white day

March 14th in Korea is officially known as 'White Day'~ a holiday in which the boys traditionally shower their sweethearts with gifts and presents... or in my case my students shower me with candy and chocolate and a possible future trip to the dentist.

Dallas and I didn't really celebrate Valentine's Day when we were still together last month but last night we went Dutch as friends and ate delicious barbecued samgyupsal, which is the juiciest pork sizzled up right at your table and then eaten wrapped in a sesame leaf with spicy sauce, garlic and onions.

Delish.

My heart is forever glad that the friendship didn't die when the relationship did.

It's a rare thing that should be treasured, and I do, with all of my heart.

the sunday slowdown

 Do you ever wish that Sunday mornings could just last forever?

Today's was the perfect, lazy, slow-wake-up kind of morning with cups of tea and bacon sandwiches and The Beach Boys and jumping in and out of bed till noon.

Later the sunshine (sunshine!) enticed me into the shower and out to the tracks to watch my buddy put me to shame by running 10k while I slouched on the stands, listening to Radiohead and messing around with photo apps on my phone.

She's a master deceiver, Madam Weather, especially when she is in transition and my fingers finally became numb enough by the wind chill for me to sneak off and hide out in a coffee shop with a book, a chocolate latte and the warmth of a sunny spot next to a window.

Because, really, what sunday is complete without a little coffee shop action?

the sunday slowdown

The weekend shaped up to be a pretty good one ^^

The weekend was a birthday celebratin', snail mail writin', stationary buyin' kind of a weekend.

It was a music + reading friday, a curry + good company saturday and a pajama + pizza sunday.

My yoga membership expired a couple of weeks ago and my muscles have been really missing it.
This morning I did some lovely deep lower back stretches and managed to set free some little pockets of bad energy that had snuck in and were just hanging out back there...
So long!

I bought a set of darling vintage postage stamp stickers yesterday which set my idle hands into action today and I sat and wrote reams of letters and crafted a string letter with pizza and netflix and a sleepy boy by my side.

There's something so sweet about a Sunday's pace don't you think?

three

Today, Christmas Day, is the day Dallas and I are celebrating three years of being together.

Three years ago today I, yes I, asked this beautiful man to be my boyfriend.

Lucky for me, he thought it sounded like a pretty good idea ^^

It's incredible how much both our lives have changed in the last 3 years.

We had an unconventional first meeting, at a training weekend for new English teacher's arriving in  South Korea for the first time. 

I pegged him for a keeper the minute I laid eyes on him.

It just goes to show, when you know, you know.

In three years we have gone from long distance weekend dating (we taught in towns 3 hours away from each other for 2 years) to 4 months travelling Asia together, a visit to my parents home in Ireland together to finally this year living together under one roof,

This relationship has been an adventure right from the start, we co-pilot this ship together and I can't imagine navigating my way through this funny ol life with anyone else by my side.

Happy Christmas Anniversary darling.

Here's to the next three.

♡

monday morning ear candy

The weekends here in Korea are slippier than fish and faster than elk. They just have this way of getting away from you!

Dallas and I had a swell time on Saturday evening, going out on the town and celebrating two birthday parties, bar-hopping and slipping around on frozen snow and drunken legs.

We ate delicious Korean BBQ, sneaked trays of tequila shots to the table at the bar, got up to all kinds of mischief and laughed at the realization that all of our gifts to the birthday boy in his mid-twenties were "old man gifts"~ thick socks, cologne, a puzzle,  warm gloves....though he didn't seem to mind one bit. Maybe we're all old souls on the inside!

When we got home Dallas and I carried on the party and stayed up till dawn listening to tunes. We drank rice wine, laughed and traded stories like a couple of old sailors. It was certainly my kind of a night.

This is my favorite tune of the moment. A pretty ditty by a great new band to get that heart rate bopping on this slow and frosty Monday morning.

Enjoy x

take a breath

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Tonsillitis for the second time this year has had this lady deer with a big slice of grump on her face.

