TIME TO LEARN SOME LESSONS

'don't tip toe through life, run, skip and dance.'

they say that travel broadens the mind, and never has this felt so true since moving here. i had no idea how small minded i was. the first few months i spent constantly moaning about anything that was slightly different to home. 

'the tube is so much better than the metro. its such an old fashioned system.'

'they're so behind with banking, some places don't even use chip and pin.'

'tipping everything and everyone is so ridiculous.'

'british is best'. or so i thought.....

actually the metro system runs 24 hours a day which is incredibly convenient, its so much cheaper and doesn't get as busy as the underground. some places may not have chip and pin, but i have a 'speed cheque paying in' app on my phone that allows to pay in a cheque by taking a picture of it, pretty cool huh? and the tipping....well, i'm ashamed to say, i'm still not there with that one...i'll have to keep you tuned on the progress of that.

i'm surprised at how long its taken to broaden this little mind of mine. its really made me take a long hard look at myself and i've had to learn a lot of lessons, some harder than others, but i thought i'd share a small one with you here.

whilst having no work visa for the first few months i spent a lot more time than i was used to at home. therefore i spent more time than i was used to doing housework. this made me see how easily i turn every little task into a chore thus sucking any fun out of my day. i dreaded the weekly grocery shop and put it off for as long as i could. i seemed to be constantly washing up throughout the day (why didn't we prioritise a dishwasher in our apartment search?). for some reason i saw these tasks as preventing me from living my life. 

so in a bid to live life to the full, enjoying the smallest of tasks, i started trying to make an event out of everything. nick and i take a trip to our local market to buy fresh bread at the weekend. i save the washing up until the end of the day and put on some music to have a washing up dance party. i buy food online from the comfort of my sofa with a cup of tea (ok, for those that know me, its not tea, its more likely a cold glass of ribena!).

most of the time its been my attitude towards the task that has changed more than the task itself and at times its ended up costing a little more or cost me more of my time, but as a result i get to skip and dance through life's more mundane tasks. 

THE BRIDGE OF ALL BRIDGES

brooklyn bridge. one of the oldest suspension bridges in the states. at one point it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. its become an icon of new york, a tourist hotspot. but i just didn't get it the first time we saw this bridge. we walked the entire length from manhattan to brooklyn, but i didn't understand what all the fuss was about. 

until now. you see, unlike most bridges, theres a method to enjoying all this bridge has to offer. brooklyn bridge trumps all other bridges because of the incredible manhattan skyline views it displays and so is meant to be walked FROM brooklyn TO manhattan so that you can admire the incredible sky line the entire length of the bridge, instead of walking with your back to it (like we did the first time). 

brooklyn bridge is a tourist attraction and so it can get busy. unpleasantly busy. and so its good to go weekdays during term time, earlier in the morning, or later in the evening. the best is a romantic stroll watching the sun set.

and so with this new found knowledge we took my sister and brother in law on a beautifully windy (hence the wild 'work in progress grown out bangs' look) cool day. nick was in charge of the camera, and granted he had some help with the settings, but didn't he do well?