The tiniest turtles...

So aside from seeing the most Giant Tortoises in the world

we also happened across some of the tiniest turtles.

Husband and i were so excited about happening across

two little baby turtles taking their first steps from their nest into the ocean.

It was an absolute dream come true for me.

Something i thought you only see on tv,

or in a controlled environment.

This was nature at its best and most natural.

Seeing those little babies use every instinct inside

of them just to make that big journey to the even bigger ocean.

I may have shed a tear of joy.

i felt like a very proud mama.

Later Gators....

I feel like i only just saw husband,

its funny how seeing him a month ago counts as recently....

At any rate its my turn to go and visit him.

In the Galapagos Islands.

A once in a life time trip.

I will cherish these amazing times i have to travel at the moment

and explore these exotic far off locations

with husband.

Funnily enough,

currently both husband and i have 

both day dream about settling down 

and just staying in one place the two of us.

Feet firmly on the ground.

Long long distance....

Husband and I have spent more

of relationship long distance than together.

and I think sometimes people ask us

why are you apart?

How can you do it?

Why would you do it?

and it can be tough at times,

but with modern technology he is only ever 

a text message away, 

literally at a click of a button.

and he is in my thoughts 24/7.

The other day i accidently left my phone at home and

the whole day i felt like i was missing something...

and no it wasnt my phone,

it was my husband.

Normally everytime a thought pops into my

 head i send him a message about it.

It can be anything to annoying man on the tube

to, 'i'm thirsty.

he's in on everything.

It makes me one of those terrible people addicted

to their smart phones.

But i can assure when he is around

the phone goes off.

The main thing you have to have to make 

a long distance relationship work

is TRUST.

and future goals.

Both husband and i have seen our separations 

as important steps to future goals,

gotta think big and focus on the bigger picture.

oh dear...

another mushy post....

Being Married

The other day someone made the comment to me 

that they didnt feel like they were married even though they

had been married a year.

And i defended it saying that being married to me has made such a huge

difference in our relationship.

Somehow i feel like a different person.

I feel like Mrs Reid.

not Miss anything.

It didnt happen over night,

i didnt wake up the morning after wedding and feel 

everything had changed.

I guess its a bit like birthdays,

you change age over night,

but gradually over the year you realise that you have developed

and changed and no longer are the person you were a year ago.

Everything just feels more solid now.

Before if he annoyed me

i always had the option to say,

actually you bug me, 'goodbye'

but now i have to think to myself,

this is forever,

is this something that i'm going to give on

or is this something that is too important and i need to take on.

give and take,

it started out a bit like that,

but at the moment it feels like

we're on the same path,

sometimes i feel i know him better than he knows himself,

sometimes i realise he knows me better than i know myself,

little things still surprise me,

things i didn't know about him

(he says i didnt ask....

i say why would i out and out ask you 

if you worked in a cowboy rodeo before?)

some people think that marriage is just a piece of paper,

something legal incase at one point you need to divide up your assets.

its so much more.

i cry a lot more at movies,

especially war films,

i think to myself,

imagine if that were husband...

in Saving Private Ryan one of the guys in the background

got blown up and i noticed he was wearing a wedding ring....

oh dear....

i didnt stop.

i love it when we are around other people

and i get to show him off.

'this is my husband'

and if i can see that they dont quite

see how fabulous he is

i pity them 

and secretly smile at what i know i have

and they are missing out on.

hmmmm....

where did this mushy post come from.

Dont worry,

i've got loads of actual interesting stuff to write about at some point.

like my trip to the Caribbean,

trekking through bat poo,

fooling some poor real estate agent into 

taking us around as we were considering buying our own private desert island....

Christmas in the sun!

I fly off to see husband tomorrow.

its going to be my 4th Christmas in a row in the sunny climate.

i've had enough of the cold weather....

Christmas is going to be on the boat this year....

hmmmm,

i barely survived it when i had my birthday on the boat,

husband has promised me this will be much better.

Plus im gonna be in Panama....

yeah baby!!!!!

i is living the high life!

now if only i can survive the 

37hours of travelling,

even more worried as i have a bad back at the moment that has my

hobbling round complaining to everyone who will listen to my tale....

and i get to see HUUUSSSBBBAANNNDDDD,

its gone so fast but felt so long,

Holidays with husband.....

So last week i flew out to visit husband in Brazil,

due to a rather expensive mix up on where we

were going to meet up i ended up spending a day in 

Rio de Janerio by myself before flying another 12 hours to meet 

husband in Fernando de Noronha.

Firstly Rio,

Rio was awesome.

As i only had a day there i booked myself into a day tour

which just made my life a whole lot easier and

got to see a lot more than if i was trying to find my wa around myself.

Funnily enough my tour guide had just been to Edinburgh so 

as i was standing in front of The Infamous Christ Redeemer stature

he whipped out his camera and was showing me pictures of

him in front of Edinburgh Castle.