I overindulged Friday night, layed low in bed all day Saturday and morosely reminisced on Sunday of starting the weekend over and filling it with all the productive things I had planned to tick off my massive Christmas preparation list.

Yesterday morning I woke up with tonsils the size of golf balls and at the realization of this forced slow down I just hit a wall and let it bring out the hidden hood-rat in me. I was ready to crack open some skulls~ just ask poor, poor Dallas :(

Today I've decided is a fresh slate,  I just need to take a big breath, take my meds till I'm better and learn that screaming at my spouse is not a solution to my problems!

I'm allowing myself to think ahead and take solace in the promise of many new and exciting things to come. 

There's gonna be some movin' and shakin' around this blog pretty soon and I am tickled pink to share the changes with you.

I read a lovely quote over the weekend that I think rounds off this update perfectly and I'll certainly be taking a little bit of this advice the next time my bottom lip threatens to pop out today:

"A smile is a curve that sets everything straight"

~Phyllis Diller

Hope you're all smiling today friends

x

   

3 little things

These dark mornings are making it harder and harder to escape my warm bed and hit the cold bathroom.

Dark evenings after work make it even harder to pull on my yoga gear when I get home and set out into the cold again to go to class.

There's a cold SNAP in the air fitting to bite my glove-less fingers off if I don't buy a pair of mitts soon and the fog of my breathe in the chill air is telling me Old Man Winter is out to play.

 Thank goodness for some festive and seasonal goodness this week to add a little cheer to the Winter chill.

                                                            1. Birthday Fiesta

Margaritas on a week night? Don't mind if I do.

As a birthday treat I took Dallas out to the expensive Mexican restaurant we always drool at on our way past to the movie theater but have always been driven clear of because of the prices.

We feasted on steak tacos and enchiladas, discussed new plans and schemes ahead and toasted our future.

2. Fancy Cocoa 

As a birthday gift one of Dallas's sweet students gave him these two lovely tins of Cocoa.

He's not the biggest fan of chocolate drinks but someone we all know loves nothing more than sugaring herself  up and warming her hands around a mug of floaty marshmallow hot chocolate ^^

3. Early Christmas presents 

These sweet Christmas parcels arrived this week for Dallas and myself from my parents.

I hadn't given Christmas present shopping a lick of thought until these arrived, and now I'm itching to write cards and wrap small gifts in brown paper and twine.
Christmas schemings are giving me a warm feeling through this icy weather. This one will be Dallas and I's first living together and thoughts of a mini Christmas tree and roasting potatoes and a Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack in our tiny little apartment are giving me a fuzzy feeling all over ^^

I hope there were 3 little joys to warm up your week.
Happiest of Friday's friends x 

birthday happy

                                                   

Today my Dallas turns 32 and I feel like the luckiest girl in town to be the one to share it with him.

I plan on sharing as many more with him as he'll have me!

This is my absolute favorite shot of the two of us~ lost in a moment at a music festival. It was taken by our good friend and photographer Angelo who scares me sometimes with his preternatural ability to snap and capture the pure essence of brief instances in time.

In this instance he caught the fleeting flash of a stolen kiss. Two people in the midst of music and love. That was a great night.

Our story is one of fate and perfect and terrible timing all rolled into one...lot's of rushes of feeling and hurt and healing and most of all love. Our love has carried us through almost three years of the highest highs and a couple of lows but I feel like we're at the best place now we have ever been.

This guy has changed me and encouraged me and had a Saint's patience with me in so many different ways.

He can light up any room with his charisma and can tell a good story like no other.

He does the worst British accent you will ever care to hear and you never want to see his body pop arm wave move!

He shares my love of quirky things, nerdy cartoons, eclectic music and a good rainy day indoors reading .

His love for his family and his friends knows no bounds. And boy is there a lot of room in his big ol' heart for love. 
I'm so happy that there was a little space in there for me too.

Happy birthday love.

