Tag: relationships

Laugh Lots, Travel Often

On By sheeplessIn Happenings & MusingsLeave a comment

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  And when there are three wills then things get done with so much enthusiasm and efficiency that you begin to wonder how you ever achieved anything on your own!

Less than three weeks ago, my friend Christine and I had an almost identical idea for a collaborative blog.  We roped in our friend Cheryl-Lee and after much hard work and a few Skype calls across time zones, we have created Laugh Lots, Travel Often.

With our three perspectives from different countries, cultures, opinions, and relationship statuses, we muse about travel, food, relationships, and some of our favourite things.

The year that was

On By sheeplessIn Happenings & Musings, Lebanon, Life in London, Travels & Adventures, TurkeyLeave a comment

As 2011 nears its end, I thought it might be time to reflect on what amazing things I saw or did during the year, and what crap things occurred that I hope to have learnt from!

The biggest thing that happened in the year was moving back to Sydney from London. It was pretty tough settling back into a routine and giving up the nomad lifestyle, but now that I’ve an established a bunch of friends that enjoy catching up for socials and food tours, and am loving being back in my Balmain flat, things are getting easier. It doesn’t mean that I don’t contemplate moving back to London, which I would do in a heartbeat if a) the economy and job market were in better shape, and b) if the salaries in London weren’t so stupidly crap.

Considering that I spent most of the year in Australia, it actually wasn’t a bad year for travelling. I welcomed in the new year skiing in Italy, then made some short trips to Iceland, Poland, Turkey, Lebanon, Singapore, and New Zealand. I will be sending off the year in Japan!

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There is nothing at all to report on the relationship front. Yet more harassment from the parentals as to the whereabouts of my future husband (there was some part of me that wanted to stay abroad!), but sadly for them, there seems to be a shortage of available, nice, interesting and intelligent men in Sydney. I think that 2012 might be the year of Internet dating!

So all in all, I’d give 2011 a rating of 7 out of 10. I wish that I could have figured out what I want out of my career by now, and I wish I had a few more friends that were up for some fun days or weekends away (trying to get people to come to music festivals, diving and ski trips this year has been an impossibility) but otherwise I’m financially secure and have very few cares in the world. The issues above are very definitely First World Problems!!

How would you rate your 2011? What do you hope for 2012?

Last woman standing

On By sheeplessIn Happenings & MusingsLeave a comment

Last week I found out that my most recent ex had proposed to his current girlfriend and is now engaged. That means that, soon, all my exes will be married whilst I’m still single.

For once, I didn’t start overanalysing my situation and how my choices have led me to this point. I feel like I’m pretty damn happy with where I am right now at this point of my life so can’t complain too much.*

In the last month, I also found out that two of my girlfriends are pregnant.  Then it suddenly occurred to me while sitting on the bus this morning that perhaps I’m being a bit blasé about my future and not seriously considering whether I actually want to get married at some point and have children.

Certainly I don’t feel any regret about my previous relationships ending, especially since in most cases I was the instigator and had made the choice not to continue the relationship.  I have been very selfish up until now, putting my needs and wants above my partner’s, so my singledom is definitely the result of the choices that I have made.  Having said that though, I would really like to meet someone that I can give myself wholeheartedly to and makes me want to live our lives together, and where we can make each other happy, blah blah…all that soppy stuff.

I’m feeling as though the expectation of society is on me and, especially as I’m nearing 30, that there is a certain timeline to which I should be living my life.  For some reason, I wonder whether I should be thinking that there is something wrong with me if I’m going to be turning 30 still being single and childless, despite the fact that I haven’t actually met anyone that I want to spend the rest of my life with and I don’t even think that I want kids!!!

Ugh, I should stop trying to make myself depressed when I’m not.

* I would attribute quite a large proportion of my current happiness at the anticipation of my upcoming backpacking trip!

I’m just not that into you

On By sheeplessIn Happenings & MusingsLeave a comment

I would normally rather eat salad* than watch rom-coms such as the new movie, He’s Just Not That Into You, but considering that I’m in my late 20s and still single, I thought that it could be a semi-educational offering as well as being a mindless time waster.

In the end, it did turn out to be a fairly predictable popcorn movie with a conveniently happily-ever-after ending that was torturously unsatisfying.  It did drill into you that if he isn’t calling you, then he’s just not interested, so don’t bother deluding yourself with any fantasies of hot dates and affection.

Still, the movie didn’t answer the questions that I have about blokes:

  • Why are they so inept at communicating their feelings?  He may think that this is because he’s “complex” but really, EVERY bloody bloke is incapable of expressing their feelings.  We’re not mind readers (see this post for an earlier related rant).
  • So if a guy does call you and seems interested, how do you know if he’s actually wanting something serious as opposed to just sex?
  • Why does every bloke that I meet bring up the subject of ex-girlfriends within two dates?  Is it because he wants to show that he is capable of sustaining a relationship, or is he just really not over her?

Maybe they need to make a new movie called What Men Are Really Thinking…but I guess noone has been able to actually determine that yet.

* Those who know me know that you don’t win friends with salad…it’s an accompaniment people!

* Image courtesy of stock.xchng

Platonic relationships

On By sheeplessIn Happenings & MusingsLeave a comment

I was chatting to a very good mate of mine a few weeks ago on Messenger, who glumly told me that a girl he worked with that he quite fancied (and he thought quite fancied him) turned out to have a boyfriend.  He thought she fancied him because she was always talking to him but apparently “she was just genuinely a nice person”.

Of course I had to just burst out laughing because I thought it was so typical of my friend to be so clueless about women and how they act.  (And if his thinking really is typical of most men, this means that men only really bother talking to someone if they’re actually interested in them.)

My brother has a saying that “friends are just women you haven’t shagged yet”, which shows that my brother sits firmly in the camp of men who can’t have platonic relationships with women!  This contradicts my theory that men who have sisters are actually more likely to have platonic relationships with women since they understand and appreciate women as they are (my friend above comes from a family of four boys!).

I dare say that every woman I know has many male friends for whom she feels no attraction at all, though I would guess that quite a number of men would struggle to say that they had only platonic feelings for their female friends.  I wonder if it’s a biology thing.  Any thoughts?

 

* Image courtesy of stock.xchng