When I lived in America, I always enjoyed the end of the year “Best Of” Lists. I loved reading the year’s review of the top music albums and of course, when I saw albums that I owned, especially if they were lesser known bands, I secretly thought that I was cooler than I really was. Well, this is no top 10 music list or film list because it is a bit random & I am not quite sure yet if there are 10 items. But the following motley crew, in no particular order might I add, have been introduced into my life in 2010 & I have really enjoyed them. They have made 2010 that much more colorful in my mind.

1. The National.

What year end list omits a favourite music “must have?” I found the National in 2010. Well, I like to think of it more like they found me. Alrighty, in actuality, my husband played it for me and I was hooked. Ohio raised & now Brooklyn based, they are lyrically verbose & lead singer, Matt’s deep voice mesmerizes you. The kind of music you envision yourself slightly swaying to (and I don’t mean in a dorky slow dancing fashion), hands in pocket, probably wearing something grey or black. No week has gone by where this band hasn’t received significant air time on my Ipod. And yes, I’m glad that Rolling Stone & The Times (UK) agreed with me, putting it on their “Best Of” lists. The only, and there is just one, negative in my mind–lead singer Matt Berninger somehow physically resembles Tori Spelling’s current husband. So, a few tiny points deducted in coolness factor, but he has some to spare.

2. Cooking with fresh red chilis (chillis in UK).

I remember a time a long time ago that I was highly intimidated by fresh garlic. But once I took the plunge in cooking with it, I was hooked in a very big way. Life without fresh garlic seems utterly boring to me now. The same goes for chilis this year. Prior to 2010, I used to leave out those little guys in every recipe thinking they were certainly too hot, they were too powerful for me to handle, but little did I know the flavor they added to recipes. Yes, I have had some burning mishaps where hours after cooking I have touched my eyes or face(should have worn those kitchen gloves), but it was worth it. Who knows when I will graduate to hotter ones? Perhaps someday…

3.  Ambre Passion by Laura Mercier.

I found my signature scent in 2010. The kind of smell you like so much that you abandon all other beautiful bottles of perfume sitting on your dresser that you had been loyal to for ages. The kind of scent that if you don’t wear for one day, you miss it. The kind of scent that my friend commented, “I can smell you before I can see you.” Of course this smell isn’t right for everyone and I wouldn’t dare persuade others to abandon their favored perfume for this one, but if you are out shopping and you need a pick me up, an instant awakener, peruse the Laura Mercier counter, look for the bottle with amber tonic and take a whiff. And if you are a bit daring, spritz it on. And don’t be embarrassed if you find that you cannot help smelling your arm throughout the day. I still am.

4.  Moleskine Colour a Month Daily Diary.

Who doesn’t love Moleskine? The simple, yet sleek design that can be recognized from anywhere. Something about it makes one want to be a writer, as if words look better tucked inside its colored covers. I was given this gift last Christmas. 12 little colored notebooks, one per month. An individual diary for each month of the year with enough room for writing every day. A daunting task I thought, but somehow the 9 x 14 cm format was just small enough to not overwhelm me, & before I knew it, voila’- 2010 is ending & I have filled in each & every page with doings & daily absurdities of my life & my family. And I guess because I am strange (or perhaps living in a climate that is unpredictable), it even has a space for temperature & climate charting.

5. Fish.

The mere word causes some to pucker in dismay or others salivate. This year I cooked a lot of fish. I’ve always loved fish/seafood. It dates back long before I sat next to my mom as a child in the garage with a large black plastic garbage bag (bin liner) filled with live shrimp (prawns). I remember seeing their buggy black eyes & watching my mom snap their little heads off, getting them ready for the night’s dinner. A bit cruel, but boy was it yummy after cooked. But, much like my intimidation of chilis, I only cooked your basic salmon, a bit of cod, prawns, and of course….tinned tuna through the years. However, when my neighbor, Phil, became the fish manager of my local supermarket this year, I had no idea how my culinary habits would change. Sea bass, sea bream, & sardines are amongst some of my new friends. I can’t say I’m highly excited by staring at a fish head on my plate, but no longer am I scared to put it on our weekly menu. Fish is no longer a foreign language to me….thanks Phil.

