One of the last wonderful things I'll remember doing in London Town is also one of the simplest things. Miss Kirby & I packed up a picnic lunch and, delighted to see the actual! sunlight! that was making a rare appearance in the city, headed for Holland Park. These pictures are some of my favourites from that day.

Hello, I'm Karen, and I'll be blogging today while she is out and about discovering Europe with her friends. I'm absolutely thrilled to be a guest on Aly's blog today! You can usually find me blogging at Dream Once More and tweeting at @dreamoncemore. I'd love for you to check out my blog & follow me on Twitter.

I am 27 years old and just recently graduated from university (graduate school). While that might sound kind of old to you, it's not that uncommon in Germany (that's where I live!). In the eight years I spent pursuing my degree I also spent two years living abroad, one in the States and one in Spain. While I realize how lucky I have been to get that opportunity, it has been over two years since I came back from Spain, and I feel ready to move somewhere else again and explore another part of the world.

I would love to spend a few years living and working abroad like Aly did, maybe in the States, Canada, New Zealand or Australia. But finding a good job abroad with no prior work experience sans a few internships would be really hard, and taking a crappy job just to live abroad? I kind of feel too old for that. That is something I really envy Aly for, finishing university at such a young age that she was able to spend three years living in London and still be younger by the time she goes back home than I was when I finished grad school.

There are several work & travel programs out there that allow you to live and work in Canada, New Zealand or Australia for a year. But let's face it, most of those jobs are probably not the kind you need a graduate (or any) degree for. I have realized that before college would have been a better time to spend a year abroad on a work & travel visa. Now I feel like I should be in a place where I already know what I want to do with my life. I should be looking for a solid job that will give me work experience in the field that I will be working in later. I feel like I need to prove that I am not a flake.

At the same time, another part of me is thinking, should I really care what others would say? Ideally no, I shouldn't, but realistically, it is hard enough to find a job with a degree in humanities in the current economy. So spending another year or two traveling will make me look like I still don't want to commit to a serious working life as a grown-up despite being 27 years old. That is not something companies are looking for in a potential employee so I feel like I need to make my decisions with my resume in mind. I never liked this kind of thinking, it seems so calculating and insincere, but I am already doing it, and have been doing it for a while. And the ironic thing is I do not want to have a career in the sense that I want to become the CEO of a company or become rich. I just want a job I like and that will pay my bills, one that will allow me a comfortable life, not living paycheck-to-paycheck.

I am 27 years old and still don't really know what I want in life. In the past few weeks, since I started looking for a job, the picture has become a little clearer though. I went from not even knowing what kind of job it is I want, to knowing what I might want, though I haven't narrowed it down to one thing just yet. While part of me is still dreaming of moving abroad again, the other part of me knows that likely I will be working here for a couple of years before moving abroad will not be a step back in my career.

Don't get me wrong, despite all this talk about wanting to move abroad, I do love living in Germany. I just want to experience living in other places as well. In that regard, moving to the US for a year in 2004 was probably one of my most life-changing decisions yet. I realized just how much I enjoy living abroad, and while I do miss my hometown, my friends and family, being able to experience a different culture, speaking another language, eating foreign food, and making new friends make it all worth it. The older I get, the more I want to savor the time with my family - my parents aren't getting any younger - but I do know that if I get the opportunity to live abroad again for a year or two (or more), I will take it.

On days like this, I wish that I had made better use of my early twenties, or graduated sooner, because I feel that there is no way I can possibly fit everything I want into this one life. I just hope I make the right choices and that I will one day look back at my life with no regrets.

Have you ever lived abroad? Do you want to? Or are you happy where you are and couldn't imagine leaving behind your home, friends and family?

Amanda from Apples and Green is yet another lovely Aussie living abroad in London-town. I was lucky enough to steal her away for a pizza a few weeks ago, and she's just as sweet in person as she is on her blog. Plus, her crafting genius makes me want to go and learn to sew, right this very minute, ohmygoodness.

I can safely say that Lara from Life: The Ongoing Education, was one of the first bloggers I discovered when I started out at Typepad all those years ago. We bonded over teaching and a love of shoes, and I think it's great that she's still blogging now, so that I can continue to read her stories - and check out her fashions, of course. :)

Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis... No, wait. Let me change that. Probably anyone who's been to my blog even just once... No, maybe even more. Pretty much the entire blogosphere (yep, that's it) knows that I pay a lot of attention to fashion. Mostly my own. I take a picture of myself every morning before work, partially so that I can show my work clothes to my blog readers and partially because I don't like to repeat outfits, so I need a record of what I've already worn in what combinations so that I can avoid repeats.

I totally realize that this makes me seem completely vain and shallow. My consolation is that my five loyal blog readers already know me well enough that I don't have to worry about what I might "seem" to be. (They already know for a fact that I'm vain and shallow, so it's all good.)