It made me smile, 

we go half way around the world and forget that

what we have on our own front door is a marvel to those who dont see it everyday.

Then onto Fernando De Noronha.

For anyone not in the know Fenrnado is a small

(very small) island off the coast of Brazil.

It is registered as a world heritage sites

which means that it has a lot of eco-protection....

it also makes it very expensive....

But it also makes it virtually tourist free,

they only let 400 people arrive on the island a day

and for every day that you are there you have to pay an environment tax.

It was a couple of run down  villages and a lot of beautiful and empty beaches.

Dolphins and turtles to swim with 

(okay, so its illegal to swim with the dolphins intentionally 

but it was amazing to be swimming in the water

and hearing their calls resounding through it,

knowing that they are so near by)

Husband and i went on an epic adventure one day.

Swimming and climbing around half the coast of the island.

First we did a 20 minute swim from the boat to the beach,

which consisted of passing some rocks which i liked to call the 'Bone Grinder'....

Why the Bone Grinder you may ask....

well because there is some weird anomaly there where the sea gets pushed through some hole in the 

rocks and makes it sound like its grinding bones...

yes not my favourite part to swim past....

Then as we were almost at the shore husband turns to me and says,

'okay honey now you have to body surf in'

'what?'

'just catch the wave...'

and i llok behind me and sure enough this giant wave is coming towards us.

he pushes me along into it and i get thrown a very long way to the shore...

He had failed to mention previously that this was the only way to get to the shore.

We then did some rather crazy 'walking' trying to get around the headlands for each beach.

Barefoot and in a bikini, we climbed over very very hot black

spikey rocks, (i swear steam came off them when they hit water again)

there was climbing up and down vertical rocks...

in fact on the way back at one point i was sure we had gone a different route as there was no way i 

would have climbed down such a cliff,

half way up i remembered i had.

There attempts to get back through the waves 

into swimming which mainly ended up with me being bashed 

around in rocks and husband trying to catch me.

And then to finish it all off at the end of the day

we miscalculated our timing and ended up swimming

back to the boat in the pitch black with the current pushing us out to sea

(something husband didnt tell me was happening till after we were safe and

sound back on the boat)

There was awesome food,

let me tell you this Tapioca pancakes are amazing!

and fresh picked coconut drinks never cease to amaze me!

But most of all there was husband.

Anyone who knows me would tell you that i'm

not the kind of girl who does crazy night swims

or barefoot free-climbing ,

but put my Husband at my side and I feel like I can do anything.

I've not gone AWOL....

In fact i've been very very busy.

I've finished my Ballet Teachers Diploma (with top grades...who knew!)

I've been holidaying in

Morocco, Gibraltar and the South of Spain

(hopefully photos to come soon) 

But most importantly today is 

our first wedding Anniversary!!!!

Which is just an excuse for me to post wedding photos again!

Our Wedding Day was amazing,

we love looking at the pictures and

reminiscing about it,

but being married is what its all about and its amazing.

Someone who loves me and supports me

and makes sure that I'm aiming to be the best i can be,

putting me straight when i'm out of line.

I cant wait for year 2....

Husband in London....

Husband came to visit at the weekend.

The last time he's going to make it out here as today he started sailing across the ocean.  ( he'd probably correct me for saying that it's probably a biscay or sea or something)

Having him so close by has been amazing. Seeing him every couple of weeks has been a short enough time to keep me going on inbetween, but from mow on visits are going to be far and few... I hope I can make it....

Back to school....

I'm on the fourth day of my course.

I'm attending the 

Royal Academy of Dance Professional Teaching Diploma course.

There's lots of lovely people on the course and

lots of information to take in.

Its good to have fellow students who you can talk to,

i cant tell you how many times we've said to each other

at certain times,

'Oh my Goodness i'm glad that you feel that way too'

(mainly when we are lost and dont have a clue whats going on)

Its quite a broad variety of people too,

all from different backgrounds with different strengths and weaknesses.

For me i think its going to be hard to transition from 

think about how i would do a step as a dancer

to changing my thoughts to how would i teach that step as a teacher.

its a long day and busy schedule

and London is so big

i spend half my time commuting.....

Luckily some of my favouritest people live in London too

(two of my bridesmaids)

i've been trying to squeeze in some social time with them too.

Turns out before i came to London 

my husband emailed my friends and ask them to look

after me as he is worried about me being here without him.

What a sweetie....

good to know that he is taking care of me from a distance

He's my Hercules. 

Goodbye Mallorca, Goodbye husband...

we're heading back to the uk today,

Husbands cousin is getting married at the weekend

and after that he's taking me to London to settle me in at my new house.

(haha settle me in....i'm living with my sisters,

its not like its going to be all that scary!)

