Happy Birthday Jules!!!

It seems ridiculous to me that it was about this time two years ago that Jules and I went to Japan to celebrate her birthday...time really does fly! Anyways, today's Julie's birthday and I just wanted to give her a special shout out as she's one of the best friends a girl could ever want or need!

Happy birthday Jules!!!!

Get Happy

I don't know how I came across the 100 Happy Days website, where people are challenged to photograph something  that makes them happy every day for 100 days. The website says that people who successfully finish the challenge claimed to:
- start noticing what makes them happy every day
- be in a better mood every day
- start receiving more compliments from other people
- realise how lucky they are to have the life they have
- become more optimistic
- fall in love during the challenge

which are all pretty wonderful things. I know I have a pretty cool life, but there are many days where I seem to focus on the negative rather than the positive, even though I would consider myself to be an positive optimist most of the time. So I've started the challenge on instagram (chasingcarly), you can find my photos using #HappyCarly100. Today is Day 3 for me, and though there's only one photograph for the day (I skyped Jules for her birthday, she always makes me happy!) it's already been a happy day in so many ways (like launching a really exciting project to train women carpenters, and booking my holiday to NYC!).

And in case you haven't seen this video, not only will the song make you happy, but the incredible spirit of the Filipinos will have you smiling as well!

Crazy

It feels a bit ridiculous to say that this week has been a busy week; all of my weeks here have been busy weeks! But it's getting harder and harder to find the time to do the things I actually need to do for the 4 teams I manage. I seem to be constantly caught up in a cycle of organising donor visits, NGO coordination meetings (organising them, as well as leading them!) and media trips, instead of providing the shelter team with assistance in documenting their innovative consultation approach, or helping the Gender team draft an MoU for a relationship with a local government unit, or any number of other important things. Le sigh.

Added on to the stress of just trying to do my job, there are other HR processes that are affecting me at the moment which is starting to drive me crazy.

But amongst all of that there is light at the end of the tunnel (and no, it's not a train!) in planning a spectacular holiday to the states to witness my dear friend Yassmin (long time readers will remember her starring role in our instructional video...) get married, which will also a bit reunion with other folks from our days in Lebanon.And after the celebrations are over, I'll head to NYC to meet up with Jez and do fun NYC things, like see a show on Broadway, go to a baseball game, eat fantastic food and just wander around.

So while I may be crazy busy, and going a bit crazy, it's good to have something to get crazy excited about!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy birthday Dad, I'm sure you're having a lovely day because you're not on skype for me to call you!! xoxo

Adventures with Emma

Of course Emma and I did other things in Bali. Like shopping at Portobello

 spending a lot of time beside the beautiful pool

 eating lunch (and sometimes brunch) every day at Casa Luna

doing some more shopping

and more lunching

 basically feeling very relaxed and pleased with ourselves

 being blown away every time we went into our bathroom!

 And marvelling at the beauty of the Monkey Forest.

If you're planning a visit to Bali, I can't recommend Honeymoon Guesthouse highly enough. For the price you pay (which isn't a lot) it's extremely beautiful, located centrally and the staff are lovely.

I left Tacloban on Thursday morning to fly to Manila, then to KL and finally arrived in Ubud at 4am on Friday. The following Tuesday it was back to Denpasar, to KL and overnight in Manila, arriving in Taloban on Wednesday at midday. Honestly, by the time 6pm rolled around that day it was like I'd never been away...I'm still catching up on emails. But it was very, very needed, and very very worth it!!

Monkeying Around

I went to Bali for a too short break with Emma. We went a few years ago on R&R from Pakistan, and it was lovely to go back to Ubud where it's so lush and green and quiet (mostly). Last time my body shut down after 3 months of intense work and I was mostly bedridden with fever and didn't do too much. This time I was fighting fit and we enjoyed wandering around the Monkey Forest, which was way larger than I'd been expecting, with a lot more monkeys as well. 

Super cute!!

Joyful

I realised I hadn't really posted any photos of Joyful, our first canine friend here in Tacloban. She used to be very squeaky, not really whiney, but vocal in drawing attention to herself for pats. That seems to have calmed down a bit now. She had puppies a while ago, but we never saw them, so I don't think they survived very long. 

 She's a very sweet dog, and spends most of her days lounging on a chair outside the office.

 That chair is now covered in dog hair, so no-one else sits in it.

 She misses Lucky too.