The thing is, though, I do pay a lot of attention to my personal style and fashion choices, but I don't only pay attention for myself. For those of you who don't know, I'm a high school teacher at a private Christian school I refer to, on my blog, as Christian School (creative, I know). Christian School, like many other religious schools, has a dress code. Now, the students would say we have a STRICT dress code, but I actually don't think it's all that strict. I think the bigger issue is that too many other places are too LENIENT. Here are some of the rules for girls at our school:

All shirts must have sleeves (no tank tops, etc.).
Jeans must be neat, no holes or rips, and of appropriate fit.
Skirts or shorts must be no shorter than six inches above the knee when measured from a kneeling position.
No low-cut tops or shirts with cut-out backs.
Underwear should not be visible at any time, even when stretching or reaching.

Personally, I think these are reasonable rules for the most part. But the girls at Christian School consistently try to break them. They complain that they want to look "cute" or "fashionable," and our rules just don't allow that. They have to dress like "prudes," or wear "boring" and "plain" stuff just to fit the dress code. It's "lame" and they "hate" it.

WHATEVER I say.

It's completely possible to dress fashionably AND modestly. No one needs to look like a skank in the name of fashion. In fact, if you ask me (and many others I know), less modesty just looks less classy. I don't know about where you live, especially if you live in a different country, but in my little corner of America (and most of the rest of America, from what I can see), too many girls and young women don't know how to dress with fashionable modesty. So I try to be an example.

I make a concerted effort to dress in such a way that the girls I teach at Christian School will look at my outfits each day and say, "Wow, Miss David - your outfit is so cute!" or "I love your shoes, Miss David!" or "Your dress is so awesome, Miss David!" When I get these kinds of comments (and I do pretty often), I am THRILLED, and yes, a part of my excitement comes from enjoying being complimented - what woman doesn't like compliments on her appearance? But the bigger reason I feel so happy when students say these things is because it means my plan is working, whether the girls realize it or not. They are seeing a daily example of modest fashionability - a daily reminder that looking good does not have to mean looking provocative.

Some people change the world by joining the Peace Corps or marching on the nation's capital. I change the world with cute shoes and modest clothes.

Hello, blog lovelies - boy, have I missed your faces!

It's been an insanely busy few weeks {where did October go?} and this is the first time I've slowed down since I left for Europe. I'm not even going to attempt to recap my travels until I'm home and have more time and more access to my photos, but it was beautiful. We lucked out and had mostly perfect weather, really mild for Autumn too, and then it cooled down in Berlin and Amsterdam towards the end.

I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Florida, reunited with Jase and enjoying some down-time at the Disney World complex - well, as much down-time as you can get when you're on a mission to explore as many theme parks as humanly possible in five days! We're off to Las Vegas and to Vancouver next, we're I'm really, really excited to hopefully be meeting (and tackle-hugging) Heidi and Britt. Squee!

And because I know some of you might be curious, Oscar has officially made the transition down under! He flew out to Sydney last week, survived the super long flight and is currently chilling out in his own little room in the quarantine station back there. My mum went to visit her grandkitty for the first time, and took some photos to show me {I was more than a little frantic with worry that he was settling in okay} and here he is: only a few weeks until I join him! Er, not in quarantine though, as far as I know!

Today's guest is the author of Thoughts Appear. Her blog is hilarious, I love her book reviews, and she is witty and clever and downright awesome. And just so you know, she scores extra points with me for letting me name her guest post after this music video. Have I mentioned how fabulous she is? Go and check her out. You're welcome.

Anyone else miss Aly? Yeah, me too.

I'm totally envious of her and all of her travels. London, Paris, Australia, Prague. I've lost track of all the places she's been.

Le sigh. I never go any cool places, mate. So I'm forced to throw around random words from other countries whenever I get the chance. You gotta problem with that, esse? Eh? Blimey, my life stinks.

Where do you think Aly is now? Probably Las Vegas. I live in the United States, and I've never even been to Vegas. I hope she wins loads of money. Maybe she'll hire me as her personal assistant. Then she can pay me to guest blog while she's visiting other cool places.

Or maybe she'll take me with her next time she goes on a European bus tour on Halloween or to Hawaii.

Enough about Aly. Let's talk about me and my blog. I'm particularly fond of that topic. What? You're not? If I tell you what Aly and I have in common, will you be more receptive?

• We both have cats. (Oscar and Esme)
• We're both picky eaters. Meaning we eat only Pop-Tarts. Seriously.
• We both love Rainbow Brite.

Did you know that my most awesome Maid of Honour is also a blogger? Well, she is. Meet Miss K & her adorable blog, CuppyCakes. She's kind of magical, since she can guest blog for me AND be travelling around Europe with in a coach all at the same time. I have a very multi-talented friend.

Hi everyone.

