3 little things// sweet memories

Last night as I was clearing out our cluttered shelves I happened upon my old iPod and stopped a while to scroll through my old picture album as it was pretty much my only camera during the 6 months when I left Korea, travelled and came back (everything was sold off to fund the trip).

As I scrolled down through over 400 photos I picked off three that evoke some pretty sweet memories for me...

1. Bali Dream Catcher

I took this photo of the shadow of a dream catcher against a folding blind one night at a rickety old Balinese beach hut I stayed at during my first week travelling there. 

It was around midnight and all the other guests were asleep. I needed cash but the nearest ATM was a 30 minute walk away so the toothless, white-vested Balinese gentleman who worked for the hostel and also slept under it took me there and back on the back of his scooter. 

When he returned me back to the hut alive and in one piece I bought him a beer, listened to his life story and was taken by the sound of the waves outside and the shadow of the dream catcher jangling against the shuttered blinds by the night sea breeze...

2. Puddle reflections

Back in Korea now and caught in the late August rain showers. 

Splashing my way to school, trouser hems soaked up to the shins and wishing for a blue rubber dinghy and  bright yellow hat, raincoat and boots instead.

Then I looked down and started to notice the crystal blue, almost mirror-perfect reflections in the puddles and forgot my woes as I lost a few minutes snapping my polka-dot umbrella in the rain water instead.

3. Morose date night with Dallas

I can't but smile when I see this picture taken not long after we arrived back in Korea. 

We'd just spent three months apart back in our respective home countries and done nothing but talk and dream and scheme, write letters and talk on Skype about how wonderful it would be when we got back to Korea and were back together again.

Sometimes life has different plans and obstacles to throw in your chosen paths and the reality when we got here was we were working 40 minutes away from each other at extremely long houred and stressful jobs.

I think this picture of our date night perfectly depicts our sagging spirits during that first, difficult month back.

But, dear readers, as they say  yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery~ little that we thought so at the time we did bounce back and pull the experience around so we are living a much happier life here right now. 

Wallowing never helped anything and this picture is a perfect reminder of that!