miscellaneous NEW stuff to share – A-Z style

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Happy Friday! A few weeks ago, there was a photo challenge that I missed participating in. The prompt was ‘Lucky Shot’. I didn’t have time to post anything that week, but if I had, this shot would be it. Imagine throngs of people standing on the side of a cruise ship as we sail away from the port in Sydney, Australia. There aren’t any open spots to get a good shot of the skyline and the opera house. Most people are WAY taller than I (I’m 5’2″), and it’s very lucky that I got this shot by standing on my tippy-toes, reaching my arms up as high as I could, and clicking the shutter button on my phone. Total luck!

I have SO many photos on my phone from our 4-ish month travels to Southeast Asia and Australia. Too many to post, so I’m sharing a small sampling – an A-Z style photo compilation. Here we go:

A is for Australia’s coastline

B is for Blue Mountains National Park

C is for Cockatoo

D is for Dancers in Vietnam

E is for Equator (we passed the equator twice on this trip. First, traveling south to Australia, then again going north to Hawaii. The cruise crew makes it fun and even gives everyone a certificate!).

F is for Firetruck. We heard a fire alarm, and then we were evacuated from our hotel room. It was not a drill. Thankfully, only a bit of smoke damage from someone burning their breakfast.

G is for Great Barrier Reef. Looking down at the reefs through the glass-bottomed boat! Yes, next time I’ll take sea sickness medication and actually snorkel for a better view of the reef!

H is for Horse (Chinese New Year – Year of the Horse)

I is for Infinity Pools. At least a couple of hotels we stayed in had infinity pools.

J is for Joe and Jill…we were surprised to read some familiar names so far away from home.

K is for Kookaburra, Kangaroos, and Koala Bears

L is for Lizards and Lanterns

M is for Monkeys

N is for New Year (Chinese New Year) Festivities

O is for Opera House (see featured photo above)

P is for Palm Trees and Pearl Harbor

Q is for Quiet Beaches

R is for Rice Paper. A Vietnamese woman shows us how she makes rice paper.

S is for Sheep and Sheep Dog

T is for Temples and Topiaries

U is for Under Gorgeous Skies. The photo on the left is facing west, and the photo on the right is a few seconds later, facing east. We were curious what made the sun rays show up on the opposite side of the setting sun – and of course, we had to look it up:

Per Google: Sun rays in the east at sunset are caused by anticrepuscular rays, an atmospheric phenomenon where sunlight (blocked by clouds in the west) travels across the sky and appears to converge on the eastern horizon. These parallel, low-angled light beams are often intensified by atmospheric dust or moisture, creating a “reversed” sunrise effect.

V is for Vaianu Cyclone. We had to hunker down and wait out a cyclone. We missed a couple of ports, but we’ve been to those locations before, so we weren’t as sad as some other travelers!

Screenshot

W is for Wentworth Falls. Climbing down to the bottom was a workout!!!

X is for Xercise. 272 stairs to climb at Batu Caves in Malaysia.

Y is for Yellow Sanctuary

Z is for Zoo. Yep, those are bats. :o)

That’s it for now. We are home and getting our RV ready for the next adventure. We’re definitely in our Go-Go years, so we’re making the most of it. So many NEW places to visit! It’s a blast!

Have a terrific day, and I hope you learn or do something NEW today too!

Miscellaneous NEW stuff i gotta share

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Happy Friday! (At least it’s Friday in Australia, but as I type this post, it’s still Thursday back home in the USA).

I sort of forgot about my Movie Set Locations bucket list. I only had one listed for a long time. But I’m now able to increase that to 2! Yay! The photo above is in Singapore, where the wedding party scene in Crazy Rich Asians was filmed.

And somewhere in the movie, the main character is having lunch across the street from this building with the colorful windows.

Also, I thought I’d join in the fun on a couple of photo challenges. The photo above is for Lens-Artists Challenge #390 – Color in Black and White. And the photo below is for Monochrome Madness #56 – On the Roof

If you’ve seen a map of Brisbane, Australia before, you may recognize the shape of Brisbane River displayed on the side of that building. Here’s a screenshot of Google maps:

And here is the same “design” on our shower in our hotel room. I guess it’s safe to say, they love their river!