So my dear friend Aly asked me to write a guest entry for her to post while we are away. YEP. I'm her travel-mate and MOH. I'm pretty excited about both things, to be honest. But really, I'm supposed to be blogging here and I generally am pretty crap at posting on my own blog, let alone someone elses.

Plus I'm watching the finale of Australia's Next Top Model. Cringing at the whole thing because it's just a little bit awkward to watch. They just had men jumping around with studded pencil cases strapped on to their chests! I'm sure that's what it was, anyway. It's kind of a painful journey to get to what you're ultimately watching it for... just to see who wins.

But that's not the point!

I thought long and hard about what to write about for this here guest post. Aly has quite a following, you see. I'm a little scared people will read it and then secretly tell her that her MOH is a douche. Especially when you find that I have elected to write about how stupid and clumsy I am, and how all my embarrassing moments tend to be really stupid things.

I've never got stuck trying to climb through a window, though.

But I've been thinking about all my embarrassing moments lately because a predictable part of this trip that Aly and I are doing, along with Julz from Melbourne, involves standing up the front of the bus on the first day and telling people about yourself. Including an embarrassing story, or a joke.

I'm not funny. I don't have jokes. I also don't really like to stand up in front of a bus and tell people I've not even met yet stories about how stupid I am. Last time I had to do this, I elected to stand there, staring out the window, claiming that I don't ever get embarrassed. Although last time I DID forget that Memphis was actually in Tennessee, and laughed at my introducer, because I thought he was wrong. That was a bit awkward.

Lies. It was all lies. I get embarrassed constantly. Mostly at work. Because I work in a pretty rough and tumble work place. We swear a lot because we work with animals and animals don't know if you're dropping f-bombs all over the place because the damn hose has that many kinks in it that you can't get the required pressure to clean the poop off their kennel floors. I also have a tendancy, in such a high volume animal environment, to hurt myself in ways that have nothing to do with animals. Needless to say, about 80% of the stupid and embarrassing stories I have, have happened at work. In front of people.

There was one time, for example, just a few weeks ago when I was trying to do some 'Open Paw' training with the kennel doggies, teaching them manners and whatnot. The only treats we had were these enormous great biscuits. I deemed them too big to give to dogs in high quantities while training so set about breaking them apart. This was not one of my smartest ideas. I struggled to break one piece, then it gave way and instead of just breaking apart and crumbling awkwardly all over the place... it snapped and took a large chunk of my knuckle with it. Yes folks. I took a chunk out of my knuckle with a dog biscuit.

I also sliced another knuckle open on a cage in our kitten section. The cages have drop bar things that you slide up and down to open and close their cages. Sometimes they get stuck. I reefed one to get it closed one Friday afternoon last year in the middle of kitten season, and sliced my index finger knuckle open. I did not realise at the time. I felt it sting and thought that it felt a little uncomfortable... then I looked down and saw blood pouring out of my finger. I had to leave the volunteer to finish up for me, while I sprinted off in search of a first aid officer. My whole knuckle ended up swollen and bruised and nasty looking for several weeks because the slice was so severe.

We also have some fun with the hoses. You see, we have the high pressure hoses in the kennels. Because how else are we going to effectively clean 36 kennels full of dog poop unless we can scoop the solid stuff out and blast the rest of it with something high pressured?

Just the other day, I was using this hose to fill up a watering can. We use the watering cans to go through and top up the water bowls in the kennels because that is easier than shoving a hose through a wire kennel gate. Plus, you can actually control the pressure of these hoses. I thought I had the pressure under control.

I didn't.

The hose shot off the hose reel, flipped about, blasted about five dogs in the face with water, and squirted me right up the back. SO I had a really obvious line of water up the back of my uniform.

Two of my co-workers were passing through while this happened, and saw the whole thing. One dropped to the ground laughing. Pointing and laughing. The other continued on her way, but giggled at me every time she saw me for the rest of the day. I kind of awkwardly shuffled and said that I totally meant to do it because work has this thing where we aren't allowed to squirt each other with the hoses, regardless of how hot it is. Totally meant to do it. Hah Hah. Hah.

Anyway. The most awkward part of it was the British kid that works with us, who is such a lad it's not funny, heard about what I'd done and asked me about it. I turned around quickly and showed him the obvious dark patches up the back of my uniform. He asked me a further two times to turn around and show him and I did not realise that he was asking me repetitively to turn around so that he could look at my butt. He also randomly asked me if I could get my elbows to touch behind my back. I tried, then realised it was a ploy to get my boobs to stick out more! Don't ever fall for that one, girls!

