Turning a flight into a luxury mini-break: My top travel tips

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Turning a flight into a luxury mini-break

This post was written as an entry to the ProBlogger Virgin Australia competition.

I love flying. For me, the allure of plane travel has never waned. Airports themselves still fascinate me. The bustle of people. The palpable emotions. The excitement of either returning home or discovering somewhere new. I still get a thrill when the plane leaves the tarmac. So, when an opportunity came up to fly to Melbourne and back for the day, sans family, I was as excited about the plane flights as I was the event itself.  Read more…

Appreciating the skin you are currently in

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Body Image

This month I am focussing on regaining intimacy. It can be hard to even go there when you are feeling a bit crap about your body. My body has changed a great deal since having kids. Some parts I don’t mind – a new kind of softness. Other parts – generous hips and bottom – are harder to embrace. But I wonder what purpose being critical serves. Whether in years to come I will look back on that criticism and wonder what on earth I was worried about.

I look back on photos of myself as a much younger woman. All cropped blonde hair and long tanned limbs. I don’t remember thinking myself beautiful. 

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The Challenge: Regaining Intimacy

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Regaining the intimacy challenge

This month I am focussing on something that can be a bit hard to talk about, but I think is really important: regaining intimacy after having children.

For those of us who have recently (or not so recently) had children, romance and intimacy may feel like a thing of the past. This month I want to explore rekindling the home fires. If you are at that stage, I’d love you to explore this with me.  I will be talking kindness (to yourself and your partner), feeling sexy again and intimacy after babies (gulp!) Read more…

Why breastfeeding is like being a teenager again

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Why breastfeeding made me feel like a teenager againMy breastfeeding days made me feel like a teenager again. Hear me out on this one.

Baby E gave up breastfeeding a few months back. I no longer have to wear tops that can pull up or down. Sadly, my membership in the itty-bitty-titty committee has also been reinstated. I haven’t quite said good-bye to my comfy (and now very roomy) nursing singlets. There may still be the odd maternity bra or two in my rotation. But, on the whole, I am glad to be out on the other side.

Here’s why the months I dressed for breastfeeding reminded me of being 14 years old. Read more…

Motherhood & Career: Tearing our hearts in two – How can we feel less torn?

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Balancing Babies & Work: How can we feel less torn?

I can still remember the feeling acutely. Driving into the daycare centre to pick my baby up, panicked as the clock neared 6pm, worried about the work I had left undone at the office and above all excited to see my son. That roller-coaster of emotions occurred on a daily basis when I worked full time. I felt, like many career mothers feel, that I was completely torn between two lives. That I was not capable of delivering the same quality of work and quantity of time to my career that I once could and that I was not giving enough to my child. Even though all evidence pointed to the contrary, I was convinced I was failing at both roles. And after I filled my mother role, my career role and my growing self-doubt role, there was precious little left over to give to my husband, the house and (last on the list) myself. I know so many working women who feel like this. But perhaps we are our own worst enemy. Maybe, as well as looking critically at work practices and our situation, we need to challenge our beliefs.

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