We quite enjoyed it too! Brisbane is one of the best cities we’ve visited! Here’s one of my favorite shots of the river.

That’s about all the miscellany for today. I hope you have a great day and get to learn or do something NEW today!

miscellaneous NEW stuff i gotta share

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Happy Wednesday! We’re almost halfway through our 4-month Southeast Asia trip. We’ve experienced a bunch of NEW things, and have learned a lot of NEW things, so I thought it was about time I posted about a few of them!

First of all, we visited Kanching Falls in Malaysia, so I’m updating my Waterfalls Bucket List. These falls have 7 tiers, but some we didn’t think were worth a photo, haha!

Also, check out this dude who decided he’d chill at the bottom of this waterfall tier and scroll on his phone and ruin everyone’s photos! We thought he was being very inconsiderate, but what do you think?

I’ve never actually fed an elephant before, so that was NEW. We fed this guy at an elephant sanctuary in Phuket, Thailand.

We’ve visited so many Buddhist temples that we had to research all the different poses of Buddha! There’s the sitting Buddha, the reclining Buddha, the standing Buddha, the one leg folded with the other hanging down, and on and on! So interesting. We’ve also wanted to learn the differences between Buddha statues and Hindu statues. It’s been an education!

We watched a NEW water light show.

We’ve had our share of beaches and pools. I think we’ve achieved a good balance of relaxation and interesting excursions. Again, we’re halfway through, so we’ll see what other NEW stuff we can do or see!

And lastly, not travel-related, but I have a NEW favorite rendition of the song, The Sound of Silence. Wowza! That bass….that key change! Just wow! Take a listen and let me know what you think. (In case the embedded link doesn’t work, it’s HERE).

I hope you have a terrific day and get to do or learn something NEW!

more NEW photos from Vietnam

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Happy Monday! We’re experiencing a bunch of NEW things on this trip. In my last post, I created a 5-senses portrait, but really, I could do that over and over again! I’ll just add a few new photos this time. The photos above and below are of Hoi An, Vietnam. Hoi An is a UNESCO heritage site because the town is a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port from the 15th to 19th century that remains largely intact. They have lantern festivals every month (which we will just miss), but every night there are lantern boats out on the river.

This is at Ba Na Hills. It’s a pretty iconic bridge in the area! It’s on top of a mountain. People get here by cable car, and as you go up the mountain, you go up into the clouds/fog! Pretty cool!

I’ve lost track of how many temples and pagodas we’ve visited! All are ornately beautiful!

As you all know, I adore experiencing NEW things and learning NEW things. Traveling sure is the best way to do that! I hope you have a terrific day and get to learn or do something NEW today too!

Another NEW reading challenge

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I’ve decided to read all of the published books by Susan Meissner. Here’s my list to keep track!


The Nature of Fragile Things [done]
A Fall of Marigolds [done]
Secrets of a Charmed Life [done]
Only the Beautiful [done]
As Bright as Heaven [done]
When We Had Wings [done]
The Last Year of the War [done]
A Bridge Across the Ocean [done]
The Shape of Mercy [done]
A Map to Paradise [done]
Stars Over Sunset Boulevard [done]
The Girl in the Glass [done]
A Sound Among the Trees [done]
Lady in Waiting [done]
White Picket Fences [done]
Why the Sky Is Blue [done]
Blue Heart Blessed [done]
The Amish Groom (The Men of Lancaster County #1) [done]
Widows & Orphans (Rachael Flynn, #1) [done]
The Amish Blacksmith (The Men of Lancaster County, #2) [done]
A Window to the World [done]
The Amish Clockmaker (The Men of Lancaster County #3) [done]
Sticks & Stones (Rachael Flynn, #2)
A Seahorse in the Thames
Days & Hours (Rachael Flynn, #3)
The Remedy for Regret
In All Deep Places
Pumpkin Day at the Zoo
To Mimi’s House We Go

a NEW 5-senses portrait

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Happy Monday!