In all honesty, the hoses are the most awkward things in my workplace. There's so much room for accidents. You can set the pressure wrong while filling up a water bowl and end up saturated because you turned it up too high and the damn thing squirts water all over you. They also tend to get stuck on things like gates and fences, so you can be pulling the hose from one row of kennels into another, and the easiest way of doing this is throwing it over your shoulder and lugging it through to the next section. But then if it gets stuck, you either stack it immediately or you kind of pull it, expecting it to release and end up with a hose over your shoulder, pulling so hard you're almost on the ground with your weight on the hose and the damn thing won't budge. But then it gives and you stack it in an almighty fashion and pray to sweet baby Jesus that no one saw you do it.

Sometimes they also break. And you can be happily hosing away and the next thing you know, the water's not coming from where it should be anymore, and you turn around and there's a hose flapping about like a posessed snake behind you. Incidently, when you walk down the row of kennels later on, you are faced with half a row of completely saturated, but very happy looking dogs, all standing at the front of their kennels, waiting for you to do it again.

I've also been stuck with needles, stabbed by accident with microchipping needles, and have recieved many a cat scratch that has wound up infected. One time I even got e-coli in my blood system because I had an open cut and a puppy licked it.

It's incredibly awkard going through the whole work cover thing while the injury is really embarrassing. If you work with animals and you get bitten by a rottweiler, fair enough... if you have a chunk out of your knuckle because of a biscuit.... the first aid officers laugh. I have a reputation now.. if a first aid officer sees me coming, they know it's going to be an awkward injury.

Sigh.

It feels like I've been reading Bec's blog, BS of the Day, forever. I've followed her through her engagement, her wedding, and her life as a newlywed, and she's such an amazing person. Thanks for sharing your advice with us, you're a star!

Since Aly’s wedding day will be here before she knows it and with my one year anniversary coming up, I decided to write a few words of advice for those planning a wedding. I am by no means an expert but maybe my own learning experiences will help someone else.

• Yes, the wedding should be fun for your guests and they should be comfortable, but this is still YOUR wedding. Make it about you two. Think about hobbies you share, music you like, and your personal styles and try to capture that in the wedding. If your family is very proper and is expecting a formal wedding, but you feel like your relationship is fun, casual and quirky, make the wedding fun and casual! One of the issues we faced was that our families were steering us to have the wedding in the summer since everyone would be out of school. However, I always dreamed of a fall wedding. I had almost booked my wedding for June when at the last minute I decided to follow my own wishes and book in October. I don’t regret it for one minute. I am not saying to ignore the guests and be selfish, but I think most brides will try too hard to please everyone.
  
  
• Don’t obsess over the abundance of wedding TV shows, movies, blogs, books, etc. You will see so many perfect weddings with amazing details. Some of these wedding budgets are way more than you could ever spend. Some of the pictures are actually staged before the wedding day. Don’t worry about perfection! Look at the pictures and watch the TV shows for fun or inspiration but don’t put so much pressure on yourself that you end up unhappy because your wedding didn’t look like the one you saw in that magazine.
  
  
• Choose what is most important and focus on those things first. I was told this during my planning process and I kept thinking, how the heck do I figure out what is most important to me? I was not one of those women that had been planning my wedding since I was a little girl so I was completely lost. One day my mother asked me, “Think about the weddings you have been to. What do you remember about them? What do you not remember?” Her questions helped me so much. I realized I remembered the overall feel and how fun the reception was. I remember the food and music. I cannot remember one single centerpiece. I remember how the cake tasted but not how it looked. So I made sure to have dancing and a really tasty cake. I wasn’t thrilled with how the cake looked but it tasted amazing so that was enough for me. My centerpieces were simple fall candles that probably cost me around $100 total for 10 – 15 tables. Some people might be appalled but for me, it was perfect. Cutting back on the time and money spent on the centerpieces allowed me to focus on other aspects that were more important.
  
  
• Even if things go wrong on the wedding day, try your best to smile and have fun. Even if you have to pretend, be happy. If you are upset about something, your guests will know and it will affect everyone else (even if you think you are hiding it really well). I went to a wedding recently where the bride was upset about the color of the cake. She pitched a fit and yelled at a couple of her bridesmaids. I was standing nearby and was so incredibly uncomfortable. In fact, one of the few things I remember about that wedding was the bride’s meltdown. It only lasted a few minutes but it was something I will never forget. Things will go awry and you need to just laugh it off. The last thing you want to remember when looking back on your own wedding is the fact that you cried over how awful the flowers were or you hurt a family member’s feelings because you snapped at them.
  
  
• The last word of advice I have is to completely ignore the people that say your wedding day will be the best day of your life. That’s ridiculous. I think that puts way too much pressure on women to plan the perfect day. There will be so many wonderful days in your future and married life is amazing. I would certainly hope that the first day of your marriage is not the best day. The best days (and there will be many) are still to come!

So even though I'm spending my Halloween somewhere in Vienna and Oscar is still chillaxing back in London with Jase, I'm magically able to share some cat-costume goodness with you all. Behold, Oscar: rocking the 'stache: