Monday Inspiration:: Random Quotes

Hey guys, I hope you had a great weekend. I spent Friday night with my two friends after work. We went to a Brazilian restaurant (never been before) for a birthday dinner for one of the girls. We had an amazing time (as always with these two) and the food? Omg all I can say is yum! My mouth literally waters when I think of the amazing food we had.....foodie? yes, guilty as charged! I'm gonna do a post about it here but not today. I didn't go out for the rest of the weekend but I did manage to get a lot of things done including finally finding an apartment!!!!
I am SO excited eeek! Every time I think of it I just catch myself smiling, I can't help it! Aaaaaanyway, I don't wanna get into the details just yet.

So I realized I've been doing really long posts lately and thought for today I'm just gonna share with you guys a couple of pictures I've come across on Instagram which I think are a little Monday inspiration. They certainly helped pick my spirits up today.

Every single minute!

Anne xo

Letting go...

Recently I've found myself  overwhelmed by things in life and life in general. I try too hard to control things happening in all aspects of my life. From work to personal and just day-to-day life. Do you know what this has gotten me? An ulcer....yep you heard me right an ulcer!

Apparently I have managed to stress myself out enough to actually get my body sick. Maybe this was common knowledge to all you guys but I honestly didn't even know it was possible. I saw a doctor this weekend after I started feeling sick and he prescribed some pills which are working relatively well (so, no need to worry, and its not the point to this post, entirely).

Then I got to thinking; we picture things in our lives to be a certain way, the job we have, money we make, perfect place to live, perfect love life, a rocking body, and the list goes on and on and on. But often we forget; we absolutely cannot control every aspect of our lives. Sometimes things happen not the way we want them to and for no particular reason because that's just how life goes.

All of a sudden I had a light-bulb moment. I started thinking, why not just let go? I mean things are gonna happen the way they are meant to happen regardless of what we may or may not do right? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm just going to sit on my bum(not my first choice of word lol) and not try to move in the direction I want my life to go, no way! I am still going to do everything in my God-given power to make sure I achieve what I want and get the results I want but hey, if for some reason it doesn't pan out the way I want it to, then I am just going to let it go believing that maybe it wasn't meant to be, or maybe I need to re-evaluate myself and try again with a new approach.

As soon as this light-bulb came on, not to sound corny but I really did feel a sense of peace and relief. Like a huge burden was lifted from my shoulders!

I think sometimes we need to pass through lows in our lives. I know I know, it may not seem right but hey, how else are we going to truly appreciate when things are right? I mean, you need a little darkness to appreciate light right? Same thing when it comes to our emotions and feelings. If we didn't go through the lows then we would never really appreciate the highs.

Till next time!

Anne xo

Jack of all Trades

Hey guys, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I most certainly did!

For those of you who have noticed, my blog design has been changing every now and then for a couple of weeks now. I recently found myself with a bit more free time in my hands so I've been focusing more on the blog and thinking on ways to improve it. 

The reason for this post is I recall a friend of mine mentioning how one can decide to be a jack of all trades and end up being a master of none (as the popular saying goes). Now although I get the point behind the saying, I however do not necessarily agree with it. I am mostly referring to myself here so this may or may not be your view on the subject. 

I've chosen a particular career path which, to be honest I kinda found myself in but later on realized how much I actually love and enjoy it. I consider this to be what I've mastered or at least continue to learn and train myself in so that I can be the best at it. However, in my early days from university I worked in a completely different field (marketing) and I was really good at it too. Aside from that I have several other interests which I have always wanted to pursue, such as interior design, and which I probably will in the future even if it's only on a personal level. 

This made me realize something about myself, I have many diverse interests and being someone who loves a challenge, I usually like to try out these particular interests. Now I admit not all of them 'take', I mean lets be honest here, some I may abandon after a while but the ones I stick with? boy do they make me feel fulfilled! 

So this is my take, I strongly believe that you should do whatever it is that makes you happy, dabble in everything to your heart's content! Master what you love the most but do not at any point be restricted by it because trust me, if its something that you feel you love, it all comes together into making you the unique person that you are. 

Back to my ever-changing blog design (which inspired this post), I am trying to make it as much me as possible so please bare with in my trial runs and focus more on the content. I'm currently researching web designing because I would love to be able to do my own designing for this blog and have it reflect me (yes I know I can use a professional, specify what I want and still get results but for now I choose to do it myself so just let it go!).

Phew! It feels like I've been rambling on non-stop.