I often listen to Gretchen Rubin’s podcast (link HERE). She and her sister chat about a lot of different things. Sometimes, Gretchen talks about doing a 5-senses portrait of someone or something, and that makes her more fully appreciate it. Here is a link of Gretchen’s 5-senses portrait of her dog, Barnaby (link HERE). I decided I’d do a 5-senses portrait of our trip to Vietnam. Here goes:

SMELLING:

The incense burning at the entrances to many of the temples; The street vendors cooking various foods; The stench of garbage that hasn’t been taken care of; The smell of the ocean surf.

SEEING:

The chaotic driving in Hanoi was SO interesting to watch! They don’t have many traffic signals. The drivers just go where they need to go! Whether it’s turning left into a mass of traffic, or weaving back and forth between vehicles and motorbikes, the system seems to work. We only saw one accident. And there are so many motorbikes! I’m hoping to prepare a collage soon of all the crazy things we saw people carry on their motorbikes. Stay tuned for that, haha!

Of course, seeing the rock formations in Halong Bay was also highlight (see this post), and riding in a bamboo boat through those rock formations and through a small arch/cave was great fun!

TASTING:

Pho, spring rolls, lots of fresh seafood, lots of fresh fruit and delicious soups.

TOUCHING:

A fish massage! We stopped at a little village on Cat Ba Island and we dipped our feet into a small pool of water and fish sucked on our feet! What a freaky feeling! That was a NEW experience for me. Apparently, the fish like to suck the dead skin off the bottom of your feet. Ha! I didn’t get any photos of my feet, but here are my brother-in-law’s feet with the fish having a feast!

While visiting a Buddhist temple, I missed a step and came crashing to the ground. I sprained my ankle, pretty badly. So my ankle was very tender to the touch for a few days. This was me lounging by the pool the next day, trying to baby it! Ouch!!!

HEARING:

The sound of the Vietnamese language and lots of honking horns!

So I’ve tried something NEW and created this 5-senses portrait today! I hope you have a terrific day and do or learn something NEW today too!

a NEW thought thursday

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Happy Thursday!

And hello from Halong Bay, Vietnam. We’ve loved cruising around these awesome rock formations! So pretty. Here are a few more photos (the number of photos on my phone from just the last few days is insane). Vietnam is a NEW country to us, and we’ll be visiting many more NEW locations on this trip.

Have a terrific day, and I hope you get to do or learn something NEW today too!

Hello to a NEW year

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Happy Friday and Happy New Year!

Yesterday, (as I lounged…it was a very unproductive day!), I wrote out my 26 for 2026 list. Wish me luck on completing many, if not all, of them this year. If it doesn’t happen, I’m not too stressed. It is what it is, but I think a bit of focus is usually a pretty good thing. How about you? Do you make goals, resolutions, or something similar at the beginning of a new year? I try to remember that January 1st is just a day. I can start a new goal any other day of the year as well!

  1. Do a slow read of Count of Monte Cristo (1900 pages divided by 365 = 6-ish pages a day!)
  2. Read an actual paper book at least once a month (get your reading stamina back in shape!)
  3. Attempt to make macarons
  4. Visit 26 NEW places
  5. Take a daily photo for a least 1 month (better if more!)
  6. Deep clean an entire room
  7. Do the Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors challenge (at least 15 of the 52)
  8. Get family photos taken
  9. Read/listen to at least 52 books
  10. Do a random act of kindness (multiple times)
  11. While traveling, mail a book to “A” (granddaughter) with accompanied audio of me reading it.
  12. Plan an anniversary dinner while in Singapore
  13. Research all-inclusive resorts for a possible family Christmas trip
  14. Design and print out the 2025 photo pages
  15. Track your steps
  16. Track your sugar intake
  17. Track protein and fiber
  18. Attend at least 5 live performances
  19. Finish reading all of Susan Meissner’s books
  20. Complete a writing course
  21. Consistently use weight training app
  22. Systematically keep in touch with friends and family while traveling
  23. Plan activities for family get-together in Yellowstone so it’s memorable
  24. Work in your art journal and your junk journal regularly
  25. Take vitamins daily
  26. Make two more Retirement Journal versions (Southeast Asia and NW RVing)

Here’s to a GREAT 2026! Take care and I hope you do or learn something NEW today!