Mums, We Need to Stick Together (in this cold online world)

I've had this post rumbling around in my gut for a while now, but just lacked the hook to hang it all on. I found my starting point last night when I spotted a post from kiwi mum-blogger Emily Writes in my FaceBook feed. Emily has managed to catch the eye of the mainstream media moguls with her self-deprecating, honest and hilarious blog posts about the realities of parenting. This latest story was a doozie, and I found myself chuckling and shaking my head all the way through. The title itself is fab: "I was a great parent - before I had kids". Mmmhmm. Yep. Weren't we all?
Then I hit the comment section and my stomach literally dropped. Poor Emily!
She must have been so excited to get her blog stories up on a mainstream news website (I know I would have been) and then, whammo, the crazies start in on her. The judgey comments, the meanness, as typified by this one:

Honey Roasted Pear Salad (the best you've ever eaten)

This salad I am about to share with you is hands-down the yummiest salad I've ever eaten. It's better than any I've tried at any restaurant, it's so yummy it makes me want to eat a whole bowlful, all by itself. I am not usually a huge salad fan, to be honest, but this salad? This one has me reaching for seconds.
And I invented it.

It happened one Thursday when I was cooking for my parents' weekly dinner; I'd planned steak with mushrooms, baked potatoes and salad, but when I reached into the fridge the tomatoes had gone soft and squishy. There was, however, a lone pear. And that gave me an idea. I'd heard of pears being used in salads, and I reckoned if I roasted this one, it would taste better.

The rest is salad history, set to the sound-track of much delighted groaning and guests exclaiming, "BEST SALAD WE'VE EVER TASTED".

Taking Stock (cos I'm all outta blog love)

I need to get the words flowing again, so I'm using that old favourite formula, Taking Stock. I've been really finding it hard to blog - or to want to post online at all, really - since returning from overseas. But I love this blog, and I have no intention of neglecting it for too long, and I have story ideas rattling through my brain and I just need to get started somehow. So this is it. A beginning of sorts...

TAKING STOCK:

Making :  the most of days to myself before school holidays start. Oh lovely lovely days where I choose what I do. (But school holidays will be lovely too).
Cooking :  mostly uninspired dinners on repeat -  apart from Honey Roasted Pear Salad, which I have invented and will share with you soon.
Drinking : Six Barrel Soda - from my new favourite supplier of all things lovely, Good Thing. Just a dash of syrup and then chilled soda water. Would be even better if I remembered to freeze some ice cubes.

Children's Garden in My Heart (Philippines Odyssey)

The first thing you notice about Manila is the heat. You walk out of the air-conditioned airport and wham, there you are in a sauna. Never mind that it's night time - the tropical air has sweat dripping off the end of your nose in minutes.

The next thing you notice is the traffic. There is no other traffic anywhere in the world like Manila traffic. Trust me on this. You think you have traffic where you live? Nope, you don't.

In Manila, you sit in traffic for an hour and lean across to your hubby and ask, are we nearly there? And he points to the Terminal Three building out your window, and says, haha, nope, we haven't left the airport yet.

On Travel and Life

Time has a funny way of playing tricks on you when you travel. It's almost like the moment you board the plane you enter some weird time machine that contracts time, making it race by ("I can't believe there's only one day left of our holiday!"), while at the same time, it also expands, making it seem like you've been away for weeks, when in fact it's only been days.

Our Asian adventure only lasted ten days - TEN DAYS - but it seemed like at least three weeks. At least.

Um, hi. I'm back.

Hello, hello.
This is not really a post. It's more like a disclaimer.
I am back in the country, returned from my sojourning and adventuring.
There are a gazillion photos and stories galore, which I will get to. But right now I am so flippin... emotionally exhausted. Worded out. Overwhelmed. (And I have strep throat).
I just can't go there yet.

In brief - the first part was luxury, amaze, everything we hoped it would be (Raffles Hotel in Singapore, the Oriental Express. Unbelievably good). Then we hit the drama-back-home wall, and I fell in the return-of-strep-throat ditch for a day in Bangkok. I almost had to come home.
Somehow we got through that, and I made it to the Philippines where I met some of the most beautiful people on God's earth and sweated an ocean in the heat and humidity. (I have new respect for AirCon, for our deliciously mild Auckland climate and for Filipinos everywhere).

Upon our return I have found myself wishing just to keep a low profile. I don't want to post on Facebook, on Instagram, txt or phone anyone. I owe many wonderful people bottles of duty free perfume and baileys by way of a *thank you* for all the help they gave our kids while we were away, but I am going to wait til next week in the hopes that I may feel less inclined to hide by then.
I might have found my words again.
In the meantime my heart is full, even if my brain is empty and my throat is sore.
The antibiotics have gotta kick in soon, right?

So, hi. I'm back. See you next week when normal transmission should resume once more. I hope.
xx