So that’s my little list of 2010. I stopped it at 5 things, even though I could go on much longer. I didn’t even mention how much I love a bottle of white spray paint, how my favorite shop for inspiration was All Saints, & how a random television program entitled “Requiem for Detroit” about the city of Detroit’s transformation & degradation through the years topped my television viewing. Thanks 2010. Roll on 2011.

Around 27 years ago my mother enrolled me in piano lessons. Yes, dreaded piano lessons. Those very words can evoke such unpleasant memories in people that if you gathered multitudes in one room, most who took piano lessons probably have tales (and nightmares) to tell. Most children who take piano lessons seem to do so at their mother’s insistence. Even though I only took piano lessons for a couple of years, the memories of not wanting to practice which subsequently led me to arguing with my mother and the guilt and embarrassment of showing up for my lesson unprepared still are fresh in my mind.

So, needless to say, after a couple of years lessons I was ecstatic when mom said that I no longer HAD to do them. Since she was a wonderful pianist I would listen to her play and then sometimes over the years pull out music and tinker at the piano if I was extremely bored. When I moved out, I no longer had a piano around so the tinkerings grew less frequent and there was little desire. I always thought, “Good for me to have had piano lessons, but I’ll never have a piano. Never really want one, and sure don’t want to spend the money.”

I guess people do weird things when they have children, and when I look at myself, I surely fit into that category. So, after only having a couple years of piano lessons, enough to get me through Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” with no less than 10 mistakes, I decided that it was not only time for my daughter to start piano lessons, but that I would in fact teach her myself.

I know, it all does look rather bizarre in writing: a woman who’s only had a couple of years of piano lessons, whose repertoire of songs is limited to Annie, Superman & Nadia’s Theme (the theme to the soap “The Young & the Restless”) teaching piano lessons. But that meant that I must purchase a piano and at the time I wasn’t overjoyed at the thought. So, a piano was purchased. To be more exact, a digital piano (Yamaha Clavinova) was purchased. And then it began…..

I was in love.

I’ve now had my piano for 10months. A day barely goes by where I do not desire to sit down and play. No longer is it just Annie & Billy Joel. Sorry to offend here, but no boring classical pieces for me. I’ve found music I love. Coldplay, The Killers, Mumford & Sons, Snow Patrol. Songs that sound just like they do on the radio. Songs that I can actually bang out WHILE the CD is rolling. And to see that with practice I can, and actually am better, just fuels me to play on. And if you are wondering if I am still teaching piano lessons to my daughter, the answer is yes. Although it is not easy dealing with her attitude of not wanting to practice (like I so vividly remember in myself), I stick with it because I hope that someday she loves playing for the sheer enjoyment that music brings.

Several months after getting our piano, Brad commented, “Where has this been all of our life?” My sentiments exactly. So, here is to all the mothers (and fathers) who insist that their child play something musical. Thank you. Thank you mom. Thank you that fought (and won) to make me take piano. If I had only known then what joy it would bring later down the road.

I have been giving you a bum rap for far too long. You see, my brain has been color coding months on a pie chart ever since I can remember. Every month gets a color and a position on the pie chart. Yours is in the bottom right, much like the same place a number 5 is on the clock.

And in this color coding, you have always been given the misfortune of being seen as an ugly color: brown mixed with a dull yellow. To say it without being too cruel, dog poop with a squirt of mustard on top.

I should have used a cute name to describe you, like those used by clever Crayola: “bittersweet, fuzzy-wuzzy, tumbleweed.” But instead, I chose to overlook your charm and possibilities and avoid seeing the best in you.

I know what you will say. You were at a disadvantage from the start. No wonder I have never liked you August.

So today, on the start of the first of your 31 days, I am not just giving your color a new name. I am applying primer over your designated space in my mind and giving you a new hue. You are now GOLDEN and I will look forward to what you have to offer. Your possibilities will be endless.

For every country one lives in, summer takes on a different meaning. For most of my life, summers in Texas were characterized by school being out, unbelievably hot days, softball games, the smell of OFF (later to be replaced by the more “natural” versions), fantastic cookouts with friends, outdoor swimming, countless mosquito bites, & last year- many trips to Sea World & the water park.

