beginnings and a new life. I’m sure that’s not just me?

Before…

After!

I never want to go back to those black winter days and months. And I’m determined not to.

On Sunday I got to sing with my Solent friends at the Hat Fair and it was EPIC (photos on my insta https://www.instagram.com/eleni_zenonos/)! The sun was shining, you could see acrobats on one side, jugglers on the other, hundreds of stalls with bracelets, fairy clothes, food and many many more.

I met with my bestie afterwards and spent the afternoon chatting away for hours whilst having tea in the sun. What a beautiful day that was.

And then it was Monday…again…

Just to get it out of the way, I do not hate my job, I love my colleagues and I know there is always worse and work is not everything.

But for me it is a large part of my life and I’m itching to do something more meaningful, more exciting. I can’t spend the rest of my life checking spreadsheets in Excel, composing fee regulations and making amendments on Quercus. I can do much more than that. And if I don’t do it now I never will. I’m well aware that when I start a family, moving jobs and/or cities/countries/continents will be almost impossible.

I’m still not sure what I wish to do next, I’ve always wanted to chase my ‘becoming a Psychologist’ dream, as most Psychologist graduates do, but, although I’m strongly against the ‘I’m too old’ notion, I can’t really afford to right now financially, I might never do and I the thought of trying to save money for years to be able to re-train is too painful.

So… I’ll just go with the flow and when an opportunity I find interesting comes along, I’ll go for it.

And I’ll also do my absolutely very best to travel more. It’s such a cliche but there is so much beauty out there, so many diverse cultures, customs, cuisines that I’ve only seen on TV…

I was incidentally chatting to a colleague on Friday night, whilst having a couple of drinks with two lovely mothers to be who are now on maternity leave (don’t know much about babies so I thought I’d talk about travelling, one of my top three topics for discussion), about this documentary I watched on Costa Rica’s rich culture, gorgeous rain forests and the annual sea turtle nesting, ( the full title was Escape to Costa Rica-by Gaia Vince- definitely worth a watch, it made me set Costa Rica on the top of my bucket list) and I was in shock when he told me that he was in Costa Rica around the turtle nesting period, and although he had no idea before he arrived there, he got to watch the newborn tiny turtles walk into the sea. How amazing that must have been. We then talked about Cuba, another country high on my bucket list… I discovered amongst others, that he is an amazing photographer, how he arranged his life in such a way that he can travel often and that every trip he went became an amazing adventure, my favourite kind of holiday.

Needless to say that was the most interesting conversation I had in a while. I’m always amazed how much you can learn from others that you’d never expect to when you are open and happy to chat.

For now I can’t afford Costa Rica, but I’m going to Italy for the first time in September and I’m counting down the days.

For now I try my best to enjoy my life as it is.

And I’ll post most of it, when I can 🙂

Hope you are having a lovely, sunny Tuesday afternoon 🙂

Love you all

Eleni x