This will be the first time i've lived in the UK for nearly 8 years.

Funny isnt it,

where does the time go?

I've really enjoyed all my travels and really am only heading back for

practicality reasons. I could just keep on going to see you new places.

Husband will still be travelling,

to even more exciting places 

(the caribean, brazil...)

I'm desperately praying and

crossing my fingers that

i will be able to go and meet him

somewhere during the year

but to be honest his schedule changes with the wind

(literally!)

i know it sounds soppy 

but without him i'm only half of who i really am.

Finding fun in every place...

Mallorca is never a place i have wanted to go to.

in my head i have pictures of British tourist packaged holidays

and fresh out of school teenagers at Magaluf.

and yes that part of Mallorca exists, but only if you want it to.

Palma is lovely.

It has loads of fantastic restaurants,

in fact i dont think we've eaten anywhere that wasnt less than great!

We've had a few visitors come to see us and

its so easy to take them around and show them the beautiful city,

its also so easy to take them around and show them the

beautiful country side.

Here are some highlights of my two months here in pictures.

These are near Alaro,

we were recommended by a friend to a place 

infamously called 'The Lamb Restaurant' 

Its right in the middle of a large mountain, 

we hiked up and by the time we got there we were starving!

And let me tell you that

this lamb is exquisite! 

And what a view!

These are from when my grandparents came to visit.

It was great to have them around,

they have such different personalities!

We took them on the touristy train to Soller.

It was an expensive trip

but a nice experience.

and then there is the Cathedral in Palma,

which i guess is the main attraction here

After the grandparents came the in-Laws

we took them to the Caves of Drach.

Husband was complaining about going to the caves,

(he hates going places that are too touristy)

but even he was quite impressed,

even though we have been to see a lot of caves recently!!!

Although Mallorca is a place that would never have been 

put on my travel wish list,

i'm glad that i got to spend some time here

and would definitely recommend a mini holiday here to anyone!

In many ways it reminds me of Slovenia

(which i will admit will always be my home away from home!

Alone time....

It looks like husband and i are destined not to get any peace and quite

alone time.

We spent a busy weekend taking his mum and her husband around the island.

Let me tell you this, hanging out with older people

is good preparation for having kids methinks.

It takes you double the amount of time to go anywhere,

they are so slow,

you have to explain things to them more than once

in different ways so they can understand,

when you take them out you can blink for a second and

you've lost them.

They have no qualms about being PC...blurting

out whatever is on their minds to any passer by!

Its entertaining and hard work!!!

We just got the apartment back to ourselves when 

husband announces he has hired 2 staff to 

take over the crew that just left.

Which means sharing our alone time all over again.

(After one night she has already rearranged the cupboards

 so they are all neat and tidy,

having other people around just

brings up my inadequacies as a housewife)

Not that husband and i get up to anything too exciting in our alone time,

mostly sitting next to each other doing different things...

but knowing that its just the two of us

is just way better.

Juat a little longer....

We finally got rid of the crew and its just the two of us!

Just the two of us!!!!

it has never ever been just the two of us,

in the 9months we have been married 

we've always had other people around.

So its nice just to be...

but only for a few weeks more.

More big changes ahead.

being on the boat has been awesome,

even though i have zero sailor skills

i have been brushing up on my wife skills...

but now i'm going to brush up on some other skills.

since having left the full time ballet profession

i've felt a little bit helpless,

like i've got nothing to offer,

doing the cooking and failing at the cleaning

and being a rotten sailor

just isnt enough.

It was always in our plans that at some point i would

get my ballet teachers qualification

and also my pilates teachers qualification.

so starting from the beginning of June i'm going to spend the next year 

in London doing this,

whilst husband stays on the boat.

Its a big decision,

and i'm so grateful for a husband who has always been

supportive of my needs as a person.

When i went to Egypt and left him whilst we were dating it

was hard for him. but he listened and understood

that it was important for my career that i made the move.

not just as a career but to develop myself as a person,

to have no regrets.

And yet again he is supporting my decision to 

go off and work on my own life skills.

I'm grateful that he can look into the bigger picture and

see that sometimes what is best for us as a couple

in the long run might just mean

 sacrificing 'us time' for a year.

He has a good job which it would be crazy for him to leave at the moment,

and i  cant do these things whilst travelling around the world.

Husband also has some goals, 

he's always wanted to sail the Pacific Ocean,

if he left the boat now he wouldnt get a chance.

So we will put 'our couple' needs on hold once again

and work on our long distance relationship skills.

Being with Husband for the last year has been amazing.

Life has been good,

and i look forward to so much more.

I worry about the rotten days i'm going to have

and know that he wont be there to tell me

that its all okay and not to worry.

I worry about all the fun moments that i might

have never been quite being good enough

as he isnt there to share them with me.

but for now

i'll just soak it all in whilst i can.