Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Category: Lifestyle (page 41 of 46)

WW – Ambiance

January 18, 2017 / / 18 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

With thousands of photos haphazardly archived over the years, I can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “ambiance“.

I relate ambiance with a feeling of contentment and joy. Many times a wonderful ambiance is created when hanging out with friends, something we finally get to do more often these days. The first thing that came to my mind when discovering this week’s photo theme was a campfire. The crackling sound, the woodsy smell, the intense warmth, the constantly changing shape of the flames all create an ambiance I can wallow in for hours.

Check out Terri’s post about this topic on Second Wind Leisure Perspectives. You might recognize some of the characters… 🙂

What does ambiance mean to you?

Then and Now – Yoga

January 11, 2017 / / 37 Comments

This is my last “Then and Now” post for the time being, and I think it is perfect for Wordless Wednesday as well! 🙂

Then – San Blas Islands, Panama, 2012

My favorite yoga spot of all times – Good Morning, East Lemmons!
Looking up from my towel
East Lemmon Cays

Continue reading

A Day in the Life of a House Sitter – Rocklin, California

January 7, 2017 / / 24 Comments

Most of the time when Mark and I do a house sit that is longer than one week, I create a post about how an ordinary day in our life as house and pet sitters looks like. Many of the tasks are the same, but there are always some unique aspects that have to do with each home, area or pet. Past “A Day in the Life of…” posts cover our time in The Villages, Florida, which is the biggest retirement community in the world, Kent, Connecticut, where we took care of four pets for a highly creative and accomplished couple and Heath, Massachusetts, where we lived on a maple farm.

As I was thinking about this particular house sit, I couldn’t help but realize that our days are probably pretty similar to most people of our age living an “ordinary” life, with the main differences that we both work from home and don’t have kids.

This is how a normal workday for us looks like in Rocklin during our three month sit: Continue reading

Mark and Liesbet’s 2016

December 31, 2016 / / 29 Comments

2016 has passed in a jiffy. The older you get, the faster time flies. I am a firm believer of that “theory”.

In October 2015, Mark and I started our life in the United States. We applied for my green card (for the 2nd time in ten years; the 1st one, obtained in 2008, was “returned”), which I received five months later. The process for that took a tad longer than writing these two sentences! We began house sitting, expanded The Wirie business and I decided to write a book. A month later, I created this blog and an initial outline for said book. In December, we escaped to Florida for warmer weather.

2016 is our first full year of house and pet sitting in the US. The business has been successful and much easier to “handle” than from a sailboat in the middle of the ocean. I worked hard on my blog, trying to keep up a schedule of three posts a week. In April, for the A to Z Blogging Challenge, this became one a day! I worked on my memoir, which I will write more about on Wednesday, and we took care of a bunch of sweet, entertaining and smart animals. Continue reading

Wordless Wednesday – Path

December 28, 2016 / / 27 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

With thousands of photos haphazardly archived over the years, I can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “path“.

This theme is very appropriate, because it is thanks to the paths we take that we are where we are today, physically and mentally. We live our lives and arrive at intersections. We stop. We think. We contemplate. Sometimes, there are multiple roads to pick from. Where do we go? Which direction do we choose? Which path do we take? Will we get lost?

Continue reading

Wordless Wednesday – Anticipation

December 21, 2016 / / 6 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

With thousands of photos haphazardly archived over the years, I can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “anticipation“.

Anticipation is an interesting theme. It lifts the spirit, makes your heart jump, creates excitement, and can be fun, unless reality turns out to be nothing like you predicted. Anticipation does not prepare you for what will actually happen, which can be better, or worse. Anticipation can create dread if faced with something you don’t look forward to. When the situation is entered, things might turn out better than expected, leading to relief.

Anticipation’s big brother is expectation. Continue reading

Weight Loss Experiment – Take 1

December 19, 2016 / / 26 Comments

In November, I did a case study. Of myself. After months of staring at massive bathroom mirrors and the reflection being exactly the same, I remained disgusted and could not deny the horrible truth anymore: I am (getting) fat. For months, I thought all the scales in the houses we took care of were wrong. Yes, I was that naive. Until recently, when facing – and admitting to – reality. It boils down to this: I am not all-around fat; it just has accumulated in certain spots. My body has been disproportionate for a decade: skinny on top, bulky on the bottom. Recently, the bulkier parts can be labelled fat and some new areas of concern have appeared.

People that have known me for a long time are probably raising their eyebrows reading a post about weight loss… coming from me! Most of those people have probably not seen me in a while either. Yes, I was skinny as a teenager and happy with my weight in my twenties and thirties. Sure, I was still OK wearing bikinis on our boat two years ago, ignoring the emerging belly fat, attempting to sit up straight when in company. And then, I turned 40. I like to blame the unruly weight gain on my age, but it might have to do with Mark and I swapping our challenging boat life for a more sedentary and comfortable house sitting life as well. Food is readily available in a plethora of varieties now. Sitting behind the computer all day and eating more western food probably didn’t help. Despite going for a decent walk almost daily, I gained 10 pounds in the last year… How do I get rid of that, at this age, with temptations everywhere? Continue reading

Wordless Wednesday – New Horizon

December 14, 2016 / / 22 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

With thousands of photos haphazardly archived over the years, I can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “new horizon“.

What is to be found across the new horizon?

What is to be found across the new horizon?

Now this is a theme I can resonate with, since one of my mottos is “Expand your horizons!” Continue reading

Modern Day Nomads? That’s Us!

December 12, 2016 / / 17 Comments

I am taking the easy way out today with my blog. I truly ought to prioritize my book and I am a bit demotivated because of a Bluehost server problem that was out of our hands, last Friday. It broke our 3 websites at a critical time, for 16 hours straight; just when I had put some extra effort into a few things. You gotta love the internet, and hosting services you pay a lot of money for…

Irie, Mark, Liesbet, Darwin and Kali in the Bahamas

Irie, Mark, Liesbet, Darwin and Kali in the Bahamas

So, I am offering up two links today. Don’t worry, they are not affiliate links, nor do they bring you somewhere you don’t want to be. The first one is a recent interview with us, by Modern Day Nomads, which officially declares us nomads of the present (and the future). 🙂 Continue reading

Then and Now – Relaxation

December 9, 2016 / / 15 Comments

I am a couple of days late for my Wordless Wednesday post and WordPress photo theme of the week, which was “relax“. The reason: my first Wednesday of every month is devoted to a writing update as part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. The advantage of my delay is that I can add this theme to my Friday “Then and Now” series, and that the weekend is already upon us; time to relax!

Samara, Costa Rica, 2006

Luperon, Dominican Republic, 2008

British Virgin Islands, 2009 Continue reading

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