On a different subject, I came across these gorgeous babies over the weekend and I'm trying to figure out which one I like the most for my bedroom.

PS: My friend just started her own blog. It's quite a read! You can check her out here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Anne xo

Travel Diary:: Mtwara

So I have been really lucky to have a job that lets me travel all over the country. I mean, there were places I never thought I would end up going to but thanks to my job I end up visiting even the most remote of places. Now if you know me you know I love to travel, and by travel I mean literally anywhere (even if is just half an hour away lol). I get all excited knowing I'm going to visit a new place I have never been to before.

Last year I had a chance to visit Mtwara for a couple of days. It is located in southeastern Tanzania and you can get a lot of information about it online so I won't bore you with all the menial details. Even being a resident of Tanzania I never imagined it would be the way i found it to be (if that at all makes sense). I was blown away by all the beauty and culture. It is definitely a place I will consider visiting in the future for a longer time while vacationing.

These are a few of the photos I took.

View from the sky got me excited before I even landed

I spent my last afternoon here just soaking in the beauty of nature in company of a book I was currently reading.

View of the port from a distance away. Unfortunately I couldn't visit the port because I had to catch my flight but I managed to get glimpses from the road on my way to the airport.

Isn't this just breath taking? *swoon*

I'm thinking of starting a travel diary so I can capture and blog about all my adventures. One of my resolutions was to do more of what I love and travel is definitely way up there in the list.

Anne xo

Dinner Date :)

Okay so maybe this wasn't exactly a "date" in the strictest terms. It was just two girls deciding on an impulse to maaaybe pass-by somewhere after work (possibly sneaking off work an hour or two early). I'm not saying we really did sneak off work early, just in case my boss is browsing through my blog and happens upon this particular post......I was at work till it was time to clock-off okay?

So, back to the point. We went to this really beautiful Jamaican Restaurant called Velisa's here in Dar es Salaam. I couldn't find the link to its website but that should give you an idea of the place.

This is what we had for dinner....I don't remember what my friend ordered but I had jerk chicken, rice with beans, fried plantains and a sweet avocado salad. It was my first time trying out Jamaican cuisine and I was NOT disappointed at all. Well it helps that I love food and rarely do I ever not like what I'm eating.

I'm a sucker for the ocean and this is part of the view from the restaurant

These are some of the pictures we took. Not the best quality but you get the idea. I'll try to capture more pictures next time so you guys can better see how beautiful the whole setting is.

Till next time!

Anne xo

Of unknown quotes

"You are the books you read, the films you watch, the music you listen to, the people you meet, the dreams you have, the conversations you engage in. You are the sound of the ocean, the breath of fresh air, the brightest light and the darkest corner. You are a collective of every experience you have had in your life. You are every single day. 

So drown yourself in a sea of knowledge and existence. Let the words run through your veins and let the colours fill your mind."

A quote I recently came across whilst browsing and loved. I'm not sure about the author but thought I'd share it with you guys. 

Oh a happy belated new year....lol I KNOW its way more than overdue but oh well.

Anne xo

Back to Basics :)

Ask any one of my old friends, not old age-wise just friends who've known me over a long time, and they will tell you how much of a reader I used to be.

I used to love reading books, mostly fiction novels and at any given time I would have a book stowed somewhere ready for me to dive back into in between (what I thought were) these boring day - to - day routines. My mom wasn't a particular fan of this given I would gladly put away my school work or rush through it so I could gratefully get back to my wonderful fictional world....ah was it wonderful!

Over the years I found myself reading less and less and less to the point where over six months ( close to a year really but I don't wanna count the actual time passed, so ashamed of myself) have passed since I read anything *pause for reaction*......nothing? ok. Work reading doesn't count, just to be clear.

So anyway, I recently traveled for work to Pemba Island and I had to stay there for a night. Now usually I absolutely love traveling and exploring new places but this time I wasn't very eager to, it might have to do with the fact I traveled alone, or maybe its just an excuse and I didn't feel like exploring anything so whatever; that's not the point, got a little carried away there, boy do I get distracted easily huh..

As I was saying, I have a couple, or maybe more, of books at home so I decided to carry one along, just in case. Wow, the feeling I got when I opened the first page, all the excitement I used to get when I was reading just came rushing back in! The book I chose has nothing to do with it, its just that I had A novel and I was lost in the pages with the characters and their story. Suffice it to say, I think its time I went back to basics like the pleasures of a simple book. Its amazing how fulfilling that can be....

My current read