And so it begins

I've been told a few times that I should start a blog.  Not sure why, I'm not entirely sure that I have anything even remotely interesting to blog about.  But since beginning my ex-pat adventures in the UK it's been kicking around in my head that it might be kind of fun, and a way (other than facebook, twitter, instagram, google+, email, skype, etc) to keep the folks at home up-to-date with me.  Because clearly there are not enough ways for us to all stay in touch.

ASP the first

So searching through the archives to find my first official Awkward Self Portrait.  I gotta admit I didn't particularly want to add it.  I mean, look at it - it's terrible.  Windy, awkward, squinty, and frankly, I don't really appear to be enjoying things.   I had just moved to Vancouver, my first foray in to Ex-Pat-dom, and had only been there a couple of weeks.  I'd spent the previous 2-years in Washington DC where, to be honest, I didn't have a lot of friends.  And worse, I rarely saw the friends I did have because I was lazy.  I worked from home, and most days couldn't be bothered to get up, get dressed & get out of the damn house.  If you have a home office & manage to get out & have a social life I salute you, because despite a handful of great people... my memories of DC are few.  So on the flight to Vancouver, I made a couple of decisions.  

A) I would say 'yes' any time I was invited out.  Regardless of how tired I was, or how much I just wanted to go home.  I'd say 'yes' because if you say 'no' enough times, you stop getting invited.  

and 

2) I wouldn't let being alone stop me from doing things I wanted to do.  If I wanted to take a walk - I would. Go to the museum, done.  And if I wanted to have dinner, I didn't just automatically get it to go.  I could survive eating out by myself.  Hell, I could even survive having a beer by myself.  It would all be okay.  

The Winking Judge - The first bar that was just mine.  

The first one was easy.  I'm a social gal... saying yes to happy hours etc was a breeze.  The second one was much harder.  I mean, going for walks, sightseeing etc, this wasn't so bad, but eating out or going to a bar by myself... that took a bit more self-encouragement.  But eventually I managed.  And in the end my time in Vancouver gave me a great deal of courage that I didn't even know I had. 



So to wrap up this first entry - I guess I expect this to be part travel-blog, part Ex-Pat blog, and with any luck it'll be mildly interesting, occasionally clever, & periodically updated.  

Let's see where we end up.