Hello Friend

I caught up with a friend last week.  We had not seen each other for a few years and she has just moved to The Coast from Sydney, as I am sure a lot of my Sydney friends will, given enough time.  We actually met through blogging, a few years ago.  Meeting people through blogging is a great experience because there are so many blogs out there for people to choose from.  And a few special people choose to follow you, for whatever reason, and those people you usually have some kind of connection with.  We just clicked straight away, similar goals, ideals, dreams.  Time flew as we sat chatting over coffee.  It was almost like we had only just caught up the day before, we were able to so easily talk to each other. 

I met a girl a few weeks ago.  We started chatting and found out we had so much in common.  She asked for my phone number.  She was new to The Coast and didn't know anyone except for the people she worked with and her partner.  I gave it to her and we are catching up today.  I have struggled with friendships since we moved up here.  At first it was almost impossible because of the hours we were doing.  Then we moved and we seem to be the only people in this area without children.  We don't seem to have anything in common with the neighbours and I think they look at us and scratch their heads trying to work us out.  But with the majority of our friends an hour away it has been hard.  And meeting people now is hard.  I find it difficult when I meet someone and have an instant connection with them.  What am I supposed to do?  Give them my number and say call me?  It reminds me of dating and I don't know what the protocol is.  

One of the girls at work told me yesterday that she was home alone this weekend with her little girl and that if I was free I was more than welcome to come round and have a drink.  I feel so fortunate that suddenly I find myself forming a support group right here on The Coast.  I never felt lonely, but I did feel that I was lacking in some serious local, female bonding, it was something in the back of my mind, almost like a little note on my To-Do list 'seek out some local friends'.  Zig Ziglar says that "If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere."  Perhaps I made this shift, or maybe it was because I stopped being so busy that I was able to stop and get back into life.  Either way I am going to keep on doing whatever it is I am doing, being a friend to everyone I meet and grow these buds of friendship I have been so fortunate to find.

Hip Hip Hooray

As of 3:30pm tomorrow I am officially on holidays and I could not be happier (well maybe if I win the $100 mil I probably would be).  Hubby and I have not had a break since our honeymoon which ended over 6 months ago.  This break is quite overdue.  

We have nothing planned.  We may or may not go away, but The Boys are booked into the kennels pet resort for a few nights just in case.  I have made it clear that we are to spend no more than 2 days in the house, we need to get out and do stuff.  It has been just over 2 years since we left Sydney and we really don't know the Central Coast all that well.  We just live here.  Yet there is always a mass exodus from Sydney every school holidays when they flood in here and take over visit, so there must be something going on around here that I do not know about.  It is time we explored 'The Coast', after all we need to face the fact that we are now "Coasties" (much to certain Sydney people's horror).

Not too sure where to start, Hubby and I are big food and wine people.  The food here is, well, I am from Sydney so let's just leave it at that, as for the wine, there is a fruit winery, and I have been there so that covers that.  But there are beaches of course and lakes, and lots of things for the kids to do.  I have an Entertainment Book so we are going to go through that, rip out a voucher and go exploring.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter so much what we do, but that we do it together.  We need to spend time having fun and away from the drama of work and the stress of the house.  We need to rest, relax and get ourselves ready for a hectic November and December.  After all we need to work to live not live to work.