Coming Home

So for the past 14 months I have been off galavanting around the world with my boyfriend. Australia was the first stop where Mike and I settled in Brisbane and got working. After 9 months in Brisbane we loaded up the Ute (yes, I just said 'Ute') and made our way inland to Cairns and back down the coast all the way to Melbourne. Our home during these few months was a little 3 man tent (yes, I just said 'Tent'). The next stop was New Zealand where we hired a camper and saw some of the most beautiful sights in the world. From there we headed to Asia and made our way overland from Singapore all the way to Vietnam, stopping along the way in Kuala Lumpur, Thailand and Cambodia.

Obviously the amount I learned and changed during this time was immense but in the interests of keeping things light (and beauty bloggish), here are five of them:

1. I wear too much make-up. I had a beauty blog before I left and beauty/cosmetics/general pretty things are definitely one of my most favourite hobbies. As a result of this I have amassed a collection of really lovely products. Unfortunately the temptation to wear everything at once is overwhelming and this is precisely what I was doing. Out of necessity I ditched the make-up after Australia for the rest of the trip. It wasn't always easy but it was great to give my skin a complete break. The skincare regime also went out the window however: this was not so great. This leads me to point two....

2. Skincare IS as important as they say. Wash your face, use a toner, moisturise. If nothing else do this twice a day. I didn't. It wasn't pretty. The quest for healthy, happy skin has commenced in full force since I came home.

3. EXERCISE. I cannot stress this enough. In fact an entire post and a good part of this blog will be dedicated to this very topic. When I arrived in Aus, I had eaten at least my bodyweight in blue cheese in the previous month and I had never been big on keeping myself fit. I allowed Mike to train me in the gym and my life became immeasurably better. From being able to walk up stairs wearing my heavy backpack to getting the best sleep of my life, exercise has made our trip what it was. Prepare for a few fitness-related rambles to come. For the time being I will just say this: how you look in a mini skirt is absolutely not the reason to exercise, it is about keeping your body and your mind healthy.

4. I am that shallow.  I should probably explain this one: From the rest of this post you may get the impression that I had abandoned the constraints of basic personal grooming and was frolicking gleefully around the world. This was only half the case. Yes, out of necessity I had totally given up all attempts to look good to the point that my morning shower was the full extent of my beauty routine. No, this did not result in any level of gleeful frolicking. It turns out that I in fact how I look is important to me. What I know now is that I can spend 5 months looking like a wild woman and whilst that may be hard at times, it didn't stop me from having the time of my life.

5. In Asia you can fit anything on the back of a scooter. Fridge freezers, your weekly shop, a family of five, a door. All it takes is a bit on imagination and nerves of steel. In Vietnam I saw a woman driving down the street while her poodle balanced behind her.

SJ xx