For those of you who don’t know, I am ‘between assignments’ (better known as being unemployed) and having always been quite a career-oriented girl, have been surprising myself with how many things there are to do in life during the ‘work day’ eg. veggie-patching (and watching them grow day-by-day, bless!), gym-going (with a vast choice of machines available in the middle of a week day), networking (at non-work conferences and seminars – you meet really interesting people…not that the ones I already know are not completely fascinating…) and best of all, sitting in my sun-filled front window…blogging.

You see, I am completely new to blogging, having never written, let alone followed one. I use to wonder where people found the time, what they actually blogged about and how you kept up the momentum when there was only you to create each new post. I mean I like technology and all that, but am not a huge advocate of things that are not practical and useful to me ie. make my life easier AND more interesting (have tried Plaxo but was not smitten and do not get the Twitter thing at all…) so blogging seemed like a really alien thing that I couldn’t relate to at all.

But a conference last year convinced me to ‘avago’ (Aussie for ‘dip you toe in the water’) and after a start-stop-start-stop approach, I thought that would be it for me…but part of me wondered – wouldn’t this be a great way to invite my friends and family into my ‘everydays’?

Choosing a life in a new country on the other side of the world has meant that phone calls tend to be a bit like an exec summary of the highs and lows (and I actually hate phone calls…a long time aversion since I don’t know when) but I thought my blog could be about the randomness of living and a way to express the things that touch me every day in my life over here. And so I began again…and as I went along, it became easier…I noticed the things I smiled about, was moved by, and wanted to say…and as the small circle of [auto-emailed] family and friends started to respond, it made me feel a little more connected both to myself and to them.

But the biggest surprise of all has been this…that I love writing…and it took a comment from a friend (JF) to register how much I have missed it (I have not written anything that was not for business since I was 18) and what a ‘complete’ way to express myself it used to be…so while I look for the next step in my career (and then hopefully once I am working again), stay tuned for a little piece of me every now and then…and know that I appreciate all of what you have to say in return.