Andrea goes exploring again!

1 st September 2018. Officially the start of my return to work. I had originally been feeling quite happy with the luck that made this day a Saturday and so I didn’t actually have to go back into work until the 3 rd September. However, as you’ll know if you read my post yesterday, I’ve managed to get vertigo and so although I’m actually due back at work on Monday, it’s not looking likely at this point. I know that for some, their first reaction will be to think I’m faking it to delay my return, although maybe I’m being unfair and judging people by what I would be thinking! But sadly I know different, plus I’m a believer in karma so faking ill health is one of the last things I’d do! After this last year, putting work before my health is something else I’m no longer prepared to do and this feeds into the goals that I’m setting for myself for how I want to live now that my career break is over and responsibilities are creeping back into my life. So, if you hadn’t guessed, this post...

Unfortunately I have been unable to keep my run of blog posts going as when I woke up yesterday I discovered I’ve got vertigo which makes typing just a little challenging (not just typing actually…). Not exactly the way I wanted to end my career break, but well, not a lot I could do to stop it so I guess it’s just a case of rolling with it (and boy does it make me feel like I’m rolling!). I’ve managed to find a strange semi supine position that enables me to see the screen without everything going haywire to write this, but it’s not doing much for my headache so this post may be a little shorter than I’d originally thought it would be! The post that I’d been planning for yesterday was my review of the goals that I’d set myself at the beginning of my career break, so I’ve decided to do that today instead and in a way it’s quite a good post for the last day. Assuming I am OK tomorrow, I’ll shift today’s planned post back a day and when you see it, in a way that will be a good fit too...

So if you hadn’t guessed, in these last few days I’m aiming for a blog post every day! I’ve been thinking about the things I want to cover and for today’s post there were two different topics I couldn’t decide between writing about. The first is how I’m feeling about being back and the return to London, work and the life I lived before my career break and the second is the quotes I’ve heard throughout the year that have resonated with me. However, when I reviewed the latter, I realised that actually many of them are relevant to the former and so I decided to do a weird amalgam of the two. Whilst I was away I listened to a lot of podcasts, for which a favourite of mine has always been Desert Island Discs, if only to listen to Kirsty Young’s dulcet tones. One of the things I’ve decided to do more of is listening to the radio rather than automatically putting the TV on. I must admit that I’m not doing so very well at this one but I will persist (although I won’t stop my TV viewing...

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I'm a great lover of Haribo. On my travels I decided to explore further Haribo's happy world and discover the experiences of this wonderful sugary treat that others have. I had two criteria when making my selection: firstly, I couldn't have tried them previously in the UK. That's not to say you can't get them in the UK, just that I'd not tried them. Secondly, I couldn't buy the same variety twice. I promised that I would let you know all the different varieties I had whilst travelling and so this post will be dedicated to Haribo: The Champion of Chewy Sweets!  EASTERN EUROPE Budapest Tokarosvert I was obviously so desparate to eat these I forgot to photograph them first! Gyor Veszprem Heviz Keszthely Bratislava These were delicious Debrecen These were awful! Club Napoca These were quite bland but did an excellent job of sticking my teeth together! Sibiu Sighisoara These were probably th...