Till next year.

x

somewhere between the light time and the night time

Wednesday was Liberation Day here in Korea so we were gifted with a rare mid-week one-day vacation. We kick-started the day early and I made Dallas and I a batch of cinnamon french toast from this amazing recipe. A real sweet start to the day. 

Our daytime plans were then scuppered by a fantastic rainstorm that lasted well untill 6 o'clock that evening. We spent most of the day inside reading, listening to good music and claps of thunder and watched the raindrops jitterbuggin' down our windows.

By evening cabin fever had set in and we grabbed our umbrellas and headed out to Hongdae where we got twirly after a few long islands in a bag and wandered the streets taking pictures and buying nonsense trinkets such as a diy birdcage and paper model of Spike Lee :)

Yesterday back at school we were tired and not a little hungover but we both agreed it was totally worth it. 

I guess rainy Wednesday cocktails, street walking and hand holding just do it for me ^^

Muuido Island Meltdown

A heatwave has arrived and sucker-punched South Korea. Plants and people alike are wilting under the sun's attempts to roast us all alive. In over 2 years here I have never felt anything quite like this heat.

 Dallas and I had planned to hideyhole on the beach in Muuido Island for a few days with our friends. Perhaps tan on the sand, eat some ice cream and dip in the ocean to cool off. But mr thermometer had other ideas and we almost threw in the towel on our first day there and scampered back to our air conditioned apartment with our tails between our sunburned legs.

After a debate we decided to stay and brave a second night in the fan-less beach hut. The fun was to be found after the sun went down  and we found reprieve from the heat. We enjoyed beers, a beautiful sunset and delicious beach-side fish barbeque.

The trip wasn't a complete disaster but we'll be avoiding the endurance test that is Muuido in high summer in the future I think!

Jisan Valley Rock Festival

Our week long school vacation started with a bang last weekend with a trip to the Jisan Valley Rock Festival deep in the valleys of Icheon. Dallas and I showed up with our friends on the Friday night with just a 1 day ticket and a hope and a dream. Miraculously that evolved into us somehow leaving the festival on Sunday afternoon!! Sun-frazzled, bum tired and kissed by what felt like a million mosquitoes. But happy.

Friday night anticipation levels were high as we were there to see Radiohead perform for the first time ever in Korea. This was my first experience seeing them live and it was kind of perfect that I got to see them with Dallas who worships them and is solely responsible for my appreciation of their back-catalog. Thom Yorke was a dazzling pony-tailed elf-man vision and his vocals nothing short of other-wordly. The atmosphere was magical and his voice rose and soared out from the stage, over the crowd and mountainous landscapes surrounding us.  

We rocked and swayed, closed our eyes and lost ourselves in song after song, their set lasting way beyond the scheduled 90 minutes. My personal favorite was when they surprised the fans by performing 'Talk Show Host' from the Romeo & Juliet soundtrack and I was unexpectedly transported back to the summer of 1996 and my grungy angst-ridden 16 year old self >.<! When they encored with Paranoid Android and the entire crowd chanted along to "rain down on me", I got a little emotional. I can admit it. 

The whole show was stunning and a great reminder that people are magic and music can heal. 

Thank you Radiohead.

We filled the rest of our festival time with beer and cocktails, bare toe jiving in the grass, sleeping under the stars, shade hunting, people watching and creek wading. 

I made a little playlist of my fave tracks from the Radiohead set. 

Hope everyone else is enjoying the festival season this summer! x

him.

what I wouldn't do for a front porch, a jug of iced tea and his company right about now.

Valentining

It's been a tough, heart-aching couple of months without my guy here by my side and even though I try to distract myself in all ways imaginable I'm still always aware of the chilly empty space beside me that only he can fill. I can't wait for the day he can swoop me into one of his biggest bear hugs, we can go on real life dates instead of Skype ones and give big wet lip-smacking kisses instead of hitting 'x' on the keyboard.

In the meantime it's been such a sweet pleasure to let him show me that despite being 3000 miles and a whole ocean away he can still make my heart leap...

Snail Mail is my fave

Cutest Valentine ever! x