Now that I am in another country I find myself making new associations with summer. These new associations are no better or worse than the ones experienced in my homeland. They are just different. And living in a country where the one thing you can count on is rain & grey skies, we have been blessed immeasurably so far this year with many days of sunshine, warm temperatures (still cool for Texans) & relatively no rain. So, here is what summer in Wales in 2010 looks like for me.

Summer Is…
Multi-coloured sailboats behind the house glistening in the water

50+ swans (and new baby cignets) congregating for a party in the river

Leaving the back door wide open, not just because you want to get last night’s dinner smell out of the house, but because it is too beautiful not to

Lots of photographs being taken

Those ginormous spiders that have been growing since spring outside all of your windows waiting to catch their prey after it gets dark (at 10pm!)

Feeling the heat in your car on your face when you get in & not even wanting to turn the air on

Summer Is…
Watching your children’s imaginations run wild

Sitting in the car park (parking lot) in front of your house, because you have no yard, with your swimsuit on & just not giving a hoot at how ridiculous you might look to those driving home from work

Seeing the sun shine through your black out blinds way too early in the morning

Barbecues with neighbors where the grill is jammed with steak, sausages, lobster, prawns, & chicken

Summer Is…
Putting musical notes in the air of your drawings

An abundance of British strawberries & wild blackberries

Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin”

Ripped jeans & white fingernail polish

Summer is so, so good.

Today marks the anniversary of my family arriving to Cardiff, Wales from the United States four years ago. I vividly remember each leg of the long airplane ride from San Antonio to Memphis, Memphis to Amsterdam, and Amsterdam to Cardiff the 18th of May, 2006. I remember with jubilation that my one year old son behaved himself and that my 4 year old daughter pooped in the airport between flights instead of on the airplane. I was ecstatic when all 13 of our bags arrived, and I thought that I was off to such a good start to life in a foreign land, because getting there was half of the battle, right? I remember on the last leg of the flight being offered a cup of tea by a stylish British flight attendant and thinking, “This is so quaint and so British and I simply adore it!” Of course I accepted. Now that I was going to be “British”I would be drinking lots of tea.

But of course, as it always does with me, the rose colored glasses were ripped off and smashed in the coming weeks as I experienced culture shock. Thirty two years of living as an American in America versus 2 weeks living as an American in a foreign country. A big, no, a massive shock. There were countless mornings I woke up thinking, “Surely this has been a dream (nightmare more like it). What have I just gotten myself into?”

And the days past. The weeks past. And now I can say that the years have past. My baby Brooks who was one, wearing diapers (nappies), chewing on a pacifier (dummy), and just grunting is now a fully functioning 5 year old. And he has done almost all of his growing up in Wales.

I too, have done a lot of growing up in Wales. Not that I thought that I needed to grow up, but when you are out of your comfort, your familiarity, your homeland, you just simply do some growing up. The situation forces you too.

I am learning that there is a lot of learning to be done. You may be an expert at getting on in your culture, but when you step outside into something very unfamiliar, you are on a steep learning curve. And where you consider yourself an intelligent, educated person, in your new culture you will feel stupid, especially at the beginning. And chances are you will sound stupid and look stupid at times too. I am learning that to live in a different culture you need to be ok with people stopping and staring when you speak because that Texas twang sure causes interest.

It took me two years to learn that math in school was pronounced “maths” and 3 years to learn that they do sell sink stoppers for your kitchen sink. (One didn’t come with my house so I assumed they just didn’t have those and suffered for years without). And I have learned from experience, that no matter what you think, that red cord hanging from the store bathroom ceiling is not the toilet flusher, but the fire alarm that activates the store alarm and sprinkler system.

I have learned to laugh at myself a lot and have even been guilty of laughing at my husband’s cultural mishaps on occasion. I have learned to love learning information about the culture and people that I live around. I have learned that I couldn’t just get over culture shock, but had to be patient and walk through it.

I have learned most of all, that I when I just want to hurry up, take the fast track through whatever God is trying to teach me so I can arrive quickly with as little pain, His preference might possibly be for me to sometimes take the long route in learning something. Because when this happens, it produces true transformation and true character change.

These four years in Wales have been nothing short of an adventure. I can look back 4 years ago and rejoice remembering the smiles and tears of living in a foreign land. I am so thankful that God has been beside me every step of the way, whether I realized it or not. This experience is something I would not trade for the world.