Living by the sea...

When I was growing up I always thought it would be the coolest thing on earth to live by the sea. Our family holidays were almost always spent on the KZN South Coast - and those holidays held some of my best childhood memories.

The holidays (which lasted anything from a few days to a few weeks) usually comprised our family and our cousins. They are also three girls, all similarly aged to us, (so it was six girls altogether) plus granny, grandpa, aunties and uncles. I remember long days spent on the beach, from early in the morning, then home for lunch (or lunch on the beach) and then the rest of the day in the sand and water. We always got burnt. We always had hotdogs. We always had ice cream after dinner at night. We all slept together on materesses in the lounge. Those are some pretty precious memories.

But whenever it came time to pack the car and head home I remember always thinking how amazing it would be to actually live by the sea. I vowed to myself many times that when I was a grown up I would live by the sea.

And now I do. And I was right, it is amazing to live by the sea. I've lived here for nearly nine years and I still get excited when I drive down the road and look out over the ocean. When we moved into our new house nearly a eight months ago I couldn't get over the fact that this was the view I would see every day of my life:

And I still can't. In a way, I'm appreciative of the fact that I didn't live by the sea when I was growing up. I think that makes it all the more special for me now. I remind myself every day to be thankful and appreciative of the life that we live. I love that we can, and do, go for walks on the beach or promenade almost every afternoon after work. I love that we spend almost every weekend on the beach. I love that my baby boy is growing up here. I love that this is what I get to see every day too:


Just hanging out, chatting to my dad...

And even though he will have been 'living by the sea' from the day he was born, I will make sure that he is appreciative of that fact. I will remind him all the time not to take for granted that he can walk down to the beach from his house and see what the waves look like from his bedroom window...and I will remind him just how blessed we are to live in such a beautiful place.